What Is Freelancing? A Complete Guide to Freelance Jobs in 2024

Freelancing is a self-employed profession that allows individuals to work independently without being formally affiliated with a company. The freelance model offers the flexibility to work remotely, often from home, while still earning a livelihood online. This can result in a higher income than traditional employment opportunities. Given the level of autonomy and independence that comes with this profession, it is no surprise that freelancing is a popular choice for many individuals seeking a non-traditional work environment.

Most of us know that freelancing is an independent job or independent profession. Freelancing is well known as a free profession in our country. That's why many people think that if you can earn money by freelancing at home without working under someone else, why should you just work under someone else? In fact, today's post must be read from beginning to end to get a clear idea about whether freelancing is actually a free profession or not.

There are many misconceptions among the people of our country about freelancing. Many people are using that misconception to open various coaching centers on the pretext of teaching freelancing to the common people and are grabbing millions of rupees by giving knowledge about freelancing only in name.

You may have heard a lot about freelancing before. Maybe out of curiosity, you have tried to find out what freelancing is from Google. If you  want to know more about freelancing, then reading today's post will clear all your ideas about it.

In today's post we will discuss the following topics in detail about freelancing-

1. What is Freelancing?
2. What is Freelancer?
3. What are the benefits of freelancing?
4. What are the disadvantages of freelancing?
5. How much money can be earned by freelancing?
6. How to build a freelancing career?
7. How to learn freelancing?
8. How to start freelancing?
9. How to get work in the freelancing market?
10. How to understand the remuneration?

To know more about freelancing or  before starting a freelancing career , you must have a clear idea about all the above. Otherwise your hard earned money can be wasted by any unscrupulous coaching center. So without delay  let's know about all the above points in detail.

What is Freelancing?

Freelancing is simply called freelancing to earn money from home by contracting work with various clients online and completing the work online.  You may   not be clear about freelancing yet. I am trying to present this matter more simply.

Usually a person submits his CV to get a job in a company after completing his education. After looking at the CV and after the interview, the company hires him if he is qualified. Then the person gets a fixed monthly salary by performing regular routine work in the company from 9 am to 5 pm.

In the same way as freelancing,  a person applies for jobs in various online freelancing marketplaces  to get work in a field that they have experience in or are good at  . The client then verifies his qualifications and hires him to do the work if deemed fit. For this reason,  freelancing is called a type of job.

But  there are many differences between a normal job and a freelancing job. In any normal job you have to work at fixed times every day. Otherwise you will not be able to keep your job. Also, if you can't do the job properly, sometimes you have to scold the boss.

But  in the case of freelancing career, there is no such rule of thumb. Here you can work independently. You can work when you want, and if you don't want to, you can refrain from work. This is basically why  freelancing is called free profession and  most people prefer to do freelancing.

But  to succeed in a freelancing career, you can't work too freely. Because you will never become a good freelancer if you work in freelancing  with the attitude of working independently or when you want  . The more time you  spend on the freelancing marketplace and keep in regular contact with clients,  the more income you can earn freelancing. Also, if you work as a time maintainer rather than a freelancer, the client will feel more comfortable working with you. 

How do freelancers work?

If you understand how freelancers work or  how freelancers get work, it will become clear to you what freelancing is . See the image below- 

Suppose you are a freelancer and I have a garment company. Since my company is new most people don't know anything about my company. So I want to make a website in the name of my garments, so that people can know about my company through that website.

In this case, many types of materials will be required to create a website. First of all, a logo must be created in the name of the garment. Then create a website with the company name along with the logo. Along with that, website SEO should be done so that people can search and see the website on Google. Then my company needs a logo designer, a web designer and an SEO expert to create a website.

Now I will first look for a good logo designer in various freelancing marketplaces to create my company website  . Looking for a logo designer I  will post a description of my logo design on the freelancing market. Then after seeing the post, various  freelancers will apply to do the work. After looking at the profiles of those who apply, I will contact whoever I think is a good logo designer. 

