Introduction
Believe it or not, you can make money working as a freelancer online. Many people have quit their office jobs to work from home and be their own bosses. The amazing thing about freelancing online is that anyone can do it. Depending on your financial needs, you can freelance for extra income or you can make your freelancing business your main income. When you freelance you decide how much you want to be paid and when you want to be paid. SO if you are saving up for something or tired of waking up every morning to go and work for someone else there is good news for you. You can work for yourself as a freelancer.
Why freelancing works
Freelancing has been around for a really long time, long before the internet became a basic need. Journalists, photographers, writers etc. have been known to work independently whenever they wanted to. The internet just added more sauce to the freelance industry and made it even easier and more lucrative. Here is why freelancing online works for many people:
The demand is always there
Basic economic says there has to be demand for something to have value. The demand for freelance services in different niches online is high worldwide. Every minute, there is someone online searching for a graphic designer, programmer, writer etc. ye there may be many other freelancers offering their services online but the demand is high enough to warrant the supply. Depending on the niche you choose and the level of your skills, you can easily command good income freelancing online.
Work on your own terms
The frustrating thing about waking up each day and going to work is that the terms of work are imposed on you. Whether you feel like working or not you are obliged to work. Unless you are the business owner, there is someone always watching over you and evaluating your work. Freelancing allows you to set your own terms, you get to make money by working for yourself on your own terms.
Flexibility
Freelancing allows you to be flexible. You can decide to go to your child’s recital or take a vacation whenever you want to. Basically, if you have the tools you need to perform a task you can get it done from any location.
Decide what you are worth
Depending on the level of your skills and the experience you have, you can set your own price and get paid what you think you are worth. If a job is not worth your time and efforts, you can choose not to do it and no one will come breathing down your neck.
How to get started and make huge freelancing profits
As mentioned before, anyone can work as a freelancer. It is really easy to get into it. However, not everyone came make huge profits from it. In order to make some good freelancing profits, there are a number of things that you should know about. These small but important details are what differentiate between average freelancers and highly successful freelancers. Here are some very important points that every freelancer should know of in order to make sustainable profits:
Discipline makes the difference
In as much as freelancing allows you to be flexible and do whatever you want, it also requires you to be disciplined. Bad habits can come by easily if you are not careful. For example, if you have a plan for an assignment, try to adhere to that plan unless you really have to make changes.
Evergreen Services
Choosing the services to provide is very important. There are some services that will always have clients no matter what. These are called evergreen services. Now evergreen services may have lots of competition but you are almost always guaranteed some clients.
High paying Services
These are golden service without too much competition. Such services often require exceptional skills but they do pay a lot.
Spend to earn huge profits
With most freelance services, you do not have to put a lot of money to get started. But if you really want to advance and make huge profits you may need to spend a bit. For example, you can invest in a website to showcase your skills or have whiteboard videos done for your marketing campaign.
Now that you know some of the things that differentiate between average freelancers and high-end freelancers, how about we take a look at some of the freelance services that you can provide.
Graphics design
Graphics design is one of the evergreen freelance services. There is always demand for posters, logos, flyers etc. It is also one of the high paying services for individuals with great skill and good marketing strategies.
As you may already know, graphics design requires technical skills and creativity. So if you are skilled in designing then this is one excellent service you can make major profits from working as a freelancer.
Getting started as a freelance graphics designer
One thing you will notice when you work as a designer is that potential clients will always ask for your portfolio and previous work samples. So the most important aspect of your design freelance business is to put together an impressive portfolio of your previous work and constantly keep it updated.
Creating, a website where you can put up your designs and samples is a great way to get ahead and advance your business, turning it into a high profit-making venture.
It is also advisable to choose some specific types of graphics to specialize in, some leading graphics include:
• Posters and flyers
• Logos and business cards
• Website graphics
• Mobile apps graphics
• Book covers
To ensure you gain maximum profits, investing in tools that will increase your efficiency and improve your design quality is the way to go. That means investing in a powerful computer and some designing software tools.
There are some platforms online that can help you get some clients, a quick search on google can reveal a number of platforms but just to get you started, you can take a look at:
• Fiverr.com
• Peopleperhour
• Upworks
• Elance
• Guru
Website development
Just like graphics design, website development is another evergreen freelance industry. You need to be skilled in web design in order to succeed in this industry but the market is really good. Think about the number of websites you come across each day, think about all the new businesses and organizations being created every second all over the world. The need for website designers will never run down.
Setting yourself up for major profits freelancing as a web designer
Referrals
The first thing you should know about website design is that referrals go a long way in bringing in clients. When you develop and deliver an excellent website to one client, they will most likely recommend you to another potential client and so on. So the goal should be to always deliver a perfect website no matter what. This is the ultimate way to set yourself apart from other designers and beat the competition.
Your Portfolio sells
Create an impressive portfolio of your past work. Your portfolio is very important when it comes to scoring clients. Ensure that the portfolio includes different types of websites. Every website that you include in your portfolio should show the best of your abilities. If you have not designed many websites, you can offer free website design services to people. This will help you gain experience, collect samples for your portfolio and most importantly score you some references.
Combine with other services
The good thing about websites is that they require much more than just website design. To make more income from your website design service, you can also include other website related services like content writing, graphics design, and SEO services.
Where can you find clients?
There are many ways to find clients for your website development services. The first and easiest place is online, join freelancing platforms and other platforms dedicated to website design and development. Platforms line warriorforum, Fiverr, peopleperhour, SitePoint and 99designs can be very useful in kickstarting your freelance career as a website designer.
Content Writing
Another profitable freelance industry is content writing. Despite the advancement of technology, the need for written content will always be there. All that text you see on websites, the ebooks, and video scripts, it is all written by a content writer. You can easily make money working as a content writer online. Competition is fierce in the content writing industry but if you are a quality writer you will never run out of work.
Types of content writing jobs
There are many different content writing jobs, you can choose to offer all of them or specialize in a just a few. Popular and high paying content writing jobs include:
• Website copywriting
• Product descriptions and reviews
• eBook writing
• SEO content writing
• Sales copy
• Business copywriting
The choice is yours on which writing jobs you want to focus on. Specializing in a few types can turn you into an expert and as a result fetch you more earnings as compared to working on anything and everything.
Making it as a freelance writer
Making profits from freelance writing requires you to be a quality writer. There are many poor writers out there and frankly, most of them do not earn the big bucks. You have to be a quality writer in order to earn the big money. To be called a quality writer you should:
• Have excellent research skills
• Stay away from plagiarism
• Enjoy writing
• Have excellent grammar skills
• Be creative
• Keep a regularly updated portfolio
There are some websites and platforms that can help you get started as a freelance writer. Most freelancing platforms have jobs for content writers but there are some platforms that are specific to writers. These include textbroker.com, iwriter.com, copypress.com, wordgigs.com and many more.
Conclusion
Freelancing can bring you plenty of income if you are skilled and smart. Dedication and motivation can lead you to become a leading freelancer and even quit your day job. However, this industry has its drawbacks that you should be aware of. Depending on the niche that you work in, you may experience some dry spells that could frustrate you and affect your ability to pay bills and other living expenses. Therefore you have to be smart and stay on top of the situation all the time, after all, it is your very own business.
