Transform Your Life with Freelancing — Earn from Home
Freelancing, freelancing platforms, freelancing gigs and much more!
The world is evolving, and so are the ways everything takes place. We started from traveling on foot, evolved to the horse, further evolved to develop wheel and hence a car, and now over time, have successfully evolved to make an airplane. Similar is the case with any other thing you dare to look at. Jobs, for instance, have also evolved. We started from the traditional way of doing a job and have now developed countless ways of doing a job. Freelancing happens to be one of them. The dictionary definition of a freelancer is “someone who does different jobs for different organizations, rather than exclusively working for one person or organization.” So essentially, a freelancer is someone who takes all kinds of jobs from various clients from all over the globe and performs them.
Freelancing market:
Over time, the freelancing culture has become increasingly popular. As per a study, in 2017, there were almost 58 million freelancers in the world. By 2023, the whole freelance economy is set to reach a whopping $455 billion by 2023. One research by Inaverto also concluded that almost half of the workforce of all businesses comprises Freelancers. Even Google employs more freelancers than permanent employees.
Freelancing Platforms:
So how do the freelancers link with the clients? How do they get to know them and how is the payment made? Freelancing sites solve this problem for both the parties, the clients and the freelancers. Here are some of the most widely used freelancing platforms in the world.
Fiverr:
This is of the most famous, well-reputed, and widely used freelancing sites. Founded in 2010, and starting from each gig costing $5, as suggested from the name “Five”rr, it now has around 3 million gigs. It is known to be the most user-friendly website and is not only used by students willing to earn extra but is also used by service experts. Freelancers have to set up their gigs and buyers can ask them for specific services related to their gigs. It is the trust that it has developed over time that it currently has 500 service categories, 3.42 million active buyers in more than 160 countries, and generates $189.51 million in annual revenue.
Freelancer:
Having the trust of major companies like Amazon, NASA, IBM, and Google, Freelancer is one of the major freelancing sites that freelancers can safely explore. By far, there are more than 50 million freelancers on this website, making it the biggest website in terms of the number of freelancers on board. More than 1800 skills are being sold on this website, making it a go-to website for the largest pool of clients. The freelancer onboarding process is also fairly simple and it is easy to set up your account here. Freelancer also has its own app that can be used to remain up to date. This, many believe, is one reason that 80% of the projects get bid within the first one minute of posting here.
Upwork:
Founded in 2013 as Elance-oDesk and rebranded in 2015 as Upwork is one of the most trusted and widely used freelancing websites. Upwork is a website especially known for having highly skilled freelancers. They also boast of serving 30% of the Fortune 100 and have a very talented pool of freelancers. However, experts advice to start from other platforms, and once one has mastered their skill and developed a portfolio of themselves; they can move to Upwork.
Apart from the aforementioned sites, there are others like Peopleperhour, Toptal, and Flexjobs that are also very popular among the freelance community. For a freelancer, the ideal way is to master their skill and set up their gigs on a minimum of two and at max three sites and work on developing their presence on those particular sites. This is a much better strategy than opening accounts on all the freelancing sites since that way, there is a high chance that none of the accounts gets proper attention.
Freelancing Skills:
Web development:
Development skills are among the most in-demand skills in the freelance industry. According to Business Insider, more than 60% of the entire freelance industry is based on development skills. Web development is one such skill that is widely demanded in the industry. It ranges from making a single page for a website to complex applications, social network services and electronic businesses.
Content writing:
Being one of the fastest-growing gigs, content writing is a field that many explore. In this broad field, writers then try to specialize themselves in specific gigs, for instance, copywriting, amazon affiliate writing, product reviews, blog posts, web content, and SEO content. Some also specialize in specific niches like Health, Travel, or Tech and provide their services for only their desired niche. Websites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer are the first go-to points for content writers and clients tend to hire them frequently through these sites. The popularity of content writing is exponentially growing as the demand for web content is increasing.
Graphic Designing:
Since graphics are of extreme importance in any business and they essentially make the crux of social media marketing, graphic designers are also high in demand. Thus, companies tend to hire graphic designers from platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancers, give them the details of the task and then ask them to make them. Logo designing, animations, and photo editing are also different sub-fields of graphic designing.
Apart from the skills aforementioned, there are countless others that can be explored too. Blockchain, App development, SEO, Virtual Assistant, Video Production, translating, and many others are best-selling on freelancing websites. The key is to just master whatever skill you are looking to sell and then take it to perfection.
Summary:
With technological advancement, earning has been made fairly simple. All a person has to do is make up their mind, learn a skill, start selling it, and master it along the way. Freelancing has made life a lot easier for people willing to earn from home. In particular, women have assumed a very prominent role and make up a major part of the freelancing community. This community is expected to grow further, the number of buyers is expected to increase exponentially, and the number of sellers/ freelancers are also expected to increase exponentially. The secret formula to stand out is just to perfect the skill, and the freelancer’s future would be in safe hands.
