Freelancer Mantra: Don’t be Afraid of Struggle

Namaste friends and freelancers,

Day 7: Daily Blogging Challenge – Last Day!
How have you been today? How is it going? Must be fabulous! Isn’t it? Or are you bogged up with too much work? Are you struggling with work or to get work? Well, today we are going to talk about this – the Struggle we freelancers have to go through!

Today’s topic is no new to any of us. Even those who are not freelancers must have heard these sentence time and again from many. The struggle is a continuous and inseparable step in the road to success. Everyone must and everyone did struggle on their road up the ladder of success. More or less, everyone has to struggle if she wants to win. We must go through our bit as well. Don’t be afraid of struggle.

Everyone’s definition of success varies with various factors. Some struggle to come out of the home to work while some struggle to get work. While some struggle to buy the shop, they need to get started, some struggle to manage all the shops they have. No one hence should be afraid of struggle. People struggle in their own domain in their own ways.

Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in the mouth. And not everyone gets a godfather or a sugar-daddy who will pick her up and put her on top of the peak of success. For those who did, the definition of struggle is often different. But surely enough, the struggle should have been a part of that guy’s success. Don’t be afraid of struggle.

If you ask me, or anyone else, you are sure to get a response saying that she is not afraid of the struggle. No one admits, but there come instances in life when people find it tough to absorb the pressure associated with the struggle. This is when motivation – either external or self, comes into play. It is important to stay motivated during such times and focus on the goal – the bigger cause.

The urge to be successful reduces with time and motivation goes down. Those who can struggle through this time and rise above the pain and the pressure can surely reach the pinnacle of success. Testing times need to be handled with care and not scare.

All I wanted to say today, on this last day of Daily Blogging Challenge, is that struggle is inseparable with success. Both exist together and cannot be overlooked. It is important that we struggle, as this brings assurance and lot of learnings, which otherwise would not be easy to experience and comprehend. Don’t be afraid of struggle, as everyone around you is struggling in their own ways. Those who struggle and reach success, stay successful for longer times. Success achieved as a reward or favor is short lived and you can never be satisfied or gratified after achieving that. This is why, if you are struggling, you should be happier than those who did not struggle, the way you are.

As I finish this Daily Blogging Challenge, I wish you all, all the best and hope you stay motivated and focused during the testing times. If you are struggling, keep at it and enjoy. Try to experience and absorb the learning. One day, after many years, you will be thankful that you struggled and still reached where you are.

I will be back with more in the coming weeks. Keep an eye on my YouTube Channel and here, on this blog to keep track of my upcoming trip to the Himalayas. Thrilling times ahead!

Cheers!

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: www.YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer.

Thanks a lot,
The Indian Freelancer
Let's Learn and Grow Together!

Never Work for Low Rates – Part 2

Namaste friends and freelancers,

Daily Blogging Challenge: Day 6, May Day Special!

Let’s continue from where we left yesterday (Part 1). I hope the first two reasons were clear to you. Here is the third and most important reason why we should not work for cheaper prices. Cheaper prices attract cheaper buyers and more often these cheaper buyers make our lives hell, as a freelancer!

Reason 3: Cheap Price attracts Cheap Buyers

Well, this is very controversial as we often play the role of a buyer as well while being a freelancer, and we also expect to get our job done for as low a price as well – often while reselling a service. But I have to say, from the years of experience I have as a freelancer that more problems are faced when you work for cheap for buyers who want their work to be done for the cheapest price possible. More often than not, these buyers would not know what they really want from you and will make you rework while beating around the bush. We often get both kinds of buyers – who are very understanding or are very problem creating, they know not what has to be done and hence, the hassle. There is no rule saying buyers paying you more will create lesser problems, but if you have to spend time on rework and meeting unrealistic demands of the buyer, isn’t it better to do these for a higher paying buyer?

There is this algorithm, that I tell everyone about cheap price and cheap buyers. A buyer who knows what has to be done would know how much time and effort it would be necessary. Based on that he can easily calculate how much he should pay. Now, the differentiating factors of choosing a seller would be the quality of work the seller has produced so far (based on reviews) and the experience that the seller might have (based on portfolio and profile description). He would also know where all a seller can make mistakes. Hence, he can point out the exact problem and reduce the time taken to rework and fix those issues.

