Written by: Shahzad Bashir
Graphics by: Laraib Shahzad

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Note: This Handbook is written for New Freelancers who don’t know anything about freelancing and its dimensions. I’ve tried to write in easy English so that everybody with a little English knowledge can understand and practice without any problem. _ “Shahzad Bashir” – the Author.

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No worries if you don’t know even a single meaning of Freelancing! 

The Zero “0” is nothing itself unless it is related to any other number so if You are “Zero in Freelancing” You need to be related to someone who is considered a Number so your value will be increased. For example: “0” is nothing but if you write it after “1” it becomes “10” and You know the power of 10 as compared to the “0”.

A little about Me:

I’m a professional freelancer since 2011 but way before freelancing, I was a traditional Marketing professional in different fields since 1992. So on the whole, I have 27 years of experience from more than 30 different jobs & Business categories. So you should be sure to learn something out of the box from me and using my tips and tricks you can become a successful freelancer and Entrepreneur! _ “Shahzad Bashir”

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Start Freelancing from Scratch!

Start freelancing from Zero. No matter if you are a school-going teenager or a 9 to 5 employee in any company, are a college, or university graduate, or a mom in a home, everyone can become a freelancer right after learning freelancing from the simple and easy-to-understand course that I’ve designed after spending my 8 years in freelancing as a full-time successful freelancer. 

After reading this New Freelancers Guide, You will be able to:

• Select the best Freelancing Category (Niche) as a career path.
• Evaluate your Knowledge, Skills & Experience to have an Estimated income potential for your Time to Freelancing.
• Understand the value of Learning and practicing different Freelancing resources and tools.
• Join the right way to start your Freelancing Career as an individual Freelancer.
• Join a suitable Jobs marketplace to start providing freelance services.

 

First thing first, Let me give you an overview of different types of freelance categories.

Top 10 Freelance types or resources to Make Money as a Freelancer in 2019

1. Freelance Services through a job marketplace as an individual Freelancer:
2. Freelance Services through personal online portfolio by using an online Website or Blog.
3. Freelance Services as a wholesaler or Retailer by selling Product(s) as a middleman or a Dropshipper.
4. Freelance Affiliate under any Online Marketplace or Advertiser by using a referral system.
5. Freelance Domain Investor using a little budget for investment
6. Freelance Website Flipper by creating and selling online Ecommerce Stores & Shop.
7. Freelance Web Hosting Reseller for selling web hosting packages at your own price.
8. Freelance Web Publisher by using a blog to display third-party Advertisement and PPC (pay per click)
9. Freelance Content writing, Article Writing, Copywriting, Press release, Typing work & transcription (medical/legal)
10. Freelance Search Engine Optimizer, Researcher,
11. Freelance Social Media Marketer from different social media platforms
12. Freelance Video blogger called Vlogger on youtube and different other platforms.

These categories are the most popular and trendy ways to generate online income as an individual or a team of freelancers. You can start from your home, office, or professional software house.

I’ll give you a basic overview of each freelance category listed above later in this guide. 

Before I move on to the next section, a primary question must need to be answered so you can understand the “Niche” according to your skills. So you must be thinking to ask the next question is:

Why become a freelancer or why freelancing?

Well, if you are unemployed, Employee as a part-timer, Employee in a company for 9 to 5 but want to use spare time to increase income, retired from a job, or tired of a traditional 9 to 5 job and want to earn like a Boss sitting at your home or office, then you can start your career in freelancing to make money online in order to meet your educational expenses, your home and family expenses or buying a home or convenience to live better life using purely your skills and experience in addition to your IT education.

For example, you may need more income to cover life expenses or want to make your future better by increasing your online income rather than a fixed salary or fixed income from a job or business. Freelancing is the source where millions of people have changed their lifestyles from zero to billionaire but in every case study, one thing is common they work hard, they were passionate about and they had skills and a goal to achieve their destination.

Freelancing Need in Pakistan for 2019!

Honestly, I can write another guide on the topic of “Freelancing Need in Pakistan for 2019” for the people of Pakistan because I personally feel that in the current scenario of economic conditions and price hikes in Pakistan, life is worst for those who are living in middle class or lower middle class so obviously you can think about the poor who live below the poverty line and the gradually increasing price hike in the country is back breaker these days and that’s the reason everybody is crying over the situation.

But on the other hand, people have a chance to balance or even improve their economy using freelance. I repeat here again, No matter whether you are an educated, IT professional or uneducated with little knowledge of the internet, These days everybody has a mobile phone in his hand. Also, computers and laptops now are available for cheap prices so these two things are enough to start freelancing part-time or full-time from home.

The Highest Dollar Price is a Bonus for a Freelancer in Pakistan.

Another biggest reason is, the Dollar rate is over Rs.150 against $1 USD ( 1 USD = 150+ PKR) these days so let’s take advantage of this to make money online and bring remittances to your country and use it as Bonus money! So why do worry about the Dollar rate if it is high?

Just Remember! You can do nothing to bring it down but you can increase your income to compete the price hike that rose because of it.

“In a simple example: In order to make the price hike line smaller, Just Make your income line bigger than it.”

This is a rule of Allah, He never sends issues without solutions! So if you are facing the issue of price hikes, just be prepared to fight against it by increasing your income using your knowledge, skill, and experience. So if you earn $100 from freelancing, it means you generate over Rs.15000 and if I’m not wrong, more than 30% population of Pakistan needs around Rs.30,000 to meet their monthly expenses which becomes $200 USD/month and it is quite possible even if you are New to Freelancing!

“So Just be prepared, Tighten your seat belt, and be ready to begin your journey of Freelancing as a Freelancer with me !”

 

Who can become a freelancer?

The answer is, Anyone with basic internet operating skills using a mobile or computer from a local or remote location can become a freelancer.

If you are a student of a college or university, even a school-going teenager, you can make money doing simple jobs or selling digital products or you can sell your services, your artwork, etc.

Freelancing for Students:

Students can get educational content writing jobs, Story writing, course material, Copy paste, typing jobs, translations (English to different languages or from different languages to English or Urdu), Medical Transcription, and Legal transcription (I’ll guide you about this type of freelance jobs later in this guide). These days a student with good typing speed can get typing jobs from different online job marketplaces and Fiverr.com is one of them.

Also, University or college students can approach the job marketplaces to get the job in lectures writing, book writing, thesis writing, proofreading, press release writing, and similar content writing jobs. this is a highly paid category for students so the female students precisely can try a home-based job right from their home.

Freelancing for uneducated but skilled people:

If you know someone who is uneducated in your family, friends, relatives, or social media group but skilled and experienced in any field, they can “start freelancing” with basic information about online business or services using a 3rd party or middleman. They can join social media to sell their product(s) or service(s) to online buyers for a relevant item. They can start video blogging if they can’t write but they can speak and provide consultation or sell tips and tricks for any issue or most wanted things that people usually search on the internet.

For example! