Quitting your day job and starting a freelance business on the internet is a dream that many people share. Most people want to have the flexibility to work anytime and from the comfort of their home. And earning a full-time income or earning over $100,000 as a freelancer is not uncommon anymore.
- Example of Freelancers Who Have Earned Over $100K from Upwork
- 1. Know your capabilities and where you can shine
- 2. Understand the market and know what your clients want
- 3. Get ready to hustle
- 4. Focus on quality over quantity
- 5. Constantly improving your skills
- 6. Never be afraid to say “no”
- 7. Showcase your work
As the internet slowly changes our lives, more and more business owners and organizations require a website presence to represent them. And this has led to the rapid increase in services such as writing, designing, social media managing, etc., in the freelancing world.
If becoming a successful freelancer sounds interesting to you, this article is for you. What you are about to discover here will absolutely blow your mind. Most people thought that online freelancing is a part-time job, but this is not true at all.
We will share 10 freelancers who have earned more than $100,000 by utilizing platforms such as Upwork, and we will also discuss some strategies on how they made it.
Example of Freelancers Who Have Earned Over $100K from Upwork
Gaganpreet K.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $100,000
Jobs completed: 93
Work description: Professional website developer and designer with over 10 years of experience
Location: Chandigarh, India
Profile link: upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~01ed5f08cb41d62812/
Dmitry C.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $200,000
Jobs completed: 8
Work description: Professional website developer and senior programmer
Location: Yoshkar-Ola, Russia
Profile link: upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~013e978520658bfcbf/
Markus H.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $200,000
Jobs completed: 5
Work description: Experienced software engineer with over 17 years of experience
Location: Leipzig, Germany
Profile link: upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~010f7241d43d44c964/
Troy W. H.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $100,000
Jobs completed: 655
Work description: Voice-over professional with own home studio
Location: Irmo, United States
Profile link: upwork.com/fl/troywhudson
Joanna E.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $100,000
Jobs completed: 18
Work description: Creative Director at Belmondo.tv with over 17 years design experience.
Location: San Rafael, United States
Profile link: upwork.com/fl/joannae2
Mark de S.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $100,000
Jobs completed: 129
Work description: WordPress Speed Optimization Wiz.
Location: Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Profile link: upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~01d899ada51ae72f32/
James H.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $100,000
Jobs completed: 94
Work description: professional marketing consultant, business coach, and sales funnel expert especially with ClickFunnels
Location: Sunderland, United Kingdom
Profile link: upwork.com/fl/jameshughes
Ron Z.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $100,000,000
Jobs completed: 602
Work description: Professional web developer specializing in high-quality WordPress development.
Location: Los Angeles, United States
Profile link: upwork.com/fl/ronzvagelsky
Suzanne H.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $100,000
Jobs completed: 100
Work description: Professional writer, editor and also provide services in proofreading.
Location: Buffalo, United States
Profile link: upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~0159f14ad4df3549ff/
Angela P.
Total earnings from Upwork: Over $100,000
Jobs completed: 167
Work description: Writing consultant, a ghostwriter, and also a published novelist.
Location: Oakton, United States
Profile link: upwork.com/fl/angelapanayotopulos
These freelancers are just the examples that we used in this article to inspire and to show you that freelancing can be a real business.
If you noticed, it does not matter your background, as long as you are willing to work hard, improve your skills, you can become one of them and join the $100K club. Do a search from Upwork and you will find that a lot of freelancers are actually earning a 6-figure income and they can be from around the world. Some great freelancers can be from India, South Africa, Germany, Malaysia, and also from the United States.
Plus, becoming a successful freelancer who earns over $100,000 can come from any industry such as website design, programming, writing, voice-over, translation work, customer service, App development, sales and marketing, business consultation and more.
Now, if you are ready to build a successful freelancing career, below are some of the tips that you should consider.
1. Know your capabilities and where you can shine
The first thing you need to do when you first begin your freelancing journey is to evaluate yourself. You need to understand your capabilities and know where you can be successful. What are you good at? What skills can you provide? More importantly, you must treat this as a long-term business, therefore, you must know if you can do this for years.
In fact, it is alright to even if your skill is not as good, you can always polish it as you go. However, you must possess the willingness and the dedication to learn. The more you do, the more you skillful you will be. Plus, there are also courses out there that can help you understand how to build a successful freelancing career.
If you are currently working at a full-time job, there is no need for you to quit your job instantly and jump into the freelancing world. The best part about freelancing is that you can work at your free time, such as your night time. This is a great advantage for people who want to try out and they can work as a freelancer as a part-timer, and when things started to move, they can jump into doing it as a full-time career.
