by “Life of a Freelancer”
This phrase always sounds good every single time, at least for me. Freelancers are what they like to call in the modern world as digital nomads. They are individuals in our society who can work anywhere they go! So long as there’s an internet and laptop, freelancers can survive. To give you a bit of information, there are different kinds of freelancers. In this article, let’s try to give a few examples and I’ll share my experience as a freelancer too.
Bloggers and Vloggers are the perfect epitome of “Freelancers”. Yeap! There’s no denying on that because most people would regard Freelancers as Youtubers and Bloggers. However, freelancing has a broader coverage and you’ll be surprised by how much jobs are categorized under freelancing.
In this article: Life of a Freelancer – What is “Freelancing” and How To Earn Money From it?, I will try to discuss the fundamentals and helpful pointers. So if you are interested, continue reading!
Table of Contents
What is “Freelancing”?
Firstly, let’s define the word freelancing. As defined on Google, freelancing is working with different companies and brands rather than being employed under one company. Freelancers get to decide of their working schedules too. That’s probably one of the best things about this job. Working anytime according to your preference and choice.
Furthermore, freelancing has a complicated way of earning money too. Unlike in regular jobs, employees earn depending on the work hours they have rendered. Freelancing on the other hand has a very different way.
Most Common Freelancing Jobs
Apart from Blogging and Vlogging, which are example of jobs that did not exist 10 years ago, some of the most common freelancing jobs are: Social Media Manager, Copywriter, ESL Teacher, Programmer, Tutor, Photographer, Film Makers, Logo and Graphic Designers.
If you want to know more about these jobs, check out Localwise.com’s list of jobs to do at home.
Freelancing jobs can be done anywhere, which means that people can most likely do it while traveling. But for most people, they would usually do it at home like teaching English online or encoding data. As of now, I have started teaching English online too due to COVID-19’s effect. But even before, I’ve been living the life of a freelancer through my travel page and website. As a result, I’ve been earning money from it too. More of this topic below!
How do Bloggers and Vloggers Earn Money?
I believe I’m giving everyone the exact pointers on how we earn online through this article. In this section, I’m spilling the beans to help out people looking for answers. As a matter of fact, I started in this industry without knowing a single thing about the list I gathered below. So I know how hard it is to start without having enough knowledge.
For you not to go down the same difficult road as I did, check out the pointers below! Like I’ve said earlier, freelancing has a more complicated definition. For instance, how to earn money as a blogger or vlogger will be one of the most challenging part of your journey.
1. Earning From Google Adsense
As a blogger or vlogger, the most common source of income will be from Google Adsense.
What is Google Adsense? These are advertisements placed on your website or Youtube videos. However, in order to get these ads from showing on your platform, you will have to accomplish the requirements given by Google. For example, if you plan to be a blogger on your website you will need to buy your domain and web hosting. Take note that Google Adsense do not allow free websites to acquire advertisements. In this case, invest money on your website first.
Helpful Read: How to Start a Blog
For aspiring Youtubers, there is no need to buy any platform since you just have to sign up for an account. However, you need to comply with Youtube’s Requirements before getting approved by Google Adsense to put ads on your videos. If I am not mistaken, I believe that the current requirement as of today (June 2020) are: (1) minimum of 1,000 subscribers and (2) total of 4,000 watch hours.
Helpful Read: YouTube Partner Program Requirements
Earning money from Google Adsense is just the tip of an iceberg. If you’re done with this step, let’s check out more ways on how to earn money below!
2. Paid Promotions
The second way to earn money is through paid promotions through promotional contents. These are promotional photos and/or videos that influencers with high post-engagement post on their social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook Page.
Moreover, in order to get clients on the hook, you should have an enticing social media platform with lotsa followers. Yeap, there is no beating around the bush here. Remember that more followers means more organic post reach for your clients. And more clients mean more chances of getting paid promotions for you. BUT never ever buy followers! It is easy to locate social media influencers who buy followers.
So how much do influencers earn through paid promotion? The talent fee varies on the influencers and their post coverage. If you have 10,000 followers you can only expect 20 – 30 USD per post. But then again that depends on how many people sees your platform. This is just a hypothetical example.
3. Collaborations
Another way to earn money is through collaborations with brands and companies. This category will fall mostly on resort owners, tour agencies and brands who are looking to promote their place/brand on social media.
As a result, marketing managers will choose to hire bloggers and youtubers to create a content in their resort. The usual benefit of these collaborations are: (1) all expense paid tours/free stays/free items and (2) talent fee.
Collaborating can be similar to paid promotions too. The only difference is that paid promotions are photos or videos that brands and companies email to the influencers/bloggers/youtubers to post on their timeline or Instagram feed. Collaborating on the other hand is working to create a content usually with all expense paid tours and/or free gadgets. Subsequently promoting it through their social media platforms after creating the content.
