Freelancing
How to become successful at Freelancing.
Within this post, we are going to talk about the ins and outs of successful freelancing.
There are a various number of things hired out by people for their businesses.
Typically, they either can’t find the time or lack the expertise needed for these tasks.
Or because, they just want to do them.
That’s where freelancers come in.
In this post we are going to go over what it takes and how to, specifically, become successful at freelancing.
Today, there is a significant amount of information and classes, as well as training programs available on the internet.
In fact, basically, anyone can aquire skills needed to understand how to become a successful freelancer.
With access to basically everything, anyone really can do anything they set their mind to.
Within this post we are going to go over several important factors to specifically becoming a successful online freelancer.
Picking a profitable niche, where to start training for that niche, and furthermore, how to promote yourself.
Factors to consider when pursuing a career in freelancing.
You’ll have to know what you’re doing, and be good at it
With the amount of competition in the world today, you’re going to have to be very confident in the jobs you are promoting, as well as being good at it.
Specifically, most freelancing sites are going to have a spot for your clients to leave you a star rating and a review.
Therefore, you want to make sure you can deliver.
Learning how to become successful at Freelancing, means also understanding the power of reviews.
Consequently, the better your ratings and reviews, the more customers you will gain, the more money you’ll make.
On the contrary, if you get negative ratings and reviews, the less customers you’ll gain, the less money you’ll make.
Specifically understanding this concept will help you become a successful freelancer.
Makes sense, right?
Getting things done in a timely manner can increase your freelancing sales
Because some freelancing sites have the option to filter the results to freelancers who complete tasks immediately, it’s important to be able to get jobs done quickly.
Or, more specifically, within 24 hours.
Completing work in this timeframe can in fact knock out a lot of your competition.
Typically, if you are able to make this possible for you as a freelancer, it can and will additionally get you more gigs.
And in addition, help rise you up to become a successful freelancer.
Dependability is crucial
As mentioned previously, reviews and ratings are extremely important to become a successful freelancer.
Specifically, one bad review can really ruin your chances of people hiring you in the future.
However, replying to messages quickly and producing the requested work with quality and consistency can help you on your journey to become a successful freelancer.
Be willing to make changes
In summary, things won’t be perfect all the time.
For instance, sometimes a customer will receive your work and be simply unhappy.
Unless, of course you’re already a pro.
But even so, you still may receive unwanted reviews.
However, by accepting the mindset that every problem that arises is a learning experience will, in fact, help you on your journey.
And equally important, make frustrating issues manageable.
Instead of being negative, be grateful for the teaching moment.
Furthermore, being grateful can contribute to helping you to become a happier and better freelancer.
TIP: Keep notes when issues arise and how you fixed them; you may need these later in your career.
Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews, and don’t be discouraged by negative ones.
Just as people are happy to leave reviews when they receive good service, they’re even more so willing to when they have something negative to say.
Because of this, it’s important to ask your happy customers for their reviews.
In short, flushing out one or two bad reviews with lots of positive ones can indeed, bring your rating back up.
Every negative can be turned into a positive.
Additionally, getting those negative reviews can help you to know what to improve on.
Not to mention, it helps you work out the kinks as well as create smooth transactions and better quality in the future.
In summary, this will help you specifically learn how to become a successful freelancer.
Don’t TRY to achieve your goals. Actually achieve your goals.
We are going to go off topic for just minute here, because there’s an important point to be made.
Have you ever read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill?
In this book, Hill talks specifically about training your subconscious.
More specifically, his theory breaks down to this:
If in fact, you train your subconscious into understanding you’re going to do something, you’ll do it.
Because you’ve trained it so.
Likewise, If you train your subconscious to TRY to do something, it will never get completed.
Because you’ve trained it to TRY to do so.
For if it’s completed, your subconscious would no longer have to “try” to complete it and therefore, would continue to try.
Which is what you’ve specifically trained it to do.
Make sense?
To illustrate, Instead of telling yourself you’re going to try to be successful, instead tell yourself you WILL be successful.
You will be the best you can be.
You will turn negatives into positives.
Training the subconscious with words of affirmation can simultaneously change a persons view on themselves and on their life.
We highly recommend reading the book before starting on your business venture, after all, it’s one of the reasons this website was created in the first place!
We have also linked and described it further at the bottom of this post.
To check out more of our recommended books see the Recommended Reads section on our website.
Now, back to freelancing.
There are some freelancing gigs you can do that require basically no skills and can be completed in a short time.
How to become a successful at freelancing with no skills
12 Beginner Freelance Jobs
- Voice Overs
- Proofreading
- Re-writing texts
- Social Media Shoutouts
- Background removal
- Affiliate link promotion
- Blog commenting
- Blog Writing
- Social media management (posting daily on company or individual sites)
- Unboxing product videos
- Pass on projects (offering a service you can have someone else do for cheaper)
- Create Ads (Videvo and Pexels have royalty free videos you can use for this.)
