How Can a Beginner Freelancer Earn Money?
The question is simple, but the answer is more complex. It’s not enough to just know how to do something—you need clients willing to pay for your service or work. Doing what you love and making good money is the ideal scenario. But life doesn’t always work that way. Beginner freelancers often have to choose what brings in orders and income. How do you stay in harmony with yourself and the market?
Finding Your Niche
You know how to write articles—big and beautiful texts. But you notice that clients mostly order texts for marketing. You have excellent design skills and can handle complex tasks. Great! But clients are mostly looking for logos. Freelancing is a daily routine. A freelancer is an affordable alternative to large companies with big teams and high prices. There is demand—try to fit into the market. You can wait indefinitely for clients to start ordering children's stories, or you can learn how to write persuasive product descriptions for online stores and earn good money every week. And soon, clients will be lining up.
Understanding what is in demand is quite simple. Visit a category that interests you on a freelance platform and check what is ordered most often and how much clients are paying. This way, you’ll quickly figure out which direction to take and what skills you need to develop. Thankfully, the internet allows you to learn any craft quickly.
Why Do Clients Need a Freelancer?
A freelancer is not just a budget-friendly solution but also a convenient way to delegate tedious routine tasks. The owner or manager of an online store is focused on business growth and sales. They usually don’t enjoy manually entering product descriptions and warranty terms. So, they are willing to pay a freelancer to avoid this tedious work.
Why does this matter to you? Because understanding a client’s “pain points” helps you find niches and services that will be in high demand. If you’re skilled at technical drawing and genuinely enjoy it, you can be a lifesaver for students or junior researchers who struggle with drafting.
Look at what’s in demand, think about who might need your skills, and you’ll quickly find your place in the freelance market.
Learn, Learn, and Learn Again!
Another approach is to focus on “where the money is.” Check out the highest-paying orders and determine what skills you need to take on those projects. Today, acquiring additional education in a specialized niche is easier than ever. Numerous online schools offer various courses. All you need is the motivation, time, and some money. Add to that a wealth of free tutorials, textbooks, and other valuable resources available online, and learning a new skill becomes much more manageable.
However, remember that this path won’t bring quick results. Many experienced freelancers use a combined strategy. They focus on areas where they can earn money immediately while simultaneously learning new, financially promising skills. This approach yields excellent results within a year and significantly increases freelance income.
It’s simple. There’s a Chinese proverb: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Take small, practical actions:
- Visit freelance platforms.
- Choose the areas that interest you.
- Check the number of available orders and client rates.
- Analyze the market and create an action plan.
- Take action.
Don’t spread yourself too thin, and don’t try to do everything at once. Focus on 1–2 directions. If a new, promising opportunity arises, realistically assess your capabilities. Sometimes, to take on bigger projects, you’ll need to let go of smaller ones. Freelancing isn’t just about working independently—it requires strong self-discipline and a commitment to self-improvement.
Stay Ahead of the Trends!
That’s right! A freelancer must stay on top of trends. Those who understood the complexities of SEO in the late 2000s were making hundreds of thousands of rubles a month by the mid-2010s. Watch the market, analyze it, and if you catch a trend early, you could become a millionaire.
Freelance platforms are excellent tools for spotting emerging trends. On the Instado.com freelance blog, anyone interested in freelancing can find analytical articles about the fastest-growing industries and services.
