Do’s and Don’ts of freelancing for a New Freelancer:

If you are a newbie in freelancing and don’t know how you can proceed properly in freelancing domain then you are at the right place. I will tell you freelancing “Do’s and Don’ts”. (All the material has been collected from many hours’ mentoring sessions of freelancing tycoons. So please read all points carefully)

Do Point 1: Explore freelancing sites to check if your skill has any scope in freelancing market 

The very first thing for you is to identify your skill. If are still unaware about your skill just don’t worry. Find out your passion; think about fields which attract you e.g. development / content writing / graphic designing or any of the fields of your interest.

Once you identify your passion now it’s mandatory to explore freelancing market place (open and explore freelancing sites e.g. Fiverr / Freelancers / Upwork etc) and identify if your field of interest have any available projects in it or not. If there is no scope of your interest field in these freelancing sites then don’t waste time in getting expertise in that skill because it will not pay you in freelance market.

Make a list of all skills offered on freelance market places which attracts you. Start learning these skills one by one. Watch introductory videos / tutorials / Google search for some time and you will get idea if this specific skill is your cup of cake or not. Go through every skill tutorials one by one and definitely you will find your desired skill. Some time it happens that you don’t like a work e.g. you don’t like content writing but once you dive into it you may start getting interest in this field. So just don’t lose hope and find the field that is for you.

    Do Point 2: List of traditional freelancing sites

There are a number of freelancing site over internet but I have listed some of the giants of freelancing market place.

    upwork.com  

    freelancer.com

    Guru.com

    peopleperhour.com

    9designs.com

    toptal.com 

  
    Do Point 3: Prepare your environment:

Your environment is more powerful than your will power. So build your environment for productive working. Identify at which time you can learn better, from which source you learn better audio / video / text. Let me make it clear that each and everything count in your environment including your thinking, your family, friends and social-media. So focus on your environment and adjust it for learning perspective. Join those networks where people motivate you and push you towards your goal.

Do Point 4: Prepare your skills

At start instead of thinking about generating revenue your first goal should be to buildup skills. Because if you have skills then in future you will ultimately get revenue because your skills are the only source which could generate revenue for you.

   You can only get benefit out of an opportunity if you are fully prepared.

Read out tutorials or take video lectures to enhance your skill level. Visit freelancing sites and search which type of tasks are there; get ready for those tasks while learning. Hard-work and determination are basic elements of getting success until and unless you have solid skills which can help you to generate revenue after that think about to start business/ freelancing.

   Do Point 5: Improve your communication skills

Like other businesses freelancing is also a market where you have to sell your skill (as product). So focus on the art of selling. Strengthen your communication. Currently “English” has become a medium of communication so it’s mandatory to remove the language barrier and polish your communication skills. Remember if you have skills and you don’t know how to convince employers about your services about your product then you cannot get benefit out of your skill.  

   Do Point 5: Volunteer your skills at a platform (Strategic give-away) 

You can search for particular people at all platforms to offer volunteer services. E.g. use hashtag to search people who need your skills “http://facebook.com/hashtag/contentwriter” if you are a content writer then you can search people using mentioned URL. In general you can search http://facebook.com/hashtag/yourskill. You will get lots of people who are searching for this service or giving this service. These are the ideal target persons waiting for you to come and solve their service.  Offer your free services to them e.g. say them “I can help you out free because I want to solve your problem” or just solve their issues and let them know that here is your problem solution.

Give your free services at those platforms or to those persons/ offices where you understand you can get something back in near future e.g. participate in free-competitions because if you win then your chances of getting paid tasks increase a lot in other case you will at-least understand the level of your skill set.

Instead of worrying about money just focus on approaching people and try to work with them either paid or as volunteer.

   Do Step 6: Improve your skills (very important)

With every day you have to improve your skills no mater you are facing financial crises in your business/freelancing or not. So with the passage of time you will learn all related skills and your income will definitely increase with skills set.

   Do Point 7: Competitors as your potential resource

If you know you will not be able to provide that good quality work which client is demanding then instead of providing cheap/unsatisfactory service to your client just search for a good resource in your circle that can do this work efficiently let him do that quality work and get your commission out of it. The real successful people just support each other to get a rise. Consider other freelancer as your potential resourceful person or helpful person at the time of need.

   Do Point 8: Make friendship with failures:

Moving towards failures, just do friendship with failures. It will lead you towards your success. Because every failure will give you some lesson and you can only fail if you put an effort towards your goal. It will just put you one step more towards your goal.

   Do Point 9: Learn to appreciate yourself: (Most important)

Positive mindset and positive attitude is very important. Learn how to appreciate yourself. There is whole world there that will be always available to demotivate you. So be strong and be confident that you can do anything. Even if you fail still you have courage to do your task in next effort.

    Save yourself from negative persons and negative personalities.

    Do Point 10: Communicate with employer Loyalty:

Tell your employer that you are new and if I will not be able to deliver according to your satisfaction I will return your money.

Don’ts of Freelancing:

   
  Don’t Point 1: Don’t make social media business accounts with fake names: 

Use your real name in freelance market and at facebook. Don’t use hidden names. Just face your fear and challenges. It will provide you strength to remain at appropriate track and will motivate you, give you strength to put your 100% while doing any task because using real name is directly attached with your repute. If you are using hidden names then you cannot take your career as serious and cannot put your 100%.

If you are working business purpose then buildup professional profile.  

Don’t Point 2: Do not do political discussion on your social media profile.

Don’t Point 3:  There is no need to become a 24/7 hr active member of any social media group. No need to like or comment all posts you will not get any award by doing this activity. Just define a time of 30minutes to 1hr for social media. The more you are active in the group the lazier and more unproductive you are. Use social media wisely. Be focused.

Don’t Point 4: just identity your potential time of work at which you actually can learn. Identify at which place and at which time and along with people your learning and working capability increases. Don’t just waste your time by sitting 12 unproductive hours its just wastage of time and nothing more.