How narrowing your freelancing can easily be used to boost your career

So I have recently mentioned freelance marketplaces such as Fiverr, Odesk and Freelancer. Now these are amazing and can garner you a lot of attention. However some people prefer a more targeted advertising for their services as this drastically reduces the competition. Let me teach you how just choosing a different website can boost your earnings tenfold!

Now what does it mean to narrow your field? Well it can mean several things depending on how far you want to go. I will explain this in a simple way by using myself as an example.

Now, I am a writer. I can write in English and Swedish. I could for example try to compete with other freelance writers in the English language, however just on Fiverr there are at the moment over four hundred active writers. So how can I narrow myself?

Well in the example of Fiverr, I narrowed myself by focusing on Swedish. I currently offer translations between Swedish and English primarily. Other than that I also offer to write articles in Swedish for a small sum. Now, I narrowed myself quite a bit there as Swedish is a fairly small language when compared to other large ones like Chinese, French, German and Russian. However, I get new work daily. How does this actually boost my earnings? Well, I pretty much went down from around 500 competitors to four or five. Now that is a much easier amount to manage, which I easily did and now most come straight to me for any Swedish related work they might have.

So if you know a field, try to target it more. Instead of offering "Graphical design", try to niche yourself and promote something more specific. In this example, how about just doing editing? Pick your favorite thing in your field and focus on solely that. If you notice that you only get about half of the amount of work you can handle, specalize yourself again in another offer. Keep doing that and you will be known as an expert in those specific tasks, meaning your old customers will keep coming to you and they will start recommending you to their friends and partners!


However, there is more than one way to target your audience as a freelancer. Most of you have probably heard about the freelance websites like Odesk, Guru, Freelancer, Fiverr and Elance. However, did you know that there are over ten thousand websites where freelancers can market their services? Now lets face it, at least 80-90 % of these are empty and useless. However, there are a lot of sites out there where you can expand your career.

For example, targeting specific countries is an amazing method. Here in Sweden we have a freelance marketplace I recently got active on again. They have taken a lot of inspiration from Fiverr which makes it easy to use. Now Sweden doesn't have a huge market but there are a few thousand people who use the website. By expanding there with my translation skills I managed to expand my potential market with about 20% (Fast head calculation using traffic statistics).

Now I know, some of you are now going "Where do I find these sites?". Well I can't help you completely since there are so many. Googling can get you a long way but I will give you a blog article here that will help you out. They listed freelance websites that focus on specific countries, niches and such. Check it out by clicking here.


So don't just sit there, start experimenting and watch the results! Failure only comes to the one who doesn't try.

Why choose freelancing?

A common question among people who are considering freelancing is why one would even go with the profession. Many think that it's risky being a freelancer, which is true to a certain extent as being a freelancer is close to starting up your own business.

As a freelancer your success is based on how much work you put into your work. You don't have a boss or any colleagues to blame your own shortcomings on. While some see this as a downside since it means that all risk goes on you, I personally love it since any success you gain is based a 100% on your own effort.

One can actually adapt a similar mind as one would before starting up their own business. Make sure that you plan properly before trying to get customers. This way you can prevent broken deadlines and unclear orders from the customer.

So starting up in freelancing might not be the easiest task but it has it's upsides which makes it all worth it. For starters, you set your own schedule. Personally I don't work 9-5 or so. If I am free when I get an order in I tend to get it done as fast as I can, this way I can clear up my time for other things. Now if I already have orders stocked up, I simply start once my morning coffee is prepped, usually around 6-7 AM. I then work for two-three hours which usually clears up the rest of the day. If I have any remaining orders or get more during the day, my next "shift" tends to start around 1 PM and last until 3-4 PM. Now this is quite close to being a regular 9-5 schedule but with a longer lunch. The reason for this is that my orders come in during the night, due to the fact that I live in Sweden and about 70% of my customers are from the US. But I could do all the work at late evenings if I wanted to, it's all up to me after all.

