Alveena Ahmad
It can be very difficult to find steady freelance work and grow your income over time, particularly if you are new to the freelance world.
Since it’s a matter of trust, especially if you primarily operate online, developing a consistent clientele does require time and effort, and there are countless other freelancers to contend with.
Finding high-paying freelance work may be challenging for you for a number of reasons, including:
- Wearing many hats in your role and not having enough time to focus on marketing or networking with others to gain potential clients
- strong domain knowledge in your area of specialization, but insufficient experience in business administration and marketing.
- Being a novice at freelancing and lacking a track record of successfully completed gigs
keeping up motivation and output in an unconventional work environment (which frequently means working alone without delegating tasks to others in a team). - Lack of success in convincing clients to pay, or difficulty in negotiating a payment for the worth of your expertise and services, as opposed to having them exchanged for less.
If you identify with any of these factors, you’re not alone as most new freelancers experience them when they first begin their freelance careers.
There are a lot of things that can be said about each of these typical issues that freelancers deal with, but for the time being, here are five simple solutions you can use to ensure that nothing stands in the way of your success and that you can regularly earn more money:
1. Network
Rather than depending solely on obtaining work from well-known freelance job boards like Upwork and Fiverr, which are already filled with freelancers negotiating the highest-paying gigs, networking increases your chances of landing high-paying freelance jobs.Â
Attend industry gatherings and business conferences. Make a list of potential customers or clients who fit your ideal target demographic, then research the events and websites they frequently visit. Use these channels to locate them and interact with them (without seeming pushy). Long-term benefits will arise from maintaining these relationships.
2. Website and LinkedIn
The prime digital real estate is your website. Use it to your financial benefit. Never accept profiles you made on freelance gig websites or on social media. Create a digital presence and improve your SEO to draw customers to your services in a passive manner, particularly those with commercial intent—that is, those who are searching Google and prepared to make a purchase.
3. Paid Thought Leadership
Promote yourself to obtain opportunities for content writing as a guest blogger or contributor, or public speaking engagements (an additional type of freelancing work). Get podcast interviews and make connections with professionals who can share and enhance your work. This increases the visibility of your freelancing services and builds your reputation with clients who might not have otherwise chosen to hire you.
In addition, public speaking is a highly lucrative side gig that can be a great asset to your current freelance endeavours.
4. Leverage
Even though you might not have the same level of experience or a polished portfolio as the next freelancer working with high-profile clients, you should still be proud of the work you have already completed and perhaps even put together a mock-up or portfolio of your best work (depending on the service being provided, of course). Until you have more experience, make the most of what you already have and focus on it. It even includes the college project you worked on.
The truth is that it doesn’t matter how you acquired your knowledge and expertise. The outcomes are what really count.
5. Word-of-mouth
Nothing quite like word-of-mouth advertising to establish trust in a short amount of time. To begin with, focus on providing outstanding service to a small number of clients at a discounted cost in order to launch your business.
Encourage them to recommend you to people they know who might need similar services once this is finished and you are confident that they are satisfied with the final result.
Remind them to post a review or recommendation on your freelance website, LinkedIn profile, or Google page. By doing this, you can draw in more lucrative freelancing gigs without having to invest a lot of money in marketing.
