A freelancer is someone who is self-employed and doesn’t work for an employer long-term. You could make a ton of money freelancing if you play your cards right and that’s what makes it absolutely interesting. You could do this even without physical contact with those who need your services and even at the comforts of your home or without even leaving your bed.
I’ll be showing you six simple steps to making money as a freelancer. You could be writing, making voice-overs, teaching music, or any service or skill you’re great at. I’ll be showing you how to profit from those skills because as long as there is a skill, there is someone out there that needs it. Finding those people who need your skills is what really matters.
1. What service do you want to render? This is very important as you want to decide what you really want to do exactly. Write, sing, teach music, make translations, becoming a tutor, be clear on your skills and what services you offer and write it down.
2. Determine your prices – This is the hard part as you initially want to set out prices based on your financial goals. One thing you have to understand is this, don’t charge too little and look cheap, and don’t charge too much and look like a joke. Make your searches as I don’t know what services you’d be providing. But, have a target price you want to charge in the future – a price you aim to make for your services. But now, your main goal should be gaining visibility, at least for now.
3. Choose a Niche – You have to choose a niche you are interested in. If you want to write, what kinds of articles do you want to write, business, news, education, entertainment? Be clear what niche appeals most to you and go for it. If you want to make music, be clear what genre of music.
Don’t jump into any and every field. When you focus more on a niche, you build expertise in that field and you could charge more for your services.
4. Create Website and Create Samples of your skills – This one is really important as it makes you stand out. It also makes it easier for companies that would want to hire you to skip the interview process as they just browse your website and see if you’re the kind of person they want for the job.
Also, make sure you upload high-quality content and make it really creative and well-thought. Your website would also contain a BIO section and ways to contact you.
5. Search for potential clients – Now you know what service you want to render, the niche you are interested in and created your website (maybe), you can proceed to look for clients in that niche and pitching to them. Make a search on google for companies or websites in your niche who may be interested in your services.
You could also use websites like Fiverr, Upwork and freelancing sites like that to get clients. But I’d advise that you directly reach out to companies or websites that may need your services and negotiate if accepted.
6. Pitch – Send in a proposal to the company or website. You could browse the internet and get the emails of those companies and send your pitch directly. State clearly what services you wish to render. If possible, include samples to your services in the proposal and a way to contact you if they’re interested.
7. Follow up – Some websites or companies may receive a lot of messages daily that yours was skipped. Whatever the case may be, you want to send out another mail in case your mail wasn’t replied. A report shows that following up meant better chances of being attended to. Be careful so as not to send out too many messages in that process. Make it at least once a week or two.
Across your services, you want to make sure you deliver two things. I call it ‘T-square’ as it’s made up of two t’s. Make sure you deliver tremendously, and on Time. You want to be trusted and known as a person who keeps to his/her words.
