[w00t]

ok guys I figured I would write a little guide on how realistically EVERYONE can build up a decent online income as a freelancer. Ive gotten so much good info out of this forum... I figured it was about time to give something back

this is a no-nonsense and no holds barred guide... its my personal blueprint that Ive come up with after 2 years of freelancing, reading pretty much anything I could get my hands on about the topic and getting coaching by some real pros in this field

I belive ANYONE can do this! if you can read this text and boot up a computer youre pretty much good to go. seriously even if you have no skills at all you can start out as a SEO writer and literally a trained monkey could do that

a little disclaimer first: its not passive income and youll not get rich. but youll be able to make a decent living pretty much anyhwere in the world... if youre not a big baller who needs to bathe in champagne and stay in fancy 5 star suites every day!

so how much are we talking? Last year I made about 1.500$ a month and in my best month 5.000$... and thats working part time as I was still studying for university!

on the lower end I work for 25$ - 30$ an hour. thats my bread and butter clients that let me put in the hours. On the higher end Ive gotten up to $130 for simple blog posts that I could bang out in 20 minutes. those gigs are out there but its hard to line up lots of billable hours at that rate (definitely doable though!)

full time you can realistically expect 2.500$ a month... and by fulltime I mean about 25-30 hours a week, because seriously who wants to work all the time?

thats more than enough to kick back and chill in South East Asia, Eastern Europe or wherevery you wanna stay

of course you can always push it to the limit by raising your rates (more about that later) and grinding more hours. I know there are freelancers who make six figure incomes totally location independent. so ya its really up to you and how far you wanna go. thats the beauty of freelancing youre the master of your own fate... you can either just coast along (hello there BB ) or really put in the hours

is it hard? not really. some work is involved but if you have two braincells to rub together you can do it.

lettuce be real here though its a grind and its like a job! this is not something I wanna do for the rest of my life but its a good start to become location independent!

so here goes... Im a SEO/content writer. but you can basically take this formula and tweak it for all kinds of skills that you have... that could be coding, graphic design, translation jobs... whatever you can do on a computer

lets assume you have nothing right now, no portfolio, no work experience, no clients (I assume you do have some skill in any of those fields I mentioned)

heres what you do in 5 simple steps:

1. use freelance websites to build up a portfolio and get your first clients and work experience

2. raise your rates

3. build a slick looking portfolio website

4. start warm-emailing potential clients

5. make that income tax-free

sounds easy enough, doesnt it?

so here goes...


1. build up portfolio and get first work experience.

simply sign up on the 4 major freelancing sites odesk.com, elance.com, guru.com, freelancer.com

send out at least 5 bids every day. EVERY DAY! even if you have jobs you keep sending out bids

I keep getting messages from ppl who tell me "hey I sent out 3 bids and didnt get a job, what now?". well jesus you dont talk to 3 girls and then give up, do you? just send out MORE!

do this and you will get paid to build up a respectable portfolio and a network of clients who will keep giving you more work

again a reality check: 99% of clients on these sites are shit. they are full with brokeass wannabe Internet marketers who will try to lowball you, waste your time and generally piss you off

but there are some diamons in the rough, I scored some big projects from major companies from elance. I did a social media campaign for Ford, some blogging for a major UK marketing firm... these will not only pay they will also look really good on your portfolio!

but again most clients there suck (well, most clients suck. period) so you want to get off those shitty sites as fast as possible (more about that in the nextsteps).



2. Raise your rates

chances are you will start out with cheaper rates (especially on the freelancer sites)

so what you wanna do is raise your rates!

work less and get paid more... no brainer IMO

two ways to do it: work faster or charge more

if you keep writing in one field for a long time, you will definitely get faster

for example I can easily bang out 2x500 word articles in an hour, if its in a field Ive written a lot in. at 15$ a pop thats 30$ per hour. not too bad if you live in a country where some ppl make as little as $10 a day!

the other way is to charge more. just take on as much work as you can. once youre booked you double your rates. you will lose clients but others will stay and you will end up making more money for less work

another thing... please, please, please dont sell yourself short!

