Category: Freelance

Many freelancers ask me how I can get projects consistently without looking for work. This is the answer to your question. You can get more freelance work by using content marketing.

But how do you find more freelance work? Maybe, you’re not a great writer, or perhaps you don’t even know what’s a blog or how to create one.

I am going to answer all your questions. Let me start with the very basics.

What is content marketing?

Any content you create brings people closer to your business, whether you publish content on a blog, LinkedIn post, Facebook video, YouTube, or thousands of other platforms.

Millions of businesses use content marketing to generate leads. Some are pretty effective at it, and some barely scratch the surface.

The key to content marketing is to write content for a particular audience and help them do certain things.

Helping is an integral part of content marketing. At least initially, you don’t need to ask readers to hire you.

You bring them closer to your brand by solving one of their problems. You don’t even need to advertise yourself on the blog. Yes, if you’d do that, it would help. However, you can use many ways to convince your blog reader that you’re a big deal.

One of the important ways to bring your blog readers closer to you is by getting their emails. However, getting subscribers to your email list is not easy. It would help if you constantly found creative ways to get more subscribers to your email list.

Email is where all the magic happens.

But how do you get potential clients’ email?

No one is interested in receiving your boring newsletter. That’s a fact! Because they don’t see any benefit in subscribing to your newsletter.

So an effective way to get emails is to offer them something for free. This thing you submit must have an actual value. Such as, you can offer them a free ebook, a 50% discount on anything (not necessarily your service)

• It needs to be extremely helpful.
• Something that costs money but you’re giving away for free.
• Free software trials

How Content Marketing Can Help You Find Freelance Work

It won’t for some time. If you are a good copywriter, you might get a fair advantage over folks like us who write 500 words in 8 hours.

It would help if you were patient. It will take months, and you won’t see results unless you’re a good writer.

Start a blog on any topic you are crazy about, and create a page where people can hire you. Be specific about your rates, tell your prospects a complete hiring process, add reviews, and use best copywriting practices to convince them to hire you.

Learn SEO by following top blogs in your niche. Look at what they are doing and replicate them. Get links from quality websites by getting your content published. You don’t need to beg for backlinks. You post the most helpful content out there and promote it in any way you know. Social media marketing is also quite beneficial. Content promotion depends on where your audience hangs out.

Suppose your target audience is an entrepreneur who runs multiple clothing brands. You can find them in many relevant communities online, such as Reddit, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, Quora, and online forums.

In the beginning, you might not get the desired results. Many of us don’t. However, you will grow if you consistently improve your blog and keep learning new things. Eventually, you will start getting calls or messages.

This strategy has helped me immensely to get amazing clients. I hope you find out something valuable in this post. If you did, check out my other post on how to find freelance work using your portfolio.

Are you tired of looking for freelance work online? You shouldn’t be! You can find new freelance work online using these effective marketing strategies. It doesn’t matter if you are a freelance web developer, freelance web designer, or freelance SEO. These tips can work for anyone looking to get new freelance work online.

It is frustrating sometimes for talented freelancers to find new work through job bidding sites.

Bidding sites work well for some freelancers. However, it is a nightmare for most freelancers to get decent work online.

I am not against job-bidding sites in any way. It is, no doubt, a great way to find freelance work online. In fact, you can establish your freelance business working there.

Thousands of freelancers are making a crazy amount of money through freelancing platforms.

According To Wikipedia:

Upwork has twelve million registered freelancers and five million registered clients. Three million jobs are posted annually, worth a total of $1 billion USD, making it the world’s largest freelancer marketplace.

Maybe, you are not supposed to be working on Upwork? Or perhaps you have already tested job bidding websites and are still not able to find a decent client. Don’t worry; you are not alone.

Due to immense competition and higher commission rates, most freelancers ditch these websites sooner or later.

I am sure you must have excellent skills, but you might be unaware of how to promote your freelance business.

That’s the problem with many freelance businesses. They are horrible marketers. Most freelancers don’t know how to promote their business online as they should.

Do you rely on freelance job websites to get new work?

If you leave your day job to become a full-time freelancer, then at least ensure you can find clients on your own instead of relying on some service to make that happen for you magically.

