With the current worldy events, cancellations of events, closures of shops, restaurants and people getting laid off, many of my friends in close and wider circles are in despair, anxious and don't know how to continue.
Like many other, I have also been hit here on my travel site, as it literally lives and breathes from people planning and booking travel.
Despite, I am keeping my blog running focusing on the long-term. I call myself lucky though as I have worked hard to diversity my income over the years and still have income as a freelancer which will keep me going.
While you may not see it just yet, this might be THE time in your life! To reconsider what's important to you and to possibly start something completely new and awesome. And to be even more successful with it.
“In times of recession there are massive opportunities and fortunes to be made, so for new up and coming entrepreneurs, this is the time to go and start a business.” – Richard Branson
If you're looking for freelance jobs online for beginners, in this article I'll share how to get started and all my tips I've learned over the year.
What's A Freelancer And Can You Become One?
A freelancer is essentially someone who is self-employed and usually works on various project without being committed to just one employer in the long-term.
As a freelancer, you charge fees for your services on a monthly, daily, hourly or per-project basis (my favorite way).
This is also a great way to diversity income sources as you work across various projects and clients.
Chances are if you have some sort of skills or the willingness to learn, you can easily become a freelancer online.
How Is Remote Work Different From Freelancing?
Often times, you see freelancers use remote work interchangably. I do too.
The thing is, remote work might often refer to a remote job position where you are likely to just work for one employer or company. This usually comes with a set amount of hours per week and a regular wage.
In my opinion, this is a superb way to get started working online if you fear self-organisation, discipline or you simply enjoy having a team.
By the way, you could also have two part-time remote contracts, it's all possible.
You can find a remote job on those websites I have listed here.
Freelancing on the contrary is someone who works autonomously for multiple clients.
You'll have more freedom as a freelancer but also need to market your services and find clients yourself.
Freelancing is a fantastic career choice and can skyrocket your income once you got your stuff dialled in.
Personally, my first year was more like a rollercoaster in terms of income, however, this post is to help you not make my mistakes and set you up so you can succeed with freelancing with no experience.
How Can A Beginner Start Freelancing?
Starting your freelance career can be broken down in bite-size pieces, no need to feel overwhelmed!
#1 What Skills Are Required For Freelancing For Beginners?
In the past few years, the freelancing industry has seen some impressive growth with jobs across many different industries attracting freelancers with a variety of skill sets.
Below are some of the career paths you can find as a freelancer:
- Virtual Assistant
- Web, Mobile or App Developer
- Translator
- Graphic Designer
- Social Media Manager
- Customer Service Support
- Transcriber
- Copywriter
- SEO Specialist
These are just some of many, many opportunities out there.
I generally think that if you are computer-savy, use social media personally and are willing to learn, you will have an easy start as a freelancer, no matter what services you decide to offer.
Also, it's super easy to upskill today via online courses and coaching.
My two favorite websites to learn some new skills are:
If you have some skills in any area already from your former or day job, why not try and apply those skills as a freelancer while working from the comfort of your home.
Even jobs like general practitioners, who seeminly need to see patients in person, have managed to work as freelancers online through giving consultations and prescriptions via online apps. What a world we live in!
Lastly, I'd say that you also need “the freelance mindset”, which means that you think about your self as a professional and you act like one from day one!
#2 Choose A Niche
Now that you are clear on your skills, it's time to choose your niche. This is the group of people and businesses you're going to offer your services to.
Don't fall into the trap to just take on ANY paid work you can find as a freelancer!
That's a huge mistake many freelance beginners make as this will scatter your focus and most likely won't get you closer to your ultimate goal (even though it might pay in the short-term).
When you specialise you will soon become an experts, and experts are usually highly sought-after and paid better on average.
For example, you know Facebook Advertising and could be offering those services to dentists, gyms or hair salons.
These are three very different target markets. Get clear on who you want to be working with. It helps if you know a certain industry already from previous jobs or through friends and family, but no need to limit yourself.
#3 How Much Can A Beginner Freelancer Earn?
You got skills, you got your ideal client mapped out. Time to think about $$$.
As a beginner freelancer, you may not know what to charge and figuring out an hourly rate can be difficult. You could be earning on average $20 up to $100+ per hour, all depending on your skills and chosen niche.
Check what others with the same skill level are charging, a good ressource to do this is by looking at sites like Glassdoor.
I have worked on hourly rates as well and it's okay to do that in the beginning as you are figuring things out.
However, I would highly recommend to move away from this as soon as possible and charge per project.
Yes in the beginning, I even had to do a job for a much lower price or discount in order to gain some experience and get a positive review from the client.
An initial discounted or free job could help you build up case studies and testimonials.
Once you have that first experience, you'll soon feel more confident to sell your services to other businesses and you'll have a better understanding how long things actually take and price yourself right.
I highly recommend tracking your time with a tool like Toggl (it's free!).
#4 Build Your Brand
Of course, you don't need a fancy website to get started as a freelancer. On the contrary, I think if you wanted to, you could start working as a freelancer pretty much immediately.
