Here is your complete guide to freelancing for beginners.
Making money through freelancing is not as complicated as you think. It’s not actually like your nine-to-five, but it is a job you need to commit to. I like to think of freelancing as going to work without a boss in the equation.
There are many people online earning good income just by being a freelancer and selling their skills to other people. And you might be familiar with some of the freelancing websites out there like the freelancing sites I shared in this article.
But you might be wondering: how do I get started? Or even better, how can I go about starting freelancing the right way? So, with that, I’m going to show you step by step how you can become a freelancer and start making good money with it. You can earn great income as a freelancer and I hope this article will help you do just that.
Freelancing Jobs vs. Tasks
Before we begin, though, we need to make sure that you and I both understand the two ways you can become a freelancer. I call these two ways freelancing jobs and freelancing tasks.
- Freelancing job: You find a customer that needs the skill you have and, typically, you compete against others to claim the job. If possible, try to avoid freelancing jobs.
- Freelancing task: You offer a skill that you have and let customers decide to choose you to get their project done. I recommend that you do a freelancing task more instead of a freelancing job.
While there’s nothing wrong with freelancing jobs (as they definitely work), the thing is: you may or may not win the freelancing job. But, if you do decide to go with freelancing jobs, the only tip that I have for you is to present yourself as best as you can. Make your offer attractive and, if your customer finds you more appealing than your competitors, that customer may choose you.
However, because I find freelancing tasks easier to work with, the steps we’re about to go over in this article will involve you going for freelancing tasks.
The 4 Steps to Freelancing for Beginners
Here are the 4 steps we will be covering in this article:
1. Find the skills you can use to help others.
2. Sign up for a freelancing website.
3. Sell your skill at a low price.
4. Increase your customers, increase your price.
Without further ado, let’s go through these four steps.
Step 1: Find the skills you can use to help others.
What Are Your Skills?
Before you even sign up for any freelancing website, you need to figure out what skills you’re good at and sell one or two of those skills to others. If you feel like you don’t have any skill, think again! Everyone has at least one skill!
For example, I am the person my parents turn to when they come across software problems on the computer. So, if you feel like you lack skills, think about the past events that happened in your life. What were you good at? What things were you complimented for?
Polish Up Your Skills
And, if your skills need polishing, that’s okay because there are thousands of blogs and YouTube videos that can give you a complete refresher course on how you properly get your favorite type of work done.
Also, make sure that it’s a skill that you’re willing to offer for months down the road. Yes, being a freelancer is not easy, but it’s certainly a relief when your boss isn’t in the equation, right?
So find your skills, work on them, and use them to make good money!
Step 2: Sign up for a freelancing website.
Now that you found what skill or skills you’ll be making money with, it’s time to go ahead and sign up to become an official freelancer. There are many websites where you can go to get started with freelancing. One great website I would recommend for freelancing beginners is Fiverr.
I have a list of the best freelancing websites right here. Feel free to use that list to compare every single one and see which one is right for you.
Just go through the sign-up process. You may need to verify your account using your email. Then, once you’re in, if you have a public profile, make sure to fill that out with who you are and what you have to offer to others. That way, if someone is curious about you, your profile contains exactly what you would want to say to them.
After that, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Step 3: Sell your skill at a low price.
Go with One Skill First
You are now ready to start selling your skills. However, if you have more than one skill, I would highly recommend that you sell one skill at a time! As a freelancer, you want to look like an expert at a particular skill. If you try to become the jack-of-all-trades and sell multiple skills, you’re not going to perform well.
You must focus on improving just one skill that you’ll be selling to others. The better you improve your skill, the more loyal customers you will make. Once you become attuned to that skill, only then you can start selling a second skill.
However, I advise against selling more than two skills. Not only will this burn you out, but you could end up losing proficiency in your skills and start getting bad reviews from the customers you built up. And I’m sure you don’t want that, so don’t go overboard by any means!
Sell Low to Help You Grow
Once you choose your one skill to work on, create your freelancing task and make sure that you start selling it at a very low price. Why?
Well, you need to understand that you’re a new freelancer and you don’t have a customer following yet! People don’t know you exist and, surely, you want some people to get to know you better so you can earn more money. This is why you need to sell at a low price at first!
For example, on Fiverr, you can sell your skill for as low as $5. That’s a great price to get started. Once more and more customers begin to like you and recommend you to other customers, you will start gaining a following.
Or, if you do your skill throughout the day on an hourly basis, you can sell your skill for as low as $5 an hour, for instance.
Remember this easy maxim: “Sell low to help you grow.”
Obviously, it’ll take some time for people to warm up to you, so just stick with that price tag until your customers start to like you and the number of customers you gain increases. That’s when this last step comes into play.
Step 4: Increase your customers, increase your price
Tips to Gain Customers
So maybe you are selling your freelancing skill for as low as you’re willing to go, but your customer following is not growing. Don’t worry! This might be because other freelancers are offering their skills at ridiculously low prices as well or maybe you just don’t stand out.
Here are three simple things you can do to hopefully increase the number of customers you gain.
- Think of an attractive title to advertise your skill. For example, if your skill is video editing, you can use a headline like “I will turn your video clips into a movie with smooth transitions and no jump cuts.” You can also add a fast time offering such as “in 24 hours” to assure the potential customer that the work they need to be done will get done asap.
- In your skill description, offer customers the ability to have their work done one way or the other. If your skill is making YouTube thumbnails, for instance, offer the ability to use a color gradient or an image for their background, go through all the fonts you can use, like Script, Serif, TrueType, and so on.
- If possible, give example images of what your completed skill looks like. If your skill is done through the computer, like graphic design or video editing, use appropriate screenshots that show your completed work.
Raise the Price Over Time
If you see that you have a good number of loyal customers who trust you to get their job done right, that’s when you can start bumping up your price just a little bit. Never bump your price too suddenly. Don’t start charging $50 for your skill right off the bat.
Instead, you can double your price each time. Increase your price from $5 to $10, then from $10 to $20, then from $20 to $40, and before you know it, your skill will be valued so much that people won’t mind paying hundreds of dollars to get their work done!
It’s only after you win the trust of so many customers that you become a well-liked freelancer. And who knows, you may end up being rated one of the best freelancers at your skill. At that point, your freelancing work can completely replace your nine-to-five and you can start earning income from the comfort of home and without a boss breathing down your neck.
Conclusion
And that will do it for my four simple steps on how to start making money as a freelancer. I hope this gave you a better idea of what exactly you should be doing and inspire you to do the work and succeed.
Of course, this does involve work on your part, so every single day, you will need to put in the work in order to earn money. That’s great, but how would you like to put in the work and, after that, earn money without doing much of anything? Passive income is awesome and I have 5 ways you can get started earning passive income.
But, even if you’re okay with doing freelancing, that’s awesome because, now, you’re able to free yourself from your boss and you won’t have to commute every single day. So, if that’s your goal, take action on these steps, always do your best, and you may find yourself with more loyal customers sooner than you think!