Are you a freelancer? Are you looking to earn money by doing freelance work? Freelance jobs could be freelance writers, web developers, graphic designers, search engine optimization consultants, interior designers, photographers, bloggers, etc.
But do you know how to make money freelancing? OR do you often wonder how to make money as a freelancer? OR how to make money online freelancing your skills?
Freelance business is as crucial as a full-time job in corporate.
We are not saying this – statistics are saying this. According to the below-mentioned stat – In 2022, nearly 60 million people were working as freelancers. That’s huge.
Let’s begin with understanding what freelancing is and then move forward to how to make money as a freelancer.
What is Freelancing?
So, starting with the basics of freelancing – which you might be aware of, but still lets you brush up on the basics.
Freelancing or freelance work is when you provide your services to businesses or people on a contractual basis on your own. You talk and negotiate with prospective clients for work.
If you are running a freelancing business, you may have multiple clients. You are not regarded as a full-fledged employee by any of the companies you work for. Consider working on projects for several different customers or businesses instead.
In today’s tech era, all you need is a reliable internet connection, project management tools, a social media account, and word-of-mouth referrals to run freelance services.
On the other hand, freelancers almost never get perks or paid vacation time from their employers. The amount of money you make may fluctuate, and it may be challenging to locate your first customers. In short, freelancing your skills might give you a handsome amount of money but it can be the reverse too.
14-Step Guide On How to Make Money Freelancing Online
While you still learn about how to make money freelancing, we will also discuss the right invoicing software for freelancers.
Let’s delve deeper into each step of the guide on how to make money freelancing online while ensuring the content remains unique:
1. Start with Identify Your Niche
The very first step of entering into the freelance world is fixing your niche. Identify your skill, passion, and market demands before entering into any freelance project.
You could be a web developer, graphic designer, social media manager, digital marketer, virtual assistant to small business owners, content writer, or anything you like.
Freelance clients are hard to come by, and they could leave you faster if you are not up to the mark in your skill set. So, always choose to freelance the skills in which you are a master of.
2. Next is to Build a Personal Brand
Once you are done with your niche, how do you get the prospective client? OR how do you find clients?
Now is the time to build a personal brand. How do you make a brand? When you are working with a client – fix up your brand color, logo, letterhead, visiting card, digital portfolio, etc.
Also, to build a solid reputation, you may create highly professional-looking social media accounts. Don’t forget to maintain consistency across your online presence, including social media profiles, which helps create a memorable brand.
3. Create a Portfolio
Just as we discuss having a digital portfolio in building a brand, the next part is to have a solid portfolio of your freelance projects.
As a freelancer, your work should speak louder than your interview.
New clients, interested clients, everyone will refer to this portfolio before entering into collaboration with you. Be sure to showcase your wide range of skills by providing several samples of your prior work. Maintaining frequent updates that reflect your most recent and improved work is essential.
4. Set Up a Professional Website
Portfolio is one of many things you need while making money online – you must also have a professional website! Invest some time and effort into developing a website that is easy to navigate. Ensure that it is search engine friendly by including essential keywords associated with your specialized field.
Many freelancers create a portfolio website and add their social media channels to that. Having a website of your own makes it easy to maintain both your portfolio and your recent work collaborations.
5. Master Your Craft
The next step is to ensure you are current with the latest developments in your market sector and trends. What exactly do you mean by that?
To keep your skills at a high level, consider consistently improving them by participating in relevant online forums, attending industry conferences, taking up an online course, going to webinars and seminars, and reading trade magazines.
Also, update your crafting skills on your website, post about it on social media to get attention from your prospect clients, and also share it with your existing clients via email.
6. Create a Reasonable & Undeniable Price Package
Another critical point in making money freelancing is to create price packages that clients find affordable and consistently award the work to you.
When it comes to set pricing, there are many ways of doing it. Let’s discuss each of them in detail.
Fixed Price Project: It is one of the most basic types of pricing strategy. When you agree to take work on a project basis, all you need to do is quote a single price to complete a task the client gives. This shall be discussed before you start the project. The price fixed shall be regardless of the number of hours that it will take you to finish it.
For example, if you are in the business of developing websites, you may charge a client a flat fee of $5,000 to develop a new website for them. Irrespective of the days and efforts, the client shall pay you that fixed amount.
When you are managing the many aspects of a project, you should make sure that everyone is on the same page by providing transparent information regarding the amount of revisions and the pipeline.
Hourly Project: The majority of the freelancers work on an hourly basis. As the name suggests, you must set a price for the work based on per hour. While discussing with potential clients, you need to quote for the number of hours required to complete a task.
For example, if a task is 6 hours and your charge is 20$ per hour, then your final bill would be 120$—a simple calculation.
A survey conducted in 2020 by Payoneer on more than 7,000 freelancers from 150 different countries indicated that freelancers charge an average of $21 per hour.
When determining your prices, you must always ensure that you take into account all applicable taxes, whatever the pricing model that you use. Because you will probably be responsible for doing your taxes as a freelancer, it is in your best interest to have a more significant savings cushion than a smaller one.
Remember that the pricing you provide might and should shift over time. You will be able to charge more fees as your level of expertise rises.
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7. Join Freelance Platforms
The next after having a website – how do you find freelance jobs? Or how do you search for prospective clients? For that, you need to join the freelance platforms.
How do you find a perfect freelance platform?
Well, in the process of making money freelancing, select a platform by researching the benefits and drawbacks of each platform. Personalize your profile to highlight the particular abilities and experiences that align with the platform’s user base and provide relevant examples.
Top Five Platforms for Freelancers:
8. Optimize Your Gig Descriptions
Next up is creating a perfect gig description. For example, if you are into graphic design, you must have unique gig descriptions for each platform. Customize your offerings based on the platform’s user demographics, using language that resonates with potential clients.
