Freelancing is not a profession but a way to earn money from your skills. In other words, this is a civilian worker who is not tied to any company or office.
As a rule, he offers services on the Internet on specialized exchanges or through ad aggregators. About what you can do freelancing, how much to earn, and how to master this business, you will learn from our material.
What is a freelancer? In simple words
Freelancing is not a profession; it is informal employment when clients turn to you as a specialist in a certain field and pay money for completed orders. Usually, everything happens remotely.
Who is a freelancer, and what does he do? In essence, this is a remote freelancer hired temporarily to provide a specific service or perform a specific task.
Why is this needed? Keeping specialists permanently on staff, albeit remotely, is not advisable. It is cheaper to entrust one-time tasks to someone “on the side.”
Due to freelancers, business owners can significantly save on the maintenance of jobs.
How do freelancers work? They organize their work and take on one-time projects. The range of tasks, deadlines and payment procedures are negotiated with the client.
Such an employee does not need to sit “from call to call” in the office; he finds customers and does the necessary work.
At the same time, he most often communicates with the client virtually, without offline meetings.
The relevance of freelancing
Think for yourself, why does a company need a full-time designer if all they need is to create just one logo? Why go to a specialized agency for this?
Many freelancers on the market with excellent design skills (they may be on the staff of those agencies) willingly take orders and execute them competently.
Or take the profession of a photographer. Yes, there are a lot of studios, but there are even more cool “free” photographers in the network. View your portfolio and choose a master for a photo shoot.
A freelancer is a specialist in any service or type of work.
For example, texts to order are written mainly by freelancers, who also perfectly organize medium-sized advertising campaigns.
In general, freelance work at home has become so popular that it is much easier to find a good specialist here than in firms for some tasks. These people do not want to sit for days for a penny somewhere in a dull office. They are much more interested in getting normal money for their skills. Therefore, it is not a fact that the company will do your work better; normal personnel tries to leave and work for themselves.
And freelancers interested in clients work very actively, upgrade their skills, and improve them because income directly depends on this.
Freelancing Advantages and Disadvantages
Of course, there are pros and cons here.
First, about the pros:
- No strict work schedule. No early rises and trips to the office. You work when it’sit’s convenient for you.
- There are no restrictions on the choice of workplace. Take your laptop with you and go wherever you want. If you do your job, the customer is only interested in where you are.
- You choose the customer yourself and cooperate only on the terms that suit you.
- Possibility to save. You do not need to spend money on travel to the place of work or participate in collective holidays (for your own money).
- Saving time. Indeed, in a large city, it can take more than one hour to get there and back, and you do not need to go anywhere; you can spend this time to your advantage.
- Earnings depend only on the experience and activity of the freelancer. In the office, employees most often receive a salary plus a small percentage. The freelancer, on the other hand, has “a free hand”; he takes as many orders as he can fulfill. And if this is a highly qualified specialist, he can also calmly raise prices for his services.
- There are no age restrictions. Only some customers will even ask about it. The most important thing for a client is a job well done.
More on the cons:
- Misunderstanding and condemnation from others. People (especially the older generation) often consider freelancers unemployed slackers. Your family will have to explain this, long and tedious, that you are in business and even a professional.
- Dealing with inappropriate clients. They are there; there is no getting away from them. Some delay payment or completely ” goes into refusal,” others cannot properly convey what they need from you, and others do not have communication skills. Those who have more experience as a freelancer distinguishes such “on the count of times.” You will learn too.
- Income is unstable. One month may be successful in earnings, and the next – not so much. This is usually a problem for beginner freelancers who still need a sufficient number of regular customers.
- Low prices for services at the beginning of the activity. You will have to work, gain experience, and collect a good portfolio with reviews to increase income. However, this can be considered a minus rather conditionally. In principle, at any job, there is a trial period during which the employee’s salary is quite low.
Professions available for a freelancer
Freelancing is suitable, for example, for tutors, accountants, confectioners, and masters of various types of repairs. Someone practices this for the sake of additional income, and for someone, freelancing becomes the main job that brings a steady income.
This format is most popular among IT specialists and representatives of digital professions. Here is a list of the most in-demand and frequently encountered online professions:
- Copywriter. He writes sales texts for businesses. For example, posts for social networking pages, emails for mailing lists, and promotional and informational articles on order.
- Translator. Translators on medical, legal, and technical subjects are especially valuable.
- SMM Specialists. They run business pages on social networks, analyze the activities of competitors, and deal with content and promotion. Communicating with the audience and responding to comments is also their responsibility.
