Step 2: Creating a firm freelancing environment
Welcome to the second post of the 6M Challenge of freelancing edition where you will learn to create a freelancing environment. Hope you have completed the tasks given in the previous newsletter i.e.
- Deciding of skill and sub-skill
- Polishing your skills
- Sign up on freelancing platforms
Hope you have signed up on freelancing platforms like Fiverr(Sign up now) and SEOClerks(Sign up now). A mistake most beginning freelancers make is signing up on the most popular freelance marketplace like Upwork or Freelancer. These sites are already filled with millions of freelancers from around the world. And due to the competition, they engage in bidding wars to win jobs.
So the best approach is to pick a marketplace that’s fairly new because it’ll have fewer freelancers so you’ll have low competition. And it will increase your chances of landing jobs. Here is the list of such platforms:
- CareerGig
- Worksome
- SkipTheDrive
- VirtualVocations
- Rev
- Microlancer
- Zeerk
- Twine
- CloudPeeps
Building a portfolio
Now I have given you multiple options for the platform. You have no chance to make an excuse. Sign up fast. Now it’s time to build a portfolio…
A portfolio can be a website or a webpage where you showcase all your work. For example: if you’re a graphic designer, you can create a portfolio page on a site like Behance to show off all your designs. That way, when you’re reaching out to a client, you can simply give them the link to your portfolio to check out your skills. Make sure to only include your best work in the portfolio, don’t spam your portfolio with little and silly tasks. The client prefers quality over quantity. And let me help you to provide the references of such websites where you can create a portfolio:
- Writers: Journo Portfolio, Muck Rack, WordPress.
- Designers: Behance, Adobe Portfolio, Crevado.
- Photographers: Flickr, Portfoliobox, YouPic
Building reputation
Is portfolio done? Now let’s built some reputation in the professional world. If you can’t prove to clients that you’re skilled at what you do, they will never hire you.
If you’re a writer, you should have articles published on popular blogs. There should be a reason that why should anybody hire you, you must have some reputation. I know, in starting, you will have no reputation. Yes, we need to build it. Simply show your work, whatever you have done till now. If you’re a graphic designer, you should be able to point to a brand and say you designed their logo. If you’re a web designer, you need to be able to send a link to a website you’ve designed.
In short, get some of your work out there. If you haven’t done any work yet, do some free work at first to build your reputation and hence portfolio. Reach out to blogs that accept guest posts. Do some concept design work. Whatever it is, work on building your reputation. It’s a crucial part of building your freelancing career.
Now let’s see whether you should do freelancing part-time or full-time?
Freelancing: part-time or full-time?
Freelancing is not everyone’s cup of tea. The process of marketing yourself, selling your services, and dealing with clients can be overwhelming. I am not discouraging you. If you’re not sure whether freelancing is the right career path for you, just try doing it part-time.
Spend a couple of hours(yes…hours, you will need to be consistent to see the actual results) every day working on smaller freelance gigs. When you feel ready to tackle bigger projects and feel that you are earning enough money and you can scale it up in the future, then you can decide whether you should freelance full-time or leave your corporate job.
This is all for today’s post. And it’s a good amount of work you have to do this week. Now let’s head up towards the tasks you have to complete for the next post.
Tasks to be completed:
- Selecting a freelancing platform which is less competitive(Also use Fiverr and SEOClerks)
- Creating a portfolio to showcase your skills and work done till now.
- Note down the reputations(if you have any), we will use this in next newsletter.
This was STEP 2 of the freelancing roadmap. Navigate to the previous or next STEP from here:
Build Clear and Strong Foundation of your Freelancing Career