How to Make Money Freelancing

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So you want to learn how to make money freelancing…

Smart!

Freelancing is awesome because it puts you in full control. You decide what you’ll do, when you’ll do it, and who you’ll work with.

Even if you have a full-time job, freelancing can give you a steady stream of income on the side. Perfect for building your emergency fund, paying down your debt, or making your dreams happen.

Bonus: freelancing is like building your own microbusiness (a word I’m shamelessly stealing from The $100 Startup). Once you’ve spent some time honing your skills and building up your clientele, you could have the option to make your freelance gig your full-time career! Or not! The beauty is that you’re giving yourself options.

Btw, I’m writing this post from my fave cafe in Frankfurt, Germany. When you freelance, you can work from literally anywhere in the world. Just like in the modern classic, The 4-Hour Workweek 😉 Freelancing is your key to “escaping the 9-5, living anywhere, and joining the new rich”.

Even if you choose a freelancing gig that requires you to work locally, you can make your own hours. So you never have to worry about whether or not you have any vacation time left before you jet off to your version of paradise!

So if you’re ready to learn how to make money freelancing, read on!

Let’s take this step-by-step, shall we?

Step #1: Choose Your Specialty

Ok, what are you going to provide as a freelancer? Your options are basically limitless, but here are a few of the most popular options:

writing
graphic design
social media management
tutoring
voice over work
translation services
illustration
data entry
website building
SEO assistance
video creation
photography
business coaching
health and fitness anything
music composition

Choosing your service is only half of step one. The other half is choosing your specialty within that service.

Example: I’m not just a freelance writer. I’m a freelance writer specializing in real estate blog content.

Don’t just be a tutor. Be a tutor specializing in SAT prep or Spanish or Geometry.

Don’t just be an illustrator. Be an illustrator specializing in children’s books.

You might be wondering why you’d want to pigeon-hole yourself like that. Like, why wouldn’t you want to offer your social media services to anyone who needs them, instead of focusing on social media for dental practices?

Short answer: You need to specialize because there’s a lot of competition in the world of freelancing.

If you search online for a business coach, you’ll find tens of thousands. Do you really want to compete with all of them? No way! But if you specialize in business coaching for Etsy store owners? Suddenly you’re one of…idk…20? So you can either get 0% market share of a large market or 10% market share of a small market. Stick with the small market!

Also, put yourself in your clients’ shoes. Say you’re an electrician who needs a business logo, do you want to hire a general graphic designer? Or do you want a graphic designer who specializes in small business logo design?

Exactly.

Step #2: Create Your Offer

Your offer consists of 4 parts:

Promise: Open with a promise to your future client. What will they receive? As you’re crafting this promise, think about what the client actually wants out of your product or service. Like, my clients don’t want a blog post. They want to improve their Google rank, establish their market authority, and engage potential buyers and sellers. It’s the classic drill-and-the-hole. People don’t buy a drill because they want a drill. They buy a drill because they want a hole. Make sense?
Price: How much will your service cost your client? This will largely depend on the platform you use to publish your offer, so put a pin in picking the specific price for now. We’ll look more carefully at pricing in Step #4 of our how to make money freelancing process.
Pitch: Your pitch should clarify what’s included in your offer. It doesn’t have to be a complete list of all the features and benefits, but it should outline the basics and highlights.
Push: End with a call-to-action that creates a sense of urgency. Why does the person seeing your offer need to act right away?

How about an example? Let’s look at Valentina, who’s a freelance photographer, specializing in new home photo shoots:

Valentina’s Freelance Specialty: New Home Photo Shoots

Her Offer: Capture the excitement of your home purchase with a professional photo shoot session in your new home! For just $250, you’ll get a one-hour session and 50 high-resolution digital images of this life-changing event to cherish forever. You’ll also receive full ownership of the images so you can use them to announce your move on social media. Session slots are filling fast, so reserve yours today!

See those 4 P’s neatly wrapped up in her offer? That’s what you want to do with your offer.

Step #3: Pick Your Platform

Now, how are you going to give your future clients access to your offer? How will they accept your offer, how will you provide the work, and how will you get paid? You need a platform.

There are three main options to consider: a designated online marketplace, your own website, or in-person.

Option 1: A Designated Online Marketplace

Online marketplaces are simply websites that match buyers and sellers. And they are springing up everywhere to help create a smooth transaction between side hustlers and their clients/buyers.

Here are some of the most common:

eBay: for new or used products
Amazon: also for new or used products plus self-published eBooks
Etsy: for handmade goods and digital products
Udemy: for online courses
Task Rabbit: for local tasks (building IKEA furniture, home maintenance, yard work, etc)
Fiverr: for online tasks (graphic design, writing, digital marketing, etc)
Upwork: also for online tasks, but the freelancers tend to be more specialized on Upwork than on Fiverr.
Uber/Lyft: local transportation services
Tutor: specifically for tutoring services
Rover: specifically for pet services
Airbnb: for renting out bedrooms and apartments
Vayable: for providing local experiences to tourists
Multiple stock photo sites: specifically for selling stock photos

Do a little research to see if a marketplace already exists for your chosen freelance specialty. You will need to pay commissions out of your earnings to the marketplace, but that’s the price you pay for the simplicity of the transaction and easy access to your target market.

Plus, the marketplace will handle payment processing, which is super helpful.

Option 2: Your Own Website

If a marketplace doesn’t already exist for your offer, or if you would prefer to cut out the middleman and sell directly to your customers, you may want to use your own website.

The great thing about using your own website is that it gives you instant credibility. Even if you’re just freelancing part-time, having your own website gives the impression that this is what you do. So you can usually charge more for your services through your own website.

The downside? You don’t have the built-in traffic of the marketplaces, so you really have to promote yourself to get traffic to your website (more on that coming up in a bit).

If you don’t already have your own site, you can build a professional website for around $200, which covers 3 years of web hosting from Bluehost and a premium design theme (btw, I’m a proud affiliate for Bluehost and Themeforest; I use them for all my sites, including this one. If you use my links, you’ll get a discount, and I’ll earn a small commission at no cost to you).

There are tons of resources online for building your own website; just search Google or Pinterest to find a million and one free resources.

OR…if you’re short on time, hire me to build your site for just $299 (plus the cost of hosting and the design theme). Just contact me to tell me more about what kind of site you’re looking to build, and I’ll get back to you to schedule a free consultation.

Now, I chose this your-own-website route for my freelance writing, and it’s paid off! Instead of just offering my real estate writing services through Upwork (which starts at really low rates and takes a sizeable commission), I built a quick website on my own. Then I marketed my site on social media to engage clients who were looking for higher-quality writing than they could find on Upwork or Fiverr.

Option 3: In-Person

Lastly, if your services will be performed in person, you may not need a marketplace or a website at all. You could simply advertise locally (and through social media) and facilitate the transaction in person.

If you’re offering home maintenance services like painting, cleaning, or landscaping, for example, you could employ old-school marketing like flyers and signs instead of going through Task Rabbit or building your own website.

How will you get paid?

Keep in mind: you need a way to get paid. If you go through an online marketplace, the marketplace will handle payment processing for you.

If you use your own website, you can either 1) provide your PayPal address and have your clients send the payment manually, or 2) add a plug-in to your site to handle credit card processing (for a fee).

And if you’re working in person, payment could be made via PayPal, cash, or (*shudder*) check.

Step #4: Price Smart

Now, how much to charge?

Your price might depend on your platform. Some platforms require newbies to start in a given pay range. Then they allow you to increase your rate after multiple completed projects and good reviews.

Of course there are a million ways to price good and services. You could offer hourly rates, flat fees, commissions, whatever works for your market.

Pricing will be specific to your freelancing specialty, your location, and your platform.

While I can’t tell you how to price your unique gig, I can offer a few general tips:

Check out your competitors’ pricing
Start at the lower end of the appropriate pricing range. You want to entice your first customers with low rates so you can gain experience and testimonials. You could even run a promotion offering a discount to your first few clients. Then raise your rates to indicate your true value.
Don’t be afraid to raise your rates periodically to keep up with inflation. Many hustlers are afraid they’ll lose clients if they raise rates. But if you make the small increases on a set schedule, your clients aren’t likely to bail over a few dollars.

Something else to keep in mind when pricing: higher rates means you can make more money with fewer clients. If you price super low, you’ll have a lot of work…maybe too much. If you want to limit the amount of work you’re taking on, price high so you’re only taking on high-paying jobs.

Step #5: Publish Your Offer

Time to take your offer to the world! So list your offer on your marketplace, website, or local community boards.

If you don’t feel ready to publish your offer, do it anyway. If you wait until you feel ready, you’ll probably never do it.

Besides, most people won’t see your offer the second you publish anyway. There are just too many offers already out there for a new offer to get instant traction. To get your offer seen, you’ll need to promote.

Step #6: Promote, Promote, Promote

There are a bajillion ways to promote your offer. Instead of writing a friggin book on freelancer promotion, let’s just go over 3 key places to start.

Post to your social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Email your friends and family. You don’t necessarily have to pitch them. Just ask if they know anyone who would be interested in your new product or service.
Write a blog post about your new service. Blogging is a must if you have a website. Blogs give Google consistent content to index so they can recommend you to Googlers. But don’t make this blog post a sales page. Write something that provides its own value to your readers. For example, if you offer drone photography, write a post about the elements of a perfect drone photo. Then include a blurb at the end about your services.

If your response to these promo methods is lack-luster, try spending just a few dollars on targeted Facebook ads. That might be the extra push you need to reach more potential customers.

Step #7: Surprise and Delight

If you want to be a successful freelancer, you’ve got to go above and beyond for your clients.

Don’t just deliver as promised. Throw in a little surprise to delight them (I got the expression “surprise and delight” from Pat Flynn, Author of Will It Fly? How to Test your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money, and I love it!).

Examples:

If you promised 50 edited photos, throw in 5 additional photos with a note saying, “The photos from your shoot all turned out so well that I couldn’t narrow it down to just 50 photos. Enjoy these extra photos on the house!”
If you’re offering a 4-week fitness and nutrition plan, add a free 3-day quick start guide.
And if there isn’t a way to throw in a valuable freebie, surprise and delight by turning your work in earlier than expected with a personalized note thanking your client for their business.

Surprising and delighting your clients will help you retain clients, but it will also help you gain referral business. If you deliver what you promise, your clients may not think much of it. But if you surprise and delight, your clients will rave about you to their friends, family, and colleagues. And the referrals will roll in!

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How to Make Money Freelancing