Then I will give the job to the logo designer after discussing how much he will do, how he will do it, how much time he will take to do it, etc. Then when he submits to me after doing that job properly, I will pay him.

Moreover, when you  regularly work on different freelancing marketplaces, you will automatically get to know different people and businesses, so different clients will contact you directly through your profile for work. When you  can become a freelancer at this level,  it will not be a problem for you to earn lakhs per month by freelancing.  Basically this is how a  freelancer earns money from home by working online.

What is Freelancing in simple terms?

From the above discussion and analysis, it can be said that earning money by working online through contracts with various individuals and organizations online using one's talent and experience is called freelancing.

Moreover, from the above discussion it is also understood that  although freelancing is a free profession but  in freelancing there is no opportunity to work freely to improve one's position and earn more money. The more time and effort  a  freelancer can put into various freelancing marketplaces, the more money that freelancer  can earn freelancing. And those who  consider freelancing as a free profession and work independently, they  will never be able to achieve success in freelancing. 

What are the benefits of freelancing?

• The biggest advantage of freelancing is the freedom. There is no accountability for work and there is no opportunity to be scolded by the boss.
• You can do freelancing at any time.
• No cash investment is required.
• You can start working with the help of a computer and internet.
• No need to worry about going to office.
• You can work according to your own schedule.
• You have no boss. You are your own boss.
• Freelancing can be done along with employment.
• It is possible to earn much more than a normal job.
• There is no work limit. More work more money.
• Multiple payments are available per month. Which is not possible to get from any offline job.
• It is possible to earn more money by spending less time.
• Can work at home. No office required. 
• No investment is required.
• Use your skills properly.

What are the disadvantages of freelancing?

Just like every job or job has its downsides,  freelancing also  has its downsides. So  before entering the freelancing career it is better to know the disadvantages of freelancing. If you don't succeed after embarking on a freelancing career without knowing the reason, you may find yourself in financial trouble.

Disadvantages of Freelancing-

• There is no job security or guarantee. Sometimes it happens, you don't get a single job for a whole month.
• You may have to compete with other freelancers.
• You may have to work hard to get clients in the beginning.
• You must constantly improve your skills.
• Your portfolio needs to be excellent.
• Most people don't understand freelancing and don't consider freelancing as a respectable job.
• You have to do your own work. There is no opportunity to give it to others.
• There are some difficulties of payment in our country.
• There is no direct contact with clients.
• If you work you will get money but if you don't work you will not get any money.

How much money can be earned by freelancing?

How much money you can earn by freelancing will depend on your skills. The better the quality of your work, the more work you will get in the freelancing market and the more work you get, the more money you can earn. Here you have to increase the amount of earning dollars through work by proving your skills.

Generally freelancers earn money through hourly, daily and weekly contracts. In this case, the better the position in the freelancing market, the more work he gets and the more money he can earn.

The image above is taken from the popular freelancing marketplace Upwork. Upwork's most popular freelancer is Mr. Amanur Rahman. He works in web design and development. See above image, he has done about 202 jobs from Upwork Freelancing Market so far. He currently charges $50 per hour for work. In this case, if he does a job for 5 hours, then he will get 250 dollars  for 5 hours.

Moreover, in the above image you can see the picture of two more popular freelancers. They also charge $50 per hour for their work. How much you charge per hour, or how much you get paid for a job, will depend on your popularity and the quality of your work. In general, the more you can prove your worth in the freelancing market, the more money you can earn freelancing.

There are many good freelancers in our country who are earning Rs 3 to 5 lakh per month. Moreover, there are many good freelancers in our neighboring country India, who earn 4/5 lakh rupees per month.

How to start freelancing?

You already know that you can earn money online from home by freelancing. So to do online freelancing work you need to have a computer or laptop and internet connection. 

