Is It Hard To Make Money Freelancing?
Find out how you can earn a living and create your own sustainable business as a freelancer.
Have you been wondering “Is it hard to make money freelancing?”
If so–you are not alone! There are more and more professionals just like yourself who have gone out on their own and created dependable and highly profitable freelancing businesses for themselves. But how can you join them? And is it hard is it to start making money? The answer, in short, is no!
While there are certainly plenty of challenges associated with freelancing, such as building a portfolio, finding reliable work, and managing your finances, there are also many rewards that come with being your own boss and setting your own schedule. Making more money as a freelancer simply takes a willingness to learn and a great strategy.
As with most new business ventures, it may be harder to make money when you are first starting out. But, depending on your level of experience and your willingness to spend time learning how to build your own business, it can be extremely lucrative as you build your skillset and a network of clients who appreciate the value you provide them.
Why Now Is The Time To Become a Freelancer
Making money as a freelancer has become easier than ever before thanks to the advancements in technology.
In the past, freelancers had to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations and traditional advertising methods to find work. However, with the emergence of online tools and platforms such as Revolancer, entrepreneurs are now able to access a steady stream of clients for free.
Thanks to this widespread opportunity for freelancers, it is simpler than ever for professionals and entrepreneurs alike to start making money by offering their services through these platforms.
If you want to start making a livable income from freelancing, below are some important tips to keep in mind.
How To Make More Money as a Freelancer
Find Your Niche
Making money as a freelancer is very possible, but it can be difficult to succeed without first finding your niche. Having a speciality will help you better serve clients, stand out from other freelancers, and increase your profits.
Finding your freelancing niche is an important first step before starting any kind of freelance career. A niche will give you direction and enable you to focus on developing specific skills and services that are in demand. It will also help you identify the types of clients who need your services, narrowing down the potential customer base for more targeted marketing and client-building strategies.
Elite freelancers know that their niche should be narrow enough to provide expertise yet broad enough to maintain a steady stream of work.
When considering which areas to specialize in, consider what skills you have or can develop, and what areas you have an interest in or knowledge about that could make you successful in the long run. Keep in mind that niches change over time so it’s important to stay on top of trends and evolving needs within markets related to your niche.
It also helps to look for opportunities where there is a need for specialized skills or services. For example, if you’re a software developer or graphic designer, you may find more success targeting organizations looking for complete software solutions or custom-designed graphics than offering generic services like website design or logo creation.
Additionally, if you want to break into an industry with high competition from established professionals and businesses, look for smaller niches within the industry where there’s room for growth (e.g., mobile application development).
Having expertise in one particular area can also lead to higher rates due to the specialized nature of the job at hand–as opposed to competing against other generalists with lower rates who offer similar services but without in-depth experience in any particular field.
In order to succeed in your niche(s), make sure you spend time researching trends and staying up to date on the average rate for projects based on your level of experience and the number of projects you have completed.
Build a Portfolio
Building a portfolio is an essential part of starting a successful freelancing career. A portfolio can be any kind of collection of work examples, such as writing samples, design projects, or coding snippets that showcase your skills and experience to potential clients. It is important to start building your portfolio right away when beginning a freelance business.
Having an up-to-date portfolio is important if you want to make money in the freelancing world. It demonstrates not only your capabilities but also the quality of your work and how you interact with clients.
A strong portfolio will attract more customers since they can see what you have already achieved and help them understand what they can expect from hiring you.
To create a successful portfolio there are two main factors to consider:
- Content
- Presentation
Your content should include only quality work that showcases the value you are capable of providing. This helps potential clients know with certainty that the quality they are expecting from you is on par with what they saw in your portfolio.
What about those who may not have had any clients yet?
In this case, you can complete what are called “spec” pieces. Spec pieces are examples of ad writing or work for a project that you can do without having a client.
To do this, think of your dream project in your speciality that you are hoping to capture, and go do that job! While this may be unpaid work now, completing this step will help put you above the pack of other new freelancers who are searching for work without any examples to show. Don’t worry–your future clients will thank you!
Presentation outlines how organized and easy it is to find information about yourself as well as the quality and relevancy of the projects you display. This includes using a clean layout, descriptions, tags, and other labels for easier accessibility.
When working on your presentation, it is key to make sure that your services are clearly stated. This is extremely important!
Your clients should have no confusion when it comes to understanding exactly what it is you do and what you don’t do. Be as clear as possible and don’t waste time with fluff or unnecessary wording here.
Assembling all these components into an attractive package will help establish yourself as someone reliable who produces great results on time – something that any client would appreciate!
Define Your Dream Client
As a new freelancer, it is important to define your dream client in order to ensure that you know who to look for and how to target them. This will enable you to offer personalized services to specific individuals, which is one of the most foolproof ways of making more money as a freelancer.
Ask yourself this question – how can you find your dream client and provide them real value if you don’t know who they are?
When you define your dream client, you create a target market for yourself. This helps narrow down the number of potential leads and makes it easier to determine which projects are worth pursuing.
It also allows you to focus more on building relationships with those individuals so that they’ll come back for more work in the future. As a result, you may start building a network of repeat clients and develop lasting professional relationships that often serve as the foundation of your business’s success.
Having a well-defined target audience also helps provide clarity when setting prices for projects and services. You’ll have a better understanding of how much value you bring to clients and be able to command higher rates as a result.
With these tips in mind, you’ll be able to craft pitches tailored directly toward your target market, which increases their likelihood of responding favourably compared to generic one-size-fits-all messages. Clients will appreciate that you are taking the time to answer their specific needs rather than just trying to steal their attention.
Make More Money With a Value-Focused Approach
The most important consideration when you are starting out is to focus on providing real value to your clients.
Offering the same services as everyone else is simply not enough in today’s highly competitive market. To stand out from the competition, it is important to offer unique and personalized solutions that will meet your client’s needs and wants in a better way than anyone else.
Think about the dream customer persona you created. What is your client looking for? What can you offer them that will make their lives easier or help them make more money?
Thinking from a genuine place of value will give you a leg up over other freelancers who are just focused on doing mediocre work and charging low rates.
When working on your first clients, be sure to always keep a friendly, patient, and understanding tone and follow up with them regularly with updates. Once the work is done, don’t be afraid to follow up again and collect reviews or ask if they would be willing to recommend your services to a friend or a colleague.
This will also help you create long-term relationships with clients, which is one of the defining factors of some of the highest-earning freelancers out there.
Overall, these small actions add up over time!
As you build your portfolio, be sure to increase your rates as you go, and don’t be afraid to continually revisit your portfolio and profiles across the various platforms you are marketing yourself on.
Earning more money as a freelancer is a process, but with dedication and great strategy, you can turn your passions into a sustainable career!
Before You Go
In this article, we have discussed how you can earn more money as a freelancer and how newcomers to the space can steadily grow their profits. To learn more about the benefits of freelancing, check out our recent article on The Top 7 Benefits of Freelancing as well as our piece that describes the Easiest Freelance Jobs for Beginners. Good luck!
Freelance marketplace: Revolancer
