Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash
Making a living online can come in many forms. It is no longer one of those mysteries, there is a whole world out there worth exploring. And, with everything being online, you are pretty much guaranteed to find work doing one thing or another. But, where do you start?
Turning your freelancing ideas into a fully fledged money-earning side hustle, or even a full-time gig might seem a little bit out of reach. But millions of people are now making it their reality. Working with multiple income streams is a pretty critical part of it. From writing perfect put together articles and where to submit them, to how to find expired domains and where to sell them – the internet is a hive of information and resources.
Getting a regular is something that we all strive for, and luckily for most of us, you don’t have to be a tech wizard to make decent bank anymore. That doesn’t mean it’s easy though. It takes time and dedication to make a go of it on your own – and it is totally worth every minute.
Freelancing
What is it anyway? Well, it’s just about the broadest job term going, isn’t it? Basically, it means you offer a service, usually skill-based, that people can pay for as and when they need to. The most common ones required are writing, website development, editing, graphic design, and social media management. But if you can speak more than one language, then you could offer translation services. Great with organization – from emails to travel plans? Virtual assistant. If you can think it up, you can probably sell it.
Writing
This one could fill a few books, and actually, it already does (puns), but seriously you can make great money writing. Many of us say that we are working on a novel or something like that, and while that is a great thing to be doing, you have a skill that people really want to pay for. Here are a few places you can look at to sell your words:
Upwork – writing copy, long-form, short form, technical pieces or even special interest – you name it, someone will be looking for it – this is likely on a job by job basis.
Make a Living Writing – You can get paid, to write about writing (surprising, no?)
Listverse – If you can put it in a list of ten you can have a sweet $100
College Humour – for those of us that manage to write with hilarity (pays based on views)
Metro Parent – Fun, informative, or general parenting blurb, pay is based on words and topic
If you are looking purely for exposure, then you can write on your own blog, submit to places like the Huffington Post, Medium or offer to guest post on other blogs.
You can specialize your writing style, and become a bit of an expert in that style and field. Just make sure that you are keeping your portfolio up to date and including excerpts when you are allowed to.
There is a lot of time and effort that goes into writing. So this one isn’t something to jump into lightly. You’ll need to research your topics, been pretty good (or amazing) with grammar and everything should be 100% original.
Social Media
The chances are you don’t really remember a time that you didn’t have a social media account of some type. And, if you have been trying to establish yourself in the freelancing universe, you probably manage yours pretty well. So extend that skill out a bit. Almost every company will have some sort of social media outreach, some will have huge budgets, others will be fledgling companies that need some help starting it all off. You will be helping a range of individuals and companies maximize their visibility via their social media channels.
You’ll also need to become pretty good with metrics, and creating campaigns, but that will come in time. If you take a few online courses, specifically in paid social media campaigns and reach, you can make some seriously good cash.
Top spots to hunt for freelance social media jobs:
The Dots – relatively new, but growing fast and packed with new opportunities
Upwork – A hive of freelance jobs, currently showing almost 1k social media jobs
People Per Hour – Thousands of social media gigs are live right now, ripe for the picking
If you are new to this, try not to bite off more than you can chew. Start with smaller accounts and learn what does and doesn’t work. Look into platforms like Buffer, Sprout Social, Hootsuite and MissingLettr. They will help you curate and schedule months of content per client, and keep track of growth and engagement.
Blog
This one is a little bit like the writing… only not quite. Here you will not only showcase your own writing style and tone, but you will be looking to make multiple income streams work together. Here is how you’re going to make money via your blog:
Affiliate Marketing – you’re going to be linking to products, why not hook that like up to an affiliate network and make money for either each click or each purchase
CPM/CPC Adverts – You don’t have to have these adverts plastered all over your blog because it looks messy and loads slowly – however a few well-placed Google Adsense adverts makes a reasonable income per month.
Private Adverts – You can sell your sidebar space directly to brands. They give you a lump sum, you keep their advert on your blog for the agreed time. There might be some impression targets to reach, but in general, this can work nicely.
Link Building – companies might look to pay for their links to be included in your blog, usually paid based on DA and traffic
Advertorials/ Editorials – Similar to the above expect the whole post will be dedicated to a brand and you will receive compensation for your time spent.
Guest posts – brands, prs, and SEO companies provide a piece of prewritten content, and you will pop it up on your blog in exchange for some money.
This one takes time to build up, but is worth the effort and is a one-stop shop for a decent income.
Design
This one takes some time, and it’s pretty stiff competition from people who have degrees, other qualifications and have been doing this for years. That said, with the likes of Canva, Picmonkey, Gimp, and Photoshop you’re pretty set for great places to work on your skills. Youtube tutorials are fantastic from getting you from a blank piece of paper to a beautiful design fit for purpose. When it comes to design, you can draw a lot of information from online sources and other designers, but your work should always unique.
Great places to search for freelance design jobs:
The Dots – A big contender in the stakes for all freelancers, some really interesting one-off jobs on there almost every day
Upwork – Great stash of really great projects
Designcrowd – The best place to start to if you’re harboring budding design dreams. You will be categorized by your experience and land jobs that make sense to you.
Simply Hired – They post, you apply – pretty standard, but you will find a couple of more prominent brands on here.
Proofreading
Back to words, on which the whole of the internet runs. If you are a bit of a meticulous person, who you have a penchant for sentence structure, then you might enjoy this. Proofreading is purely about correcting spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, and grammar. Nothing more, nothing less. If you are the type of person that gets asked to read someone’s work before they hand it in, then you should consider this.
When companies and individuals are posting content online or even getting it ready to be published, then they’re going to need a proofreader.
Editing
Don’t get the two confused. Editing has a few levels to it. In general, you will be able to change and manipulate the copy you are dealing with in order to make it fit for purpose. Here are a couple of types of editing that might be right up your street:
Structural Editing – usually on the first draft, does it make sense right now? Are the characters coherent, do they make sense as a person? Could this really happen or could people relate? What can we improve?
Copy Editing – Simply checking to make sure it all makes sense, and where things can be improved. Is the work consistent in style, and tone?
Making a living simply by working online is just about as accessible as it is ever going to be. With technological advances, laptops, mobile phones, and wifi almost everywhere – if you can type on it, you can work. Any type of skill can be put to good use, with a little bit of time and effort you can pay your rent, and work when it suits you.
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
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