I have read many scary freelancer stories in which job bidding sites banned their accounts without giving a justified response. You can search for those stories with a quick Google search. I am not here to complain about those specific websites.

If you depend on job networks to get work, my friend, you are still not freelancing! You are an employee of those sites.

Treat Your freelance business as an independent business, not a 9–5 Job.

How to Find Freelance Work Online?

First, let me tell you that freelancing is not a magical way to make you quickly rich. It won’t make you rich, and it is not easy. It is just as tricky as your day job or running an offline business.

Here is a step-by-step process to get more freelance work online:

1. Create a Professional Portfolio Website

If you haven’t set up your online portfolio, create one now. That is the best investment you can make. A portfolio will help you get more freelance work online.

I would advise you to hire a professional web developer to create a website. A well-made professional portfolio will give a great first impression to your potential client.

However, if you cannot afford to hire a web developer (like me), then you can create your website. It probably won’t be perfect (unless you’re a web developer), but it will tell your clients that you’re serious about your work.

Optimize your website to load faster. Add as much information about your business, previous clients’ testimonials, case studies, sample works, contact forms, and, most importantly, a blog. With a blog, you can promote your freelance business.

2. Find Freelance Work with Cold Email Outreach

No, please don’t send thousands of spam emails to strangers. You will only waste your time.

If someone is going to spend his money, he most likely doesn’t want to lose that money on a stranger who has sent him an impersonalized spam email.

You should send targeted emails to a very focused group of people. Make all those emails personalized to each prospect.

Keep these essential points in mind when creating an email outreach campaign:

1. Create concise email messages.
2. Each message should be specific to each potential client.
3. Ask a question at the end of your email.
4. A great personalized Subject line matters a lot.
5. Don’t include your portfolio links in the email message. Instead, use a signature at the end of the email with your portfolio and contact information.

3. Get Freelance Work with Cold Calling

Cold calling is quite an old marketing method, which has a lot of benefits. You can pick up a phone and start dialing the numbers of the nearest businesses that can benefit from your services.

I personally never tried cold calling yet, but it worked for some freelancers I know. It can work for you too, but it will take a lot of time to learn how to convince strangers to listen to you.

You decide which strategies work best for you according to your skills and capabilities.

To get a better perspective on this topic, read this, this, & this article.

Before you take that route, get ready for many rejections, my friend!

4. Use Blogging to Find Freelance Work Online

Create a blog on your portfolio website. On a blog, you can share your services, case studies, artwork, and customer stories or use your blog to inspire people in your field.

You can do many different things on a blog to promote your freelance business. However, always remember that you can bring potential clients with blogging. You have to know your client’s pain points, and you should write about them on your blog.

After that, learn basic SEO and do proper keyword research. Find keywords your potential clients search for and start writing on those topics.

It is a slow process to get the word out, but if you keep making new connections with people and promoting your content, you will start getting emails from clients you want to work with.

5. Guest Posting on Industry Related Blogs

Your competition is your best friend to help you get a lead or two for your business. Build connections with influential bloggers in your industry. You can follow them on social networks. Get in touch with them and ask questions about your industry-relevant topics.

After that, you can send an article pitch on a specific topic. They will most likely say yes if you have a credible business blog of your own and a portfolio to back up your claims.

Please make sure to leave a link to your website in the author bio of the blog. So people can read more about your business and your other blog posts.

6. Group & Forum Postings

You should join your industry-related forums, blogs, and groups in whichever field you choose to become an expert in. You can also join groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, and subreddits.

There must be countless forums in your industry where you can collaborate with like-minded people, help people, and make connections.

Freelancing is more about building connections rather than creating a portfolio.

A portfolio would help, but connections can take your freelance business to a new level.

7. Get Freelance Work using Online Job Boards & Classifieds

There are local classified job boards in every major city and country. You can post your services and reply to the job posting on these job boards and classified websites.

I haven’t personally tested this method, but here’s a good Reddit thread on this topic on /r/freelance. Please give it a read and try it. Let me know in the comments below if you get a good response with this method. I will update the post.

8. Local Networking to Find Freelance Work

You will do great in connecting with people at local networking events if you are a people person. There are a lot of networking events going on in different parts of the world.

You can join any events you like and make business connections with people in your industry and other like-minded people.

