How to Make Money Online as a Freelancer - One Customer at a Time

Freelancing is probably the easiest most legitimate way to make money online next to surveys that don’t really pay much.

And if I wasn’t doing affiliate marketing, due to the better income, I would probably start as a freelancer myself.

These days, I do hire many different types of freelancers that help me produce content, design logos and headers, and every other little job that I can’t do myself in regards to my online business.

There aren’t many real ways to make money online and this is just one of the few.

Today I want to show you how to make money as a freelancer, which I think is one of the best ways for any online entrepreneur to get started.

With whatever skill you have, I’m pretty sure you can make money with it in the online space, thanks to the technology and all the brilliant people with awesome ideas.

So if you are looking to make money online as a freelancer, this post will show you exactly how it’s done.

First things first, there are some things that you need to understand as most people come into the business and immediately want money just to find out that it doesn’t come that easy.

Next, it is going to take some time and patience for things to really get going.

It will also require some proactiveness on your part as well as the willingness to learn and evolve.

If you can understand that much then you will be just fine.

Along with this guide and a little thinking outside the box, you can very much make money faster and probably even make it a career as a lot of others are doing.

So let’s get started on what might just be your new job.

Identify a Niche

While freelance work can often be broad, and in many cases step well outside your range of comfort, you may nevertheless find it worth your time to establish yourself in a niche.

For example, if you are a writer, you may want to identify one topic, or type of piece that you are very adept at covering, such as sports, woodworking, or home décor.

This practice is applicable to freelancers in every field.

If you are a photographer, maybe you specialize in big event photography.

If you are a graphic design artist, maybe logos are your favorite.

Finding yourself a niche will be beneficial for several reasons.

For one thing, it is going to set you apart from other applicants who may not have such a specialized level of experience.

If you are a writer that is an expert in the field of woodworking (actually a very broad market in the freelance writing game, by the way) you are going to have an edge over people that aren’t quite so experienced.

There is also the added benefit of having the opportunity to cover topics or work that you are sincerely interested in.

If you do become an expert on a field or topic, you also have the opportunity to charge a little bit above standard market going rates for your work, which is going to help boost your income significantly over time.

Patience is Key

This is true with almost everything in the online world, be it blogging, vlogging, or even network marketing.

For a lot of reasons, most freelancers start off fairly slow as well.

It happens to everyone but if your objective is to start making a living quickly (a very reasonable desire) you may not be extremely comfortable with this.

The reason that it takes many freelancers a while to start getting jobs is simple: they don’t have experience.

Kind of paradoxical, right? How do you get experience if nobody wants someone that doesn’t have it?

Just be patient. Eventually, if you have the skill, you are going to start getting jobs that you are interested in.

In the meantime, you may find it possible to build a body of work by taking lower paying jobs that more experienced freelancers might not be interested in.

While no one likes being underpaid, taking small jobs may eventually prove to be very lucrative.

Establishing connections, and accumulating samples that you can send out to higher paying clients are both invaluable assets in the freelance game.

The Customer is King

You don’t have to be a people person in order to be a freelancer (in fact, many aren’t) but you do have to be good at establishing relationships with your clients if you want to be successful.

There are a few reasons why it is very much in your interest to keep the customer satisfied and one of these reasons is fairly self evident.

In freelance work, you don’t get a salary.

All of the money that you make comes from the work that you are able to bring in.

If you can build a list of clients that do continuous business with you, you will find it a whole lot easier to make a decent living.

It is much easier to maintain several regular clients than to look for many new ones each and every month.

There is also the matter of reputation to consider.

When it comes to freelance work, reputation is really all that you have.

Freelancers with good reputations generally don’t have a hard time finding work.

Customers with bad reputations…well, it’s much harder.

Keep in mind that when you are dealing with a client, even a difficult one, the things that they say about you are often worth more than the money that they pay you.

If you really want to succeed in the world of freelance, you will treat your customers right.

Always Put Your Best Foot Forward:

If you have a full slate of work ahead of you, it can sometimes be tempting to phone in your work.

After all, no one is really going to notice if you aren’t always trying your absolute hardest, right?

While your clients might not always require maximum effort, your status as a professional certainly does.

Remember that the world of freelance, regardless of the field in which you operate, is super saturated with competition.

There are lots of people out there that do what you do, and if your work starts to slip, they won’t have any trouble filling your slot.

You don’t want to start losing jobs because you haven’t been trying hard enough, do you?

Of course not.

This advice is simple, but critical to succeeding in freelance: do good work, and good results follow.

Keep in Touch

Even if your previous clients don’t need more work done immediately, they may have jobs crop up in the future.

When this happens, you are going to want to make sure that they keep you in mind.

Making this happen really isn’t hard (especially when you treat all of your customers like they mater to you).

Sometimes getting new work from previous clients can be as simple as reaching out to see if they need anything done.

Of course, it is very easy to overdo this.

Reaching out a couple of times a year is one thing and reaching out monthly, or even weekly is entirely different.

If you find yourself a little short of work (which will happen occasionally) it may feel very urgent that you rectify that problem.

As understandable as that need is, you cannot let it ruin relationships.

If a client tells you that they don’t have anything for the time being, learn to respectfully back away, and leave the door open for future collaboration.

Highs and Lows

Last, but not least, accept the fact that there are going to be highs and lows.

Some months you are probably going to find that you have more work than you can handle.

Other months you may have to tighten the belt a little bit and accept that there just isn’t very much to do.

If you really want to be a successful freelancer, this is a truth you are going to have to learn to live with.

It might suck but that’s just how it is.

Conclusion

Take action and make it happen.

If you want to be a freelancer then do something about it.

Although you are going to be trying as hard as you can to satisfy the customer, do remember that you are still the boss.

I mean, if you ran a coffee shop, would you treat your customers like crap if they act up or would you respect them regardless to have them come back and/or protect your name?

At the end of the day, this is a real business and one that needs to be treated as such.

If you can’t understand that much, then you might not be cut out for this line of work.