However, building a simple portfolio site might give you some more credibility as you can showcase who you are, your past experiences and eventually also your case studies of clients.
Overall, building a personal brand around yourself and your services can help land you a job especially if you do not have a lot of experience.
I actually build my own portfolio as a way to show my expertise as back then I was building small websites for clients.
It's super easy to get your own website up and running in a matter of a few hours.
You simply need to buy a URL and get good hosting.
I use Bluehost on all of my sites and you can get started building your site for as little as $3.95/month!
I have used them for all my 6+ sites, bought all my domain names on there and set up email addresses with them and haven't been disappointed once.
And once your portfolio website is up and running, start linking it in your email signature and social profiles, including LinkedIn.
I regularly blog and create content in my niche too in order to establish my voice and authority. This way, you can deliver value to potential future clients and they will have you on the top of their mind when they are ready to hire an expert freelancer.
Why You Should Use A Freelance Platform
If you're looking to land your first freelance job online with no experience, it's a good idea to use one of the many freelance platforms out there.
Now, many established freelancers will advise against using sites like Upwork, Fiverr or PeoplePerHour, simply because the competition is pretty tough on there with many freelancers from low-cost countries present that can always offer things at a cheaper rate.
Plus, did I mention that they take a cut of your pay? Up to 20%!
For example, you finish a job for $500 and you will only get paid $400. Get me out of here!
But on the positive side, you'll be able to find freelancing work quite easily and learn the ropes of communicating with clients.
Also, most platforms hold the money for projects in Escrow, which means you can paid more easily and most likely also on time.
As a newbie freelancer, I recommend focusing on 2 or 3 platforms at the time. This way you can build up your reputation faster than signing up to 15 different websites and trying to build a good-looking portfolio on all of them.
Freelance sites have intelligent algorithms to give their freelancers a ranking which could improve your ability to land a job more easily.
Sure, after you have collected some experience, you can also move off those freelancing platforms and keep all the money for yourself.
Best Freelance Websites For Beginners
Are you wondering which freelancing site is best for beginners?
Below I'll list some of the best websites for beginners to generate online income.
Upwork
One of the most known freelancer platforms out there is Upwork. I have used it extensively when I started out as a freelancer and actually found some great clients on there from Switzerland and Australia and have also hired people on there to help with my business as well.
Yes, Upwork is legit, but you need to look a lot harder these days for good clients, it's still a good place for people with beginning or intermediate skills wanting to freelancing and don't know where to start.
Freelancer
This is a large freelancer website and was actually founded by an Aussie entrepreneur, which I personally love seing.
Freelancer is a marketplace similar to Upwork, and best for beginner freelancers. It's free to set up a basic freelancer profile and then you'll bid for the various jobs.
Toptal
Toptal is a pretty unique platform in a sence that the network of freelancer is pretty exclusive and includes that every applicant will be thorougly vetted.
Therefore, they only take the top 3% of freelance software developers, designers, project managers, finance experts and product managers in the world.
Thus, you'll typically find more experienced freelancers on the platform, however if you are a beginner and you know your stuff, you can totally make it on to the platform as well. You'll work for top companies and startups.
Outsourcely
This platform makes it easy to connect freelancers to companies around the world and Outsourcely is often mentioned as a good alternative to Upwork.
The reason being that they take zero fees on the earnings, which is great compared to the 20% on Upwork.
Additionally, their platform has an emphasis on long-term engagements, however, there is still a lot of competition so it takes some time to browse through to find the better job listings.
People Per Hour
People Per Hour is a genuine freelancing website, again, quite similar to Upwork with many different project categories. There is also a section for specific regional-related jobs, if you're looking to work with clients in your timezone.
It's easy to set up a profile as a freelancer, add examples of your work and then you can bid on a set number of jobs each month.
The con of People Per Hour is that, they also take a cut of up to 20% on everything you earn on the platform. However, once you've found a few jobs, I recommend to do re-occurring work off the platform.
Fiverr
Fiverr can help you get started as a freelancer online, especially if you're a creative and looking to work offer services within graphic design, digital marketing, writing or video animation.
The concept is simple, you put up a service called a “gig” for $5, however, you can make much more than this if you have bigger services to offer. You can also offer custom offers if clients enquire about it.
99 Designs
99 Designs is a one of the largest platforms for creative freelancers offering services such as graphic design, logos, websites. There is a lot of competition and knockoffs are common, so you got to sort through the contests you're going to submit to carefully.
There is still clients who recognise great work which could help you build those important initial relationships and continue to work with those clients in another way.
Overall, 99 Designs is a reputable site and pays reliably and for example, logo packages range from $299 to $1299 minus fees.
All platforms above are completely legit, but always keep an eye out for insincere clients, as you'll find them on pretty much all platforms as well.
It's up to you to do your due diligence, just like when applying for a real job, get on a call when bigger sums are involved and give seemingly weird tasks a pass and move on to better things.
Are you looking to start freelancing? Let me know in the comments below!
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