These connections will help you build your professional network. Please stay connected with them through social events, meetups, and social networks.

Please check out these articles on local networking. These may help you get a good start at networking:

1. An Introvert’s Guide to Networking
2. Meet the Right People

9. Use Google Ads to Get More Freelance Work

This is not personally tested, but many web design and marketing agencies use this approach to get projects. It is probably not a good idea if Internet marketing is not your strong suit, but if you have money to spend on growing your business, then Google ads are worth a try.

Before setting up an Ads campaign, there are a couple of guides and articles you should get through to understand how it works.

1. Google Ads Guide
2. Free Google Ads Certification course

10. Social Networking to Find Online Jobs

Freelance businesses rely on building new connections. So, if you haven’t already set up and activated your social profiles, please do them now.

Join relevant to your business groups on LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.

Connect with like-minded people, and help other people learn a thing or two. Show them who you are and what you are good at.

• Mention on your social profiles in the about section that you are a freelancer.
• Regularly create new content on all your social media accounts.
• Engage with prospects in groups and find them through relevant hashtags.
• Show them your expertise by sharing success stories from your past experiences.

There are many ways that one can use to improve a freelance business.

Whichever of these above mediums works for you. Please consistently deliver your best work to clients and build relationships with them. Your clients are your customers; making them happy will bring more work and referrals.

This article can benefit many other businesses that rely heavily on building connections. So, if you think you and your friend’s business can use some of these techniques to promote online businesses, please don’t forget to share this article.

If you’re a Pakistani freelancer, check out my post on how to receive online payments in Pakistan.

Do you want to receive online payments from your clients outside of Pakistan? If the answer is yes, check out these easy payment methods to receive your online payments on time.

Many freelancers in Pakistan are facing difficulty receiving payments from International clients. The main issue is that most overseas clients use Credit Cards or PayPal to pay online.

PayPal doesn’t work in Pakistan and credit cards can only be accepted if you have a local merchant account.

However, other reliable payment solutions exist which can be used to receive online payments in Pakistan.

Please read my previous post on how to find more freelance work using freelance job websites.

Receive Online Payments in Pakistan

I have used these payment methods myself and had no problem whatsoever. When creating accounts on any of these websites, keep these things in mind to get payments on time and with reliable service.

• Use your real name mentioned on your CNIC and Passport when you create a new account on Payoneer, Xoom, etc.
• When they ask you to verify your accounts, always provide accurate details. If you hide things, they have a legitimate reason to block your account.
• Sometimes payment gets delayed due to weekends and holidays. Don’t get panicked; you will receive your payment on time.
• Make sure to use as many of these payment methods, so your clients have multiple options to pay you.

1. Wire Transfer

This is a solution if your client has to send a significant payment (around $1000 at least). Because the client has to pay an international wire transfer fee between $10 — $100. Different banks charge different international wire transfer fees.

So what do you need to do to receive an international wire transfer outside Pakistan?

You need to provide these details to your employer/client:

IBAN Wire Transfer

• Full Name
• IBAN Number
• Bank Name

Swift Wire Transfer

• Full Name
• Bank Account number
• Swift Code
• Bank Name
• Branch Name
• Branch Code

Note: You may need to call your bank to get a swift code, branch code, full branch name, etc.

You will receive payments within 1–5 business days. Since Pakistan has been included in the FATF grey list recently, it might take more time. But don’t worry, you will receive the payment.

2. Payoneer

You can say that it is the closest alternative to PayPal in Pakistan. However, it is not profoundly used by people from western countries, but you can send your client a payment request.

Your client can pay you via debit/credit card or ACH transfer.

Payoneer supports most countries, but there are a few countries and some US states from which you can’t receive a payment.

The payments can take around a week to get into your bank account. First, the payment will be loaded to your Payoneer account. Then you must add your local Pakistani bank details to receive that payment directly into your account.

Also, you can use their debit card to withdraw payments immediately through ATMs in Pakistan. I won’t recommend using their debit card because they charge an unreasonable transaction fee.

3. Xoom by PayPal

Although you can’t receive business transactions using Xoom because it is a service to only send a remittance from the United States.

I wouldn’t recommend Xoom as a standard payment method if you are a freelancer. Because things can go wrong if they find out you are using it for business purposes rather than collecting remittance from family/friends.