Now a second really good thing with being a freelancer is the salary. I know there are some freelancers who struggle with paying their bills, however this all depends on how much work you're willing to take. After all, the amount of orders you get depends on how the quality of your work is. If you're known for delivering high quality work in a short time, you're bound to get a lot of orders. Because if it's one thing that will decide how much success you have as a freelancer it's your reputation. A good reputation leads to a high salary while a bad reputation leads to a low or non-existant salary.

A third amazing thing with being a freelancer is the one thing most freelancers forget, the possibilities you get from your work. Most of us have probably experienced the tough situation of searching for a job. It can be quite a killing experience for many, especially for the ones that are younger without a bunch of work experience. That's where freelancing can open new paths for you.

Personally I am involved with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and such. I am quite open about my work and have quite a good reputation as a translator and copywriter. This has led to a lot of job offers dimping down in my mailbox and in my e-mail.

Yes, being a freelancer and marketing yourself as one will get you job offers. Companies that are in the same or similar field as you will get their eyes on you, especially if they lose clients to you. They will then realise the advantage of having someone like yourself in the company. I have so far not accepted any of these offers as the salary tends to be about 25% less than what I make from my freelancing but if I ever want to settle down and have a more solid salary then I know I wont have to look far to get one.

On top of that, being a freelancer is something you can actually add to your CV (curriculum vitae). If you have a lot of experience as one and actually made a good income many employers will see this as a huge plus on a CV. Why? Well being a freelancer means you're ambitious, driven, smart, self going and that you don't limit yourself to what an employment office offers. This is a huge plus that can actually be a deciding factor if an employer has to choose between you and someone else!

So why choose freelancing? After reading this, why would you not choose to be a freelancer?

Fiverr - What it is and why your career as a freelancer starts with it

So as promised, here comes a "guide" of sorts on how anyone can become a freelancer today. Deadsimple for some, deadheard for others.

So what is Fiverr? Well basically fiverr was a website launched five years ago with the slogan "Browse. Buy. Done.". It's a marketplace like any other webshop, but instead of selling items such as iphones or t-shirts, it sells services.

Now I was among the first freelancers on the site, back in 2010. Back then, you would put up an ad on the site for some type of service that you offer in exchange for a fiver, 5$. Today the site is a lot different, you can make money up to several hundred USD for any service you offer via special addons to your small little five buck gig.

Fiverr has several million different services being offered right now and it doesn't matter if you need someone to post a flyer for you in another country or if you need some quickly made blog posts, they definately have at least one freelancer offering exactly what you're looking for.

Fiverr has more than us professional freelancers though. Girls (Mostly) willing to sing songs written by you, people willing to do voice-overs and such. Pretty much anything you could ever want that is digital is offered. So why should the rest of us make money there and not you?

So being a huge marketplace with millions of offers up many would assume that the competition is fierce and that it would be impossible for an amateur to get into the Fiverr game. This is one of the reasons why a lot of people are scared of freelancing. But the fact is that the freelance market is so large that people forget that the competition between freelancers is much smaller than one would imagine.

Lets take one of my largest freelance niches for example. I translate from Swedish to English and from English to Swedish. Now, there are only about nine million people worldwide that know Swedish fluently enough to work as translators Among them, about two million are too old to work. Another four-five million are already employeed in basic 8-5 jobs. Another 1 million are students. The remaining one million? 200k of them are sick and go on wellfare, another 100k are employeed in higher positions or are academics. Then we have a few hundred thousand that are unemployeed. Which leaves us with what, maybe 70-100k that could do what I do? Among those we have lazy people and people who want to get a job. Which leaves us with about 1000 people who can do what I can do.

Now here comes the funny part. I said people who know Swedish fluently but how many of those are actually good with language based skills like writing? One of the most popular areas of freelancing happens to be webdesign and graphic related skills.

Actually, I can count my competition on Swedish translation, at this moment there are 18 people including me who work with translation. There are about fifty more or so, but they consist of people who haven't put down any time to get any real customers so they don't count as real competition.

