Planning to get started in freelancing? you came to the right place. With COVID, remote work has been on the rise more than ever before and more than 52 million Americans are working as freelancers in 2020 and this number will shoot up in the upcoming future.
The perk of working as a freelancer is you can work only on the project that you are interested in from anywhere in the world.
Currently, a lot of companies are hiring freelancers for their regular day-to-day operations. It is becoming easier for companies instead of hiring a full-time employee.
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Why Freelancing Is the Best Choice Ever
At least at some point in time, everyone will have an idea of starting their own business. As a human, we always dream about building our own business but most people won’t even get started.
The reason why most people won’t start their own business is:
- Haven’t been exposed to the profitable business idea
- Lack of business knowledge
- Haven’t get access to startup funding and labour leverage
Freelancing is like a mini-startup experience
- You will find your own client – through outreaching and cold emailing
- You will market yourself through blogging, YouTubing so that clients can find you
- You will finish your client project on deadline
- You will have complete freedom to choose whichever project and clients you want to work with. This will help you prioritize the project you wanna work with
Every freelancer starts with one client, and with reputation, he will grow into as many clients as he wants. He can hire, automate and train people for the growing demands.
Freelancing —- > Agency —- > Fund your dream project
The above formula is how Basecamp emerged into a multi-million-dollar revenue-generating tech product. Initially, the founder started freelancing and then evolved into the agency and then founding a multiple million revenue-generating SaaS product Basecamp.
Freelancing is the gateway to entrepreneurship
Freelancing is the mini startup experience
Freelancing is the alternative to MBA
Roadmap to Becoming a Successful Freelancer
- Choose a Niche or Skill: Choosing the right niche based on your interest is more important. Instead of doing everything, it is much better to focus on a specific niche.
- Practice on the Niche or Skill for Next 30 Days: Practice the skill deliberately that you have chosen and master the fundamentals that are sufficiently needed.
- Register in all platforms that have freelancing gigs for your skills: Register in all freelancing platforms from Fiverr to Upwork and showcase your skill in a platform-specific to your niche.
- Start outreaching to 25 business owners/day: Outreach your client through cold emailing, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You have to outreach continuously until you get your first client.
- Sign a client and get results: Getting your first client is hard. Deliver beyond the client’s expectations before the deadline.
- Document your progress through a Portfolio site and Blogging: Documenting your freelance journey is the easiest way to establish your brand in your specific niche. Your client can find you through your blog or any social media post.
- Repeat the process: Repeat the process until you establish your authority in the specific niche.
- Scale, hire and outsource when necessary: Scale your team based on the workload and try to automate as many tasks as possible.
Easy Freelance Jobs
We have listed some of the easy freelance jobs to start with. These jobs can be done easily by leveraging proper free software tools and paid courses.
You can even start with high-paying jobs such as copywriting or content writing with the help of AI tools and courses we have suggested here.
Canva Designer
Canva is a free graphic design platform that is used to create blog banners, social media posts, ebook designs, logo design, presentations, and more. It is the easiest freelance job that anyone can start with.
No prior designing skills are needed and you can fulfill most of your design needs in the free version itself. Still, if you want to go for Pro, click here.
For more information, check our Make Money with Canva article.
Proofreading
Proofreading is one of the simple yet indispensable tasks. Proofreading is the process of examining the final draft. It is not only limited to looking for grammar, spelling errors, and punctuation errors but to inconsistency and fonts & format issues.
If you want to see our free step-by-step process guide to become a proofreader and know how to leverage Jarvis.ai, check our article How to Get Into Proofreading: A Step by Step Guide.
Transcription
Transcription is a very simple job that anyone with good listening and decent writing skills can do. Transcribing is nothing but extracting the content from audio/ video and turning it into text. There are 3 types of transcriptionists: General, legal, and medical.
Web Research
Web research is looking for information on Google. The research that you do will help businesses create articles, understand their competitors, launch new products, and more.
Anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet can do this job.