Obviously some of these will teach you skills, and others will be more like a hobby or side hustle.
If you’re looking for work with a little more depth, and also want to gain valuable lifelong skills, keep reading.
In truth, anything that you could want to learn how to do, is likely to be achievable.
For instance, through classes, webinars, or simply someone more experienced, you are able to gain the skills needed to become a successful freelancer.
Below are some training sites that will help you advance your skills, obtain certifications, and/or get a degree.
Top 14 websites for learning freelancing skills
- Udemy
- Pluralsight
- Treehouse
- Fiverr Learn
- HubSpot Academy
- EdX
- Coursera
- Teachable
- YouTube
- Alison
- Saylor
- Codecademy
- Skillshare
- LinkedIn Learning
Udemy
Featured Course Categories
- Design
- Development
- Marketing
- IT and Software
- Personal Development
- Business
- Music
- Photography
Highest degree offered: Certification
Pricing: Pay per course between $25-$250
7.5% cashback with Rakuten browser extension
1-15% cashback with Honey browser extension
7% cashback with BeFrugal browser extension
Pluralsight
Featured Course Categories
- Aec
- Architecture & construction
- Business professional
- Creative professional
- Data professional
- IT ops
- Manufacturing & design
- Information & cyber security
- Software developer
- Software development
- Web development
They also offer courses by skill levels (beginner, advanced, intermediate)
Highest degree offered: Certification
Pricing: Free for 10 days then $499/year for premium access (standard $299/year limited access)
10% off with the Rakuten chrome extension
Up to 20% off with Honey chrome extension
Treehouse – Online Coding Platform
Featured Course Categories
- Web Development
- JavaScript
- UX Design
- Python Development
Highest degree offered: Certificate of Completion
Pricing: Free for 7 days then $25/month
Fiverr Learn
Featured Course Categories:
- Marketing
- Graphic Design
- Websites – Building, Optimizing, SEO
- Writing
- Business
- Photography
- Video
- Marketing
Highest Degree Offered: None
Pricing: Pay per course, $0-$300
$5 cashback with BeFrugal chrome extension
Avg 9% off with Honey chrome extension
HubSpot Academy
Featured Course Categories:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Service
- Web Development
- Web Design
Highest Degree Offered: Certification
Pricing: Free
EdX
Featured Course Categories:
- Art
- Business Administration
- Computer Programming
- Data Analysis
- Design
- Economics
- Education
- Engineering
Highest Degree Offered: Masters
Pricing: Pay per course, $50-$300
2.5% cashback with Rakuten browser extension
Up to 5% cashback with Honey browser extension
Coursera
Featured Course Categories:
- Data Science
- Business
- Computer Science
- Personal Development
- Information Technology
- Language Learning
- Math and Logic
- Health
- Social Science
- Physical Science and Engineering
Coursera also offers some excellent free courses. You will not earn a degree or certification from these unless you pay for them.
However, you can and will increase your knowledge and skills.
In addition to the high degrees and certifications, they have an option to apply for financial aid.
TIP: If applying for financial aid, exclude from using their free trial as this will prevent you from being eligible.
Apply for financial aid with Coursera.
Highest Degree Offered: Masters
Pricing: Pay Per Course/Specialization/Certifcation $0-$399
5% cashback with Rakuten browser extension
7% cashback with BeFrugal browser extension
Teachable
Featured Course Categories:
- Art
- Careers
- Marketing
- Music
- Food & Drink
- Photo & Video
- Home & Garden
- Design
- Productivity
- Travel & Languages
- Writing
- Lifestyle & Hobbies
- Free For a Limited Time
- Course Creation
- Business
- Tech & Programming
- Health & Fitness
Highest Degree Offered: None
Pricing: Pay per course/subscription $0-$250
Alison
Featured Course Categories:
- Language
- IT
- Sales and Marketing
- Management
- Health
- Business
- Engineering
- Personal Development
- Academics
Highest Degree Offered: Diploma
Pricing: $0-$65
Saylor
Featured Course Categories:
- Art History
- Biology
- Business Administration
- Chemistry
- Communication
- Computer Science
- Economics
- English
- English as a Second Language
- Geography
- History
- Learning Skills
- Mathematics
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Political Science
- Professional Development
- Psychology
- Sociology
Highest Degree Offered: Certificate of Completion/College Credit
Pricing: Pay per exam, courses free
Codecademy
Featured Course Categories
- Web Development
- Data Science
- Computer Science
- Developer Tools
- Machine Learning
- Code Foundations
- Web Design
- Game Development
- Mobile Development
- Data Visualization
- Interview Prep
- Cybersecurity
Highest Degree Offered: None
Pricing: $0-$39.99/month (yearly subscription $19.99/month)
2.5% cashback with Rakuten browser extension
Avg 19% off with Honey browser extension
Skillshare
Featured Course Categories
- Animation
- Creative Writing
- Film & Video
- Fine Art
- Graphic Design
- Illustration
- Music
- Photography
- UI/UX Design
- Web Development
- Business Analytics
- Freelance & Entrepreneurship
- Leadership & Management
- Marketing
- Lifestyle
- Productivity
Highest Degree Offered: None
Pricing: Free for one month then $15/month (yearly subscription $8.25/month)
$9 cashback when using the Rakuten browser extension
LinkedIn Learning
Featured Course Categories
- LinkedIn Career Goals
- Adobe
- Google Apps
- Python
- Quickbooks
- Excel
- Foundations of Electronics
Highest Degree Offered: None
Pricing: One month free trial then $19.99/month after paid yearly
Now lets take a look at some freelancing websites for you to join. Some are going to be niche specific, some general, and some for more experienced or advanced users.