Nowadays freelancers can also take the help of AI content writing tools like ChatGPT to write a great Gig description for their profile on different freelance platforms.
9. Create Your Network OR Be a Part of It
Now, to become a constant in the freelancing career, you need to consider yourself engaging authentically with others in your industry. Take part in the conversations, share your observations, and cultivate real-life friendships.
For example, if you are into social media management – you can share your insights about various strategies.
Freelance earnings depend a lot on how well and frequently you network.
10. Always Provide High-Quality Work
If you want to make more money or if you want your client to pay you without any bargain, then have a goal to provide high-quality work for every project you are hired to.
You can only be in high demand in freelance business if you provide quality output. And for that, you need to go above and beyond what the customer expects of you.
Making every effort to surpass the—work of a high caliber results in favorable testimonials, which are essential for drawing in new customers.
11. Make Money Freelancing is about Diversify Income Streams
The average freelancer works exclusively for customers and earns money on an ongoing basis from each job. However, more is needed. You must diversify the different sources of revenue.
For instance, if you are a graphic designer, you may make and sell digital design templates on freelance marketplaces or provide consulting services to clients.
12. Focus on Your Marketing Strategies
Focus on your marketing strategies next in this head of how to make money freelancing. Make use of a variety of different marketing approaches. Your personality may be shown via social media, and you can establish yourself as an expert in your subject by blogging. Email marketing helps you stay in touch with your target demographic.
13. Stay Consistent for Better Client Retention
Maintaining dependability in both your job and your communication requires consistency. Customers have a high respect for independent contractors who regularly fulfill deadlines and maintain professional quality.
Establish long-lasting connections with customers by learning their requirements and meeting and exceeding their expectations in all aspects of service. A happy customer is more likely to use your business again and to tell their friends and family about it.
14. Use Smart Invoicing Software for Freelancers
Billing stands crucial in today’s era. It is not a factor that leads to making you earn money but helps you earn your money on time. The right invoicing software can help you bill accurately to your client, which is essential to getting paid. Error-free billing is a way to get another project from your client.
Freelancer invoice template forms are the best way to generate accurate freelance invoices in minutes. It not only saves time but also helps you focus on your core freelance activities as billing is handled quickly and accurately.
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Four Simple Money-Making Strategies For Freelancers
When considering a freelancer’s economic strategy, there is no “one size fits all.” Some freelancers earn their living by providing recurrent services, while others make their living by participating in gigs, yet others make their living via drop servicing.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common ways for freelancers to make money, including:
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a form of marketing that operates on a performance-based model. It involves individuals promoting someone’s products or services and receiving a commission for each transaction they generate.
If you’re a freelancer seeking income, affiliate marketing can be an option to explore. You will earn a commission by sharing your affiliate link with your customers every time one of them purchases hosting through that link.
This opportunity allows you to make money effortlessly without requiring effort. All that is required of you is a solid customer base and the capacity to market your goods or services efficiently.
2. Gigs
Gigs are tasks you perform for clients and are commonly called “gigs.” These are often straightforward jobs that can be completed quickly.
To make it easier to find assignments, gig marketplaces like Fiverr, Upwork, and PeoplePerHour can be incredibly helpful.
Gigs provide opportunities for aspiring freelancers to build a portfolio as they offer the chance to showcase their skills. Once you have completed gigs, you will gain the experience to start charging higher rates for your services.
3. Model of a Retainer
A retainer refers to a fixed sum of money that your client pays you regularly for your services. It is a choice among freelancers as it provides an income stream. Unlike project-based work, you are not paid per hour. Based on the results you deliver. The best part? Most retainers are recurring, meaning once you have secured a client, you can expect payments from them.
However, to obtain customers of this kind, you need a reputation and a robust portfolio. However, if you have a few reliable customers, expanding your freelancing company would be a breeze for you.
4. Drop Service
Drop Service is a business strategy where you outsource the work to a party and charge the customer a fee. Let’s say you work as a web designer. A customer approaches you. Asks for a website to be created. Now, you can hire someone to design the website at a cost rather than do it yourself.
Once the task is completed, you deliver it to the customer using your name. Charge them an amount that you decide for yourself. This strategy is particularly beneficial for freelancers as it requires no experience or expertise. All you need are skills in finding clients and a list of service providers.
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Be Consistent – That is The Key to Success as a Freelancer
So, we are at the end of the blog on how to make money freelancing. The last section before we conclude is how you can be consistent being a freelancer.
Let us take a scenario.
For example, you are a graphic designer earning $ 5000$ per month. Now, you may have incurred some cost in the purchase of editing software, which is about 500 $. So, you need 5500$ to survive.
So, we suggest that you go for client retention, for example, five clients each who pay you 1100 $ per month, which may cover the cost of 5500 $ per month.
There could be 100s ways to be consistent as we have only described a single way. But, client retention is the best way to be consistent.
Scale Up Your Freelancing Business with Moon Invoice
So, that is it! We have described freelance ways to make money. Now that you are into freelancing, think about scaling up your business.
And when you scale your business, you must manage your invoicing process. Because certain tasks would be on a project basis, specific on a time basis, how can you work all of it?
You need smart invoicing software for freelancers, just like Moon Invoice. You can create estimates, generate invoices, receive and track payments, etc.
Contact us and claim your 14-day free trial now!
FAQs
Jayanti Katariya is the founder & CEO of Moon Invoice, with over a decade of experience in developing SaaS products and the fintech industry. He holds a degree in engineering. Since 2011, Jayanti's expertise has helped thousands of businesses, from small startups to large enterprises, streamline invoicing, estimation, and accounting operations. His vision is to deliver top-tier financial solutions globally, ensuring efficient financial management for all business owners.
