If you have any skill at all, there is a way that you can monetize it and make money online. The key is just to know what opportunities are out there and how to position or prepare yourself for these opportunities. Here are my best tips for freelancing online with any skill.
Get Some Experience
Getting some experience under your belt will help to show prospective clients that you know what you're doing. You can gain experience by working for other people or by using personal projects.
For example, sometimes I use my personal blog posts as writing samples. No, you do not have to work for free even if you're just gaining experience (unless you want to of course).
Showcase Your Work
You'll have to find some way to showcase your work so that prospective clients can see it. You don't have to do anything fancy, you can literally just organize them in a Google Drive folder and send that link out when asked or add it to your social media platform. If you're a writer you can check out Muck Rack or Contently. If you do visual art you can drop photos of your work on Instagram, a website like Wix or Squarespace, Behance, Crevado and more. If you're looking to be a tutor, virtual assistant, or another kind of freelancer whose skills are more difficult to exhibit, try doing a case study and collect testimonials.
Tell everyone
Your freelancing endeavors are not something you want to keep secret if you want consistent work. Tell everyone what you're doing, your friends, people at church, your followers and remind them from time to time. Even if they're not your target market, they may very well know someone who is and you'll get recommended. It's also a good idea to set up a referral program. This does not have to be complicated, especially when you're starting out. You can simply tell your client if they refer someone, the client can get a discount or another incentive for sending you another paying client.
Make a LinkedIn account- Yes other social media accounts are necessary and can generate leads but based on my experience, LinkedIn is a great tool. It's mostly an untapped resource for freelancers. You can directly connect with your target audience and people with opportunities (that aren't shady) can connect with you! LinkedIn is where I get my most consistent forms of income and it's from clients approaching me there. The key is setting up your LinkedIn for success. Maybe I'll do a separate blog on this.
Join a Freelance Platform or Agency
There are various freelance platforms that you can use depending on what type of freelancing you want to do. In my free ebook, I break down the various freelancing platforms you can use based on the job you want to have. For example, as a graphic designer, virtual assistant or writer you can try Fiverr. However, there are other platforms out there. Some people have made quite a bit of money on these platforms but for the majority, it isn't that much money. However, it all depends on you, if you're working a 9-5 and don't need to replace your income completely you'll be fine anyway.
If you're someone who can work in social media, graphic design, video editing, customer service, digital marketing, administrative work, WordPress or software development, email marketing, copywriting then you can sign up to work with the agency I've been working with. They provide me with clients but they take care of the payment so you don't have to be chasing people down to pay you. You get paid twice a month USD on either Uphold or Paypal. There are flexible hours, I get to work any time of day and I don't work every day. They're friendly and open to beginner freelancers so don't worry. I truly learned copywriting through working with clients provided by them. You can sign up with my referral link, tell them Trevann sent you. I'll get paid $25 if you sign up and work at least 20 hours with them at any time. Don't worry this won't cost you a penny and I'm still working with them so I feel good about recommending them.
If you want to plan your online income streams, then you can grab my planner here. if you refer a friend, you'll both get 25% off.
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