Then the most important thing that will be required for freelancing is that you must have the skills to work in a particular field. Now ask yourself, what is a job you are good at that you can easily do if someone asks you to do it? If you have experience, skill and willingness to work in any job, you can earn smart amount monthly by freelancing. You can't do freelancing if you don't have skills in something.

If you don't have experience in something, then you need to learn something well first. As far as job learning is concerned, I would say, whatever you are interested in doing and what you think you can learn easily, you must learn that job. Spend 6 months to 1 year learning on the job. 

You might be thinking that spending 1 year freelancing is not possible for you. So let me tell you straight, bro freelancing is not for you. Try doing something else without thinking about freelancing. There is no obligation to do freelancing for a living. If you think that you will start freelancing today without knowing the work and start earning from tomorrow, then earning from freelancing will be just a dream for you. 

Think in common sense, a person in our country spends 18 to 20 years studying from class one to doing honors/masters with the hope of getting a job. Competing in the job market with millions of people to get a job with a salary of 20/30 thousand after 20 years of education. Then if you survive that tough competition, you will get a monthly salary of 20/30 thousand by working from 9 am to 5 pm every day. 

If a person can work for 20 years to earn 20/30 thousand rupees job then why don't you spend minimum 1 year freelancing to earn 50 thousand to 1 lakh rupees per month? So as I said before, if you don't have that kind of patience then freelancing is not for you.

Freelancing for whom?

• Those who have experience in minimum one job.
• Those who have great interest in learning work.
• Those who are not greedy for cash income (today come tomorrow income party).
• Those who do not have excessive greed for money.
• Those who have good English skills.
• Those who know how to communicate at the international level.

I think  you are clear from above discussion how to start freelancing . You should know one thing clearly, there is no easy or shortcut way to earn money online by freelancing. You have to earn money in exchange for work by freelancing. So, if you want to earn money by freelancing, first you need to be proficient in one subject. Your skills will pave the way to earn money from freelancing.

How to build a freelancing career?

Newbies might be a little surprised to hear the term freelancing career. Nothing surprising here. Millions of people around the world are now earning millions of rupees a month by taking freelancing as a career instead of joining various jobs. There are lakhs of freelancers in our country too who are earning more than lakhs of rupees per month by taking freelancing as a career. I have already discussed the amount of income that can be earned by freelancing.

In order to make freelancing as a career, the following points need to be fixed:

1. You have to decide your goals

First you need to decide if you want to work full time freelancing as a career or part time freelancing alongside a job or other career. If you want to be a successful freelancer you should choose freelancing as a full time job. On the other hand, if you want to earn extra money through freelancing by using your talent in addition to the job, you need to take out some fixed time to work. If you try to freelancing whenever you want without maintaining time, you cannot expect to get much success in freelancing.

2. What topics do you work on?

You need to first decide what you can do freelancing or what you have experience and expertise in. If you are not experienced in any subject, then you have to decide on your own which subject to learn and which subject you are interested in learning. When deciding on a job, ask yourself, what do you like to do or are you interested in, then you will get the answer yourself.

However, if you do freelancing with three jobs, you will not be able to make much profit. You can choose your job subject by considering the following points.

• Work on a topic (niche) that is in demand in the freelancing market. Because if you work on a topic that is not in demand, you will not find work in the freelancing marketplace.
• Work on the work in which you have skills and experience.
• Work on topics that you love to research or learn new things about.
• Work on the things you never get tired of working on.

Consider the above four points and decide your niche for freelancing. Especially before determining the topic, determine the topic by verifying whether the demand for the topic (niche) is there in the freelancing marketplace or not. If you work on any topic, you can earn more money by freelancing, I will discuss it at the end of the post.

3. Do you work on any freelancing sites?

There are thousands of freelancing marketplaces online where different organizations (clients) look for freelancers to do their work. You must work on such popular freelancing marketplaces. Because popular marketplaces have more clients, there is a possibility of getting more work.

