(Free Courses Inside!)

(Note: freelancing is not a skill but a ‘way’ to earn)

Hi, this is Umar.

Hope you are following this series to go into the digital world and be successful out there.

Well, enough with the philosophy, let’s start!

Before Moving on, I would love to tell you that this part of the series is a conclusive one about freelancing and I have made every effort to acquaint you with all the terms which come under it, if there’s still anything that confuses you, make sure to drop a question at the end!

This blog post is divided into the following sections:

1. What is freelancing and its major sorts.
2. Pros and Cons.
3. Freelance Marketplace Review: Fiverr.
4. How Freelancing Prevailed in Pakistan.
5. Which Services you should offer.
6. Services that beginners can offer
7. Best Freelance Sites.
8. Best Place to Learn Freelancing.
9. Conclusion and Important Tips.
   
   

What is freelancing and its major sorts

Some of you might know what is freelancing. Freelancing is basically a way to earn money by providing your services to client and earn money, this is an example:

(Source: Fiverr.com)

This is a Gig on Fiverr (A freelance marketplace), gig is a service that you sell on Fiverr. You can see the price tag on this service as well.

You can view the gig here:

As you saw, this guy presented his service himself with a video showing what he does, now potential clients would reach him through this marketplace or website (Fiverr) and they’re going to pay him to make a professional logo animation.

If you’re wondering that you don’t know how to animate a logo, no need to worry! You can offer other services too; I’ll explain that in the later section.

Now coming to the types of freelance market places, there are exactly 2 types of market places.

1. The Traditional ones
2. The Non-traditional ones

Traditional marketplaces are the ones in which you don’t post your services yourself, means: you have to approach clients yourself, by bidding on projects and earning them if you put up a nice price! This is an example of a project that potential employees might bid on!

(source: Freelancer.com)

You can see a price range which provides an idea to an employee about how much he should put on the bid.

You can check out the website here, make sure to sign up before checking out the projects:

Again, if you’re not eligible for a project you can learn a specific skill which suits you and then you can apply for a job!

These are the most famous traditional marketplaces:

1. Upwork
2. Guru
3. Freelancer
4. PeopleperHour

On the contrary, on non-traditional market places you post a service yourself and clients reach you and pay you for your services, here is an example of a service:

(source: Fiverr.com)

You Charge a fee for doing something and get it done in a specific amount of time.

Fiverr is one of the major non-traditional

 freelance market place that exist up-today, in fact, Fiverr was the one who introduced the non-traditional method.

Pros and Cons of Freelancing

Freelancing offers a wide range of advantages.

(source:freelancinghacks.com)

• You got to work from home.
• You don’t limit yourself with a 9-5 job in an office.
• You don’t have any work stress.
• You get more projects than in a studio or an office.
• More Projects = More Earnings.
• You don’t depend on a boss for a salary.
• You can dress the way you like.
• You can promote yourself the way you like.
• You’ll be able to find work more easily.
• You’ll have a platform to build your reputation.
• You’ll learn how to do great work and deliver projects on time.
• You’ll learn to communicate well with clients.

When Freelancing offers wonders, it might sometimes set you back for a few issues as well which include:

• Having less sleep time.
• You’ll pay expensive fees for the platform.
• You’ll have to compete with other freelancers.
• Some clients will scam you or make you do more work.
• You’ll run the risk of getting your account banned.
• No physical activity or exercise off-the-screen.
• Going away from the society.
• Being away from the family.
• You might have to work at night because of the time difference.

Even with these drawbacks, if you’re a strong person, you can take the stress and turn it into your favor, these really don’t bother you that much but you should really focus on your mental and physical health.

You’ll be good to go!

Reviewing Fiverr

Fiverr is a non-traditional marketplace that was introduced in 1^st of February, 2010.

Fiverr was the one which actually introduced the non-traditional way of freelancing, the reason why most people fled to Fiverr was it’s 5-dollar rule, this thing single-handedly threw Fiverr to the top-tier freelance sites where it saw itself as a youngster between the 10-year senior e-lance and o-desk which later became Upwork (e-lance + o-desk = Upwork)

5-dollar rule is actually a reference to a $5 gig that Fiverr gave, a five-dollar gig that employees use to offer a service for five dollars, clients saw this as a saving and employees offered services for almost free!

