It’s a question they always ask whenever I tell someone what I do for a living. Usually followed by the next question: How did I make $5000 a month?
Well, you see, the thing is, $5000 USD may not sound like much in the US, but in a country like Sri Lanka, it’s considered a lot. Actually, it’s about 10 times the salary of an executive who works at a high-paying government job.
What they say about freelancers earning more than average workers is absolutely true.
Creating a unique identity to set yourself apart from millions of other freelancers is an important part of finding your success.
The first step to creating your unique identity is to create a personal brand.
A personal brand is not just something you create to promote a business, it needs to be who you are. Because you’re promoting yourself as the business.
In this article, I’ll explain why personal branding is important for freelancers and share a few tips on how to improve your online presence to showcase yourself as a professional.
Some people (mostly lazy ones) say that you can’t control your success. Well, that’s not true.
As a freelancer, there are a couple of things you can do to improve your chances of finding success:
#1 Work Hard
#2 Learn New Skills
#3 Keep Improving Your Skills
“If you want to be truly successful invest in yourself to get the knowledge you need to find your unique factor. When you find it and focus on it and persevere your success will blossom,” – Sydney Madwed.
Ever since I discovered Skillshare and Udemy, I’ve been learning a lot of new things. I enrolled in as many courses as I can find and I sort of got addicted to learning. It’s been the best investment I’ve made in my life.
Don’t you just hate it when the freelancing platform you’ve been using for years suddenly raise their platform fee to a ridiculous amount?
This not only forces us freelancers to raise our prices but also causes us to lose our repeating clients who often feel unhappy with sudden price changes.
UpWork now makes all of its users go through the same experience by using a new scheme of platform fees that aimed at charging heavily from freelancers.
As soon as the news came out, most UpWork freelancers started looking for alternative platforms to avoid having to lose their money or having to raise their prices.
If you’re one of those freelancers looking for a new platform to offer your services or even if you’re just starting fresh as a beginner, then this list is for you.
Depending solely on marketplaces like Upwork to find work is one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a freelancer.
Why? Because you can’t trust these big corporate websites.
You’ll never know when a marketplace will change their platform fee, change the terms of service, or even ban your account for no reason.
Ditching Upwork and freelance marketplaces was the best decision I’ve made and it’s the reason why I was able to earn more as a freelancer.
I’ve included an entire chapter in my book, Freelance Like Pro, about ditching freelancing sites. But I wanted to shed more light on the topic through this article.
Freelancing and being self-employed is not as glamorous as most people make it out to be. It comes with both advantages and disadvantages.
If you’re thinking about getting started in freelancing or going back to a day job after struggling with freelancing, give this post a read for a list of pros and cons of being self-employed. Hopefully, I can help you make a decision.
If you’ve seen pictures of digital nomads traveling around the world living a laptop lifestyle. Or Facebook posts saying freelancing is a lonely road. Let me reassure you, it’s all true.
Freelancing comes with many benefits and also downsides. However, I see it as a healthy balance of both. It’s certainly much better than the downsides of working at a day job. Here’s why.