Data Entry
If you are familiar with Excel and Word or anyone and has an eye for data, you could be a successful data entry specialist. All you need is a pc or laptop with a decent internet connection.
Data entry could be boring but it is a nice way to get started as a freelancer and understanding the clients.
Virtual Assistant
Nowadays, business owners tend to be busy all day. They need someone to help organize a few simple tasks such as organizing travel plans, appointments scheduling, social media management, and more.
If you feel like you have great organizing skills, this job is for you.
Social Media Manager
A social media manager may have to do different tasks depending on the organization. He may need to take care of content creation and marketing to a customer service rep. It can be extremely challenging to be a social media manager.
However, with technology, you can be comfortable. How?
- For content creation, you can use Jarvis.ai. Jarvis will do the writing for you; just give the input brief, your content is ready. For more details about Jarvis, check out.
- For automated social media marketing solutions, you can use Missinglettr. Missinglettr:
- automates campaigns
- automatically curates social media content
- multi-purpose social media calendar
- has powerful analytics
Copywriter
Marketing gives life to any product/ service. Hence, copywriters are closest to God.
Copywriting has been one of the highest-paying freelance jobs in recent years. Copywriting is a form of marketing that increases brand awareness and persuades people to take action.
If you want to earn a lot by doing copywriting, you must check our article ‘How to Get Rich by Doing Copywriting: no experience is needed’.
Content Writer
Like copywriting, content writing is also one of the highest-paying jobs. Content writing primarily focuses on educating or instructing the audience about the brand or software. It impacts every stage of a buyer’s journey, from brand awareness to purchase decisions.
Want to know how to become a successful content writer? Check out; no experience is needed.
Graphic Designer
All companies are making a presence on social media for brand establishment. When it comes to social media presence, visuals are the eyecatchers.
If you are a graphic designer, you can bag big customers such as eCommerce stores, small businesses, and big corporations.
Software Development
Software development is not a nice way to start as a freelancer unless you are an experienced software developer. It requires great problem-solving skills to become a successful developer.
At the same time, this job pays a lot as the demand for developers is high.
Websites That Help You to Find Freelancing Jobs
There are numerous sites out there to sell your services. As a beginner, you will be confused while choosing a freelance site. Don’t worry, we have handpicked a few of the best freelance sites to start with.
Upwork
Upwork is one of the largest markets on the internet after the merger of oDesk and Elance. Because of its size and age, many companies use Upwork as their primary platform for hiring. It also boasts a set of features and tools such as Work Diary (Hour tracker), collaboration tools, and more.
Hence, Upwork could be a better place to look for big clients and build lasting relationships with them.
Fiverr
Fiverr has attracted a lot of novel gigs since its inception. It is one of the coolest and easiest to use platforms. One can find a lot of creative gigs in Fiverr. If you are into the current trends such as writing, digital marketing, software, etc., you can start your journey as a freelancer in Fiverr.
In a nutshell, Fiverr is a gig-based platform where people can buy any services whereas Upwork is more like a traditional job listing platform.
PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour is Europe’s leading freelance marketplace that offers a variety of freelancing jobs from SEO, writing, IT, and more. With its feature like ‘Hourlies’, you don’t have to constantly apply for jobs (The same as Fiverr); buyers will come to you if there is a match.
If you are a beginner or intermediate-level freelancer, PeoplePerHour is one of the legit platforms.
Codementor
Codementor is a developer community that provides one on one help for software developers in code review, debugging, mentorship, and more. If you have a coding background and you are well-versed in programming, you shouldn’t miss Codementor.
You can sign up as a mentor and start earning. It’s stress-free and flexible. Or you can start as a freelancer.
Flexiple
Flexiple is the place for companies or individuals to hire top 1% freelance developers and designers. If you are an experienced programmer or designer with strong technical abilities, you can apply in Flexiple.
Flexiple’s vetting process is a bit intense; it includes a background check, problem-solving ability checks, and a real-time performance check.