4. Voucher Codes and Commissions
This works well with both the brands and Bloggers. The most common example are voucher codes to get a discount in a hotel, restaurant and gadget shops.
So how does this work? Usually, brands will give you a unique voucher code to promote to your followers online. Whenever they use your code to purchase gadgets or reserve a night in a hotel that you promote, you will get alternative commission from it. Hence, earning money just by giving a discount. Most bloggers find it easier to earn money through voucher codes since it’s a win-win situation. People will get discounts, brands will get exposure and you will get commission too!
To get clients on the hook, your platform needs to have high engagement as well.
5. Paid Link Insertions
The last pointer I’m going to give you is only applicable for bloggers who have their website. Paid link insertion is a common marketing strategy that brand owners with websites use.
How does it work? Company owners who have websites needs viewers coming from other websites who has good reputation on Google search and SEO. For website developers, it is important to get linked by another website since it increases your website’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As a result, some brands pay bloggers to link their website on their posts.
How much do I earn? Actually, it depends on how good your website is and the domain authority (DA) score is also important. For websites with more than 20 DA score, they can demand 50 – 100 USD for 1 link insertion. Those bloggers with below 20 DA score can expect 30 – 50 USD.
The Life of a Freelancer
In conclusion, the life of a freelancer has a lot of meanings. Firstly, it can be really enjoying as you can earn money in a lot of way while going to different places. However, this kind of lifestyle only works well with specific freelancing jobs such as blogging and vlogging. Most people can only stay at home and do freelacing online.
Secondly, freelancing can give you the benefit of earning from your talent and ability to think of quality contents. You will spend most of the time with your phone and laptop too. That’s going to be a lot of screen time for sure! But if you will ask me, so far I am enjoying the life of a freelancer. It feels good to work on your own time and preference. The opportunity to talk to Marketing Managers and collaborating with Bloggers in the field is enriching and rewarding.
I will be writing more articles about Freelancing and Blogging soon! So stay tuned and subscribe on my newsletter to get email updates whenever I post a new article. Also, follow me on my Instagram account!
| Help me improve my article! By commenting suggestions in the comment section below, I am very open to new ideas. 🙂 Contact Us for paid promotions and link insertions. For proposals: email me at contact@joansfootprints.com |
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These are really good tips! I have a pregnant friend who has been out of work for a while due to the coronavirus, and she was looking to get into freelancing, but she didn’t know much about it. I’m most definitely going to send her this blog so that she can get some information. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much! I totally agree! With everything happening in the world right now, we could use some freelancing and earn money while staying home. Good luck! 🙂
Very informative article. I’m going to consider a few options from here
Hope it will be helpful! 🙂
Very interesting post. These are easy way to get income while at home in this coronavirus era. Thanks for your information.
No problem! 🙂
Great to know more about freelancing. Collaboration sounds like a very interesting concept.
Collaboration became really significant in the field lately.
Freelancing is fun but it also means a lot of work.
Exactly!
Good article and nice tips! Narrow down your niche, you have a great number of competition about blogging and freelancing!
Thanks for the tip, Oscar!
These are all great ideas and tips. More people are looking for ways to become self-employed and this article has thrown more light into this, most especially those considering freelancing.
Exactly, I’m hoping it will be a big help for those who are starting from the bottom.
So many great tips here! I’m a freelance writer and did not know about some of these! 🙂
Thank you so much! Subscribe for more tips. 🙂
This is an amazing post I am going to save it for future reference. There is some great information in here.
That is so nice to hear. 🙂
Freelancing is indeed exciting, the first question is to find your passion and where exactly are you good at. if you want to be your own boss then freelancing work definitely works for you.
Good points! Those are very helpful pointers too. 🙂
Very well explained Joana! My knowledge to freelancing broaden by your article . Well done you!
Thank you so much, Anne! Glad you liked it.
You have raised some great points towards monetizing my blog. Please let me know if you have some advice for my genre of blogs.
Thank you! I’ll check your blog if I could comment on to something. 🙂
I have just started freelancing and I think it’s really good. Thanks for sharing,
Thank you!
This post has so many good tips. I am really glad I found it – I could use some of these.
Thank you!
Thank you for opening my eyes on freelancing because I’ve trying to find out how i can make money through my blog and YouTube. Thanks for sharing
No problem, glad to help! 🙂
i have a couple of friends who are thinking of doing freelancing. I’ll share this post to them.
Thanks so much!
Some really good tips about freelancing. I have often thought about freelancing but I would not have known when to start.
I know about the likes of Google Adsense, but unfortunately I didn’t know that free websites cannot have free advertisements, so at least I know that I would need to invest in my WordPress blog first and get a domain name.
Yeah, actually there are more to tell in this topic. I’ll be sharing that on my upcoming posts about freelancing and blogging. 🙂