Most freelancers make the same rookie mistake, resulting in you being paid a lot less than you’re worth. Make this year your biggest year yet. Learn how to avoid them, charge greater prices, and make more money freelancing.
Starting a freelance side hustle is a viable alternative. It might even become a full-time job when you figure out how to make more money freelancing; it did for me!
Unfortunately, many people who start freelancing are offered so much bad advice on financial matters.
Here’s how you can make more money freelancing in 2022 in an attempt to improve your freelance business and avoid the mistakes I made.
Specialize in one thing
If you want to make more money freelancing, you’ll have to abandon your jack-of-all-trades persona and focus on one niche.
I started making more money freelancing after I focused on freelance- and money-related writing and solely looked for those types of clients.
Because my writing brand has become known for freelance, business, money, and lifestyle design, I’ve closed writing deals in a very short amount of time. I don’t bother looking for anything outside of those categories.
This may look counterintuitive, but it’s actually strategic. Clients are willing to pay more for professionals and specialists. This is true both in the corporate environment and when freelancing.
Don’t quote potential clients right off the bat
I’ve tried a variety of methods to grow my freelance business. One of my best-kept secrets is that if a prospect doesn’t ask for my pricing right away, I don’t disclose them.
In fact, I occasionally put the ball in their court just to test the water. I’ve been astonished by clients who wanted to pay me three times what I would have quoted!
Speaking of which, if a prospect responds with a low-ball offer, I know it’s time to stop wasting my time.
Learn about job boards
Back in 2015, I explored every major freelance marketplace board there was. As a result, clients wanted to give me poor wages for my service.
I believed $4 for a 500-word piece was reasonable at the time. After all, we’ve all heard phrases like “you have to work your way up” and “you take whatever you can get at first.” Plus, we’ve been told that talents like writing don’t pay well, so when we see modest rates at the start of our freelance journey, we assume everything is fine.
Again, this relates to self-esteem. Nobody else will value our effort if we don’t. Do you want to make more money as a freelancer? Every day, stand up for your worth.
As a side note, this isn’t to claim that all writing job sites are ineffective. In fact, if you know where to look, you can find several that are rather good. For example, I’ve had great writing jobs from sites like ProBlogger, The Freelance Writer’s Den, and FreelanceWriting.com’s Morning Coffee Newsletter. You can also utilize IFTTT to receive freelance gigs through job boards. Some great new online job boards, such as Fiverr, allow you to offer your services worldwide. And don’t be fooled by the name—people will pay far more than $5 if you can provide them with exceptional services.
In fact, this warning should say that 1) not all job boards are created equal, and 2) you should quit spending your time on the ones that pay too little.
Final Thoughts
If you’re serious about your freelance side hustle goals and want to make more money freelancing this year, build a plan to:
- Niche down on a single specialty. You can never be too specialized. The more work you do, the more you can charge for it.
- Raise your service fees. Stop quoting low rates out of fear that the client will reject your offer. Everything is up for negotiation.
- Look outside of job boards. They may be necessary to get your initial client list, but leveraging your network, as well as referrals and repeat customers, will always pay handsomely.
