This part of the process can make or break your Elance success. It takes time to sculpt a high-converting proposal and if not done quickly, can leave you demotivated and thinking like the 50% of people who say "Elance doesn't work."

It took me a while to truly craft aneffective proposal, but now that I have, I typically receive messages from 50-70% of the jobs I propose on and get hired by 40-50% of those. (If I propose on 10 jobs, I'll have 4-6 message me and actually get hired for 3-4 of them.)

*Side-note: These numbers come from submitting hundreds of proposals since July 2013 and getting hired for 30-40% of them.

So, to craft a high-converting, award-winning proposal, you'll need to:

• Leave Copy & Paste Behind. If you've ever used Elance, you'll realize that it's pretty easy to craft a proposal for a particular field, then copy & paste it to relevant job postings. This is a 'no-no.' People can easily tell when something has been copied and pasted. It's not personal and it's not specific to their needs.
  
  For example: In October, I decided it was time to hire a Virtual Assistant, so I submitted a job posting. I received more than 40 proposals, with only 6 being authentic and specific to my needs. The rest were copy & paste bullcrap that I immediately declined. The few that tailored it to my specific needs caught my attention and the girl I hired has been with me for more than 3 months and is advanced to becoming a marketing project manager within our company.
• Make Your Intro Count. Make the first few sentences of your proposal 'pop'. If you don't grab the attention of the job poster in the beginning, chances are, they won't read your entire proposal. I typically grab attention by letting them know that it's "good to see another serious posting" or "We could absolutely help you with your ________!" This makes them feel special and everybody loves to feel special.
• Be Enthusiastic. People like to work with happy, passionate people. If your proposal reflects that, then it will more than likely be considered over those that aren't. Use of smiley faces, exclamation points, and humor tend to work very well!
• Know Key Terms. Knowing the lingo for whatever kind of job you're submitting a proposal for is essential. For marketing, I use terms like ROI, campaign, strategizing, CPC, CTR, CPM, CPA, etc. If it's a term that I don't think they'll know, I'll put it's meaning in parenthesis:

…drop your CPC (Cost Per Click) and higher your CTR (Clickthrough Rate)….

It assures the prospect that you know what you're talking about and you're a good teacher.

• Price Competitively (at first). When you first begin on Elance and have zero credibility, it's best to price your services competitively until you have a reputation. I priced on the medium-side until I accumulated about $3,000 in sales, then increased to a higher rate. Once you've worked with more people and have a larger portfolio, clients can justify paying you more.Quick-tip: Having a reference spreadsheet that contains every service you provide & pricing will make submitting proposals quick.
• Sponsor Your Proposal (when necessary). When you submit a proposal, you will have the option to 'sponsor' it for additional connects (typically 4.) It's important to be one of the first people to submit a proposal on a job, but in the case that you're a bit late and there are 20+ proposals, you can bump yours to the top by 'sponsoring' it. It costs more, but will increase your chances if there are a large quantity of proposals already submitted.
• Create a Video Proposal. Although this sounds like a great deal of work and 'weird,' it works. I've done much split-testing between text proposals and video proposals and video proposals receive a higher response rate from the job poster. Creating a video that introduces yourself, addresses their specific needs, and adds a bit of humor will nearly double your response rate from a plain text proposal. Why? Because nobody else is doing it.Videos are interactive, show that you're real, demonstrate your enthusiasm, and establish a sense of trust between the poster and you. Plain text can be very dry and just blend with the rest of the 30+ proposals the poster received.The best way to create a video proposal, is by filming it via your webcam directly on Youtube. To do this, login to your Youtube -> click 'Upload' -> choose 'webcame capture' on right -> hit record! It will automatically upload to your profile as soon as you're done recording, so you can add the link to your proposal! (See example below) It may take several takes, but it's worth an additional 5 minutes! Although I don't submit 100% video proposals, I try to submit them whenever I'm in a good environment and I look presentable.
• Find ANYTHING In Common. Have you ever heard the saying, "Find the 1% you DO connect on, and connect 100% on it"? This holds true on Elance. If a client is in an industry that you are familiar with, mention it and make that connection. People like to work with people who understand their industry and their passion. Seeing as I used to be a licensed investment advisor, I use that as my connection point whenever I submit a proposal to a financial company.
• Tell Them the Next Steps. People post jobs on Elance because they need direction in a certain area. One of the last things you want to include on your proposal is the next step and what the process is to solve their pain-point.
• Attach Examples. On Elance, talk is cheap. Everybody and their grandmother says they will create the 'best' logo, write the 'best' article, and generate the 'best' results. Back up your words with samples of work. It demonstrates that you really do know what you're talking about and saves the poster from having to look themselves. If i'm submitting a proposal on a Facebook Ad Campaign Setup, I'll attach screenshots of real clients. This is the icing on the cake. Don't do it and you'll lower your proposal's worth immediately.

Here are a few examples of proposals that resulted in new clients:

Example #1 (Plain-Text Proposal)

Example #2 (Plain-Text Proposal)

Example #3 (Video Proposal)