Make Money as a Freelancer

What is Freelancing?

Sometimes, in your life, you start thinking that let me quit my job and start my own work and be my own boss because this job is unable to fulfill my needs sufficiently. In this situation, freelancing is the most appropriate platform for you. As freelancing means

“Working from home on a specific task or project you selected according to your skills and which is assigned to you by the project or task holder after checking your skills in that particular project”.

Who is Freelancer?

“A Freelancer is one who performs


specific tasks, project selected by him/herself in a specific time period.”

As a freelancer, you are free to choose the job types and projects according to your skills and your interests and that is why you are called a “freelancer”. You will earn a handsome income after completing your job/project. The income depends on the nature and type of job. You can earn up to $4000 per project if you are professional in your field. You may work as a part time or a full time freelancer depending upon your schedule.

How to start?

Now that is the point where your career starts  as a freelancer. There are many freelancing websites who offers freelancer jobs. The most popular and trusted freelancing websites that I know are:

     

       1. Elance

       2. ODesk
       3. Freelancer.com

Note:

Freelancer.com is the largest freelancing website in the world.But I don't recommend Freelancer.com due to some serious disadvantages it has. Although it is a trusted and legit website and their are over 10 million registered users here but there are some disadvantages. Many of their users moved to Elance and Odesk.I recommend Elance due to its secure payment methods and their flexible rules. To read their disadvantages in detail, read my post here:  Disadvantages of freelancer.com

Elance provides the following categories to work within:

• IT & Programming
• Design & Multimedia
• Writing & Translation.
• Sales & Marketing.
• Admin
• Engineering & Manufacturing.
• Finance & Management.
• Legal

ODesk provides the following categories to work within:

• Web Development 
• Software Development 
• Networking & Information Systems 
• Writing & Translation 
• Administrative Support 
• Design & Multimedia 
• Customer Service 
• Sales & Marketing 
• Business Services 

There are huge number of jobs available for applying in these freelancing websites and you can easily get a job if your profile is impressive. These are only the main categories of jobs. I will give the detail of these categories in my next posts.

“You can also sign up as an employer and post jobs in the above mentioned categories. For example, if you want to make a beautiful website, you can hire a professional by posting your job description about website designing”.

Are there any skills required?

Yes, you should have the required skills to get a job or project in freelancing websites. For example, if you want to get a job in Web Development or IT & Programming category, you must have the knowledge of web languages like HTML, CSS, PHP and some other skills like SQL web servers etc. 

Similarly If you want to get a job in Writing category, you must be aware of some basic skills like MS Word, proofreading, grammar, editing, writing style etc.

In the same way every category required some basic skills in order to increase the chance of getting the job.

Job Types

There are basically two types of jobs.

1. Hourly jobs
2. Fixed price jobs

In hourly jobs, you will be paid according to the hours you spend on that job/project. For example, you set your hourly rate as $5/hour. Now if you get an hourly based job and completed it in 7 days while working 5 hours a day on that job, you will be paid $5 x 5 x 7 = $175. You can change your hourly rate at any time. In start, you are advised to set the hourly rate at low, maximum of $4/hour in order to get the job easily. Once you set up and completed 3 or 4 jobs successfully and make good impression, you can increase your hourly rate.

In fixed price jobs, the price of the job is already mentioned by the person who posts that job. 

How to get a job in freelancing websites?

First of all you have to sign up to a freelancing website. To sign up to Elance click here

After sign up you will be asked to complete your profile. Your profile plays an important role in getting the jobs quickly. You have to put the required information in the profile including your intro, your skills, education and hourly rate etc. Once your sign up process is completed and you select your job categories, you get emails consisting of jobs and projects that match your skills. You are asked to bid on the job of your interest. After bidding, your request for the job is sent to the person who submits that job. He checks your profile and your skills. If he likes your profile and is satisfied with your skills, he approved your request and the job is assigned to you. In my coming posts, I will explain in detail that how to set up your profile in freelancer websites. So stay connected by subscribing to my blog.

You also want to read:  how to create an effective profile at Elance

If you have some additional information regarding this topic, please comment and tell me. I will welcome your suggestions.