If you are contemplating becoming a freelancer, don’t give everything up just yet. Our freelancer UK guide will outline how to start freelancing and how to earn money. With multiple digital tools available now anyone can freelance, if you are in full-time work, micro job, if you are building a portfolio seek business clients, if you’re between jobs, freelance across the globe.
Where to start
Before you launch yourself across multiple freelance platforms, you need to determine what skills and services you will offer. Do your research, if you are confident at writing, have a look how you can narrow your service down. There are millions of bloggers offering the same service, see if you can specify your service for a particular niche.
Once you have found an area you think your service will have the best chance to stand out, create a package. List exactly what your service will include, an hour worth of work? 500 words? By being specific on the process of delivering your service, it will give the client confidence that you know what you are doing.
Which platform to use
Choosing a platform is crucial to ensure you earn as much money for your skills and services. There are millions of freelance websites to choose from, but also millions of people earn nothing because they provide services that no one wants.
If you have been a professional in the adult industry for more than 4 years, it’s worth listing your bio on the traditional freelance websites. Businesses looking for a freelancer with your experience will value your offering more, which can result in big projects coming in. If you have broken your skills into tangible products you can offer, simply list them on freelance platforms like Freelancers.xxx. You can select fixed pricing and delivery dates, to fit around your lifestyle.
Listing your skills is just the start
This is where 70% of freelancers fail because after they list their service they simply expect customers to come to them. They will, but you need to prove that your product is worth the money you charge. It’s fundamental to get that first review of your listed service, so here are 3 things you can do to promote your new freelance offerings.
1. Socialise
Did you know that by simply using a few targeted # in your tweets you can target potential customers? People search for services on twitter all the time, so why not offer yours. Use a free social media calendar like Hootsuite to schedule a whole week worth of content to promote your new service.
2. Optimise
The most obvious place where people search for services and freelancers is via google. Here is how to make sure you product appears on the first page of google search. If you are a blogger, find what people are typing into Google search when they look for your service. The most popular searches appear automatically when you start typing, see image.
Now you know what people type, add the most relevant search sentence as the title of a service you offer (make sure to use the exact words as in the google search). If there is something in particular you are blogging about, make sure you use similar search terms on google as tags (don’t be afraid to use a whole search phrase as one tag). Once you optimise your service, give it 1-2 weeks for Google to index it.
3. Utilise
Sometimes it is only the case that there are too many freelancers for one category which means that your service can simply get lost. Utilise the platform you are working through by getting in touch with the company and asking them what their on-site marketing channels are. If you show you are ambitions and willing to work, your service can get featured in a newsletter to thousands of people or mentioned on the company’s own social media pages.
Once you receive your first order, make sure that you receive positive detailed feedback. This will encourage more people that view your service to buy. From here you should be getting a lot more orders, but if it’s not enough, carry on the 3 steps above to drive business.
Every freelancer goes through dry months, to make sure you carry on getting orders, have a list of 5-10 businesses that might need ad hoc help or have short term projects. If you have a competitive package a business will most likely take it up even if they have no projects planned, future investments are normal especially in startups.
As your freelance clients grow, you might want to work on building your own website to store the work you’ve done thus far, and the list all the services you offer in one place.