One cannot expect these things from those buyers whose main concern is the money that they are paying you. They do not look at anything else other than the money and will hire you even if you do not have expertise or experience in that niche – only because you have quoted a lower price. And the moment you accept the offer, the disaster will start! Neither you will be happy working for a low price (as we saw earlier) nor will the client be able to guide you on what he wants, clearly. In most cases, these clients are those who resell their projects.

Put a Price to Your Expertise

It is most important to know your worth and put a price that respects that worth. Find out what the average hourly rate is in your niche. Find out what other freelancers are working for. Based on that, set yourself a price which will be able to meet your freelancing goals and tell the buyer that you are better than most of the others who work for a much lower price. Pricing is key, but it is not everything that a buyer look for while choosing a freelancer for his project. There are lot more in you and your business than being only a cheap offering!

With this, I will end this article spread over the two days. I hope this helps you in your journey. Please remember these while bidding for or accepting an offer from the buyer. Know your worth and have trust on your own skills and ability to attract buyers and get more work.

Wish you all the best in your endeavors. Have fun in the journey. You will have a wonderful destination to rejoice.

Cheers!

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: www.YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer.

Thanks a lot,

The Indian Freelancer

Let's Learn and Grow Together!

Never Work for Low Rates – Part 1

Namaste friends and freelancers,

How are you doing today? Hope everything is on track and you are growing in your goals. My wishes and prayers are always with you all. Let’s start the day with something I always wanted to talk about. And since May Day is near, this is the appropriate time to talk about this point.

Daily Blogging Challenge: Day 5, May Day Special!

One of the highly popular ways, chosen by many newbies to jump start their freelancing career is to work for a lower price than the average market price prevailing in their niche. You would also be surprised to know that many freelancing Gurus advise their pupils to take this path and promise them a lot of success. Today, I will tell you why you should not do that!

Most newbies go to google and search for the average rate per hour in their niche and then come back to their freelancing profile and set their own rate to something lower than that. This is very common. Along with this, while bidding for jobs posted on various freelancing sites, newbies often quote a price far lower than the average bid, so as to attract the probable client. All these, with a hope that they can beat the competition and win a project or two, to get started.

Let me break this myth. Low price is NOT the way to go!

Pricing is a very important element of the marketing mix and I agree that along with a good product, a correct marketplace (place for marketing and selling your services or products) and a lot of promotion, pricing is also an integral part to start off, sustain and grow your freelancing business. But that should be ‘Correct Pricing’ and not ‘Low Pricing.’

While low pricing can earn you a project or two, it will not help you to sustain your online business. There are various reasons behind this truth.

Reason 1: The Game of Low Price

The truth about this game of low price is that whatever low you price yourself, there would be someone else who would be ready to take away your job for a lesser price. You cannot beat everybody. Everyone has their own freelancing goals and based on that (and a few other factors, to be discussed later in this blog) they set their rates. If there is someone who has a less ambitious goal, she can easily set a lower price than you. At times, there are people who would want to do a certain job or project for absolutely free of cost, just to gain experience and grow in that niche. Can you beat that by lowering your price?

Hence, you cannot win the game of low price.

Reason 2: Your Self Esteem

When you work for a lower price than the work deserves, you somehow lower your self-esteem as well. I agree that getting work is more important than having a great self-esteem. If you do not have food in the stomach, what will you do with high self-esteem? I agree! But take it this way. If you know that you should be paid more for a job that you are doing, somewhere in the subconscious mind, you will feel guilt, even if you do not realize it. This guilt would not take you far on your journey. At a certain stage, you will not be able to take it anymore, when you will see that many people around you are doing the same or similar jobs for much higher price than you are, even though they may not have as many expertise as you do. This will ruin the inner peace and will make you want to discontinue the work.

This is why you should not work for a price that harms your self-esteem. It is not sustainable in the long run.

I will continue this discussion tomorrow and we will look into the third and the most important reason of why you should not work for rates lower that what you deserve. There’s lot more to say and this is already growing long enough. See you tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: www.YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer.

Thanks a lot,

The Indian Freelancer

Let's Learn and Grow Together!

Freelancing Mantra: Power of Starting NOW

Namaste Friends and Freelancers,

Daily Blogging Challenge: Day 4.

Today’s topic is a very important one which has a lot of impact on our lives, whether we are freelancers or not. many of the things that I write here are equally important for someone who is not a freelancer by profession. And this is why I think that this blog needs to be read by both the groups and I am sure both will have a lot to learn from it. Let’s start talking about it – NOW!

