I’ve been a full-time freelance in digital marketing for about 2 years now and have been helping 50+ brands boost their business with digital marketing. I know it’s not a lot, but I hope these tips based on my experience in freelancing can help you if you want to start freelancing in 2024.
If you’re curious about how I started this journey, you can read the full story in How I Became A Full-Time Freelance in Digital Marketing.
Popular Freelancing Opportunities
Companies mostly offer freelancing opportunities for various reasons, for example, freelancers are specialized and skilled, ideal for project-based work. Hiring freelancers is more cost-effective since they don’t need to provide office space or equipment. That’s why companies are hiring freelancers more than before.
Clients are looking for a freelancer who can solve their problems across almost every industry and skill set. These are some of the most popular freelance opportunities in 2024 according to Upwork:
- Software Engineering
- Writer
- Graphic Designer
- Web/Mobile Developer
- Digital Marketer
Things You Need to Know Before Freelancing
The majority of freelance opportunities that companies are looking for are works based on digital skill sets where you can do it online. That’s why doing freelance for abroad companies is quite common these days. As you’ve started working as a freelancer, you can find benefits such as flexible working hours and a greater sense of independence as you’re self-employed now.
However, what I want to emphasize in this paragraph are the drawbacks of doing freelance you need to know. Sometimes, doing freelance work is not only about being free, fun, and flexible, but you also need to know the downside that most people don’t talk about – and, yeah, I’ve experienced most of these.
- You’ll feel lonely at first – Are you an employee who is going to the office on a daily basis to meet your coworker, supervisor, manager, or boss? What if one day you have to stay in your house to work and not go to the office anymore? That’s what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic – right? And that’s the loneliness you’ll feel when doing full-time freelance – actually that’s also when I started my freelance era.
Being a self-employed employee means you’ll do all of your job by yourself – literally. I personally love to work from cafes every day where I can meet people who are also doing their jobs – I avoid working at home most of the time where I will be all by myself. Even though I don’t know their name, at least I feel less lonely since there are humans next to me also doing their work – or if you have a partner, I think it might be easier to cope with loneliness.
- You may encounter people with bad intentions – Yes, you can meet people who may plot a scheme in every job. But, you may encounter people who just want the results, but they are not willing to pay. So after you finish the projects, they will get the output but then ghost you and leave your invoice untouched. So, you may need to consider down-payment terms or payment in advance to make sure your payment is more secure.
- Your cash flow may be fluctuating – Sometimes your income will exceed your expectations, but sometimes maybe there won’t be any work at all. No work means no payment. I think this is a common problem that the majority of freelancers are facing. We don’t have a full-time employee’s advantage of having a stable and consistent wage every month.
I personally have my own way to overcome this problem. Some of the services I provided, such as performance marketing, media buying, or search engine optimization, require a time-based contract where I can set it to last for a few months. This way, I can predict my monthly income for the next couple of months, and prepare for the worst case if I have no projects at all. But, saving money for emergency funds might also be helpful for your future self.
These Are My 5 Tips If You Want to Start Freelancing in 2024
If you’re reading my previous blog on How I Became A Full-Time Freelancer in Digital Marketing, I wrote that one of my power sources doing freelancing is Networking. While building networking is an excellent idea for growing your freelance portfolio, it might not come into play right after you start freelancing. You need to fertilize and water your plants regularly before you can taste the apples from them – right? So the truth is, Networking might come in handy, but not at the beginning.
Let me tell you a few tips that I did when I started freelancing a few years ago:
1. Join A Community
Community is a powerful resource if you want to start your journey to freelancing in 2024. At least two-thirds of my clients at the moment came because I joined a community in digital marketing a couple of years ago. The benefit of joining a community is not only networking or finding a project opportunity for your freelance services but also as a discussion forum where you can share a case study and discuss it with fellow digital marketers.
Now the question is, how can you join a community without being alienated by other members who are a stranger to you at first? I questioned this to myself too since I’m not really good at communicating with new people. So I joined several online courses in Digital Marketing, and I found that RevoU has great community management for all of their 10.000+ alumni. We regularly conduct a sharing session gathering every month with each other.
Before we go on, I want to kudos RevoU for having such an exceptional community. And I want you to become part of our community by joining the Full Stack Digital Marketing program, where you will learn the fundamentals of digital marketing for 6 months (3 months of class + another 3 months of projects with personalized mentor). You can apply for the Full Stack Digital Marketing program here.
Read Also: Manfaat Jadi Alumni RevoU dan Pengalaman Volunteer di RevoU Community!
2. Find Your Niche-Specific Service
The number of freelancers has increased significantly in the last few years and it will affect client’s decision-making since they have many choices with different scopes of work and different price ranges to choose from. So you have to offer something distinct to make your services stand out better than other freelancers.
I found it helpful to deal with a client if you have a niche-specific service that correlates with your expertise. For example, rather than offer a full-stack digital marketing service, you can offer a more specific area such as Search Engine Marketing or Social Media Management. Even this area can be made more specific, for instance, Search Engine Marketing for B2B Companies or TikTok Live Streaming for Beauty & Skincare products.
This way, clients will trust you more to do this niche-specific service since they believe you are quite expert in this area. So they might need your help.
3. Build Your Portfolio
So, you have decided which area you want to focus on. But, how do you get your first client for your freelance project? I would recommend you create a portfolio that showcases your expertise so that your clients may trust you more.
Here are a few ideas from where you can build your first portfolio:
- Past work in a company as employee/full-time
- Case studies from courses
- Personal projects
- Apprenticeship Program
- Volunteering
- Participation in College
- And many more
4. Not to Limit Your Service Only on 1 Skill
If you prefer doing freelance as a side hustle apart from your main job and doing 1-2 freelance projects is enough, I think you can skip this point. But, if you want to consider becoming a full-time freelancer or raise your rate card, I would suggest you offer more than 1 service for your freelance projects. Thus, learning new skills related to your current service might be helpful to cross-sell your services.
For example, if you are currently providing service in Search Engine Optimization, other related services such as Search Engine Marketing or Website Development will be beneficial for you to raise your fees. Another example is if you provide Social Media Management for organic, skills like Performance Marketing or Copywriting can also be done to increase your rates.
5. Make Your Skills Stand Out
So, you have joined a community, found your niche-specific service, built a portfolio, and complemented your main service with other supporting skills. Now what?
Share it with others!
Participate in a discussion forum or sharing session to showcase your expertise with others, especially in your community or your social media. Give your best tips or share your case study with your audience so that they acknowledge your skills in that area.
Sometimes I agreed to become a speaker or panelist in an event held by the community to share my knowledge and case study related to Digital Marketing or Freelancing. And sometimes I meet with new people who eventually share a project to work with.
Those are my 5 tips if you want to start freelancing in 2024. Actually, I want to cover one of the frequently asked questions in several sessions discussing freelancing, such as which platforms to use or how to get clients from those platforms. But I never use those platforms and still rely on my networking at the moment. If you have experience using freelancing platforms, feel free to share it in the comment section below. Until then, I hope this writing will find you helpful! See you on my next writing! Good Luck!