If you work efficiently and faithfully on one or two of the popular freelancing marketplaces, you can quickly increase your popularity on that marketplace. And once you prove yourself on popular sites, no one can stop you from succeeding in freelancing.

Maintaining credibility and quality of work is very important in the freelancing market. Because if a job well done is supplied to the client with confidence, and if the client likes your work, clients will offer you work again and again. Then you don't have to worry about getting a job.

4. Popular Freelancing Marketplaces

Among the thousands of marketplaces online, the following 5 freelancing marketplaces are currently the most popular. You can do freelancing by creating an account on this marketplace.

1. Fiverr - Fiverr.Com

Fiver is currently the most popular freelancing marketplace in the world. Most of the freelancers work on fiver. There are many high value projects available on Fiver starting from $5. Web design, web development, graphics design, logo design, voice recording, article writing, digital marketing, social marketing and other types of work are available on fiver.

2. Upwork - Upwork.Com

Upwork is another popular freelancing marketplace in the world. It first started operations under the name Odesk. In 2015, the site changed its name to Odesk and merged with another popular freelancing platform 'Elance' to name Upwork. Upwork offers jobs at fixed and hourly rates. PayPal, Payoneer and Bank Transfer methods are available to withdraw money from here.

3. Freelancer.Com - Freelancer.Com

Freelancer.com is a premier online job marketplace offering fixed price and hourly rate projects. A lot of online jobs are also available here. Compared to Fiver and Upwork, the number of freelancers is less. Earnings can be withdrawn from Freelancer.com through PayPal, Skrill, Pioneer and Bank Transfer.

4. Guru - Guru.Com

More than 3 million people around the world work in this marketplace. There are various job offers available here including web design, web development, graphics design, logo design, article writing. This site offers both fixed price and hourly jobs on site. There is an opportunity to use PayPal, Pioneer and Bank Transfer methods to withdraw money from here.

5. Toptal - Toptal.Com

Toptool is another popular freelancing site. This marketplace has gained a lot of popularity recently. Currently more than 20 lakh people are working in this marketplace. A lot of online jobs are also available here. Like other marketplaces almost all types of in-demand jobs are available here. From here you can withdraw the income through PayPal, Pioneer and Bank Transfer.

What to do with freelancing sites?

To work on any of the above freelancing marketplaces, you first need to create a profile or account. Then you need to fine tune your profile. Create a complete profile with what you know, what skills and experience you have, your social media profile, your education qualifications, your website address, your personal contact details and photos.

Also, write down how you work for clients, how quickly you complete a job after someone gives you a job, and any previous work you've done. Especially if you have previously created a website for an organization or company, it will be more beneficial for you if you share the link of that website.

The better you can build a portfolio that combines your work experience and type of work, the easier it will be for a client to be interested in hiring you. But remember, no lie can be resorted to in hopes of getting a job. You will never succeed in freelancing by being clever.

A freelancer earns money by doing freelancing work through following 7 steps-

Step 1: Check your skills: Do you know? What jobs are you interested in? Do you have any work experience? These questions will help you decide what kind of work you can do in the freelancing marketplace. Or what work is right for you? You have to make this decision yourself.

Step 2: Creating Profile on Freelancing Website: Now you have to create your freelancing account on any or all of the above mentioned freelancing websites. 

Step 3: Portfolio Creation: In the portfolio you need to write your personal information, your work experience, past projects etc. A good portfolio will help you get the job.

Step 4: Searching and Bidding for Projects: Now you need to search for work from the freelancing market you have created. You will find work very easily if you search on common freelancing sites. In this case you need to apply for the project and inform about the cost of your work.

Step 5: Waiting: After applying for the job you have to wait. Because many freelancers will apply to get a project. In this case the client verifies everything and assigns the work to whomever he deems qualified. If you are new to freelancing and have little experience, you can do small projects instead of big projects. Then you will get easy work.

