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How to Start Freelancing

 

Freelancing - the mention of the word alone proves to be quite inspiring for most people, especially today in a world of modern digital information technology and fast communication systems. For most people, this means freedom from all the hassles brought about by the conventional 9 to 5 slave-to-the-grind employment opportunities that populate the business world. But before you go and go all gung-ho and violent with your supervisors, bosses, and everyone else who all just seem to control your time whenever you're at the office, you should consider planning ahead in order to pave a successful road to freelancing freedom.



First, you need to determine the profitability of such a freelancing venture since you would need to feed and subsequently raise your family in the process, too, which can be a fatal aspect to miss whenever you're up in the clouds dreaming of attaining the higher level of consciousness that can be brought about by freelancing freedom, or at least a successful one. This means that you should identify your skills and compare it not only against your competitors, but rather the demand of the market as well for the skills you possess.

This requires you to conduct market research of your own. Of course, you don't need to acquire the services of other people to do this task for you since you wouldn't want to be dependent on others while you're trying to establish your niche in the freelancing industry. In addition, this could prove to be a self-defeating move since the ones you assign to conduct market research for you would probably have enough time to realize just how much profitable and liberating freelancing is, which would evidently make you hurl your market research papers straight to the bin since you would need to re-draft the competition percentages in your chosen niche due to the added numbers brought about by the same people you hired.

If you possess a multitude of skills, then all you need to do is focus on your strongest points that are also the most sought-after services in the industry. You need to pick at least the two most proficient services you can carry out in an effective manner from your wide array of skills in order to determine the marketability of your services. This plainly means that you should hold firm ground with what you do best and continue to plan ahead on how to market yourself further.

A website will come in handy. This is the most cost-effective means for you to advertise and market your services. If you don't know anything about web design and development, then let the experts do the job for you. of course, you may want to consider acquiring outsourced web design and development services since these people are first, freelancers like you or what you intend to be, next, they charge dirt-cheap fees, and finally, they're as skilled as the ones from the most powerful and digitally-advanced countries of the world. You would also need a SEO consultant in order for your website to actually reach your intended market which is, in this case, prospective clients.

Next, you need to know just where your targeted market of clients go to chat about their needs for the services you offer. Identifying the places your prospective clients hang out to look for freelancers providing the services you yourself offer, online or offline, will play a crucial role in bolstering your chances of attaining freelancing success. If you're outsourcing your skills, then going to the conventions mostly held in other countries would totally be out of the question since this would cost you a fortune.

Web forums will definitely be a crucial element in your plans of freelancing. You should consider hanging out at web forums that are relevant to the services you intend to offer your prospective clients. You should actively participate in the conversations that can be found ensuing in such web forums, and you should keep in mind that advertising your services to the point of being accused of actually spamming will be severely detrimental to your plans of freelancing your way to success.

Finally, you should keep your rates as competitive as the cheapest rates out there in the outsourced markets. But you should always remember that humility needs some form of dignity, so you shouldn't work doubly hard freelancing when you could get the same rates at half of your output from a conventional part-time job being offered by a business establishment near you. You should never compensate the quality of your services for your rates, so stay as competitive and on top of your competitors by always providing quality services to your clients. Word-of-the-mouth advertising is the most effective form of marketing, and you should keep your clients talking about you and your services at all times. Of course, it is but common sense to stay out of scams, so do your own credit investigations on clients that seem to be too good to actually be true, especially if they have expressed their intentions of hiring your services - this goes the same for those websites that seek freelancers to work for them.