If you want to use it, you have to provide these details:

• Official Bank Name
• IBAN
• First Name
• Last Name
• Address
• Region
• Province
• Postal Code
• Email
• Phone

4. Western Union

Western Union is probably the oldest among these newcomers. You can easily collect payments sent through Western Union by going to a bank and showing your CNIC and MTCN.

• A sender can directly transfer money to the receiver’s bank account
• You can collect cash or cheque from authorized agents of Western Union eg: Various banks, Post Offices, and Merchants.
• You can check your nearest Western Union agent by entering your postal code on the Western Union website.

Let me know in the comments what other payment options you have used personally and how to make this blog post more informative for freelancers in Pakistan.

If you want to buy any book in Pakistan, check out my post.

Getting freelance work on websites like Upwork, and Freelancer is a bit tricky. You can still lend a decent gig by using one of these websites, but how?

Freelancers who are new to these websites mostly end up not getting a project at all, no matter how hard they try.

I know how exactly it feels when you have all the skills in the world, but when you send a proposal to the client, you never heard back from them.

And you keep trying and trying that. After so many rejections you just want to quit. And you should; unless you want to improve.

Freelancing is not easier than any other profession. Sure, it gives you more freedom as a professional working from home, but you have to work and work harder, in order to land a client.

Your freelance career will take time, hard work and dedication to be successful just like any other business or a job.

What Actually Helped Me Get More Work on Freelance Job Websites?

When I started working as a freelancer I rarely got any jobs. Why? Because:

• I wasn’t giving it enough time and effort.
• My proposals were needlessly comprehensive.
• I wasn’t treating myself as a business.
• I wasn’t reading and improving my business skills.

One thing that helped me tremendously to find new freelance work online was improving my understanding of how other freelancers were working.

I started asking questions in groups and forums. I discovered that every freelancer who makes a good living through freelancing treat themselves as a business rather than a freelancer.

What other Professional Freelancers Were Doing Differently?

• They prepare spreadsheets, documents, proposals, invoices, reports to deliver the best experience to their clients.
• Professional freelancers track their time using tools and software to deliver projects before deadlines.
• Most importantly, professional freelancers make clients satisfied.

1- Write Brief Proposals

What? Yeah, you read that right. This advice alone could double your freelancing income in no time. If you don’t believe yet, just give it a try.

Please keep in mind; client’s don’t want to read how great you are at whatever skill you have. They want to know if you can solve their specific problem or not.

If yes, then convince them.

Tell them how you can solve their specific problem. Ask them questions to show your interest in the work. Show them that you care about them and want to improve their business.

2- Never Compete on Price

Some freelancers believe that using this strategy will get them more projects.

Believe me, it is not in anyone’s favor.

Most likely the client that you got through low-balling would be a nightmare to work with.

What instead you should do:

• offer great quality service at a reasonable price.
• Keep your price competitive but not cheap.
• Make sure that you are getting enough money that justifies your hard work.

3. Ask a Question in every Project Proposal

This helps your client to understand that you read their job specifications and you are genuinely interested in their project.

You would be amazed to know more than half of the people don’t bother to read the client’s specifications at all on these freelance job sites.

(I have hired a few people on these websites as well, so this is based on my personal opinion, but it could vary)

4. Always remember your end goal

Most freelancers think that getting a project should be their end goal but it shouldn’t be.

Because you are pitching to your potential client at this stage, he/she wouldn’t just give you a job once they read your proposal.

Your client would most likely start a conversation with you.

So when writing proposals, make sure that you ask your client a question which leads them to strike a conversation with you.

Having a conversation with a client should be your end goal.

When they approach you in the inbox, I think it is easier for you to convince them and talk about your skills, their project, and anything in between.

Now, that your client has finally come to your inbox, you should talk about the project and show a great deal of interest in their project.

In my opinion, you should never brag about 12 years of experience because if they want to know more about you, they would gladly ask or read your profile.

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Best of luck!
I hope this post would help you get more freelance work.

Please feel free to add your valuable opinion about what things worked for you and how other freelancers can get more work in the comments. I will add them to this post. So everyone can benefit from them.

If you’re from Pakistan and not getting paid on time then check out my post on how to receive online payments in Pakistan