NOW is the time to do things that we have delegated and procrastinated and postponed for I-don’t-know-how-long. There’s no better time to start than NOW! There are a lot of events when we find ourselves finding the right time to do something. “Should I do it tomorrow?” “Should I do it day after?” We keep swinging from one thought to another and from one answer to another, and at the end of the day, we find ourselves hanging at nowhere!

The right answer to these questions is to do it NOW! There is nothing called a ‘right time,’ and it is an absolute myth. The right time to do something is now, at this very present moment. When it comes to something that needs our attention right away, based on priorities, do we think twice and delay that? I don’t think we do. This is how we need to prioritize things that are important to us and try to start right NOW!

Do Today What Can Be Done Tomorrow

The above is a very famous saying and all of us must have heard it once in our lifetimes. Our parents, grandparents, teachers or someone from the family must have told this to us some time or the other when they saw us wasting time, isn’t it? This is what they meant when they were saying this to us. Do it today! Do it now!

Now, there’s a good book by Eckhart Tolle, titled, “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment” which has described how powerful this present moment is and why it is absolutely necessary to be at present – and not worry about our past or speculate about the future. We cannot do anything about the past as it is all gone – we can just sit back and either rejoice or repent, based on what we did way back then! And for the future? It is nothing but a mere conjecture and we do not have time for it. We have not seen the future – no one did; hence, we do not know what is in stock for us in the future. There is absolutely no point in wasting time on that! You can get this book on Amazon (http://amzn.to/2oDqAz7), in India and elsewhere also, I am sure. Do read it if you get some time.

So, this is it for Day 4. Do write to me and tell me how you feel about these short snippet articles that I am writing every day these days. Tell me whether you liked them or disliked them and how if, I can improve.

Thanks a lot for reading me out here. The message from this article is to utilize the time and value the present. I am sure you now understand that the secret is hidden in this present moment. If you do it now, you will be happier the next moment.

Tell me what is that one thing that you are delaying for so long and are failing to get started? Blogging? Entrepreneurship? Reading a book? A trip to your favorite holiday destination? What is it that you wanted to do and could not take even a step towards achieving it? Think about it!

Take that first step NOW!

I am sure you will be happier than ever when you fix on that one thing that you have always procrastinated and have taken a step right now (after reading this post) towards realizing it. I REALLY MEAN NOW!! C’mon, I am sure you can do it. Take that first step now, and start off! Let me know how you felt after that.

I will be back tomorrow with the post of Day 5. Hope to get something more exciting to you tomorrow.

Cheers Friends!

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: www.YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer.

Thanks a lot,

The Indian Freelancer

Let's Learn and Grow Together!

New Video on YouTube Channel

Namaste Freelancers and Friends,

How are you doing today? Hope you are having a good Sunday already. Enjoy the weekend.

So, while I was participating in the Daily Blogging Challenge, something happened on my YouTube channel as well. A new video was published day before yesterday!

Yes, finally the wheel is moving and I am so happy about it. Making a video has not been tough for me, but the kind I want for my YouTube Channel, The Indian Freelancer is not the usual one (that I publish on the Bengali YouTube Channel, Buddhir Dhenki). In here, I am trying to come in front of the camera and that is taking out the last drop of confidence from me. Yes, I agree that I am not very confident coming in front of the camera and talking to it. Well, not yet!

But I am trying! I am filming a few things here and there, but not very regularly – this is what I need to change. I need to go for the kill now and shoot to make a video, not only for time pass. This is when I thought that I should go on a shooting – editing – publishing spree soon. Like this Daily Blogging Challenge that I have thrown at myself, I want to start a daily vlogging challenge as well. I am not sure how it will be or how I will do that, but I might do it soon – very soon! I have got a good excuse to do so, as well.

I need motivation!

Well, talking about this video that I have posted, it contains the list of topics that I am planning to discuss on my blog as well as the YouTube channel. It tells you what you can expect to see on the channel as well as on the blog. While the blog has already started and is taking shape, the channel needs much more attention. I am preparing for this, and I hope to pick up the pace soon as well.

Here is the video for you to enjoy.

https://youtu.be/FhyQewQ8mJg

Do let me know how you felt, both here and on YouTube. I will wait to hear from you.

