I always wanted to be a writer. Realizing my 9-5 was so toxic it was affecting my health, I found the motivation to try. My first gig was with a content mill. The goal? Sell that first piece. It paid barely enough for two pints of beer. Within several weeks I moved up to freelancer job sites like Fiverr and Upwork, building experience and a portfolio. I have always been an avid gardener, so I created a profile as a garden writer. Having a niche was an advantage for me as a newbie. It allowed me to focus, and it brought clients to me. It's hard to stand out from the crowd if your profile is just "SEO articles" or "helping brands increase sales." Two months later I had enough work that finishing it after working my 9-5 was challenging. I decided to quit my job, going freelance full time. Job site rates are typically low. Eventually, I left them. Now, I have a portfolio website, prospect for my own clients, set my rates as I see fit, and love my freelance career.
Freelancing started when I had a college professor who was a freelance writer herself. She required us to publish an article in a print publication in order to pass the class. Brilliant! It was the most impactful class I took. She introduced us to "Profnet" queries and hooked us up with an editor accepting freelancer submissions. I actually got paid $50 for the sidebar that I wrote. Totally motivated, I found a few freelance markets while I was still in college to earn some extra spending money. I wrote for an old content sourcing firm, WriteforCash, followed by Constant Content. Someone tipped me off to buy the Writer's Market book of publications accepting freelancers. Since then, I've vastly grown to write for newspapers, magazines, websites, corporate clients, and literally thousands of blog posts. (Product descriptions, ebooks, newsletters, etc.) Now I focus on my own blog BunnysGarden.com. All of this because I had a college professor who opened my world to the possibilities.
I began my freelance career by taking on some freelance projects in the evening in addition to my day job. Gradually my freelance workload increased to the point where I had very little time between my job and freelancing to sleep or do much besides work. I needed to make a decision and despite being extremely nervous, I decided to quit my job and start freelancing full-time.
I got started as a freelancer by picking up a freelance project on the side of my full-time job. Adding a freelance project as a side hustle helped me to know I was secure with my full-time income while I explored freelancing. Eventually, I added more freelance work and stepped away from my 9-5. If you are looking to find a freelance project on the side, you can look for freelancing gigs on Craigslist, Facebook, UpWork, Fiverr, etc. If you don't know what to do for freelancing, consider using the skills you use at your full-time job! For example, if you are in charge of social media and marketing for your 9-5, maybe you could help a brand with social media projects on the side.
I've always been a creative person, but it wasn't until I found myself feeling unfulfilled in my 9-5 job that I realized I wanted to turn my passion into a career. So, I took the leap and started freelancing. It wasn't easy at first, but I knew that if I wanted to make it work, I had to be committed to building a strong foundation. I began by identifying my area of expertise, which in my case was writing, then I built a portfolio of my work, created a website to showcase my abilities, and started networking with other professionals in my field. I found clients through word of mouth and by offering my services on freelancing platforms. It took time and a lot of hard work, but with each project, I gained more confidence in my abilities and my business began to grow. Now, I'm living my dream as a full-time freelancer, and I couldn't be happier.
Upwork is a great site to start out. They have an array of clients who are looking for newbies; people who are simply starting out in freelancing. All you have to do is search Newbie on the job search tab after creating an account, and you will see a list of job posts in which clients looking for beginners. Creating an account is easy because all you need to do is fill in the questions honestly. It's really hard to secure a job without a rating. This is why you need to search for newbie jobs because these clients will take a chance on you. They may have low rates, but all you need to do is about three jobs to get a good rating. And then you can start applying for higher-paying jobs.
While taking a content marketing course at work, I had an "Aha!" moment when I realized people got paid to create the modules within the course. The phrase "content writing" kept popping up, so I start looking into it to see what it was all about and how people were making money as content creators. This led me to start looking for content writing gigs. Within two weeks, I had my first client. A few months later, I could fully replace my full-time income doing part-time writing. My business flourished quickly and it wasn't long before I had a solid portfolio. I didn't know things would take off so fast, but all of the pieces just fell into place. Now, seven years later, I've more than tripled my annual income, work fewer hours each week, and absolutely love what I do.