So understand your own capabilities. How much time can you devote to your new business? Are you going to work on it at night and during the weekend? And more importantly, set a goal and create a work schedule.
2. Understand the market and know what your clients want
One of the most frequently asked questions from most beginners is how much they should charge. And this is why you need to know your work, your market and your client in order to charge at the optimum rate.
Sara Horowitz, the head of Freelancers Union and the author of “The Freelancer’s Bible”, suggests freelancers find out the market rate and understand the quality of the work they can provide. If you think you can deliver a better work, you should not be afraid to charge a higher fee than the market average.
The problem with most freelancers is that they have no confidence to charge higher. All they focus on is to get the average rate and then get the job done as soon. This is not how it works. You need to know what your clients want. Most of the time, clients are willing to pay higher if you can deliver a much better work than most average freelancers.
Furthermore, when you know what your market one, you can easily target the right clients and always perform better. And when you first started, you may want to charge a lower fee to get testimonials and to build your network. It does not matter as you can always raise your fee higher at a later stage once you understand how to deliver quality work than what your clients have expected.
3. Get ready to hustle
Building a successful freelancing career is just like building any business. It may be difficult, especially if you want to build it into a six-figure income annually. This is not to say that it is impossible, but you need to pour in effort and time.
You must be willing to hustle and work hard to increase your skill level. When you are good and able to deliver better, it will be the time to charge a premium price and bring your freelance business to the next level. Most people stay stuck because they are not willing to work hard. They complain that they only earn a few dollars from writing articles, this is because they do not understand how the business work.
Freelancing is all about work, and the only way to earn a six-figure income is to charge higher. And how do you charge a premium fee? By understanding your client’s demand, deliver exceptional results and build a good relationship with your clients for long-term business.
Therefore, get ready to hustle and be prepared to do the real work. Treat it as a serious business and your income will reflect. If you treat it as a hobby, you will get a hobbyist-kind of income.
4. Focus on quality over quantity
According to Alaura Weaver, a story-based copywriter and a Copyblogger Certified content marketing strategist says that you must brand yourself as an expert and focus on the quality rather than the quantity. Most people get the wrong idea and think that all they need is to win more jobs so that they can get busy with their work and get paid.
If you are serious about making $100,000 from freelancing, you should focus on the quality and build yourself as an expert in your field. You have to understand that you only have 24 hours a day, and if your work pays according to the amount of time you work, you will always be limited by a ceiling, which is your time. Thus, increase the quality of your work and brand yourself as an expert.
Alaura Weaver also said that when she writes, she charges based on per project basis and not per word basis. This is because she will always deliver extraordinary content and she usually charges between $200 to $500 per blog post. Yes, you read that right. If you can deliver great quality work, people will pay you a premium price for your work.
5. Constantly improving your skills
The only way you can get better is to commit to constant and never-ending improvement. You must always strive to improve and deliver better work for your clients. When you do, people will appreciate your work, pay you a higher fee and also hire you for the long-term.
There are many courses out there you can enroll such as the one provided by Copyblogger and more. Read books and blogs from other successful freelancers as well. The more you learn, the better you can be. Remember, your skill levels will directly influence your rate. Hence, improve yourself if you want to be a successful freelancer.
6. Never be afraid to say “no”
Saying no can be hard, especially if you are generous and you want people to be happy with your work. However, this is also the reason most freelancers are not earning more. They are afraid to say no and losing the job. You have to understand that no matter what you do, there is no way you can please everyone.
The best way to approach this is to set yourself a standard and create rules to follow. You can be flexible, but try to follow your standard of operation as much as possible. When clients are trying to shortchange you, you can always reject them and look for others who are willing to pay you the right rate. If you are good, your market will value you rather than shortchanging you.
7. Showcase your work
The first thing that your client will look at is your portfolio and your previous work. This is why showcasing your work is an important key that will determine your success in your freelancing career. If you are a writer, build a blog and showcase your writing skills. You can also guest blog on other authority blogs and use them to improve your credibility.
If you are a website designer, design your own website and show to your clients. Another thing you can do is to help others to design their websites for free. When they accepted, you can ask for testimonials and also showcase their websites to your clients. Most people will agree when you are going to do it for free.
Once you have received great client’s feedback and testimonials, work will start to flow to you and people will come to you automatically. But before that, you must work on it and leverage on your previous successes.
These are the 7 tips how to build and grow a successful freelancing career. When you first started, growing your business and earning $100,000 from it may seem a little out of reach, but never lose faith and keep pouring in the hard work. The more you do and the more you learn, the better you will be. And when you are good in your work, you can charge higher.
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