Cheers friends! Enjoy your Sunday!

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: www.YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer.

Thanks a lot,
The Indian Freelancer
Let's Learn and Grow Together!

Importance of a Daily Goal Sheet

Namaste freelancers and friends,

Daily Blogging Challenge! 

Here I am with a challenge of writing one post every day, until the end of this month. This is not for anyone else and obviously not taking part in any meme site or something like that – this challenge is only for me, to try and get back to my regular writing habit. These days, even though I have a lot of ideas to share with you all, I do not write. Something keeps pulling me back and I end up going to bed with one sad face on my daily goal sheet! I keep writing the same thing on the goal sheet, the next day again, and it goes on every day. So, today I have made up my mind: I’m not going to bed before I finish writing this important article for you all. And I am going to continue this every day, till this month ends and more!

Friends, as you might have understood by now, today’s post is going to be about the Goal Sheet – a To-Do-List that we must follow daily so that we can manage the time we have in a day and utilize the day more effectively.

We have only 24 hours in a day and in that we have to sleep for 7-8 hours, which leaves us with about 16 hours time. In those 16 hours, we spend about 4 hours in getting ready, using the bathroom and eating meals. From the rest of 12 hours, we spend about 2-3 hours in communicating and moving from place to place. Hence, you can calculate that we are, after deducting everything I mentioned above, actually having 9-10 hours a day to work. This is not even 50% of the total time we have in a day. This is the reason we need to effectively use this time and manage it efficiently. As a freelancer, it is of much more importance that we use every minute of the day to our benefit. We cannot increase this time without harming our health and personal life/interactions with friends and family.

However, there are ways that we can multiple this time many folds, but that is out of scope for this discussion - we will discuss it some other time!

Creating a daily goal sheet helps in managing this time effectively. How you ask! I will tell you how.

A goal sheet is a normal list where you have written down your goals with a measurable deadline. You take out the list periodically at every milestone and track the progress. Based on this, you may accelerate or decelerate the pace at which you are spending the 10 hours you have, in a day, to work and earn money. As you complete one task or reach one milestone, you strike if off the list. That’s all about it. Isn’t it simple? YES!!

Many of us know about making this goal sheet but do not use it effectively, as it is overwhelming to follow regularly. The secret is that it is NOT! It is just another good habit that we need to inculcate in the course of time.

Practice & Practice!

Write down your daily goals in a small piece of paper or your computer (I use Microsoft OneNote which came along with Microsoft Office Suite). You can either make this list as the first task when you wake up in the morning or just before you go to bed – for the next day. Any of the two will work. Do whichever suits you best – but do it!

When you strike out each of the tasks as you complete them and move to the next, there is a sense of achievement which works like a miracle! Our subconscious mind says that we have achieved something today and motivates us to hop on to the next thing and complete it asap! Thus, we remain satisfied when we work and we also run through the day fixing one thing after another, and we tend to complete more in that stipulated time. Our productivity increases!

We will obviously talk about building & maintaining a daily goal sheet and how to write that in details. But till then, just make a list every day and try to complete the tasks – one by one.

Let’s do it for a couple of weeks and follow it religiously. Once this is done, we will get back to this topic again and do an in-depth analysis of what we achieved! This is how we will grow - TOGETHER!

Cheers!

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: www.YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer.

Thanks a lot,

The Indian Freelancer

Let's Learn and Grow Together!

Top 3 Freelancing Sites I like – Part 2

Namaste friends and freelancers, 

Continuing from the previous post, here are the other two freelancing sites I love to work in. The recommended site among these top 3 freelancing sites will also be highlighted at the end. Keep reading…

Continued From: Top 3 Freelancing Sites I like – Part 1

Fiverr.com

Fiverr is another upcoming freelancing website which I love working on. Even though I said upcoming, it is not that new. Fiverr was launch on     February 2010 and is comparatively new in the marketplace. It is a highly visited freelancing website for both the buyers and the sellers. There are a lot of unique features available for the seller here, which are not available on other freelancing sites. You can expect more work to come your way on Fiverr than any other site when you start as a freelancer with fewer skills and experience. This is why this site features in my list of top 3 freelancing sites for the absolute newbie.

The name Fiverr is derived from the number 5. The USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of this site is that the services start from $5, though it can go up to $10,000 or more, depending on what type of services or gigs you offer, and the level of your expertise on the site. The hierarchy on Fiverr is comparatively much flatter than the other marketplaces (or freelancing websites) and thus, it helps the seller to grow quickly to respectable heights.

