Make Money From Home
It's a secret little world of working from home: people earn money with their computers aligned in front of them, typing away. People work for hours and barely realize that they're making profits with just their hands on the keyboard - without even trying. But what is it?
That's right, it's freelancing! Freelancing is the process by which an individual provides a service to clients as a self-employed person or contractor. It can be incredibly lucrative because you have your own schedule, quality time without interruptions, and more control over your work day than you might think...but there are many steps to take before jumping into freelancing full-time (or even part-time).
What can you do with a computer and a good Internet connection?
You can make money. More specifically, making money from your computer is known as freelancing. Someone who does this for a living is called a freelancer. I'm going to give you some information on the freelance world and point you in the right direction to start making money from home. What are the requirements?
Basically, being able to type on your keyboard with great accuracy is required for freelance work. If you don't have that then...you'll be good enough, but it just may not pan out for you - but I'll explain how that all works later on when we get into hands-on stuff. There are additional skills and requirements for different types of freelance jobs, but the first step is just to get started.
One last thing I want to mention is that you can't make a full-time living as a freelancer. Well, you can but it's really hard and time consuming, so let me give you the numbers: based on my experience - and this isn't even factoring in inflation! - I believe that if you are getting paid $10 per hour for your work, then after 40 hours a week (and that's assuming you work 7 days) then you'll be making $160/week (and that's assuming there is no overtime or anything). That's $10 per hour, which means that if you earn that much then your hourly rate will go down in the long run, so do not play around with this figure.
Okay, that's explained the basics of freelancing. Let's get into the hands-on stuff now. What do you need to get started?
The first thing you're going to need is a computer with a good Internet connection and enough space on one hard disk for all of your important documents and files for your freelance work.
Then you'll want to get some basic software for your computer, with the most important two being a word processor and an spreadsheet program. It would also be very helpful to have video editing software but that's not required for starters.
Alright, that's it for the basics! Now let's get into some detail about connecting with clients. There are several popular websites where freelancers and clients can match up with each other, and they all have their own pros and cons. Here's a list I recommend:
1) eLance (http://www.elance.com)
This is a site for everything freelance-related. You can post your services, access job listings (which are updated every day), and use the chat room to connect with clients who seek your specific skills. They also have a Trusted Freelancers feature, which will help you find ideal clients.
2) Elance (http://www.elance.com)
This is the sister site to eLance. I have heard that freelancers are a little less motivated on eLance, and so it's harder to find work on this site, but this isn't true for me. The site has a very different look from eLance, so you might want to give it a try.
3) Guru (http://guru.com)
Guru is probably the most popular online job board/community out there. Generally people use this to find clients through its many job listings and freelance forums.
4) oDesk (http://odesk.com)
This one is similar to Elance in that you are basically bidding for jobs with your prospective clients. I've included this site because it has a very nice interface and seems to be a lot more popular than other sites out there.
If you want to work on something personal, such as producing music or writing, then sites like Fiverr (http://www.fiverr.com) are the way to go. These sites take five to twenty dollars for every job you complete, and they give you 150% markup on each sale.
There are many sites out there, and if you are searching around then you'll find others that suit your needs better. However, these sites are a good place to start: almost all of them have forums where you can meet other freelancers and clients alike. Just look up the site's name in Google and see what comes up - there is usually a forum at the top of the search results as well.
Ok, now that we've taken care of those basics! Let's take a look at some common freelance positions.
1) Writers: Writers can make a good living doing freelance work. You can write for blogs, websites, advertising - anything really! If you have good grammar and excellent writing skills (and if you don't, that's okay too - freelancing is a great way to hone those skills) then this is a great job for you.
2) IT professionals: In the past few years it has become increasingly popular to outsource your IT needs to freelancers. If you have some basic knowledge in networking and troubleshooting then it would be very easy for you to find work as an IT professional. Freelancers with programming backgrounds will of course have an easier time finding work on a freelance community like eLance or Guru.
3) Graphic designers: Picture this: you're able to create graphics and logos for companies that are looking for professional images. It's a $15,000-$20,000 a year job by doing freelance work! In case you don't know, a logo or graphic is an image placed on everything from business cards to web pages. Freelancers with graphic design skills are very valuable in this kind of job because they can create images and logos for businesses in need at a much cheaper price than what the company would have to pay if they did it internally.
Conclusion
I hope this guide has been useful to you. I've included a few links throughout the text for more information about freelance work, and there are a lot of video tutorials online that you might be able to find helpful. In the next part of this series we will discuss how to find clients and begin doing freelance work, so stay tuned!
Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
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Make Money From Home