Now, how would I go forward? You see Fiverr is easy, you put up a gig about what you want to do for five dollars. Translate a few hundred words, design a logo, design a template for a blog or something like that. If you have any type of skill, you can most likely profit on it. Just check out the weird things that sell there, I mean really, there is a girl there doing a killing by recording herself for 15 seconds on webcam to say anything the customers want. I mean seriously, if she can make money (Mostly based on her looks is my guess) then so can you with your hobbies or skills.

Now remember to make your profile on Fiverr/Freelancer/Odesk look real. If you're not too shy, use a picture of you and don't worry, the odds of your friends ever finding your freelancer profile is zero, so far no one I know has ever found my profiles, mostly since they are too lazy to work as freelancers.

Now it actually is important to fill out your profile info. Make sure to list whatever skills you may have that the customers might need for their business. I mean really, just list everything you excel at.

Tip:Dumb the info down, don't use overly advanced terms to describe it, makes it much easier for your customer to understand. Say you design logos instead of "Graphical design" for example. On my old account, I literally had "I translate shit to Swedish" as part of my description.

Now for posting a Gig. In my opinion, it's best to check out your competition. Look at the best selling gigs in your field and see what they offer. Especially look at the gig descriptions since the best selling gigs probably have the best, most catchy descriptions.

Now, for pictures just go with anything, no one cares much about them unless you work with anything graphical, if it is then you MUST put up some work that you've done to showcase your skills.

Now on Fiverr, there is always the issue with "Gig video". It's basically a feature that allows you to upload a short video about your offer. Now most sit in their webcam and talk in a message. Some record themselves while doing whatever they offer.

Now, I already know most of you are trembling going "Oh but I am too shy to talk in a message, way too shy to show my face!" Yeah, I know. I have never shown my face on a webcam so trust me, if anyone knows a way around this it's me.

You see, you need a gig video. Or well, need is a strong word but basically it's been proven on Fiverr that having a video increased the sales chance with 200%. Now this might sound bogus but it's true, and I will now tell you why.

1) People will think of you as a more serious seller if you have ANY kind of video. Since a video means you've put time into your gig offer, more than the others who have just a basic text description.

2) Buyers can search specifically for sellers with video, so this means your offer wont even show if you don't have a video. Many buyers use this function to only get the most serious sellers.

I will go more into depth of how you can whip up a sales video with little work put into it but still all that extra sales value. That post will be released in the coming week so stay tuned for it! For now lets move on.

Now the last step is of course how we handle the competition. Basically, the trick is to crush the competitor by being better.

Now for this I will once again go on my own field, Swedish translations. Most sellers working with it on Fiverr will translate 500 words to or from Swedish for 5 dollars. The delivery time is usually between 5-10 days. Now, how can I beat that?

Alright, for starters, I know I can translate way more than 500 words in 30 minutes. In thirty minutes I can translate about 700 words if it's just a simple translation. Alright, so instead of translating 500 words like everyone else, I'll go with 600. This means I am already providing a larger quantitiy than my competition. But hold on, I am new to the field and the competitors have a ton of reviews and sales already. Lets make it 700 words, in other words, an estimate of 30 minutes of work per gig.

Alright so time limit. 5-10 days you say? Well sucks for you, I'll put it on three days and offer to have it completed within 24 hours in exchange for five dollars extra, a so called Gig Extra.

So as you can see, I am better and faster than my competition. Now, with a gig video and some examples of my work and any buyer will see that I am way more high-class than any other translator there. In other words, even though I have 0 sales and 0 reviews, I can guarantee that I will have made a sale within 24 hours.

Now to end the awfully long blog post, lets see how much this offer alone could earn me. Now at a minimum, the minimum amount of orders would be 1 a day. That means between 25-30 a month. 30x5 is 150$. Now about half of the customers tend to go for the Extra Fast gig extras, no matter what gig it's about. The end result would then land between 200-300$. That's for this gig, at a minimum. Now most freelancers offer about 5-10 gigs. They do some varied work since if you can translate, that means you can write for example. I don't only translate in Swedish I also write articles in Swedish for bloggers and such.