This freelancing website offers portfolios of the sellers and you can add images and videos to your profile to make it look attractive. In fact, all the profiles are needed to have graphics added to them, apart from the account logo etc. This attracts a lot of clients. The clients or the buyers are moved much more by seeing profile pictures, portfolio images, and videos. Coupled with the idea that a service can be obtained by paying just $5, Fiverr has been successful in attracting more buyers and hence, more sellers as well.

You can make multiple portfolios or gigs for each of the skills that you have. Depending on the type of work you do, you can choose and set your category for that particular gig. The best part of Fiverr, apart from this visual buffet (for the buyers) is that you can have different gigs from different skillsets and sell all of those simultaneously. Register with Fiverr.com and spend time in learning the tips of the tricks; make a couple of gigs and start selling! All the best! :)

Upwork.com

The third top freelancing website I love to work with is Upwork.com. Upwork was formed recently after online freelancing website giants oDesk & Elance came together, in the year 2015. Although you can start your career in freelancing with Upwork, it is more suitable for someone with persistent freelancing experience. It does not mean an absolute newbie cannot start working on Upwork; you can! Provided you are determined to go to the next level quickly. You will have to write exams, prepare to work on long term projects and learn the skill of writing cover letters or bids. These are not skills which are only applicable here, on Upwork. These are skills which are equally important in other marketplaces as well, but here on Upwork, you may not get the time to learn these.

Upwork is more suitable for long-term projects. And clients look to hire sellers for 6 to 18 months or more. Writing cover letters is very important on Upwork. We will spend a lot of time explaining how to do that in future posts. The buyers do ask for ad-hoc jobs as well, but the stress is on hiring someone for long term. You will have to prove yourself and beat the competition to get a job on Upwork. And once you are habituated with the process, Upwork can generate much more revenue than the other two sites I mentioned.

Upwork is obviously one of the top 3 freelancing sites I love to work in, for advantages of its own. For any freelancer, working online and selling their services, Upwork is the place to head to – slowly, but surely.

My Verdict

So, which of these top 3 freelancing sites should you register with first? My answer would be, Fiverr!

Fiverr gives you the option to learn as you earn. You can actually start selling on Fiverr much quicker than the other two sites and this is very critical for anyone who is starting his career as a freelancer. If you see dollars in your wallet getting accumulated, you do not need any other motivation to continue your journey with freelancing. Fiverr has various features, like a visual portfolio, an ability to showcase various skills which are not interdependent, a ranking algorithm that gives equal chance to the newbie as well and a few others, which makes selling on Fiverr easier than we think.

We will spend more time with all the freelancing websites I know and have experience working in, but we will spend more time with these top 3 freelancing sites. Stay tuned for more. Do let me know if you have any questions. I will be happy to answer all those from the comments section below.

Cheers Friends! 

My Course on Udemy

I have a comprehensive 4+ hours course on Udemy dedicated to Fiverr. The course is delivered in Hindi and English and hence, I am sure it will be helpful for all those freelancers from the subcontinent, who know these languages to start their career on Fiverr and grow as a Fiverr seller.

For my readers, I have two coupons for that course on Udemy. One will enable you to take up the course for absolutely FREE. It is a limited time offering and hence, I will advise you to enroll as soon as you can.

If you miss that coupon somehow, you can still take advantage of a huge 95% discount on the course and enroll using the other coupon. You can take up the course for just $9.99 using the second coupon.

RATE & REVIEW: Rating and reviewing are important on Udemy as well, not only on Fiverr. So, please ensure that you provide me a good review and a 5-star rating after taking the course. I would expect at least this much from you, in return. Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

FREE Coupon Code: FIVERRTIFBLOGFREE1

Link: https://www.udemy.com/how-to-start-freelancing-on-fiverr-ninja-secrets-in-hindi/?couponCode=FIVERRTIFBLOGFREE1

$9.99 Coupon Code: FIVERRTIFBLOG999

Link: https://www.udemy.com/how-to-start-freelancing-on-fiverr-ninja-secrets-in-hindi/?couponCode=FIVERRTIFBLOG999

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: http://YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer

Thanks a lot,
The Indian Freelancer 
Let's Learn and Grow Together!