This almost ended the competition for Fiverr and made it rise!

Fiverr is really a boss in the field of non-traditional marketplace, and if you’re looking to place a gig or service as a beginner, Fiverr is the place for you!

These are the services that most employees offer on Fiverr.

(source: Fiverr.com/categories)

You can check out the complete list here, and you can apply for a service or learn it from this series!

Fiverr really has an opportunity for EVERYONE!

(P.s: Don’t forget check out the category list here)

How Freelancing prevailed in Pakistan

Well, you might be thinking that maybe a thing that big might not have an impact on Pakistan, because of several political reasons maybe, but you will be surprised to know that Pakistan ranks at fourth in freelancing revenue in a specific country.

Talking about the standard competition we mention every time, India’s not even close and lands at number 7. (source : propakistani.pk)

Mentioning success, most Pakistanis earn about 5-digit a month, another freelancer named ‘Aliyan Choudhry’ earns about 20,000 dollars a month, that’s 35 Lakh in pkr!

Here’s his profile:

(source: Fiverr.com/aaliyan)

Apart from them a guy from Thar, started with selling pre-made templates of logo animations and made about 200 dollars to 800 dollars a month!

(source: Fiverr.com/shoaibbaghi)

Another guy, Hisham Sarwar, a renowned teacher and a freelancer, who even got featured on guru.com as a best seller, he earns almost 32,000 dollars a year with guru.com only!

(source: google images)

Work hard as the old book says and you’ll be there in no time!

Which Services You Should Offer to Earn

When you’ve discovered how to place a bid or a gig on a freelance market place of your choice, you need to get your work cut out by figuring out what services you’re going to offer to a client, obviously it’s your own choice to select a job of your passion and whatever you like. There’s a course in the later sections which will teach you to create a suitable profile and do effective freelance work so, stick around!

If you think you aren’t suitable for what you have discovered so far, you can check out other categories on Fiverr here or check out other categories on freelancer.com here

(Source: freelancer.com/categories)

Services That beginners can offer

A Pakistani freelancer suggests to offer clients your services of content writing, content writing is the most basic service a beginner can try and can earn up to 1000 dollars a month, you can select a niche (topic) about anything you like and you can start writing in no time, some suggest to write blogs for free at first so you can build a portfolio to showcase your work but that’s not a must, there’s a free course for you in the later section.

Apart from content writing, making websites through WordPress or any other CMS is also a good job for a person who is just starting off.

Even proofreading something is also a good option!

These are jobs that you can try as a beginner:

(Source: Freelancinghacks.com)

Scroll down until you find something of your interest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing:

 

·        Article Writer

·        Blog Writer

·        eBook Writer

·        Fiction Writer

·        Web Content Writer

·        Copywriter

·        Writing Translator

·        Editor

·        Proofreader

·        Press Release Writer

·        Ghost Writer

·        Legal Writer

·        Resume & Cover Letter Writer

·        Product Description Writer

·        Transcription Writer

·        Technical Writer

·        Guest Writer

·        Academic Writing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Design

 

·        19. Logo Designer

·        20. Photoshop Editor

·        21. Website Mockup Designer

·        22. Photo Editor

·        23. Photo Retouching

·        24. Graphic/Poster Designer

·        25. Icon Design

·        26. Book Cover Designer

·        27. T-Shirt Designer

·        28. Infographic Designer

·        29. CAD Designer

·        30. Vector Designer

·        31. Cartoon Artist

·        32. Banner/Ad Designer

·        33. Wedding Album Designer

·        34. Sketch Artist

·        35. Digital Artist

·        36. Vector Illustrator

·        37. Print Designer

·        38. Concept Artist

·        39. Oil Painter

·        40. Flyer Designer

·        41. Brochure Designer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Development:

 

·        42. Front-End Designer

·        43. Back-End Developer

·        44. UX / UI Designer

·        45. Plugin Developer

·        46. WordPress Expert

·        47. Web Font Designer

·        48. Bug Fixing

·        49. Server Administrator

·        50. Website Builder

 

