Start your freelancing career with a freelance site. Learn how to work with clients, how to get hired, win jobs, and deliver projects in time. Then start building relationships outside those platforms. But, never depend on freelance sites.

That’s the best advice I can give to all new freelancers and I’m sure any other experienced freelancer will give you the same advice as well.

Of course, working outside freelance platforms comes with several risks and challenges. Going after your clients to get your payments delivered is one them. In a later post, I’ll share some persuasion techniques and tips you can use to get your invoices paid quickly. First, you’ll have to learn how to generate invoices for your clients.

One of the worst mistakes I did when I was starting out my freelancing career was not putting enough thought into my profile. My bio was horrible, I used a selfie as my profile picture, and I didn’t include enough examples of my work. Because of those mistakes, it took me a long time to land my first client.

When registering with a freelancing site like UpWork or Freelancer, the first thing the site asks you is to complete your profile and take it from me, you should take their advice more seriously if you care about scoring more clients.