9 Ways To Make Money Online as a Freelancer

With the amount of job-seeking individuals exceeding the number of jobs available, people have had to look for alternatives to a job that pays at the end of the month and towards other options such as freelancing and entrepreneurship.

There is a common misconception that freelancing is an easy career. Some people believe flexible working hours help to reduce stress. Others do not understand the power of deadlines. While it is great to decide on becoming a freelancer, you need to realize that it will be just as tasking as the job you left, or keep you on your toes if you have never been on a job.

The Freelancing world is fast becoming a competitive one. Did you quit your job and decide to start working as your own boss? Are you fresh out of school or you have learned a new skill you hope to earn money with? Either way, you have made a good decision.

Although there are so many freelancers out there, there is enough space for everyone. But you have to do a few things to make sure you are at the top of people waiting to grab paying gigs. Here’s how to stay on top:

Hone Your Skills

Talent is not enough. The greater your skills, the better the work you produce. As Stephen King Said “Talent is cheaper than Table Salt. What separates the talented one from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” Honing your skill is the first step to being a successful freelancer. You must be great at what you do.

There’s no better way to advertise your brand than to showcase previous works. What happens if that work looks substandard? Simple! You lose work. Freelancing keeps you on your toes. You need to keep on learning and improving your skill. If you can do great work, people will pay you more for your services. And if you’re fortunate, they will refer you to their friends and associates.

It is important to hone your skills. You have to keep practicing until you are confident about your skills. Do not jump into freelancing without having a stable hold on your skill. If it takes you a long time to be great, take the time! You will be thankful that you did.

Have a Portfolio or Profile Online

No one will hire you if they don’t know you and if they don’t trust you. Word of mouth and person to person contact is great but social media is conquering the world. If you want to be a good freelancer, you need an online presence. How can you create an online presence as a freelancer?

1. You talk about your work: People won’t know that you’re a programmer until you tell them. You can talk about your work formally or informally. You can make it fun or you can outright tell it to them. Either way, you have passed the message and when they have a gig, they are more likely to remember you.

2. You display your work: When they see that others trust you, people trust you too. If you do great work for fifty people, know that you are about to gain the trust of ten other people affiliated with them. Furthermore, displaying your work lets people see what you do and how well you do it. This will help them decide whether they want your services and if it is worth the pay.

3. Showcase your professional experience: It could be on your Facebook profile, your Twitter profile. It could also be through a Linktree on Instagram that takes people to samples of your work. Your LinkedIn profile should contain your professional experience. Don’t forget to update your profile when you have bigger and more monumental jobs. This increases your worth in the eyes of your customers.

Build a Solid Reputation

Some people say “a good name is better than riches”. This is true for a freelancer. Some of the important factors are:

• your relationship with customers
• your dedication to the job
• your presentation
• and your delivery.

Everything counts and helps you build a reputation.

Telling people you are good and you deliver on time is fine but letting them know you have been this way is golden. Does it take you so long to complete a gig that your customer is considering not paying you? Is your product awful? Does it look like you didn’t put much effort into creating it?

If you leave a horrible message in the minds of your customers, it will affect your career. Keep in mind that you’re not the only freelancer on the planet. There are more of you. The only way to fashion out a niche for yourself and conquer it is by doing so in the right way.

Now that you have everything sorted, here are;

Eight Ways To Make Money Online as a Freelancer

1. Joining Third Party Websites

Sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer help in connecting freelancers to willing clients. You can join them for free and offer your services to paying clients. At first, it might be hard to land yourself a high paying client. But the higher your ratings get, the higher clients will be willing to pay for your services.

2. Proofreading and Editing

As a freelance writer, you can make money online by taking on proofreading and editing jobs. If you look in the right places, these jobs are easy to find and you can get jobs even as a beginner. Find some proofreading and editing jobs here at Freelancer.

3. Blogging

Gone are the days when blogging was for only journalists; everyone is doing it now. People want to hear from a freelance designer, writer, or programmer. Blogging is a good way to make passive income by creating engaging blog posts. People will search for valuable content on the net. And in time, your website will get enough traffic to rake in a good deal of cash. You could also run ads on your website and get paid when people click on them.

4. Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting is a great way to make cool freelance money. You get paid higher for your services than a writer who will get credit for theirs. Being a ghostwriter means you’ll usually get big projects like an opportunity to write a book.

To pull it off, you need the attributes of a great freelancer which are great work ethic and skill. Additionally, you also need to have the following things:

• The ability to actually write
• The intention of letting your work go
• The strength to walk away and move on.

5. Guest Writing

You can earn money by writing for blogs. They might want your work on their website if you pitch your ideas to them. Never forget to use this as a chance to advertise your brand. You can also write for platforms like Readict, Wattpad, and IReader and get paid.

6. Creating Design Templates

Create Design Templates.

As a freelance designer, your best bet at passive income is creating design templates. WordPress design templates are in the market and so are icons. Create new stuff for people and they will pay for it. You can sell your templates on platforms like Envato Market, Zazzle, and Etsy. You can also sell your icons at Iconfinder.

7. Joining Networking Companies

Someone once said “your comfort zone is where your dreams go to die” and he/she is right. As a programmer, you need to position yourself among people who will be needing your services. These people are the small business owners around you. You can meet people online on networking websites. Some of these websites are BNI, MasterMind Groups, and Women In Business Marketing.

8. Creating a Course

Your course could be on anything you are good at. It could be writing, designing, or programming. You’ll see how much people want to learn new skills if you are ready to dish it out. YouTube is a nice place to market your courses without any hassle and still have fun. You can also market them on platforms like Thinkific and LearnWorlds

Bonus: Write an Ebook

Best part? You get to add “author” to your name. Neat right? Do you have an idea you wish to share with the world? Write an Ebook! It is quite profitable and you could hire ghostwriters who will help you on the project. Canva has made designing an Ebook easy and fun, so break a leg!

According to DDIY, there are about 1.1 billion freelancers around the world. 57 million freelancers were working from home in 2019. This means you have to be intentional, resilient, and hardworking to get to be a freelancer.

Get freelancing!