App Development:

 

·        51. App UI Designer

·        52. App Developer

·        53. Game Developer

Consulting:

 

·        54. Financial Advisor

·        55. Legal Consultant

·        56. SEO Consultant

·        57. Health Advisor

·        58. Parenting Advisor

·        59. Fitness Advisor

·        60. Career Advisor

Video Production:

 

·        61. Intro Videos

·        62. Explainer Videos

·        63. Video Testimonials

·        64. Stop-Motion Videos

·        65. Video Animator

·        66. Social Media Video Creator

·        67. YouTube Video Editor

Audio Production:

 

·        68. Voice-Over Artist

·        69. Audio Editor

·        70. Audio Translator

·        71. Music Composition

·        72. Record Podcast Ads

Virtual Assistance:

 

·        73. Virtual Assistant

·        74. Data Entry

·        75. Marketing Strategist

·        76. Social Media Manager

·        77. Live Chat Agent

·        78. Recruiting Agent

·        79. Customer Support Representative

·        80. Zendesk Consultant

·        81. Project Manager

·        82. Bookkeeper

·        83. Technical Assistant

 

 

Animation:

 

·        84. Explainer Video Animation

·        85. 3D Model Designer

Marketing:

 

·        86. Lead Generator

·        87. Presentation Designer

·        88. Online Advertising Expert

·        89. Social Media Editor

·        90. Email Designer

·        91. Email Outreach

·        92. Traffic Generation

·        93. Write Product Reviews

·        94. Keyword Research

·        95. PR Submission

·        96. Market Research

·        97. Branding Services

·        98. Outdoor Advertising

·        99. Content Strategist

·        100. Content Marketer

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other:

 

·        101. Freelance Photographer

·        102. YouTube Thumbnail Artist

·        103. Website Critique

·        104. Data Analyst

·        105. Create Documents

·        106. Gaming Help

·        107. Cooking Lessons

·        108. Makeup Lessons

·        109. User Testing

·        110. Travel Planner

·        111. Private Tutor

Best Freelance Sites

Here is a list of one best freelance sites that everyone suggests:

(Note: This is not a Ranked List)

(Source:Webflow.com)

1. Upwork
2. Designhill
3. Toptal
4. LinkedIn and LinkedIn ProFinder
5. WeWorkRemoteley
6. Behance
7. SimplyHired
8. Guru
9. Freelancer
10. 99designs
11. Dribble
12. Fiverr
13. Peopleperhour
14. AngelList
15. DesignCrowd

Best Place to learn Freelancing

You might be wondering that why you should learn freelancing, but there is really a need to learn the basic and avoid the mistakes that the previous freelancers did which made them to almost lose the job.

Luckily, there’s a Pakistani website called Digiskills which is published by VU (Virtual university) and Government of Paksitan, which teaches about freelancing, apart from that it also teaches other skills that a freelancer can try to earn money for themselves, make sure to visit the website here and sign up quickly, all courses are available for FREE butnumber of seats are limited.

If somehow you aren’t able to take any courses you can follow Hisham Sarwar’s Playlist on youtube, A Paksitani who earned a spot on guru.com’s top sellers and earned 1.5 Million Dollars in a span of only 10 Years!

Here’s the link

Conclusion and Important Tips

If you’ve come to the end of the blog to read the conclusion, this blog contains important sneak peaks for you if you really want to earn online, pros and cons and where you should learn freelancing from

If you’re just Starting after reading this blog, you should follow this order to be successful in your freelancing jobs.

1. Make sure to enroll in the course offered for free by Digiskill OR, follow Hisham Sarwar’s Playlist to know more about freelancing methods.
2. After learning about freelancing, find a skill that you should learn.
3. Learn that skill Online.
4. Look for the best Freelance sites.
5. Advertise your skill with the best methods.
6. Wait for the Clients to Hop in!
7. Never get stressed about not getting jobs!

Keep up your effort, you’ll be a good freelancer if you’ll work hard and stay consistent

Good Luck!

For any suggestions, additions, queries or questions:

Email me here: umarbinuzair2006@gmail.com

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