Earn money online : Get started with freelancing

There are many ways of earning money online but nothing beats freelancing because you get paid for your own skills, your own work and your own time.

How often do you come across crappy ads showing earn money online by sitting at home? Internet is filled with these ads! 99% of these ads are just fake or referral sites which pay few bucks with which you can’t even pay your internet bill!

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Don’t waste your time for these few bucks, Instead improve your skills, get better at something like designing, development, administration, SEO, writing or any other skill that you are interested, start freelancing and earn money online, Hard work pays off always.

Freelancing is nothing but self-employment, you are your own boss. you choose the work you do, you work when you want. of course, work ethics are necessary to be a successful freelancer. we’ll talk about that later!

So you decided to start freelancing but don’t know where to start? This post is meant just for that! read on.

Earn money online using freelancing sites

There are many sites online which act as a marketplace between freelancers and clients who have work. Few of them are as follows :

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Freelancer
Elance
Upwork
Guru
Peopleperhour etc.

But there are few problems with these sites :

Competition! – Lot of competition! A newbie will have a hard time getting a client in these sites because most of them choose freelancers with five star rating.

Most of these sites work with a bidding system. Clients post work to be done along with their budget, freelancers have to bid a price along with why they have to choose them for that work. This is the part I hate the most, but we can avoid this! read on.

My personal experience with these sites wasn’t so good, then came Fiverr! Fiverr is also a freelancing site but it has a different concept.

My favorite Fiverr

In Fiverr, freelancers don’t bid for any job. Instead, they showcase their skills in the form of a gig! Gig is just like an ad where freelancers post what they can do. Create a gig, write a nice description of what you can do, add appropriate images and videos, make it interesting and you are done! More interesting the gig = more clients!

Fiverr also has a rotation system where gigs display position is changed time to time, so even a newbie freelancer’s gig with 0 rating will also be displayed on the front page! No more newbie problems!

I’m not promoting Fiverr but my personal experience with Fiverr has been awesome. I really love the concept of buyers coming to sellers rather than conventional bidding system.

I’ve been a freelancer on Fiverr for almost 2 years with 100% positive rating and worked with more than 100 clients around the world, Let me share few tips to help your freelancing journey. I’m writing these with regard to Fiverr but most of them apply to all freelancing sites.

Have a great profile

Take time to write your profile, keep it simple, crisp, on to the point. verify your email address, connect your social accounts if possible so that it creates more trust to your clients.

Have a great gig (Fiverr)

Take time to write a clear and good description for your gig, add appropriate images. Adding a video will help a lot. use online tools like Powtoon or Goanimate to create an appealing video for free.
I personally use Powtoon.

As Abraham Lincoln says – “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my axe”, I took one week just to create a perfect gig with a good video and good description. Then after few days, clients started coming in!

Have a work Portfolio

There’s nothing complicated in this. just add a link or image to your previous work, or creating a video with your work samples would be still better! also, keep updating it initially. If you don’t have previous work experience then try to make some personal projects on your own or follow other tips and wait for your work!

Participate in online communities

Yes, be an active member of online forums, write an awesome article on any topic you are good with in a forum. Answer questions and share knowledge in Q & A sites like Quora, Stackoverflow etc. I got my first client from a forum where I was hired because the client loved my solutions to the problems in the forum.

You get a lot of exposure in this way, when you are contacted for help then point them to your freelance profile and get paid on freelance sites so that you get those initial positive ratings also, more ratings = more clients!

Work ethics

Be honest with the clients, don’t make them expect too much by telling that you know everything, Don’t take too much time or too less time for work completion, try to keep it approximately close and complete the work on time and Communicate politely.

I usually take an extra day always, even If I can complete it in 1 day, I would mention 2 days time while accepting the work so that client doesn’t get disappointed if I’m late for some time.

Choosing the right work

Accept work only if you can do it, even if it is one of those first work offers for you. I usually work on the matter discussed by the client for some time and then decide to accept the work or not. Just accepting all offers and not completing them or bad work will just leave you with bad reviews.

I don’t accept work from few clients who expect too much work for just a few bucks. After all, freelancing is all about working the way you like, and getting paid for your work and time!

Respond to reviews

Respond to reviews with a good message, Don’t just say ‘Thanks’ always, Sometimes adding a simple message like ‘Thanks, I look forward to more projects!’ would do the trick!

Wrapping up

These are just a few tips that would help you but if you have those awesome skills then nothing can stop you from being a successful freelancer. That day when you get your first earning from freelancing, you’ll feel top of the world! If this post helped you get that then share it in comments below.

Try different freelancing sites and work with those that suit you the best. For me It was Fiverr, have a look at my Fiverr profile below and happy freelancing and earn money online!