Making Money Online As a Freelancer
I have made money by writing articles for websites and clients, and I have made money by designing logos for clients despite the fact that I am not a writer or graphic designer. This is the beauty of becoming an online freelancer, if you managed to develop skills, any skills can make you money. In the real world, no one will hire me as a writer and graphic designer, however, on freelance marketplace and websites I have made money as a writer and graphic designer. In the real world, it is really difficult to find job opportunities, likewise, finding a high paying job is also not a simple task when it comes to working online, however, in the virtual world you can start earning immediately and you do not have to wait for other companies to hire you for earning opportunities. There are a lot of platforms where you can start making money right away.
I have been working as a freelancer for almost 3 years, about 70 percent of my income comes through freelancing, the remaining from blogging, content creation, and side hustle. If you want to become a successful freelancer, here are my tips:
Choose high-paying multiple niches: You need to build skills in multiple niches and the niches you have chosen should be able to make you a lot of money. You can make money as a graphic designer, however, you will make more money as a web designer.
Work on multiple platforms: if you want to work as a freelancer, join multiple platforms, do not depend only on one platform.
Building Passive Income For Freelancers
There are a lot of upsides for being a freelancer, however, one of the biggest downsides of being a freelancer is you are trading your time for money. In other words, you are making money by working. If you don’t work, you don’t make money. How much you earn depends on how many hours you put to your work.
In order to build a passive income you need to create a product that will sell again and again without having you to work on that product every day.
If you are a writer, you can start writing ebooks and publish on KDP to make money from your books.
If you are a programmer, you can build and publish apps on App Store or Play Store and earn passive income from apps.
If you are a video editor, you can start publishing videos on youtube and make money.
Making Money Online As a Freelancer
It is possible to make money online without spending a dime. It does not cost you any money to make money on paid to post forums or article sites. If you are a prolific writer, you might be able to make about $50-$100 per month just by using a couple of sites. If you are not good at writing and you have other skills, for example, web designing, graphic designing, etc. you can try freelance marketplaces like fiverr, upwork, seoclerks, freelancer, guru, 99designs, etc. On these platforms, you can make a lot of money without actually spending a dime. If you do not have any professional skills, you can try micro job sites, you will be able to make some cash without spending any money. Actually, there are numerous ways to make money without spending any money. Affiliate marketing is another method to make money without spending money, selling stuff via facebook marketplace is another good method.
You might do a lot of things to make money online, however, what is the best method to make money online?
The best method is the method that does not require you to spend a lot of time to make money. You can make money as a freelancer, however, you will have to work actively to make money as a freelancer.
The second best method is selling digital products. You can sell the same product multiple times to make money.
The third best method is selling online. There are a lot of ways to sell online, and in my opinion, the best method is selling print-on-demand products, dropshipping and affiliate marketing.
The fourth best method is selling online courses. You work only once but make money from your course for a long time.
Making Money on Fiverr
I know 99Designs, I even have an account on this platform, however, I have not started working on 99Designs yet. Never heard of Cloudpeeps or TopTal, and based on what I have read here I believe these are freelancing platforms. I am using Upwork to make money. Since I am making good amount of money and Upwork tasks occupy my 6-7 hours of daily work I have not considered working on any other freelancing platforms. If you want to work on freelancing platforms, you need to join a lot of platforms and offer your service. You will then have to focus on the platform where you start getting jobs.
If you are already working online, chances are there that you already know about Fiverr if not tried the platform yet. If you have skills that are in high demand, you can sell those skills on on Fiverr. A lot of people who have tried say Fiverr is difficult for newbie. However, even when you are new to Fiverr but have an impressive portfolio and projects that showcase your expertise, you can make money freelancing on Fiverr. Having said that of you are trying to sell the services that are being already sold by a lot of freelancers, making money on Fiverr can be more challenging. IN a case like this you need to build skills in the areas that are not saturated yet. Learning skill is not difficult, there are a lot fo platforms where you can learn and start earning on Fiverr.
Fiverr is a freelancing marketplace where you can offer services and earn money. If you believe contracts will begin to pour once you list your gig on Fiverr, you are wrong. Listing your gig does not guarantee sales, in fact 99.99 percent buyers will never find you if you do not do SEO on your gig listing. To succeed on Fiverr, your gigs must show up on Fiverr, especially when someone searches for the services you are selling. Your gig needs to rank well in internal searches. Effective SEO on your service listing ensures your services appear at the top when potential clients search for what you offer.
What Kind of Opportunities are Available in Freelancing
Even though for a lot of people getting a job is an ideal way to become employed, freelancing is also evolving as one of the best ways to become employed. Becoming a freelancer means you are becoming self employed. When you have a job, you will get fixed pay check every month, but freelancing offers significant earning potential as you can work for many companies at once through freelancing sites. If you take freelancing as an employment, and if you want to become successful you must develop professional skills in high-demand areas. You need to have skills in multiple areas to be able to bring constant income.
