How to Become a Freelancer - Lesson 2

Many people think they can’t start a freelance business because they don’t have any skills like designing or programming, but there are actually many different potential services you can provide that don’t require special technical skills.

Writing is one of the most common freelancing businesses, and other than decent skills in English spelling, grammar, and punctuation, it doesn’t require a whole lot of technical skill unless you want to write about difficult subjects. The biggest drawback is that there is a lot of competition, so prices are generally fairly low unless you have a lot of experience writing in a popular subject area, but there’s so much work available you can usually make up for the lower pay in volume.

Graphic design is another common freelancing business. It does require a good amount of talent and technical skills, but it has a lot of profit potential. People need all sorts of graphics designed, including logos, posters, advertising banners, book covers, and lots more. It also pays pretty well. It’s a good idea to specialize in one particular area of design, because you can charge more money if you have a specific specialty than if you try to offer every type of design under the sun.

Programming requires a lot of technical skills, but if you have the aptitude for it, you can make very good money. There are many types of programming to consider, such as creating full featured websites, writing programs to run on computers, creating web apps, or creating mobile apps. Demand is so high for mobile app creation right now that skilled app creators can make very good money.

So what if your English grammar isn’t up to par, or you don’t have any design or programming skills? How about offering services such as social networking, book promotion, or other similar services? For example, you could offer a service that sets up social media profiles and manages them for businesses. Or you could offer a service that posts links to authors’ books on various social media sites or book promotion sites.

There is a nearly endless number of ways to make money on a freelance basis. Just think of your own skills and abilities and tie them into a service.

Can you draw well? How about doing illustrations for children’s books?

Can you take good photos? How about offering your services as a photographer, or selling your photos on stock photo agencies?

Do you have a great voice? Then you could consider doing some voiceover work for videos.

Whatever your specific talents, there’s almost always something you can do to make money as a freelancer!

Tomorrow we’re going to look at the importance of building a solid portfolio, and what you can do to build one if you don’t already have samples of your work.

If you missed my first lesson, you can read it here -

How To Become a Freelancer - Lesson 1