If you’re willing to start a freelancing career but you don’t have that much knowledge about, “how the freelancing market works?” And, “How can you develop yourself as a successful freelancer?” then this article is written for you. Today I’m going to tell you about how to work as a freelancer from Bangladesh and earn money online.
Did you know that there are 25 million unemployed people in our country? And, more than half of them have graduated.
One of the biggest problems in our country is unemployment. And, our population is still rising. Now, let’s think about it. What makes other well-established countries different from ours?
According to surveys in 2019, there were 57 million people (36 percent of the whole population) doing freelance work in America.
As we see, these people are not up for 9 to 5 jobs. Most people out there are relying on businesses and freelancing.
What is freelancing?
When a person is working for themselves but not for any specific individual company; you can call this freelancing.
What are the benefits of freelancing?
You can work for yourself. Usually, when you’re working for a company you’re getting them profited by working for them. Maybe, the amount of profit they’re getting per month because of you is 2000$.
So, they might pay you 300 – 400$ a month. But when you’re working for a client, things are different.
How to make money as a freelancer?
Freelancing is a contract-based job. You choose your salary. The client agrees with you.
You don’t have to work for a particular time every day.
When you’re up for freelancing, the recruiter gives you a period to complete your task. Generally, they will give you 7 to 10 days to finish a single work at first.
You can do the task even lying on your bed if you want to. That’s why; freelancing is not as boring and frustrating as normal jobs.
You can work for multiple clients at a time. Normally you have to work for a single company where you’re getting paid one fixed salary at the month-end. But while freelancing, if you’re willing to go for some extra effort to earn money online, you can work for multiple clients at a time.
While doing a fixed-time job you can’t do that.
By freelancing on an international marketplace, you can earn international currency. Only 5-10% of the freelancers work for their local clients. If you’re not working for your local clients; you’re surely getting paid in dollars.
How much you can earn by freelancing?
Technically, 5 dollars per task as a starter. You can earn more than a million dollars a year by doing freelancing jobs. It depends on you. It depends on the type of task you’re doing. And, on your hard work, you can deliver what to do as a freelancer.
Which are the best freelancing sites for Bangladeshi freelancers?
The amount of freelancers in Bangladesh is growing. Not as much as other countries. But yet, it is growing. Here are some of the best websites you should try for freelancing.
Fiverr.com
The reason I’ve put fiverr.com first is, that as a beginner you will find this website easier to operate. Fiverr was founded in 2010. It was launched globally to sell freelancing services at a cost of a minimum of 5$ per task.
Sadly, it’s been more than ten years, and still, the minimum selling rate is 5$. But the price of your task depends on the type of task you’re doing.
Upwork.com
Upwork is one of the best websites for freelancing. There are more than 30 sectors and too many sub-sectors to work at including writing, designing, marketing, sales, customer support, ethical hacking, accounting, and much more.
It has a huge trust among freelancers and clients. But, they cut out a high commission rate for them from completed tasks done by the freelancers. Approving your profile does take a lot of time too in Upwork.
Freelancers.com
As the name suggests, it is a straightforward website. It was created in 2009. The best thing about this website is, that it has a lot of languages. It has a presence in 247 countries and its total users are approximately 24 million.
Envato.com
Envato is an online marketplace where anyone can buy many types of digital assets. Over 1.5 million buyers and sellers are active here.
Peopleperhour.com
People Per Hour is a UK-based company. It was founded in 2007 in London. It provides business access to freelancer workers. This is a user-friendly platform. When a freelancer finds a new buyer, the commission fee is 10%.
Which things you should keep in mind while freelancing?
The most important thing while being a freelancer is you have to choose the sector in which you’re most skilled. Having a skill about anything never goes to waste.
Probably 70% of your success in freelancing depends on your skill. You might see people studying for 15-20 years to have a nice job. But no one is ready for working on their skills for one or two years.
If you’re planning to be a freelancer and you don’t have that many skills you should go to build up your skills for some time.
Here is some of the best sector for beginners in freelancing
1. Data Entry
The reason I have put this on first is, that data entry is very simple yet one of the best freelancing sectors. If you’re skilled at typing and Microsoft Office work; you definitely should go for data entry tasks.
2. Graphics Design
Graphic design makes everything eye-pleasing. We love what we see. That’s how graphic designing works.
Graphic designing is one of the most creative and artistic freelancing works ever.
If you’re good at Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator or any graphic content-based applications you can try them for the graphic designing sector.
There is a huge amount of sub-sectors in graphics design. Here are some of them.
- Visual identity
- Marketing & advertising design
- Web design
- Publication design
- Packaging design
- Motion graphic design
- Environmental graphic design
- Illustration for graphic design
You can find graphic design jobs at –
- 99 Designs
- AngelList
- Art Wanted
- Behance
- Coroflot
- Crowdspring
- Design Crowd
- Dribble
- Envato Studio
- Smashing Magazine
- Working Not Working
3. Proofreading
If you’re good at grammar and you’re good at finding mistakes other people have made; this one is definitely for you. Proofreading means finding out grammatical errors in writings before they get published and you’re getting paid for this.
4. Be a virtual assistant
The task of a virtual assistant is simple. You help others by providing support and secretarial services. If you have good administrative and supporting skills you should try to be a virtual assistant.
5. Transcribing
Those who convert audio and video files into text files are called transcribers. All you need to do is listen to a file and understand what they’re saying and then convert it into a text file by typing it out.
6. Translating
If you know more than one language then you can earn by serving translating service. Simply translate one language into others with no errors and get paid.
There are a lot of companies willing to enter your country to expand their business. Maybe they need a translator.
A lot of publishers are willing to publish books in your native language, they need translators too.
So, in simple words, if you have detailed knowledge about more than one language you can use it for earning money online as a freelancer.
It Takes Time
To be successful in freelancing markets takes time. You must have to be ready for investing some time in this freelancing sector.
What is a portfolio?
Most of the time, clients will need a reason to trust you. So you need to build that trust. You need to show the clients a reason why they should think you’re capable of the task they’re giving you. You need to show them your skills and working experience or the past tasks you’ve done.
That’s why building a portfolio will help you to boost your freelancing career. You can think of it as a Curriculum Vitae (CV); you need to show while applying for a job.
Try to make your website a portfolio. Make it look attractive. Making a website of yourself is the best thing you can do to promote your skills in front of job recruiters.
Should you go full-time freelancing at first?
If you’re doing a job, it might be good if you continue this as a part-time job. But why would you go for a part-time job if you’re earning more than your full-time job by freelancing? So it depends on you.
How much should you charge for your tasks?
If you believe that you’re skilled; you can go for higher rates. As I said, clients have to find a reason to pay you more.
If you can show some good tasks you’ve done in your portfolio then you can go for higher rates. If you don’t have much to show off in your portfolio then you can try to work as an intern for any IT company. That would increase your experience and will help you create a better portfolio.
What’s Next?
You are now ready to tackle the world of freelancing. Choose the website you’re willing to work for. You have to choose the sector you want to work will be depending on your skills. Make a portfolio that your clients can’t skip. Deliver outstanding performances. Keep in mind that only hard work, dedication, and patience will be the key that can make your dream come true. Stay tuned with us for more.
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