Making a living working online doing freelance jobs

If you yearn to start making a living working online doing freelance jobs, I have some ideas for you.
Having worked with different clients as a freelance writer there is quite a lot that I’ve learnt.
And I share them in this post. So, if you want to build a thriving freelance career / business, her are a few things you need to figure out.

Figure out what you want to do online as a freelancer

Before you can start making a living doing online jobs, you will have to ask yourself questions like these:

• What am I bringing to the table?
• What skill of mine can I turn into a freelance business?
• Why would anyone want to hire me – to outsource work to me? Is there a real problem I can help them with?
• Would I pay for the service I want to market out there to potential clients?
• Are there any other businesses / freelancers offering a similar service like the one I offer? Are my standards / level of expertise / quality on par with what they are offering?
• How can I best package my skill / expertise into a service?
• What do most people come to me to get help on that I can turn into a service business?
• What can I pick from my hobby, primary / high school / college / university days that I can turn into a freelance business.

Figure out something to offer to clients. If you need some inspiration in this area, you can check the various freelance categories on Niabusiness.com.

Some of the things you can start doing to make a living freelancing online include:

• Content writing (writing blog posts, sales pages, ebooks, lead magnets, manuals, tutorials and documentations).
• Audio transcription. You can become a transcriber – turn audio to text – for podcasters for example.
• Web design and development (help start good looking sites).
• App design and development (help people launch Android and iOS apps).
• SEO (help people rank their pages on their websites and blogs high on search engines).
• Paid ads (help people start / run ad campaigns on Facebook and Google for example).
• Virtual assistant (help with various admin tasks).
• Programming (help people develop applications in various languages such as PHP, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby and HTML5).
• Social media management (help people manage & grow their platforms on social networks).
• Customer support (help people create a better customer experience for their customers and prospects).
• Video production (help people create and edit videos).
• E-commerce (helping people grow their business / increase sales online).
• Translation (helping people translate content in one language to another).

These are just some of the things one can start doing to make money freelancing. Figure out what you want to do – and see if there is a market for it.

Figure out what you will need to get started

A computer for example. You will need one in order to be able:

• to find clients
• to do the work clients outsource to you

You will also need internet access. So, figure out how you will access the web. Figure out which data bundles you will use – and from which telco (Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, Telkom Kenya, Faiba or Zuku).

Decide if you will need to buy a USB modem, a router or just use your smartphone / tablet (Mobile Hotspot / Wifi) to access the internet.

And then make sure the device you will use (whether a laptop or desktop computer) has basic software such as:

• A word processor like Microsoft Word.
• A web browser like Mozilla Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.
• A simple text editing application like Notepad.
• An antivirus – even a free one will do.

And if you don’t have your own computer, figure out where to get one (to borrow from time to time) or how you will do your online work from a cyber cafe.

Figure out how much money you will need to make

Different people starting freelance work on the internet have different income goals. Some just want to make an extra Kenya Shillings 30,000 (300 US Dollars per month). Others want to make 50,000 Shillings (500 Dollars) pee month. Yet someone have a target of KSh 100,000 plus per month.

So, figure out how much you want to make every week / month. If you are going to spend a substantial amount of your time online, it is best you figure out how much you want to make every month – so you can ponder all the right things you need to concentrate on to hit your target every single month.

Figure out how to get that first client

You can so several things to get your first client. Here are just some ideas you can play with, after creating your portfolio:

1. Contact editors to ask if they would like to work with you. Contact editors of the various pullout magazines in The Standard Newspaper, The Daily Nation Newspaper, The Star Newspaper and The People Daily Newspaper.
2. Reply to the emails sent to you by some of the blogs you are subscribed to asking if they would want to hire you.
3. Send emails (cold pitching) to various blogs, websites and small businesses to get direct clients.
4. Place your ad on this website (Niabusiness.com) for free. You just never who might be browsing the ads added in the various categories shown here.
5. Use LinkedIn to reach out to other business leaders (founders, CEOs, team leaders and managers) to see if they’d be interested in working with you.
6. Reach out to influencers on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram to see if you can help them achieve whatever goal they need help with.
7. Use Google Search to find more businesses & organizations that might be interested in hiring someone like you.
8. Reach out to your friends and family to see if they would be interested in the freelance service you are offering.

Figure out how to increase your income and keep things steady / stable

Once you land your first client and you start making money, you want to make sure that things keep growing. You want to keep the momentum going, until you can hit your income goals. And once you do, you want to make sure that things remain stable.

So, do more of what works for you:

• to get more clients
• to get more work from your existing clients
• to refine your processes and make them more efficient

And then figure out how to start increasing your rates, to bring in more well-paying clients.