How to Get Your First Freelance Job? (My 6 Secrets!)

Online Freelancing seems to be the new kind of normal job today. Now, as the growing interest surges, it is becoming harder to land on your first online gig. If you’re still a beginner, here are six secrets to help you get your first freelance job!

This blog post was written by Jerico Saquing, a fellow personal finance blogger and a freelance writer. He’s the founder of the Peso Hacks blog and Facebook Page. In his blog, he shares detailed guides on ways to save, make money, and how to work at home. He’s currently blogging while working as a freelance content writer. Check out his blog if you want to read more interesting articles about freelancing! 

How hard it is to get your first freelance job?

EXTREMELY HARD!

Yes, you heard that right…

It’s excruciatingly hard that even some freelancers struggle to get their first jobs for months and even after spending hundreds of connects!

But there’s some good news! You don’t have to experience what most newbies have. You don’t even need to quit freelancing just because it’s difficult like some others.

We’ve already gone through the trouble of doing so for YOU! Getting your first freelance job isn’t hard if you know these 6 secrets. These secrets are what I uncovered after being a freelancer for a year and a half now. It’s from my experience and research.

And in this article, I’m going to REVEAL them all to you! 

But before that, let me give you a little bit of background about me. I’m Jerico Saquing, a full-time freelance content writer for 1 and a half years now. I’m also the founder of Peso Hacks which is a personal finance blog. 

Before freelancing, I was a fresh graduate of business administration. I had ZERO experience and skills. Not even a connection anywhere. Basically, I’m like most newbies, but I started even lower. 

You see, unlike most freelancers, they at least had some experience working usually in the BPO industry. But even so, that didn’t stop me from becoming a full-time freelancer earning upwards of around P40K a month!

If I could do it, so can you especially if you already have some experience. But to avoid the same mistakes most newbies make, you need to know these secrets.

After this, make sure to read the common myths about getting your first freelance job below! With that said, I’ll not waste anymore of your time, let’s get down to the secrets!

Secret #1: Create Your Profile in Different Freelance Platform

This one isn’t a secret. However, I see a lot of newbie freelancers doing this one CRUCIAL mistake!

What is it you ask? It’s giving up after signing up on 2-3 freelance platforms. It’s easy to give up after applying for jobs and then waiting for a whole month only to get no response! 

But let me tell you something, when you’re just starting out, you need to give yourself a huge boost right off the bat. And the only way to do this is by signing up to at least 5-10 freelancing sites. 

Just think about it, the more places you make yourself available online, the higher the chances of you LANDING your first client! 

Personally, when I first read about online freelancing in 2018, I signed up to about 5 or more freelancing platforms. Fortunately, after a few weeks, I got my first freelance job on UpWork! How? I’ll tell you in this next secret…

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Secret #2: Make Your Profile Stand Out!

Let me ask you something. When you search for something in Lazada, what do you first notice? The title, picture and the description, right? 

The same principle is true in freelancing. Clients will always be attracted at the profiles who STAND OUT the most. They don’t have time to check all the profiles and the proposals, so they skim. And the ones who catches their eyes usually have the following: 

• On-point job title. Most freelance platforms such as UpWork and Onlinejobs.ph have this. If your job title is as generic as say “Virtual Assistant”, you’ll be ignored. Try to fill in this sentence “I can help you _______ with _______. 
• Select a professional photo as your profile picture.
• Keep your description as short and sweet. Try to add some testimonials at the first sentences even from your old jobs.
  
  

Those are the things I did to stand out from the crowd and get my first freelance job! In fact, I didn’t even apply for my first job at UpWork. The client just asked me directly to apply to the job post which I did. Then I wrote a sample article and he was satisfied enough to offer me a job!

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Secret #3: Take Advantage of LinkedIn and other Social Media Sites

If you don’t use LinkedIn, think of it as Facebook but for work. This platform focuses on connecting employers and employees through their website.

Personally, I got some messages from clients here looking for writers. Although I haven’t gotten any client in here, who knows, you might!

So if you already have a LinkedIn profile but haven’t gotten any leads, here are my tips:

• Connect with people from your industry. As much as possible, connect with 500!
• Optimize your profile.
• Join groups related to your niche. For instance, you can join digital marketing groups if you’re a social media manager. This is how some freelancers get clients!
• Be active, engage with other freelancers and post articles as well!
  
  

There are a lot more ways you can do to optimize your LinkedIn profile to get your first freelance client. But the important thing is to learn how to use these as well as other social media sites to your advantage.

You should also join Facebook groups focused on freelancing such as UpWork Philippines, Online Filipino Freelancers, and The Underwearkers.

Also, If you don’t have a Facebook page yet for your freelance services, make one today! This can serve as an online portfolio especially if you’re a Social Media Manager.

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Secret #4: Curate High-Quality Samples

What’s the worst thing than having samples? Bad quality ones! I’m talking about designs, articles, or pieces that were created just for the sake of it.

Yes it’s important to have samples but they need to be high-quality otherwise there’s no point in having them at all. 

Just think about it, what do clients care about most when hiring people: your diploma or your samples?

Most of the time, they don’t even ask for our diplomas. They don’t care about how many years we spent in college. Instead, they care about how YOU can be an asset to the business. And your samples are the perfect demonstration for that if you don’t have experience yet.

But where can I get samples if my work is accounting? 

This is where free work comes in. If you absolutely have no samples, you can try doing some accounting work for your friend or family’s business even for free! In exchange, you can get the samples and you can even ask for testimonials!

