Digital Freelancing 101: Start Earning More With These Golden Rules

Step-by-step process to landing more clients and making more money online through freelancing.
The game has changed in recent years.

The creator economy is the future and there’s one huge money-making opportunity that comes along with the visibility of creating content online.

Freelancing.

And freelancing has never been more accessible to people who want to get paid to do what they love.

But freelancing also comes with its own set of rules and strategies that must be followed in order to be successful. Mostly how to properly lure in clients, establishing authority within your niche, then using personalized consulting or products to make the big bucks.

1 | Find your perfect clients.

The first step to freelancing success is finding the right clients. You want to work with clients who value your work and are willing to pay you what you’re worth.

There are a few ways to find these clients:

Use freelancer platforms like Upwork or Fiverr to find clients who are looking for freelancers to help with specific projects.
Use your network of friends, family, and acquaintances to find potential clients.
Attend networking events or meetups that are relevant to your freelancing niche.
In today’s digital age the easiest (I use easiest loosely) way to find the right clients is to create content on social media and other websites, like YouTube and Pinterest. The people that interact and engage with your posts can easily become target clients. Use your content as a means of establishing relationships with those that express interest.

2 | Create digital products for passive income.

One of the best ways to make money freelancing is to create digital products that you can sell over and over again.

This is the ever desirable passive income, which means that once you’ve created the product, you don’t have to do any more work to earn money from it. Creating digital products can be a great way to make money freelancing because it allows you to control the price and earn income even when you’re not working.

There are a few different types of digital products you can create:

#Ebooks
#Courses
#Templates
#Printables
#Plugins

Once you make a product and get ready to put it for sale, make sure you learn all about the best landing page practices so as you gain traffic to your product pages, they’ll convert to sales.

3 | Give away knowledge for free.

It sounds counterintuitive, but one of the best ways to attract potential clients is to give away some of your knowledge for free. This could be in the form of blog posts, social media posts, or even video content. Maybe even make one of the digital products you’ve built above free of charge.

Giving away your knowledge for free shows potential clients that you’re an expert in your field and that you’re willing to share your knowledge with them.

Most importantly, It helps build trust between you and potential clients.

When you start creating content online and proving your expertise, you’ll have the perfect customers lining up right in your inbox. Gain a following, show your worth, and reap the benefits.

4 | Establish a public portfolio.

Another great way to attract potential clients is to establish a public portfolio. This could be a website or blog that showcases your freelancing work.

Having a public portfolio allows potential clients to see the quality of your work and decide if they want to work with you. It also helps build your credibility as a freelancer. It’s an immediately satisfying way of showing off just how damn good you are at what you do.

As a writer, I blog and write on several platforms, then curate and package some of the best work into a media kit I can send to any client. This way, they know I take things seriously and have data-proven results.

5 | Offer personalized consulting.

This is the biggest money-make of the bunch, and truly this is what all the rest of the golden rules prep you to achieve.

One of the best ways to make money freelancing is to offer personalized consulting. This could be in the form of one-on-one coaching, group coaching, or even just advising via email or social media.

A clever way my fiancee used to offer personalized consulting was to sell a day’s worth of “walkie-talkie” style feedback. She’d have an earpiece in her ear all day, and her clients could ask questions or request feedback and insight throughout the day. It was awesome for clients because whenever a question popped into their heads, they could immediately get an answer. Convenient as hell.

But personalized consulting can be anything from sharing your knowledge to ghostwriting, the main thing is to take your expertise and utilize it in such a way as to provide a massive benefit to just one person.

6 | Network. Network. Network.
The final golden rule of freelancing is to network like your career depends on it.

This means attending networking events, joining relevant online communities, and connecting with other freelancers. If you come across someone’s content that resonates with you, and they’re in a similar line of work, reach out to them. Hop on a zoom call. Help each other out.

You’ll make friends this way as well as get some referrals if they’re ever too busy or not the right fit for a client. My favorite part about freelancing and creating content online is the friends I’ve made along the way.
Thomas Striders ®
Photo by KAL VISUALS on Unsplash®