Step 6: Completing the task: You will try to complete the task as quickly as possible. Because most freelancing marketplace clients want to get their work done quickly.

Step 7: Receiving Payment: Finally when you successfully submit the work to the client, if the client likes your work, he will pay you. Also, if he is happy with your work, he will give you 5 stars which will make it much easier for you to get the next job.

How to learn freelancing? Where to do the freelancing course?

There are many types of business in our country about teaching freelancing courses and freelancing. Due to the misconception that most people have about freelancing, some coaching centers are making freelancing courses and making millions of dollars by teaching freelancing to common people.

There really is no such thing as a freelancing course. No course is required for freelancing. Freelancing requires you to have expertise in one or the other. If you have expertise in any subject, you can start freelancing on your own by opening an account on various freelancing marketplaces.

You don't need to take any freelancing courses to learn how to create an account on different marketplaces, how to organize a portfolio, how to communicate with clients and how to apply for jobs. You can learn all these topics online from various blogs and YouTube.

The bottom line is that  any job skill you need to build a freelancing career or work in freelancing. In this case, if you do not have skills in any subject, then you can acquire skills by taking a course in that subject from any institution.

For example, if you have skills in video editing, web design and development, graphics design and content writing etc., you can earn money by freelancing yourself without any course. But if you can't do all these tasks or any other tasks, then you need to learn a job to do freelance work.

So you understand that you don't need to take a freelancing course to earn money by freelancing. To start freelancing one must first learn any job.

What to learn for freelancing?

If you have skills in any subject, then you can increase your skills in that subject by taking courses from any institution. But if you don't have working skills in any subject, you can choose one or two profitable topics for freelancing and make yourself an expert by taking a course in that subject.

The image above is from Fiver Marketplace. Fiver Marketplace has demand for various topics including graphic design, digital marketing, article writing, video editing, web development and lifestyle. Moreover, every such job is in demand in all types of freelancing marketplaces.

For freelancing you can take courses in any of the following subjects-

Graphics Design:  Almost all companies and organizations need different types of graphics design including making different types of banners, making logos. So you can take a course in graphic design from any institution.

Digital Marketing:  Digital Marketing is the process of selling products or services online/internet using digital media and digital technology. And all the types or methods we use for marketing are digital marketing. There is a huge demand for such jobs in various freelancing marketplaces.

Article Writing: If you have writing skills or previous experience in writing blogs, you can enhance your writing experience by taking a course on article writing. The various freelancing marketplaces are always looking for quality content writers.

Web Design and Development: Nowadays every company and every organization needs a website. So if you become proficient in this subject you will have no shortage of work in the freelancing market.

Video Editing and Animation:  Video editing and animation are priced in both online and offline markets. If you learn this job, you can earn a lot of money by freelancing.

Is knowing English mandatory for freelancing?

In fact, to earn money by freelancing, you have to communicate in English with clients in all types of freelancing marketplaces. Because most of the clients of the freelancing market are from outside Of your country. So since they don't know your mother language, there is no other way to communicate or chat with them except English.

However, there are some topics that you don't need to know perfect English for freelancing. You can communicate with buyers only if you have a basic knowledge of English in your assigned subject.

For example, working in graphic design, web design and video editing and animation will work even if you don't know English well. You can do freelancing only if you have basic knowledge of English on this topic. But you cannot work in the freelancing market if you do not know full English in working with digital marketing and article writing.

Freelancing FAQs

Conclusion 

What is freelancing, how to learn freelancing  and how to build a freelancing career and how to learn freelancing and earn from home online, hopefully you have fully understood this. If someone misinterprets this, you can tell them about freelancing from now on.

If you have any disagreement or any kind of query with our writing on freelancing, you can let us know by commenting in the comment section of our blog. Also don't forget to give your opinion if you like our post. If you like the post, please share it on Facebook.