- Targetologist. Engaged in targeting to collect the target audience in social networks.
- Contextual advertising specialist. Works with contextual advertising in services like Google Ads.
- SEO Specialist. He is engaged in SEO-optimization of sites, which provides the resource with higher attendance (organic traffic) and better positions in search results.
- Designer. Creates illustrations, logos, and banners to develop a corporate identity and interface for applications and websites (UX / UI design). Plus, the designer prepares materials for presentations, brochures, etc.
- Photographer. His job is photography. For weddings, bloggers, online stores (product photos), etc.
- Video editor. Edits videos for posting them on websites and YouTube.
Another profession that is great for freelancing and is in demand and well-paid is programming (creates and typesets websites, writes programs). Testers, administrators, and Internet marketers also work freelance. The latter’s task is to promote the network (website, page, blogger). Usually, they are generalists.
How much can a freelancer earn
How much do freelancers earn? This, of course, depends on the field of activity and profession.
- Website development specialist. Developers get the most, and they are the most in demand. Of course, this requires a technical mindset. You can earn an average of 600 USD on creating sites.
- SEO Specialist. Optimizes websites for search engine algorithms, achieving higher positions in the search results. Experienced professionals are valued very highly here and receive 600 USD.
- Designer of websites, applications, social media pages, etc. This activity is for creative individuals, but you also need to know some technical points. Web designers earn an average of 700 USD.
- Copywriter. Writes texts. Earns an average of 400 USD.
- Targeting Specialist. Engaged in setting up advertising campaigns on social networks. The targetologist can work alone or together with a designer or copywriter. The average income is 600 USD.
- Internet Marketer. Engaged in marketing promotion of the business, selects channels to attract customers, and builds sales funnels. Income on average from 700 USD.
- SMM Specialist. An average of 700 USD.
- Graphic designer. Income on average from 570 USD.
- A chatbot architect is a specialist who creates chatbots used in instant messengers. This allows companies to automate their activities, be in touch around the clock, conduct sales, and perform other tasks necessary for the business. The salary of a chatbot architect is 700 USD (on average).
- Motion designer. Makes a video animation from an image. Such videos are needed to impact users and keep their attention emotionally. The average salary of such a specialist is 570 USD.
- Web Resource Administrator. The popularity of online learning is now steadily growing, and with it, the demand for administrators. The task of such a specialist fully supports the project and works with landing pages, funnels, webinar rooms, mailing lists, etc. The administrator has an average of 700 USD.
And when there are too many orders, hire an assistant, two. Then you can already think about your agency.
How to become a freelancer
How to become a freelancer from scratch is a question that worries many now. Do I need to quit my job or try to combine first immediately? What are the pitfalls here? There are many nuances.
As for the field of activity, you can leave it the same; you start working on your own. Be sure to prepare an airbag that will allow you to live in peace for two months (at least), preferably six. Customers will not bring down crowds for freelancers who started working from scratch.
Also, freelancing is unsuitable for extroverts because communication with others is reduced here to chatting. If we talk about the qualities a freelancer should have, then self-discipline is one of the most important. You make your schedule, and you must stick to it. Here you can still advise not to leave work immediately but try to do something freelancing and see how it will turn out.
Be ready to learn constantly. For starters, some free online courses or materials on the chosen profession that are freely available on the Internet will suffice. But to become a more qualified specialist, you must undergo paid training.
Special online schools allow you to choose the right course for any online profession. The term of study is from several months to a year and even two years. Here you will be given not only theory and a set of basic skills but also the opportunity to practice during the internship.
Well, at the time of the search for the first clients, you will already have examples of work performed. Where can I get them if there are yet to be any customers? Offer your services to friends, acquaintances, or community organizations and complete several projects for free. These will be the first works to be demonstrated to potential clients.
So, you have prepared a portfolio. Now go to the freelance exchange, register there, select suitable tasks, and offer yourself as a performer. What are these exchanges? These are special sites for freelancers who are looking for customers.
Both beginners and experienced professionals have a chance to find a client here. But here, the pay for the work here is low. When looking for freelancers for their projects, customers study portfolios and reviews, pay attention to the rating, and if all this is on top, they are only ready to pay good money for work.
It will not work to come to the stock exchange today and swim in money tomorrow. It will take time to learn the chosen skill, and you will need to gain more experience.
However, freelancing is a good opportunity to make money online. With enough effort, you can have a hundred thousand a month in the region, and if you try better, even several hundred.
