“It’s just like Friendster, MySpace, or Facebook!

If you have profiles on these social networking sites, then you can definitely do it.”

This is how I commonly answer my friends who ask how to set up a profile on job bidding sites.

Signing up in oDesk, Elance, Freelancer and the like is really simple. I also consider it quite “fun” because you get to build your own page where you showcase your professional talents and skills.

To make explaining how to set up a profile in job ad sites easier, I’ve listed below links to the FAQs pages of the most popular bidding sites.

Another thing to remember before setting up your freelancer profile is to check the current list of job ads. So this is included in the list of links below.

Checking out the current job openings will help you get a feel of the types of jobs you can apply to via these sites. Some may have more technical listings than others. You can then weigh which site is best to sign up for according to your personality, skills and preferences.

Well, it’s actually okay to have profiles in all of these freelance job sites if you like. But browsing all listings in all of these sites may overwhelm you. And when you’re overwhelmed, your motivation to apply and to keep on applying may slowly diminish because of the thought of having to contact so many potential clients.

So, just a food for thought, choose only two among all the job ad sites, 3 the most. And focus your efforts in finding a job on those sites only. Most freelancers I know, including me, at the start of our careers even only focused on 1 job ad site and we landed full-time work at home jobs. What more if you have 2 sites to cover?!

Okay, here’s the list as promised:

Odesk

• How It Works
• Find Jobs

Elance

• How To Find Work
• FAQs For Freelancers
• All Jobs

Freelancer

• Find freelance work
• FAQ
• Latest Projects

People Per Hour

• How To Sell Your Services
• All Jobs

Project 4 Hire

• FAQs
• Freelance Projects Listing

I did not list vWorker anymore since it has been acquired by Freelancer.com. When you go to vWorker.com you’ll notice the URL will show Freelancer.com’s homepage with a message from vWorker’s CEO.

Going back, if you’re serious in starting your work at home career and finding a legitimate job then you definitely need to set up a profile in these sites.

There’s always the direct way to land home-based jobs of course. I even post work at home job ads via my Facebook page whenever I see a post from business or freelancer pages I also visit.

But these sites sure have an extensive list which is updated almost every hour. Maybe even every minute. That’s why I recommend them among others.

Read the answers to every bit of question you may have about signing up for these sites. Other job ad sites like those in the WAHM Jobs page almost have similar registration guidelines. Others are even much simpler.

Then lastly, sign up! Choose a good professional profile picture and start applying.

If you still have questions which the FAQs or Help pages did not answer, let me know in the comments and If I know the answer, I’ll answer it or provide you a resource to help you get the answer.

photo credit: Stéfan