Top 3 Freelancing Sites I like – Part 1

Namaste friends and freelancers!

Hope you are doing fine. It’s New Years’ time in India, where various states are celebrating it in their own versatile ways. Wish you all a very happy New Year! May God bless you with all the good things in life – health, wealth, happiness & prosperity.

Today, I am going to talk about the top three freelancing sites that I like. I have had accounts on various freelancing sites and have worked extensively on those, but at present these three top freelancing sites are the ones whom I can recommend to any freelancer who is just starting their journey and wants to take up freelancing as a career option. I will tell you what these sites are and how they are different from each other. I will also tell you they key features that these sites have, which attracts more buyers and sellers (sellers are freelancers, who sell their services or products, and buyers are those people who pay for or buy those services). At the end, I will recommend one site, of these three top freelancing sites, for the absolute newcomer.

Before getting into the main part, let me tell you that this is not an affiliated post and I am going to tell you exactly what I feel about the top 3 freelancing sites I am going to mention here. So, the recommendations are based on my own experience working with these sites. I am putting these things together here because I am sure it is going to help those who are trying to fix their feet in this world of freelancing. If you found this while searching the internet for such a tip, I am sure you will find this very informative and helpful.

I will be talking about each of these sites (and a few others) in great detail later, on this blog and my YouTube Channel as well, but in this particular post I just want to just introduce you to these top 3 freelancing sites and leave you with some basic knowledge and guidance about them, which will provide you with a launchpad from where you can kick-start your research and move on with the one you like. Let’s start then.

Freelancer.com

The first site that I will talk about is Freelancer.com. This is the first site I signed up with, almost a decade ago! Though it fetched me the first few dollars I earned online, it did not raise as much revenue as I would have like it to. Nevertheless, Freelancer.com is one of the top 3 freelancing sites I would recommend to a newbie who wants to take up freelancing as a career in India. The site is simple and straight forward. You can both buy and sell from one ID or account.

To start with, you can register with your email ID. It is important that you fill up your profile as much as possible. You can enrich your profile further by taking various examinations, that are mostly paid. These are good ways to showcase your knowledge and expertise on the skills that you want to showcase. You can have both hourly and fixed-priced projects on Freelancer.com. You will have to bid for each of the projects that the potential buyer posts on the site and if you win the bid, you will be awarded that project. Buyers may also contact you directly and offer you a job, based on their requirement.

The bidding system of Freelancer.com is unique and is in many ways better than other freelancing sites. They're ways of highlighting your bid by paying a dollar or so extra. In here, you can enjoy their own Escrow system where you can be sure to be paid once you complete your job successfully. There is also a milestone system, where you break the entire project into smaller chunks and ask the buyer to release the money as and when these milestones are reached. This is a super idea & a win-win situation for both the buyer and the seller. I would highly recommend you to register with Freelancer.com and start to find your feet. It is a nice place to be as a freelancer and one of the top 3 freelancing sites that I like to work on.

NOTE: This is the end of Part 1 of the post. We will look into the other two of the top 3 freelancing sites in the next part.

Cheers!

My Course on Udemy

I have a comprehensive 4+ hours course on Udemy dedicated to Fiverr. The course is delivered in Hindi and English and hence, I am sure it will be helpful for all those freelancers from the subcontinent, who know these languages to start their career on Fiverr and grow as a Fiverr seller.

For my readers, I have two coupons for that course on Udemy. One will enable you to take up the course for absolutely FREE. It is a limited time offering and hence, I will advise you to enroll as soon as you can.

If you miss that coupon somehow, you can still take advantage of a huge 95% discount on the course and enroll using the other coupon. You can take up the course for just $9.99 using the second coupon.

RATE & REVIEW: Rating and reviewing are important on Udemy as well, not only on Fiverr. So, please ensure that you provide me a good review and a 5-star rating after taking the course. I would expect at least this much from you, in return. Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

FREE Coupon Code: FIVERRTIFBLOGFREE1

Link: https://www.udemy.com/how-to-start-freelancing-on-fiverr-ninja-secrets-in-hindi/?couponCode=FIVERRTIFBLOGFREE1

$9.99 Coupon Code: FIVERRTIFBLOG999

Link: https://www.udemy.com/how-to-start-freelancing-on-fiverr-ninja-secrets-in-hindi/?couponCode=FIVERRTIFBLOG999

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: http://YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer

Thanks a lot,

The Indian Freelancer 

Let's Learn and Grow Together!

