For a freelancer, life can often seem like a never-ending wait for that one client who’ll offer you long-term, steady work. While you’re waiting for that star client, why not proactively look into ways of getting more work and increasing your income? Here are five sources for getting freelance work.
1) Tap Your Network: You’ll be surprised how effective word-of-mouth can be in getting freelance work. Tap your personal as well as professional networks:
Personal: Let your family and friends know that you’re accepting freelance work. Ask them to spread the word. This strategy may not get you immediate results often, but can be very effective over the long run.
Professional: Contact your former employers if you’ve left on a good note (one more reason to not burn bridges while leaving a job, if you’re really looking for one!). Not just me, but other people I know have also been offered freelance projects in this way.
2) Try Google: Make Google your best friend. Search with the relevant terms and you’ll find a number of sites and publications that pay for guest blogs and articles. As a bonus, some sites will even list a bunch of sites/publications that pay you to write.
3) Look for Freelance Websites: Thanks to the burgeoning freelance population, there are a lot of sites devoted to freelance jobs in India and abroad. International and Indian sites such as Problogger jobs, FreelanceIndia etc. often list projects. Be careful to weed out those clients that are looking for a sweatshop-like scenario with very little pay for a lot of work. Sites like Naukri, CraigslistIndia and Quickr also sometimes advertise for freelancers.
Market Your Profile: Use job-boards optimally, so that clients looking for freelancers can find you. Fill out your profile, add your past experience and educational qualifications. Fill in testimonials or references. Use the appropriate key-words for your profile: such as writer, blogger, columnist, journalist, editor etc. Getting a website to showcase your portfolio is also a good idea.
Leverage Social Media: Your profile needs to be fleshed out on social and professional networking sites like LinkedIn and Sheroes too, where clients often hunt for freelancers. Twitter is also a great way to look for jobs, since editors and clients often tweet about open jobs. Use appropriate hash-tags to look for jobs.
There are myriad ways of getting freelance gigs. The name of the game is improvisation. Keep looking for better-paying jobs. Happy hunting!
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