The general freelancing websites you’ll find in the next list have tons of different types of freelance work, and you can join almost all of these for free.
It’s important to offer your services on multiple sites to get the most exposure and land the most gigs.
30 General Freelancing websites for beginners
- Flex Jobs
- Upwork
- Fivrr
- AnyTask
- Jobpresso
- WeWorkRemotely
- RemoteCo
- WorkingNomads
- JustRemote
- Pangian
- RemoteOK
- Outsourcely
- ProBlogger
- TextBroker
- 99Designs
- Dribbble
- PowerToFly (for women)
- AngelList
- JobDone
- Zeerk
- People Per Hour
- NoDesk
- Behance
- Guru
- Freelancer
- Legiit
- Stack Overflow
- Konker
- GigBucks
- ServiceScape
Onward to the more niche type sites. We wanted to just give the general freelance websites, but these are too good to overlook. Especially for writers and gamers!
13 Niche Style Freelancing Sites for Beginners
- Thinkific (course creators)
- TextBroker (bloggers)
- ProBlogger (bloggers)
- Wonder (research analysts)
- Gamunation (gaming writers)
- WhatCulture (gaming, tv, movie writers)
- PoetryFoundation (poetry writers)
- Ploughshares (poetry writers)
- Boulevard Magazine(poetry writers)
- VQR Online (poetry writers)
- 99 Designs (graphic designers)
- Hitmarker (gaming and esports)
- Designhill (designers)
However, if you’re already an established freelancer, you may want to find work that has a less saturated market for your expertise.
Moreover, this means a higher pay, and a more extensive sign up process.
This is where those degrees and certificates could in fact, come in handy.
Thus, resulting in more trust within the field and ultimately more income.
7 websites for experienced freelancing
- CloudPeeps
- CloudPeeps is a freelance marketplace that connects Peeps to Clients. The Peeps are the freelancers, and the Clients post job listings. The Peeps include independent professionals who offer their services for a variety of remote jobs. There are three versions peeps can sign up for. The free “hobby” version, standard version, or Pro version.
- Skyword
- Skyword is a full service content marketing agency. It is designed for media companies, content marketers, freelance writers, videographers, photographers, and more.
- StarkFlow
- Starkflow is a talent on demand platform that connects businesses with engineers and marketing professionals. They aim to leverage the best talent from across the globe and bring them under one roof.
- Github
- GitHub is a freelance market specifically for developers. Included in the site is a staging platform that lets developers collaborate on various projects. Sharing prototypes, editing/building upon each others code, and sharing work with stakeholders are just a few. In summary, Github is a web-based platform for working on projects.
- TaskArmy
- TaskArmy is a task-oriented marketplace where you can post your new and existing talent, in addition to general work. Specifically, social media, writing, and ecommerce are just a few niches inside their platform..
- SEOClerks
- SEOClerks is an online marketplace that’s been offering Search Engine Optimization services around the globe for quite some time now. In fact, it’s known for being the biggest (SEO) marketplace in the world! With varieties of services and millions of users, the platform has become the go-to marketplace for SEO experts.
- Latium
- Latiums marketplace is somewhat unique. Specifically, here you get paid to complete “micro-jobs” (small jobs). Sensory technology, edge computing, and analytics to name a few.
To Summarize
By now, you should have a pretty good grasp on freelancing and, equally important, a general understanding of how to become a successful freelancer.
Essentially, the most difficult task is just getting started, so if you’ve made it that far, congratulations!
Lastly, one more thing before you go..
Once you start becoming successful, you’re going to want to have a general idea of what to do with your money.
It’s never too early or too late to invest in your future, and in yourself.
Furthermore, research and understand the importance of how and where to save and invest your money. For this will moreover play a key factor in creating a sense of financial security within your life.
For more information on this subject, also check out our Savings and Investments page within this site.
Never stop learning, and you will indeed continue to add more and more successes to your life.
To conclude,
With access to basically everything, anyone really can do anything they set their mind to.
Hopefully in the end, you can now say that you understand how to become a successful freelancer.
So read that book, take that course, do that research, and reach your fullest potential.
Finally, and most importantly,
Believe in yourself.