Most freelancers are looking for new ways to make more money. Fortunately, there are several strategies for freelancers to support their income, many of which go beyond the standard advice of “charge more” or “get more clients.“

Because while getting more clients is brilliant, what happens when you want to take a vacation? What if you’re already working 60 hours a week for clients and want to reduce your workload before burning yourself out?

Solution: diversify your income streams.

Focusing not just on increasing your freelance rates, but also on diversifying your income streams will help you free up time from client work while also putting money in your pocket.

8 ways to make more money you make as a freelancer

(Please note that this post contains affiliate links; however, I only recommend products that I have personally tried and like.) You won’t be charged anything extra if you use my link, but I may receive a commission from the creator. This allows me to keep creating free content for this website. Thank you so much for your help!)

#1 Offer retainer services

One of your most promising new income sources is one that you already have… Repeat clients!

Retainer services are a terrific way to ensure that you have a steady cashflow each month. This relieves part of the stress of always looking for new clients.

Find a strategy to make money on a regular basis for services that can be provided in the future. This might be:

• Monthly support calls/services
• Creating a retainer package (or more if needed) rather than writing one-off blog posts
• 10 hours of the services you provide – these can be copywriting, design, website building, and so on.

If you’re not sure what to include in your retainer, ask your clients what you can do for them on a regular basis.

#2 Launch smaller offers and services

It can be tough to take on more than one or two clients at a time if you generally work with clients on major projects, which limits your earning potential.

What if you could design a smaller, pop-up service that only takes a few hours to complete? Something you could do in your spare time while waiting for project approvals, or simply by adding a couple of extra hours to your job every now and then.

This allows you to take on more clients without having to start a completely new project every time.

Here are a few examples to get you started:

• A change to a sales page to boost conversions
• Designing or setting up landing pages for webinars or squeeze pages
• To attract more traffic, I offer my content marketing clients the option of having a year’s worth of social media material developed for their greatest blog posts
• Creating plug-and-play content upgrade templates for your customer

This type of service can be offered to your new clients, existing ones, your mailing list, and anyone interested in working with you but can’t afford the full package. You’ll also be able to provide clients with fast results, which you may include in your portfolio.

And who knows, maybe your pop-up service will be a hit and you’ll become known for it.

Consider something you can accomplish in a few hours that will benefit your clients, then present it to them.

#3 Offer consulting services

Do people ever ask you if they can ‘pick your brain’? Now is your time to turn that into service and profit from all of your brainpower.

If you’re a strategic thinker who enjoys solving problems, consulting could be a fantastic fit for you.

There are likely those members of your audience who don’t want everything done for them. They want to complete the work themselves, but they need some direction or reassurance along the way. This is where offering a consultation session might be really beneficial.

This is probably the simplest to set up of the bunch:

1. Set a time limit for your calls
2. Price it
3. Write a brief description or sales pitch for what attendees can expect during their session
4. Send an email to your list informing them that you’re now accepting booking sessions

Done and done!

Before you pick up the phone and give them your full attention, spend some time researching your clients. Give them an action plan or a recording of the call so they can take something away from it.

#4 Host a workshop or training series

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but you’re incredibly smart. So, how about putting your genius to work in a workshop or training series?

Hosting seminars is a fantastic strategy to grow your audience and position yourself as a subject matter expert.

And the greatest news is that you probably already have enough content for your workshop, whether it’s from your blog or from resources you’ve made for your clients.

There are a plethora of themes on which you could organize a workshop:

• Discuss a current trend or theory in your niche
• Teach others how to use a specific app or software, such as Paul Jarvis’ Chimp Essentials, which teaches you how to use MailChimp.
• Walk people through your process for something – as Spruce Road does in these lunch & learn courses on streamlining your business
• Teach a new skill, like this content creation workshop offered by Frenzr, a Montreal-based social media agency.

Depending on where your audience’s location, your workshops can be held online or in person. It makes sense to hold something in person if you’re seeking to establish a local presence and communicate with your community face-to-face.

There are many ways to make money from your workshops:

1. Charge for it
2. Offer a free training in exchange for an upsell on your services (this is the format of a lot of sales webinars)
3. Include affiliate links in your workshops
4. Build your list, and then make offers for them to work with you afterward

#5 Sell ebooks

Consider putting your wealth of information into an ebook if you enjoy writing.

Having an ebook available can instantly improve your credibility. It looks pretty damn good to be able to put ‘author’ in your LinkedIn profile.

Writing a book is obviously a huge undertaking. However, you don’t need to compose a 300-page epic to see results. Create an ebook that’s clear, succinct, and helps your readers achieve their goals. You can certainly do it in under 300 pages!

And, once again, you may already have a lot of content to include!

You can sell your ebooks on Amazon or through a platform like Gumroad on your own website. Alternatively, you could use your ebook as a lead magnet to grow your email list by making it available for free.

#6 Set a tripwire

Have you ever gotten a new pitch to acquire another resource after signing up for a free checklist or guide?

That’s a tripwire.

A tripwire is a low-cost, time-limited offer. It’s designed to motivate your new subscribers to act fast.

The idea is that if someone buys from you once, they’ll be more inclined to buy from you again later. So, you offer them a substantial discount on one of your books, courses, workshops, or services hoping they’d become lifelong raving fans!

Although it’s a low-cost offer, adding one of your books, services, or courses to a tripwire could significantly enhance conversions.

#7 Create an online course

Sharing your skills and expertise through an online course is a terrific way to generate a consistent income. In the last few years, the online learning business has exploded. Every day, people are looking to gain new skills that will benefit their careers or businesses.

If a subject or topic comes up frequently for your clients or audience, it’s definitely a smart place to start when creating an online course.

For example, if your audience is continuously asking you how you obtain such a flawless Instagram grid, you may create a course that teaches them exactly how you do it.

Once you’ve decided on a topic, make a list of everything you want to cover and how you’ll present it. Teachable is a brilliant platform for hosting your course that doesn’t require any technical or coding knowledge on your part.

Online courses can cost anywhere from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. It depends on the level of knowledge you bring to the course, as well as the quantity of one-on-one advice and help you provide during the course.

#8 Become an affiliate

Placing affiliate links around your site is a definite method to turn off visitors. Affiliate marketing, on the other hand, may be gold for you and your audience if done strategically, intentionally, and transparently.

The following is a non-scammy affiliate marketing guide:

1. Choose products, courses, or software that you’ve tried and enjoyed, and that you’d suggest to a friend. Seriously, if you wouldn’t recommend it to your mother, don’t promote it.
2. Make content that describes why you use it, what you like about it, and why your audience should start using it as well.
3. Always state that you use affiliate links somewhere on your website. If you don’t, you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.

Michelle from Makingsenseofcents.com earns over $50,000 every month with affiliate marketing. She offers a step-by-step online course that teaches her strategies.

Final Thoughts

Each of these ways for freelancers to get extra money requires a different amount of effort.

The upfront labor for new services or consulting is minimal, but you’ll have to devote the hours each time you have a new client.

If you choose one of the ‘passive income’ options, such as writing a book or creating a course, you’ll have to put in a lot of time upfront to create the content and set up the sales funnels.

Putting a large focus on growing your audience and your list will ultimately increase your conversions and your earnings.

Question: Which of these tactics appeals to you the most for your freelance business? Are you going to give it a shot? Let me know what you think in the comments section.