Ive seen this over and over in aspiring freelancers. they work for ridiculous prices because they have no confidence and think thats what it takes to break into the market.

and thats a HUGE mistake!

not only will you burn yourself out working for spare change... you will also attract the wrong kind of clients... and actually REPEL the right kind of clients

think about it, if youre some big company and you want someone to build you a website. would you go for a guy who does it for $50 bucks or a pro who does it for $5000 or even $50.000 (I have no idea what a website costs, just trying to prove a point here)

the GOOD clients will never even take someone seriously who doesnt charge appropriate rates. they will consider you a hack and go for someone else who looks more professional

I just had a skype call the other day with my partner whos a SEO consultant and whos going after some real big dogs in his field. and we are literally brainstorming ways how we can charge those guys MORE MONEY. some of these individuals/organizations have so much money to blow... they literally dont give a fuck (they do wanna see results though)

so PLEASE dont sell yourself short. youre not only hurting yourself youre also fucking it up for all your fellow aspiring freelancers if you work for cutthroat rates.

you should be able to get at least 15-20$ an hour pretty much right off the bat!

yes your first couple of jobs might pay a bit less, so you can establish yourself. yes you might whore yourself out for 2-3 projects so you can build up a portfolio and some good feedback.

but ffs get out of that whore stage as fast as possible!

the key to becoming a successful freelancer and commanding decent rates is NOT competing by price. you compete by good marketing and by positioning yourself as an expert. the tips I mentioned should be plenty to achieve that goal.


3. build a slick looking portfolio website

hire an indian of elance/odesk or just get a premium theme from themeforest.com and tweak it

theres a bit of a science to making a good portfolio website and I dont really wanna get into it in detail here

but the short version is: have your contact information clearly visible at all times, show testimonials with pictures of your clients and show some examples of your work (it should be organized in various categories)

dont just write me me me. its all about the benefit of the reader. what can you do for your visitor? improve his search engine rankings? make him more money? provide him with kickass designs? thats what you focus on the benefits of your visitor (of course in the about me section you can and should write about yourself)=

you can even try to SEO optimize your site and build an inbound marketing funnel where clients come to you!

for instance Ive seen a guy who runs germancontentwriter.com and he has the #1 spot in google for this keyword

this guy has more work than he could handle and he has to turn down clients

ranking well in google is tough but you can rank for local keywords pretty easily (for example freelance writer YOURTOWN)


4. start warm-emailing potential clients

ok you got some work experience, you got a nice portfolio and a professional looking website

never mind that youre just a lazy cunt hanging around in a 4000 baht / month apartment and all you really care about is pussy... you look like a real pro now who takes this shit seriously

its time to step it up a bit and get away from the shitty freelancer sites

again Im a SEO/content writer so I can only really give advice for this niche... but I figure it would be pretty much the same for other jobs

just start warm-emailing some internet agencies and offer your services

keep it brief and whats very important... DONT SPAM them.

dont just copy/paste and use a mass emailer. a friend of mine did this and lots of his emails bounced and he almost got his account suspended.

the real way to do this is to write actual emails that are tailored to your potential client. check out their websites and do some research.

lets say I wanna get Internet marketing agency XY as a client and on their website it says they deal with blabla Food company

then I will email them and highlight my work experience in the food sector. I will show them relevant examples of my work. And of course Include a link to the pimped out website!

yes its more work but believe me its way more effective!

again send out at least 5 of these a day.

these kind of clients are a lot different from the usual assholes trolling elance/odesk. these are not broke ass internet marketers/bloggers who nickel and dime you to write content for their shitty websites

these are professionals that understand that quality comes at a price!

so right off the bat youll be better off dealing with these kinds of clients and you can command higher rates

same strategy for other fields. as a translator go after big clients who need translations in a field you have expertise in. as a coder go after big companies who need coders like you. as a graphic designer... I think you get it at this point




5. Make that income tax free

Ok lets assume youre still sitting at home and youre making some money. but now the state is taking a fat cut of your hard earned cash!

I dont know about you but I refuse to pay taxes. I dont want to support a broken system and it goes against anything I believe in.

Im also greedy and dont wanna split my earnings with a faceless organization that gives me nothing back in return.

So anyway the fastest way to make your income tax free is just to move abroad. Pretty much any country has a 180 day rule... meaning if you stay in the country for less than 180 days youre not considered a resident and thus dont have to pay taxes on your income

simple as that

now I realize some of you guys are from the US and that this crazy country taxes its citizens abroad (btw its the only country who does that apart from some shithole in africa!)

but thats really your problem Im not from the US and dont know about your specific situation

for everyone else its as simple as leaving the country and staying in other countries for less than 180 days

of course you can also incorporate in a tax haven. but Im not really an expert on that so Im not gonna say anything about that (I DO plan to incorporate offshore though but have to do my research first)

but ya for starters its really enough to get the fuck out of your countr and move around a bit every 6 months.



so there ya go guys, this is pretty much it, its the freelance blueprint. I could write tons more and in fact I have written over 20k words on a newsletter on the topic (not in english though!)... but this is pretty much the bare bones

time to hit the gym and troll the malls for poosay now I hope you find this useful