Otherwise, you can write guest posts and upload your samples to your social media accounts for clients to see them. 

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Secret #5: To Make Money, You Need to Spend Money

No, this isn’t the time where clients will ask you to buy a software first so you can work. That’s probably a scam.

In this secret, I’m talking about your advertising efforts. Yes, you’re essentially advertising yourself as a business so you need to start thinking of your efforts as investments.

And we both know that businesses need capital! But the good thing about freelancing is you don’t need to spend much if you know what you’re doing.

For example, there’s an option to buy a monthly subscription in UpWork called “Freelancer Plus”. Here are the features:

Upgrading to this is going to cost you $14.99/month but it’s definitely worth it if you can find your first freelance job in 1 month! 

Personally, I just spend money on ‘connects’ in UpWork but I heard that this worked well with other freelancers! If you don’t know what ‘connects’ are, this is what we’re going to talk about in the next section.

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Secret #6: Make Every ‘Connect’ Count

If you didn’t know, connects are the virtual currency in UpWork that you can use to submit proposals to jobs. UpWork used to give free connects every month to every freelancer. 

But recently, they started charging for connects for as low as $1.50/10 connects to $12/80 connects. For new freelancers though, they give free 20 connects.

But you’ll realize that this isn’t nearly enough when applying for jobs. Personally, I used around less than 60 connects to get my first freelance job. But as I gained more clients and experience, I got more efficient in my proposal-sending technique.

Here’s how I made every connect count which you can use to get your first freelance job:

• Short and sweet proposals are typically what works best. You don’t want to read lengthy sentences and so do clients!
• Be direct to the point right off the bat! If possible, start your sentence with what you could offer. 
• Bid competitively. This means knowing your rate and the industry standard. Don’t bid too low or too high. 
• Use the client’s first name in your proposal. For other platforms, it will be visible. But in UpWork, you may have to dig deep. My strategy is to look at their reviews of past freelancers. They usually mention the client’s name.
• Only apply to jobs that you’re ABSOLUTELY sure you can do! Or if not, it’s something that you’re immensely interested in. Otherwise, you’re just wasting each other’s time.
  
  

Here’s an example of this in action: 

The key here is to know what the client wants, and write your proposal centered on the idea of how you can help your client achieve their desired result.

Do this for every proposal and I can guarantee that you’ll be noticed by clients even if you have ZERO reviews and experience! Lastly, this works not just in UpWork but anywhere you submit a proposal. 

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Myths About Getting Your First Freelance Client

I’m sure you’ve heard some discouraging things about getting your first client. They can be as negative as “Newbies don’t stand a chance.” Here’s my tip: forget all about them!

To help you with this, here are the common myths and the truth behind them: 

Myth #1: You need to have considerable skills and experience to get your first freelance job.

Fact: Everybody starts at the bottom even the most experienced freelancers. Instead of focusing on your lack of experience, try to highlight the skills that you can bring to the table. 

Personally, I was a fresh graduate when I started working online. That means I have ZERO experience both online and offline! Yet I was hired after just a month of applying to jobs. How? By being proactive and not being afraid of my lack of skills and experience.

To help you more, think of it like this: “What do the successful freelancers have that I don’t.” Chances are, the only difference they have from you is experience. 

Myth #2: You should have the best equipment and a fast internet connection.

Fact: To tell you the truth, I’m still borrowing the laptop I borrowed from my girlfriend to get my first freelance job! It’s now more than a year and a half since I started freelancing but I still use it.

Aside from that, we probably also have the slowest internet connection on the planet. In the freelancing world, 3 MBPS is not even the bare minimum. However, it definitely helped that my specialty is writing so I don’t need a fast internet connection.

But if you’re still doubting whether or not you can really get your first freelance job with your equipment, I’ve seen stories of successful freelancers starting in internet cafes! Yes, I’ve even seen one ESL tutor on an internet cafe with a makeshift tarpaulin background on her back to cover everything.

Myth #3: You need to have a lot of skills.

Fact: At first, this makes sense. If you have more skills to offer, you can cater to more clients, right? Well, this can be the case but this is not a good strategy to have. 

If you’re a virtual assistant, knowing something at a lot of things is basically their job. But if you want to be paid PREMIUM, you need to have a niche.

A niche is a particular skill that you have cultivated greatly to be superior at it. Going back to our example, instead of just being a VA, why not be an Amazon Virtual Assistant? 

By doing so, you can charge higher rates because you’re an expert in something! And when clients are looking for someone to help them set up Amazon stores, they will pick you against others who just know a little bit about it. 

Final Thoughts 

As you can see, getting your first freelance job isn’t as difficult as you think if you know and apply these secrets!

But most importantly, you just need to be proactive and continue looking for new ways to promote yourself even after getting your first freelance job! This is how I get jobs easily even if there are a lot more freelancers now.

Go ahead and get your first freelance job! But if you want to know more tips, here’s How to Work at Home in the Philippines (Even as a Newbie!)

Jerico is the founder of the blog Peso Hacks. In his blog, he shares hacks (blog posts) about saving money, making money and freelancing! He’s also a freelance content writer! When he’s not writing, you can usually find him playing games, reading books and watching Anime. 

Did you enjoy this post? You might want to check out 6 Important Tips on Getting Long-Term Freelance Clients!

Also, here’s a list of online freelancing jobs you can do with the average income you’ll potentially earn.