If you’re looking for additional income or leaving your 9 to 5 job to become a freelancer, you’ve just landed in the right place.
Greetings! My name is Valentin and I’m a full-time freelancer from Montenegro. Over my short but really productive freelancing journey, I made $6k+ on Upwork and $5k in direct payments, all in only 8 months.
A top-rated badge, 100% job success, and numerous clients and freelance agencies knocking on my mailbox — I could only dream of it in the beginning.
Recently, I got to the point where I started receiving emails like this:
It was the moment when I realized I have to share my knowledge with all the creative, talented enthusiasts who want to get into freelancing but just don’t know where to start.
My journey
I came into freelancing with zero experience working online nor I had any skills in the digital industry. It was the bare idea of working from my laptop, having a stable income, traveling around the world, being free, and living my best life.
Spoiler: I’m living my best life right now. All thanks to freelance.
It all started when I was working as a server in an amiable café where every day, dozens of freelancers came coworking. I peeked at their monitors trying to reveal their secret.
“How is it possible to spend 3 hours a day at the laptop drinking coffee and enjoying creative work while I’m breaking my sweat on the 12-hour shift?” I scolded.
That’s how came up with ultimate motivation. I saved some cash for a laptop, quit the job, and invested all my time to plunge into the freelance universe. Easy as that. I just couldn’t watch them enjoy their lives.
The objection was; get a client to pay me and get rolling. Sounds fairly straightforward.
A few years before that, I dabbled in designing and coding so I thought I could do that for money, even though I had no commercial experience. And well, it was a grand failure. I sent dozens of Upwork proposals every day for one month and got NO RESPONSE. Now I see that I lost time in vain because I didn't have any strategy.
That was the point when I realized the importance of mindset and perseverance. I started taking my every effort more seriously. I learned from the best freelancers out there, took courses, and invested every minute in improving all necessary aspects — all to get that one first client. I wanted to get paid badly and I wanted it RIGHT NOW.
That’s how I discovered a key to getting the freelance business on the rails fast and RIGHT NOW.
Drumroll…
It’s your niche. And the more specific and low-competition the niche is — the more are the chances you’ll get hired.
I chose Email Marketing. Don’t ask me why, it just sounded cool and interesting. I took a course, rewatched it, then rewatched it again. When I got an understanding of what is expected from me, I started to align my profile for the Email Marketing oriented clients, and guess what? I got my first hire shortly after.
Since that moment, I’ve never ceased learning. The more I learned, the more my value raised on the market. Started from $10 per hour, now, I charge $35. All thanks to my curiosity and ceaseless interest in working online and doing creative work with numerous clients.
Anyone can start freelancing right now.
It’s only up to you if you want to be self-employed, self-oriented, create your own working hours, and, as I said, live your best life. All you need is a bit of enthusiasm, a few useful tips, and some time to get your new freelancing career on the rails.
Lucky you, now you have me to guide you through the freelancing path.
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Valentin Naydenov
Freelancer, Author of Really Good Freelance