Freelancing is one of the many ways you can start your side gig to earn some extra money while working in a job or as a student.
First, let's know the definition of a freelancer. It simply means a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term.
So let's see the five steps that will help you become a freelancer with the help of your shiny web development skills.
Step 1: Create & set up your freelance account
Setting up your freelance account is the first step to become a freelancer. You can choose any platform that you are comfortable with. If you are just beginning, you can choose between Fiverr & UpWork.
For this blog, we'll stick to Fiverr as your freelancing platform.
The key aspects here are you must have a legit profile photo, and all your credentials should be accurate. Then after this, you must set up your "Gig".
Gig is the showcase of the product/service that you offer to potential customers. Try to stick with a single gig. Don't create multiple gigs. This might confuse the customer sometimes & is not effective for your profile as well.
Step 2: Find out the Buyers Requests Section
The Buyers' section is where Buyers post their requests for the service that they require. As a beginner freelancer, you don't have a good freelancer reputation, so you have to begin with the Buyer's section until your profile catches the eyes of regular/good buyers.
In the Buyers section, try to take up small projects that have a small amount of money, possible it may be $5 to $15 and don't take up the ones that require certain technologies that you are not comfortable with. Before sending your offer, see how many people have also offered their service. If you are trying to compete with 100 people for a gig, that is a no brainer.
TL;DR
start with small projects and also with a small amount
Don't compete for an offer that has too many offers
Step 3: Do freelancing as a part-time or full time
It's okay if you spend 3-4 hours working part-time, but if you are trying to do it full-time, you can go up to 6 - 8 hours a day. You must keep your customers for further communication and more upgrades rather than focusing on completing the list of offers. You must be able to understand your end-user and deliver as seamlessly as possible.
This is something you get with experience. It will take some time for you to understand. So you have to work on your communication skills and presentations to connect to your customers truly.
Step 4: Focus on your freelancing Platform
You should focus primarily on one platform for freelancing. You must build up your platform and maintain good reviews for customers to notice your profile.
While making an offer, first try to offer below their mentioned price because that automatically acquires the Buyer's attention. You must send a very natural and formal question at the end of your message so he can follow up on your question. Even if the end-user is a non-technical person, they may reply, and that depends on you.
So after the offer is made, you can make a follow-up offer to create or add some extra features or a user interface to the existing ones. This will also help you to gain some more money while delivering more features than the consumer expected. This will also make you his potential contact for further assistance or future offers.
Step 5: Gain experience & keep improving your skills
It's completely fine to take up projects as a freelancer, even if you are new to this. It would be best to keep yourself updated based on the latest updates in the web development field or extend your skillset to building up cloud infrastructure or automating.
Fiverr shows you buyer requests based on your gig, so you must mention all the possible technologies to maximize the number of buyer requests you can get. So the more opportunities you get, the more you can take up. You must be able to upscale your tech stack while doing the gigs to attract more buyers to the platform.
There are no magic tricks that will make you a good freelancer in a single night. You must be patient and persistent, maintain a perfect profile, and maintain a good level of communication with the buyers.
Sticking to the keys steps will make a better freelancer easier. It would be best if you focus on mastering your technical skills simultaneously while freelancing. This lets you build better and performant gigs for your buyers.
Happy Freelancing!
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