FREELANCE

SUCCESS
MINI-GUIDE:
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO
MAKE YOUR FREELANCING A SUCCESS
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DEFINE YOUR
OFFER AND
YOUR NICHE
Be very clear and very specific about what your
offer is and who your customers are.

You can’t be everything to everyone. Don’t be just a web designer. Be a

web designer for dentists. Don’t just offer SEO services. Offer SEO ser-
vices for car repair shops. You can even go a step further. Instead of
saying „I offer SEO services for car repair shops“, you can say „I can
increase Google rankings of local car repair shops, so they could get
more local clients.“ You see the point. The more specific you are, the
better chances are you’ll get hired.
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UNDER-PROMISE
AND OVER-DELIVER
A lot of people do quite opposite.

They over-promise and under-deliver. And those businesses are success-

ful for a short period of time. If you want to be successful freelancer and
have healthy business and long-term clients, never make huge promises.
Even if you can deliver them. Be realistically pessimistic when you make
promises. And then do a great work, and surprise them with the end
result.
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WRITE BLOG POSTS

THAT BRING
CLIENTS
If you don’t already have a blog,
you should start one now.

If you don’t know how, here’s a tutorial that we wrote. And the trick is to
write blog posts that bring clients. There are three types of posts that do
this: tutorials, case studies, and „how/what-should“ posts. Let’s say that
you provide SEO services for local car repair shops. And you want „Mike’s
Carorama“ as client. You can write posts like „7 Things MikesCarora-
ma.com Should do in Order to Rank Higher on Google“, or „How MikesCa-
rorama.com Can Get More Clients from Google.“ Or, you can use some of
your previous clients and write a case study „How JohnsCarRepairH-
Q.com Got More Clients from Google, Thanks to These 7 Simple Tweaks.“
After that, just email Mike’s Carorama and let them know about your post
and how that post can benefit them.
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BUILD PORTFOLIO
WEBSITE
Don’t just TELL that you can do something.

SHOW that you can do something. And the best way to show that you
can do the things you say you can, is to show your previous work. That’s
why you need portfolio website. It’s the best way to pre-sell yourself and
your work to people who are looking for the types of services that you
offer. If your work is visual (design, web design, etc.), just put the images.
If your work is not visual (SEO, development, writing, etc.) provide links to
the things you did, or maybe some numbers and stats, or a testimonial
from a client. Or all of that. If you need a WordPress theme that is specif-
ically designed for portfolio websites, check Showcase.
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BUILD A MAILING
LIST OF POTENTIAL
CLIENTS
Having a mailing list is like having
a license to print money.

When you have a mailing list, you can build relationship with that list. The
better relationship, the bigger the trust. The bigger the trust is, the better
chance you have to get hired. To build your email list, you can use
Mailchimp, Aweber, or any other email marketing tool you find handy. And
the process is simple. You get people to your website through your blog
posts and/or Facebook ads. At the end of post, you offer them something
useful for free, if they leave their name and email (something like this
checklist, for example). Then, you keep providing value to them through
that list. And when you need a client, just email them and say that you
have a spot open, if they want to hire you.
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BE ACTIVE AND
USEFUL ON
RELEVANT SOCIAL
NETWORKS
If you did your homework and defined your
ideal customer, you should know where they
spend most of their time.

Are they active of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Behance, Dribbble? Is

there some other niche social network where they spend their time?
Maybe a forum? Once you have this, be active and useful there. Forget
everything else. And don’t spam. Share useful posts or videos you find
online that is related to them. Maybe you can write some useful tips for
them. Be helpful. There’s a very big chance that this will be their first
contact with you.
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MAKE ALL YOUR

PROFILES LOOK
PROFESSIONAL
Whether it’s your Elance, oDesk, Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, or any other profile, make them look
professional.

Because that way you’ll look professional, too. If you’re not a designer,
hire one to create professional photos for you. Fill every field and be very
detailed. In most cases, these profiles will make a first impression, and
motivate (or demotivate) people to check out your services.
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USE HARVEST TO
MANAGE YOUR
TIME AND CREATE
INVOICES
Poor time management is one of the major
threats to your success as a freelancer.

To avoid wasting time, and thus having more time for friends and family,
you have to learn how to manage your time. For this, you can use
Harvest. With this tool, you can schedule your time to work, log your work
time, and create invoice. Keep your professional and personal life bal-
anced. Otherwise, you won’t be happy. And you won’t be successful.
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USE DROPBOX TO
ORGANIZE YOUR
FILES
No matter what type of freelancing work you do,
you’ll probably have bunch of files and documents.

So, it would be good idea to keep those files somewhere where you can
access them at any time, and any place. And also so you can share those
files with clients, if needed. Best suggestion is to use Dropbox. It has free
and paid version.
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USE FOCUS
BOOSTER TO MAKE
YOUR WORK MORE
PRODUCTIVE
It’s hard to keep focus for several hours straight.

But, on the other hand, you need to work more, in order to earn more,
right? WRONG! It’s not about longer work. It’s about smarter and more
productive work. One of the best techniques for more productive work is
Pomodoro technique. Basically, this technique says that you should work
only 25 minutes without interrupting. After that, you take 5 minute break.
And every 4 sessions you take a longer break, 15-20 minutes. Use Focus
Booster as help.
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USE SHAKE TO
CREATE
CONTRACTS
Most of the times, you’ll work with honest, fair people

But sometimes, you won’t. To avoid unpleasant and stressful situations,

it’s always a good idea to seal the deal with a contract. Always consult
with a lawyer about this stuff. But, if that’s too expensive to you, you can
use Shake and their templates to create, sign and send legally binding
agreements. And beside it’s useful, this will make you look more profes-
sional in your clients eyes.
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USE WAVE TO
MANAGE YOUR
FINANCES
Don’t go broke.

What’s the point of working for yourself and be free, you run out of
money to support that freedom. And your family. Learn how to manage
money. And track where does your money goes, and where it’s coming
from. To track your finances, incomes and expenses, you can use online
finance tools, like Wave. I know that „money management“ sounds
boring, but that’s the key to financial success and freedom.
 
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USE TRELLO AND

EVERNOTE TO
MANAGE YOUR
PROJECTS
As time passes by, you’ll have more and more clients.

And if you don’t manage your projects the right way, you’ll be in a big
problem very soon. There’s a big chance you’ll forget something import-
ant, like some additional feature that client asked for. Both Trello and
Evernote are free tools, so you can manage projects, take notes, set
deadlines, etc.
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OFFER ADDITIONAL
PRODUCTS TO
CLIENTS
You don’t have to rely on just one income stream.

You can always think of some ways to earn more money from your cur-
rent customers, by upselling and cross-selling other products or ser-
vices. And these can be your products/services, or some other’s, and you
take your commission. For example, if you are a web designer, you can
offer your clients a hosting package, which you resell from Hostgator. Or,
you can offer them monthly maintenance. If you are doing SEO services,
you can offer them a course on social media marketing. Or a web design
service for better conversion that your friend offers, and you take your
percentage. The possibilities are endless.
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NEVER STOP
LEARNING
Never stop learning about your own industry.

About the industry you’re providing services to. About marketing. About
business. And the tools you use. Always look for the ways to improve
your existing skills, and to learn new skills. That way, you’ll able to pro-
vide much better quality to your clients. And they’ll appreciate that.
Whether by hiring you again, or recommending you to their friends and
business partners.