Its quite a time since I learned about freelancing, about 5 years! But I started working as a freelance blogger/blog designer 3 years ago. I love freelancing and recommend it to others. Before starting freelancing I had a clear concept of what I’m going to do but many people struggle to understand freelancing. This guide is specifically written for freelancing newbies.
So What is a Freelancer?
A freelancer is a person who is self employed. Freelance work is used in many different professions, but most commonly a freelancer works in the fields of writing and editing, photography, web design, graphic arts, or computer programming. In any given profession, freelancers sell or contract their work to a client rather than being employed by a business. You had listened about “Work from Home”, freelancing is working from home.
Who Can Freelance?
I was not able to find a job for myself in IT sector as I was a student, wherever I went I was asked for 3 – 5 years of experience. I’d enough experience of building blogs & web design but no one was interested in my skills in Pakistan.
Ah! I guess I was very lucky to stumble into freelancing and it worked great for me 🙂 (Hope for you also).
Things You Should Know!
If you have decided to work as a freelancer, you need to know following things.
- You need to have good English Writing & Reading Skills (its a must, as you have to do all sort of things yourself, contacting potential customers, marketing your skills, providing customer service on projects acquired, creating reports, if you can communicate well, you have a good chance to be a successful freelancer.
- As a freelancer you can find many jobs of different categories like Writing, PHP coding, ASP and .NET coding, C++ related jobs, Web Design, Graphics Design or even Research or Data Entry jobs. Bottom line is that you can find a job in your field of interest but you must need to have some sort of specialty.
Where to Freelance?
You can find freelance jobs from a freelance website like GetAFreelance.com, there are dozens of freelance job sites. Some are free to join, some require membership fee but beware of scam sites. GetAFreelance.com is free to join freelance site, so its good for you to start.
Do you find this article helpful? You can express your thoughts through comments section and if you have any question, please feel free to ask.
Hi Aqeel. great post.
I write useless php and ajax apps for my uncle and for fun but i just want to do some productive stuff, I tried freelancing lol never worked. No one accepts my bids. I am more like learner, I dont consider my self a pro and i won’t. I was doing Bcs but didn’t finish, i will go abroad to do Btech cert. and then bachlors from abroad. I have alot of time in my hands and i want to utilize it in some really good way. I want to make myself a portfolio. I want to make an app. What should i make.?
Tc.
Hello Ali,
I have posted a detailed reply here.
http://syedaqeel.com/2009/04/building-a-power-programmer-portfolio/
Hope it helps.
hi sayed aqeel nice post, keep it up.
Dear I am canonical about your success but get a freelancer .com is very risky website in terms of disputes.
so keep your eyes open for tricky clients there…
8 years experience in computer software & hardware
Bachelor’s degree in English Arabic Translation
aqeel bhai ,,
Can you please tell me some website were i can make money by uploading or download and others also.
Thanks
Hello!
I am a pharmacist i have done doctor of pharmacy from university of Punjab, i got first position throughout my studies, then i got married to a soldier and as u know we will keep moving from one place to the other so i want to work on internet in my area is that possible what do u say?