You don’t want a boss, you want to work for yourself, whether as a writer, programmer, designer and so forth, but you just don’t know how to get started.
To start freelancing, you will need to develop a portfolio. This can be a website, printed samples or customer references, depending on your industry. A freelance website designer, of course, must have their own website, as should a graphic designer, but a writer may not need one.
With the internet, it is not so hard as you may think to locate potential freelance jobs. There are free and paid resources you can use.
The most basic thing you can do to market yourself as a freelancer is to network. Find discussion boards not only where potential employers are, but others in your industry as well. They might just pass work on to you. A good place to start is LinkedIn.
If you are a writer, I strongly recommend Writer’s Weekly, an excellent newsletter. Angela provides regular job listings, keeps up with the latest scams, and provides a generally excellent resource.
For other freelance resources, there are quite a few websites dedicated to getting freelancers jobs. Many of them work in a reverse auction manner; that is, you bid on the jobs. The bad part about bidding is that is drives the prices way down, so you may not earn much, but it is one way to get started. You may have to pay for membership, or pay a portion of your fees, depending on the site, or they may have free options. Below are a couple for your convenience.
One advantage to having a website is that employers can quickly see what you have to offer, so they may come to you, rather than you having to come to them. Of course, it does take time to get well placed in the search engines, so you might have to advertise your services. Google’s AdWords is a popular pay per click engine. It takes time to learn how to take the best advantage of these; after all, who wants to spend $1 or more per click to get customers if you can get away with less?