Freelancing Mantra: Preparation is the Key

Namaste Freelancers and Friends, 

How have you been last week? Now that I have started posting once a week on a regular basis, I hope we can spend more time together in a discussion about various freelancing concepts and ideas. Kindly leave your comments below and let me know what you want to discuss about and I will definitely write about it. 

Today’s topic is preparation. Preparation is the key to any business and freelancing is no different. As a business owner, you need to prepare sufficiently for everything that you do. Freelancing is a business owned by you and you alone (well, in most cases, where you do not work with a team) and hence, you need to take care of all the various aspects of business all by yourself. That is a lot of work in itself. It can be overwhelming at times to too. 

However, if you are prepared for all these and prepared well, then it will be easier for you to handle everything easily. There are a lot of things a freelancer has to do, as a business owner. After all, it is her own business and she’s solely responsible for what she gets. We need to understand that as a freelancer business owner, more often than not, you would find yourself doing most of the office works ALONE! And this is why preparation becomes a key part of your freelancing business. Now, when we say preparation, what all is included? Well, the following list is not exhaustive, but it covers a major part of it, nonetheless. 

Mental preparation

First of all, you need to be prepared mentally while launching yourself in the freelancing marketplace. It would need a lot of determination, dedication, single-minded approach and giving up on many a thing that one liked, and all these are part of this mental preparation that we are talking about here. There would be a lot of ups and downs in the way forward and would be a lot of moments of success and failures as well. Remaining humble at moments of success and motivated at moments of failures is the key thing! Hence, it is most important that you prepare yourself for both successes as well as failures. Not everyone in freelancing become successful and similarly, not everyone face failure. Mental preparation is the key for going on for a long time.

Technical preparation

When I say technical preparation, I mean two things – skills & software. When entering the freelancing marketplace, you would need skills at the first place. You need to be a master of your skill and keep sharpening your axes all the time. Along with this, you must have the right software that helps you to use your skills and transform thatintoo digital products and services that you would sell in the marketplace. If you are a skilled graphics designer who creates & edits photos and you do not have the right software that you would want to do that, you will not be able to create anything and sell. Right? This is why, you need to be prepared technically. You need to master your skills, learn new skills and have updated software to deliver those as well.

Financial preparation

Many of the freelancers raise eyebrows when I talk about this topic – financial preparation. “If I could be prepared financially, why would I be working so hard as a freelancer?” Well, this is one question that comes to everyone’s mind. If you closely look at the freelancing business that you would want to kickstart, you need to be prepared financially. This is one of the top requirements. Let me make it easier to understand with an example. If you are a student and you are starting off with your freelancing business, more often than less, you will have your parents providing for your food and lodging. So, you do not need to think about that. Maybe you can concentrate solely into passive ways of earning online and grow your business slowly and steadily. On the other hand, if you are a middle-aged woman with a family to take care of, you may not have this luxury. So, you need to first take care of this and then move on with your dreams. You cannot devote all your time on passive sources of earning online. You would have to have some active source of earning and meet those demands first – whether through freelancing or through a day job. Having met those, you can think of moving ahead with investing your time & effort on passive sources of income. Hence, you need to be prepared before launching yourself on the freelancing marketplace.

Apart from these, you need to be prepared in a few other ways as well; like your family needs to be supportive, your friends and peers need to be patient and you need to stay in a place which is more suitable for working as a freelancer. These are pretty small things if you look at them as an outsider, but a freelancer would admit and recognize that these are not as small as they look like. You really need to be prepared and tension free regarding these things as well. Additional pressure from people and places around you can make your life stressful and ruin your freelancing career when exaggerated! 

That’s all for today. Do write to me and let me know what you feel about this. I would love to hear from you, as always. Do sign up with me for more such articles and posts in the future. Visit the Facebook page and do support us in every possible way you can. 

Cheers, mate!

---

Thanks for reading this post. I hope you liked it. If you did, please do not forget to subscribe to us.

You may also want to check out our YouTube Channel, where we post videos with various freelancing tips and tricks, which can definitely boost your freelancing career and business! The Channel name is The Indian Freelancer and can be accessed here: http://YouTube.com/TheIndianFreelancer 

Thanks a lot,

The Indian Freelancer 

Let's Learn and Grow Together!