I never set out to become a Virtual Assistant, it’s something I pivoted towards and I pretty much fell into the business opportunity. A happy accident, if you will! What was once a side hustle soon turned into a full-time business which I not only love but that also gives me much more freedom than I ever had before. With my then-husband already having a remote design and marketing business, and me with PA and admin experience, it was a natural fit, and I’m super grateful to have found it. So, we put our heads together, rebranded his business and The Virtual Assistant Company was born. Remote working has allowed me to create a rewarding business that offers a wonderful work-life balance, and I love helping to do the same. Bethan Trueman, multi-award-winning Virtual Assistant, property investor, and Co-Founder of The Virtual Assistant Company. www.thevirtualassistantco.com
It all started with a few clicks of the mouse. I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, feeling bored and uninspired. Then suddenly, an ad caught my eye: "Be your own boss! Start freelancing today!" It sounded like just the thing for me — a chance to make money on my own terms and schedule. So without hesitation, I clicked the link and started exploring what being a freelancer could mean for me. After months of hard work and dedication, one of my dream clients contacted me via email offering a project that perfectly fit my skillset! From then on it was smooth sailing — though admittedly there were still many challenges ahead of course! But in hindsight all those months spent learning how to market myself online paid off big time because now here I am three years later running a successful business as an independent freelancer working with some amazing clients around the world!
Right before the pandemic I landed the coveted 'unpaid intern' role at a marketing agency in Flagstaff. At the time, I was being trained by their Head of Google Ads who they decided to fire. After three months I asked if they would hire me but they said they would not because I did not have enough training (because they fired the guy training me). I realized it was time to leave and kept in touch with the former Head of Ads. He trained me on how to get started on Upwork and we began freelancing as a duo until business took him elsewhere. I kept working with clients until I got hired by a bigger marketing agency. #best
The only reason I had a corporate career was for the security, benefits, and pension. So when corporations "right-sized", the security was gone. And few techs meant my phone woke me up almost every night. When you can't remember the last ten miles you drove, that is unsafe driving. Then they converted real pensions into "cash pensions" now known as 401ks. No security, little sleep, benefit cuts, and no real pension led me to resign after 23 years. I planned to build websites for horse businesses at first. But a neighbor was selling a $4000+ product. Every time I saw him, he was heading out to deliver another horse walker. He had no idea how he was selling them; a friend was running ads. I found those ads and for 5.5 years I managed pay-per-click (PPC) ads for small businesses. I saw the zero sum game being played there. So I decided to switch to small business marketing strategy and content creation. I've been making a living entirely online for over two decades (since 2000).
Hello! Here's how I managed to take off as a freelancer. The one trait that I think mattered most was persistence. There's a lot of competition in the freelance writing scene, and I knew it would be a while before I was given a chance to prove my worth. But the key was to not let any amount of rejections get me down. I stayed persistent and applied for job openings non-stop for months on end. I knew that eventually one of my proposals was bound to land, and eventually, it did. Since then I've learned a lot and come a long way, and none of it would've been possible if I didn't stay persistent when it mattered most. Hope that helps!
My journey as a freelancer began on a whim. I was studying journalism at university and decided to take up an assignment for a small local newspaper - despite having no previous experience in the field whatsoever. But that first article taught me something invaluable: if you have a passion, there’s always room to learn and grow within it. From there, I started taking on more assignments from various outlets around the country, honing my craft with each one. It wasn’t long before I had built myself quite the portfolio of published works! Fast forward to today, and here I am running my own freelance business! Through word of mouth (and some social media savvy) over time my work started gaining traction throughout the industry; editors were asking specifically for me as their go-to writer of choice when they needed something written quickly or expertly crafted articles on particular topics.