If you want to succeed as a freelancer, it is very important that you build your freelance portfolio. But how do you do that? Well, if you have already sold your freelancing services, you might have already started to build your portfolio that you can showcase to pull more clients but what if you are new and have not done any work yet? Well, in that case, you need to build your project that are related to the skills you are selling. For example, if you are selling video editing service, you need to have a youtuibe channel where you publish your videos, if you offer writing services, you need to have your own blog and ebooks published on Amazon.
How to Secure Your Income as a Freelancer
As a freelancer, it is not always possible to secure freelancing contracts. It is also not possible to secure a high paying contracts. Thus, as a freelancer, your will have fluctuating income. However, you also have bills to pay. In a situation like this how do you secure your income as a freelancer. The answer is diversifying your income. How do you diversify your income. First and foremost, you need to show your presence on multiple freelancing contracts thus ensuring that you always have jobs to do. You also do your own work and try to generate income. For instance, a freelance writer can always start a blog or publish ebooks on Amazon. As a video editor, you can start publishing and monetizing video content. You need to build your own portfolio to improve earnings..
The chances of getting hired as a freelancer greatly improves when you have skills in the niches that are on high demand. If you can work on the field where a lot of clients are hiring, you have high chances of getting the job. The chances also improves if you have a lot of experience in the field and have multiple portfolios to impress your clients. Let's say you are working as a writer, if you have published a lot of articles and ebooks, your clients will trust you.
When the clients want to offer less amount for the service, cutting some of your services to maintain the price cut is a good strategy. However, this will work only when you are experienced and in a better position to negotiate. Let's say you are a freelancer with a lot of positive reviews and a lot of assignments at your hand. If someone wants you to cut your fees, you can easily tell them that you will also be cutting some of your services. However, if you are just starting out can you actually do this? You will be in such a hurry that you want to grab every offer no matter what you will have to do and how hard you will need to work and how little you will be paid. I was awarded my first freelancing contract on upwork only when I cut my standard rate by 50 percent.
How to Build Stable Income as a Freelancer
If you ask any freelancer what the major issue with freelancing, I am sure most freelancers will say not being able to generate stable income. That’s because it is not possible always to get high paying clients and it is not always possible to get freelancing contracts. Freelancing is my main source of income but most of them time I can barely pay bills with my income. If you are in a position like me, I suggest you try low cost online business, blogging, vlogging, marketing to improve your income. When you have multiple methods, you do not go out of work. For instance as you wait for your clients to accept your bid, you can manage your store. As you wait for your customers on your store, you can go to your blog or vlog. When you are not doing any of these things, you can work on paid-to-post sites and article sites.
Spotting Scams - Red Flags in Freelancing
One of the common issues that freelancers are facing today is related to scams. The most common scams are clients not approving your work after you have done whatever they asked to be done, clients vanishing without paying you, only releasing half payment, etc. Identifying potential scammers can be tricky for freelancers, however, you can watch out for red flags. Some of the red flags are, the clients do not have any hiring history and is completely new, wants to communicate outside the freelance platform, requests for personal information, offer higher payment for simple tasks in order to attract freelancers, etc. Genuine clients rarely ask for such details. Stay informed to protect your hard-earned income.
I have not been scammed by a client. That's because I work on freelancing platforms and when I apply for freelancing jobs I see if the client has a verified payment. I also do not apply for a random job, I check the employee profile, how many jobs he has completed, and what his track record is. I have also accepted freelancing contracts from complete stranger outside the freelancing platforms, however, I always use the Escrow service. I first ask the client to deposit money with escrow, and when escrow confirms to me that it has secured the payment submit the work ad ask the client to release the payment. There has been no dispute so far. If you are new to freelancing, you might be overwhelmed to accept the job the moment it is offered to you, however, you should always do a background check and see if the client is genuine.
How to become a service provider?
One of the best ways to make money is by becoming a service provider. You can offer any kind of services, from handyman services (for example, painter, plumber construction worker, delivery guy, etc) or freelancing services (for example, writer, graphic designer, Web designer, etc.). Interestingly, you can find clients online or offline.
How do you get started as a service provider?
You need to register on the sites like Craigslist or taskrabbit. These sites offer a lot of handyman jobs. If you want to offer freelancing services, you need to register on platforms like fiverr and upwork. You can also build your portfolio website to get orders. It might be very difficult to get jobs when you are new to this market however, with persistent marketing you can manage to get clients. Best thing about being a service provider is you will choose your own work schedule and you will work according to your own convenience
How to Negotiate the Best as a Freelancer
As a freelancer, you certainly want to get paid better but you might also be aware that clients always want to pay less. IN a situation like this how do you negotiate the best rate as a freelancer. To negotiate rates effectively, having high skills or significant experience is essential. If you are a general writer, you might not be able to ask for better rate but f you are a SEO business writer, you are skilled enough to ask for more. The competitive market often limits negotiation possibilities. Therefore, building skills and experience over time will position you for better compensation and increases your value in the job market.