Now most people in for example translation, writing and such, they order more than one gig per placed order. My average for 600-800 words, tends to be three orders per customer. Now lets say I have 50 customers (I tend to get between 40-60 a month for translation). Lets say 20 of them place just one single order, and the rest place double orders. The first twenty garner me about 150$ for ten hours a work, that is 15$ an hour.

Now the remaining thirty order 2-3 translations per gig. Now, some will order Extra Fast, some wont. Lets say I get a total of 70 translations from those thirty, that's about 450$ for 30 hours of work. So a total of around 600$ for a total of around 40 hours of work. Now thats for one gig. I barely use Fiverr nowadays but when I did, I would have about four-six gigs running at the same time, work about three or four days a week for six-seven hours. For a total of about 2500-3500$  in monthly wage, if you can call it that. Now sure, we're not talking a high salary, but do keep in mind that I only worked half-time compared to a normal person and on top of that I would work directly from home. In my opinion, it's the best part of being a freelancer.

Now that should give you a good idea on how Fiverr works. If anything is unclear or if you want some more in-depth info on anything, don't hesitate to leave your opinion or question in the comment section below. Until then, enjoy. Please share this blog post if you found it interesting or helpful.

My life in freelancing part two!

So as promised, here comes part two! In this post I will cover more specifics of what I have done as a freelancer to show you some examples.

Now my favorite platform for freelancing is still Fiverr. When I got started there, a whole new era in my life started. I quickly gained myself a notority for being fierce against my competition while at the same time providing the BEST translation services for Swedish. Nowadays I am only use Fiverr part time to broaden my experience rather than making an income but I still hang there daily reading the amazing articles the dev team posts, keeping myself updated with the community and such.

Let me start out by explaining that being a freelancer isn't easy. It's one of the best professions there are but at the same time it's one of the roughest ones as well. The reason is simple, you're your own boss and your own employee. If you mess up, make a mistake or deliver a gig* too late, it's ALL ON YOU.

*Gig is the term freelancers use for "job". Start using it to sound more professional and experienced!

No one will be there to pick up the pieces, apologize to the furious customer or anything, it's all up to you and trust me, you will make mistakes. I have never delivered work too late though like many others do once in a while, I am too motivated by the pricetag on the article I am writing or translating to let myself be late with it.

I will be covering Fiverr a lot more in the near future since it's played a major part in my career so I can easily help anyone get started with it. Late today or tomorrow I will be releasing a "Getting Started" post specifically on the topic of Fiverr. I can also announce a sweet surprise for anyone whole follows the help in that post since I will next week release surfire methods on getting popular quickly on Fiverr!

Now being a freelancer is tough as I mentioned. So what you need to do is to make sure you're prepared for it.

You must be dedicated to your customers. Realise that you might have to postpone fun once in a while to get successful. It will all pay off though when you get to reap the fruits of your labor, cold hard cash that is!

In my career as a writer and translator I have managed to stumble upon some amazing things. You get to learn a ton of interesting things as a freelancer since you get in contact with so many different people in various fields. One of my first larger translation gigs for example was a medical research book on the topic of hair loss. Translating scientific terms is much tougher than I thought it'd be...

One of the best parts of being a freelancer is also the way the work pays off the more time you spend in the business. Making five dollars for a shorter article might sound dull to do but if you get happy customers the odds are high they will start paying you better and offer you much better work. For example, when I got started with translating for people in Fiverr, I one day translated a small 400 word blog post for someone. The day after, he contacted me and wanted me to translate the hairloss book I mentioned earlier. Sure, it took me about a week to translate but he also paid me nearly three hundred dollars to do it! So from doing a five dollar gig I suddenly rose to a three hundred one.

So once again the article is getting a tad long. I will leave it at this for now. I will probably keep writing about my career in the future and if there is anything about it you're curious about, don't hesitate to ask in the comment section below!

And as always, I'd appreciate it if you'd share the blog on social media! Only if you like the content so far though.