How to Make Money Online for Graduates
Learn the trade and get paid – finding your niche as a graduate
Working and earning money online allows you to have a flexible schedule, be self-employed, and reach a global market.
Know your options
So, you’re looking to earn money online? Well, there are numerous benefits to being a freelancer. Freelancers are self-employed people, often taking on contract work for companies and organisations.
Freelancers offer their services across many trades, from short term, temporary contracts, to longer-term work. These services vary across accounting, writing, and web design services.
Know the benefits
Freelancing is an attractive trade, with many benefits. A major advantage of freelancing once you graduate is that it provides you with the option to work and earn money online. Working remotely comes with its benefits. Not only is it a cost-efficient way to work, cutting down the commuting time and cost, but the little extras like a morning coffee can help you save even more. Freelancing provides you with greater control over your finances and as a graduate, every little helps.
This option to work from home provides further flexibility when working as a graduate, as it is often difficult to find a job in your desired place to live. Many students live away from their families to study, and when graduation comes along, deciding where to live can be difficult. Freelancing remotely extends you the option to try both home and away without any great commitment to one place.
This remote work also gives you the chance to liaise and network with international clients, and markets otherwise closed off to you. Remote work brings with it new sources of income, new horizons and opportunities to travel. To see what’s out there for you, check out the Revolancer website. It is an international platform that encourages clients and freelancers to join from all across the globe. Signing up to the platform and advertising your services here will introduce you to all of these benefits.
Find your niche
So you’ve decided freelancing is for you! Freelancing as a graduate is an exciting time filled with a lot of opportunities. Finding your niche means focusing your work on providing one kind of service or catering to a specific client. Figure out what their challenges are and what you can do to improve on these.
Honing your chosen freelance field in the right way will allow you to market your trade as a niche, enabling you to provide higher quality work at an expert level price tag. Creating a business from something you love and something you’re good at seems like a good place to start.
Follow your passion
Confucius once said: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” This is especially true for freelancers who so often work long hours and take fewer holidays. Being excited by your chosen trade is key to succeeding and finding your niche as a graduate freelancer
You may be wondering where to start looking. Maybe your passion stems from a society you joined at university, a hobby you took up, or skills developed during your degree. Dig deep, as many freelancing trades start out as hobbies which can stem into a profitable niche.
Be aware of your strengths
Of course, being passionate about your chosen trade is desirable, but if you don’t have the skills and qualities to back it up, you may struggle to find clients and meet their needs.
Many personal attributes complement the freelance lifestyle, one of which is knowing your limits. As your own boss, you have to decide which briefs you will be able to fulfil. You need to know which deadlines you can work towards, as well as which tasks you can and can’t do. Challenging yourself is different, but as a graduate, getting to know the industry will make you better prepared to take on these challenges later.
Understand the market
When finding your freelance niche, knowing who to offer your services to will allow you to draw commission from only the right clients and markets. Look at your experience and match them with the market demands.
Once you find your freelance niche, there will also be less competition as you’ll be operating in a smaller market. You’ll also likely be able to charge more for your services. Finding your niche is cost-effective in more ways than one. You will be advertising your services to a smaller client pool which means you reach a larger concentration of clients interested in your service. A steady flow of interest results in a steady flow of online income.
Revolancer
Another way to learn and understand the market is to browse freelance marketplaces. You can see which services are already offered to find out which area you can offer as a gap in the market. This can also be a great way for you to market your own services.
Using freelance websites like Revolancer allows you to list your services and keep all commissions on sales. What’s stopping you? Give it a go, and watch your passions become profits.
Before you go
If you found this article insightful, be sure to check out Graduation 2022: What’s Next?, for inspiration on what you will need if you’re getting into freelancing.
Freelance marketplace: Revolancer