Freelance Work From Home

Freelance work from home isn’t a new concept by any means. There are many freelancers that enjoy spending the day at home doing various work for different clients. The internet has made this possibility even more of a reality for many people.

Basically, if you have a specific skill or skill set, there’s no reason why you can’t find freelance work from home. If you have a particular interest or are very knowledgeable in a specific area, chances are that you can get paid to render your services in that area.

You might be saying you don’t have any skills or aren’t qualified in any specific area, so finding freelance work from home is out of the question. Well, the fact that you’re reading this proves that theory wrong. Even if you have basic computer skills, which I’m assuming you do, you may just find someone that is need of your knowledge.

Even so, there’s quick ways to learn and get the knowledge necessary to render services for others in a specific area. You could take an online course for an area of interest and get certified. This is what I did after I lost my job over a year ago. It has paid off very well and is well worth it.

One website where you can get such training and take an online course is UniversalClass.com. Here they offer classes for just about any subject, and after completion, you’ll be certified and have the knowledge necessary. The next step after that will be to get some experience.

To get your feet wet and eventually do freelance work from home full-time, you’ll need to find a constant stream of work. This can be a bit challenging to say the least. Fortunately, there are websites that connect freelance service providers with people looking for freelancers.

List of freelance sites to check out:

GetAFeelancer.com
IFreelance.com
ODesk.com
Elance.com
RentaCoder.com

This isn’t an all-inclusive list of feelance sites, but this will give you a good start to find freelance work. I’m a member of a few, but I’ll be honest, I have yet to get any work through these sites. I get most of my work through forums.

Forums can be a great place to find freelance work from home. It might be a little unorthodox or different than what you’re used to, but this is how I get all of my freelance work. There are many benefits to this avenue.

With forums, you don’t have to spend time bidding on projects that appeal to you. This can be time-consuming, and with a hundred other competitors all bidding on the same project, the chances of winning the project aren’t very good.

If you already have the experience then being seen as an expert in your field won’t be difficult. Just back up your claims with real testimonials from satisfied customers/clients. Notice I said “real” testimonials… that’s very important. You never want to fake testimonials for any reason.

Forums usually have an area to advertise for a product or service. Use this to your advantage to get your name out there. If you have to, do some work for free in exchange for some testimonials. You may just gain a regular client from it in the process.

Adding a link in your forum signature to a web page that describes what you do and the services you offer is another benefit to take advantage of. This can get you good exposure, and anyone interested will click on the link and may just become a new client.

For me, the services I offer are appealing to the members of the various forums I’m a member of. So for me, this strategy is very advantageous.

Regardless of how you find freelance work from home, online or offline, just know that it’s a great way to earn money and work from home.

What are some ways you go about finding freelance work, whether it’s online or offline?

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Tags: elance, forums, freelance work from home, freelancers, job, marketing, odesk, rentacoder, service providers, Work From Home

7 Comments

Skip says:

July 21, 2009 at 10:25 AM

I have a friend who is a freelance web developer and he said the aforementioned sites cannot give you a sustainable wage in the US – that it’s just peanuts and most of the work is picked up by Indians. He says he found that forums were much better for picking up work here in the UK.

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@Skip, Hi skip, thanks for visiting and for commenting. It’s nice to have your input on this.

I see that a lot as well… many people from India pick up a lot of the projects because they’re willing to work for practically nothing. Now, as far as writing jobs, there are many people that look only for US/UK based service providers. This is true for GetAFreelancer.com, anyway. So it’s not impossible to get work, and if you provide a good service, there’s a good chance that they’ll come back to you again and again.

Now, for someone just starting out, it’s okay to bid low until you can build up a clientele and get experience. As you said, though, you can’t do that full-time from these kind of sites, unless you get lucky and get a full-time client from it. In that case you’d have to charge more, otherwise you’ll be working long hours for very little.

I agree that forums are a better source of getting work. As I said in my post, that’s where I get all of my work from, but I do follow the freelance sites as well.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you around more often.

[Reply]
Glass Beads
@Alan Mater, yeah little by little. victory is not just a one shot glory.

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@Glass Beads, Agreed.

[Reply]
job search says:

July 25, 2009 at 11:23 AM

Freelance work is always good but under the conditions of the crisis when the traditional job search gives no result it’s high time you apid your attention to the alternative one.

[Reply]
Janine from Best Consumer Services
Twitter: http://www.bidmyservices.com
says:

November 10, 2009 at 4:10 AM

Not all job offerings in these sites offer low pay. You’ll just have to look further and it also depends on the category you are looking at.

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@Janine, Hi Janine, thanks for stopping by and commenting. I agree that it depends a lot on what services you provide and what kind of work you’re looking for.

[Reply]