How to earn full time income working as freelancer in Nigeria

gbenga oguntayo 05:43 - 23 April 2018

One of the biggest questions I’ve been asked is if its ever possible for anyone to actually make something tangible out of their Upwork careers,or actually,their freelance careers? I always tell them it’s very possible.

You might ask if I have been able to do any of the tips I am sharing with you here, and I can categorically tell you I am speaking from experience. So why not join me as I share some tips that will help you get the most out of your freelance careers in no time.

Work

This is the first thing I point out to people. If you think; like if you ever think working online is some child’s play, I’ll just tell you to prepare yourself for failure. The fact is that nothing in this life comes easy,nothing. So if you are planning to start a freelance career, and you expect to see anything in the first few weeks to months, then you should be prepared to work your butt.

The first thing is registering on Upwork, or any freelance website of your choice, this article contains some of the best freelance websites we Nigerians can actually work and earn money on, so you’ll want to check them out.

After registering on a freelance website, the next step is setting up your profile. On Upwork, it’s expected that your profile reaches 100% before your profile can be approved to apply for jobs on the website. So carefully work on your profile, set your hourly rates and take skill tests.

Yes! Skill tests are really necessary on platforms like Upwork and Freelancer. Without those skill tests, having anybody give you jobs is just a trial in futility. So you’ll want to put in work to ensure you build a credible brand representation.

You’ll be working with companies, so the more time you spend working on your personal profiles, the better.

Send Proposals

Setting up your profile is actually the first step towards making a full-time income online in a short time, so you shouldn’t now fold your hands like some pipu, cum expect make some pipu dey throw jobs at you (my pidgin).

Websites like Upwork and Freelancer are some of the biggest freelance marketplaces in the world. That simply implies that, even if you have a lot of projects posted on these websites, you have an equally high number of freelancers like you chasing after each project. So it’s not strange to have 20-50 people applying on one project. So the more proposals you send out, the better your chances of landing a project.

That’s that. The next thing is the quality of your proposals and the frequency. As I mentioned in the preceding paragraph, you actually need to send out a lot of proposals. In addition to sending out proposals, you’ll need to ensure you send proposals to jobs in the first five minutes of posting, or before there are 10 people who applied on that project. That simply gives you more visibility, and that just increases your chances of getting that first project.

If this article can get 1000 shares, I promise to share great tips that I have personally used to land projects in the past two years. These tips are proven because it has made me $4000 in from 18 projects in the space of 1 year.

But what’s the use of sending a proposal first when your proposals are low quality? The secret to success isn’t just sending out proposals, it’s actually sending out quality proposals. Many Nigerian freelancers who aren’t getting jobs have asked me for help, and when I looked at their profiles and samples of their proposals, even me can’t give them jobs. So you have to work on sending proposals that will tell clients that you can actually do their jobs well.

Get a niche

A jack of all trade is most likely a master of none; that I know. So what are your skills? What are those services you hope to offer? If you plan to increase your chances of landing a job in your first week on Upwork, you’d be better off building your profile around a niche.

Don’t tell me you’re good in SEO, Video Editing, Virtual Assisting, and Coding and you now have all those on your profile. If people see this, they likely see you as unprofessional, and they just might not hire you.

So learn to do something well, and well enough before you jump on the Upwork bandwagon. That way, you’ll show clients you’re good in this area, and then they can offer you services in that area and areas relating to that area. LOL, am now laughing at my use of ‘area.’ Ok, here is what I meant by this ‘area, that area and any area’. Rather than building your profile around many niches, have one single niche, like writing. Niche down to SEO writing or eBook writing… we have many of these. It simply makes you more trustworthy.

Written by John Ade.

John is super passionate about tech and super knowledgeable about things you can do to make a living online. He loves these things and he is never tired of pushing out amazing writings ***Winks***Feel free to speak with him on Instagram @jeonade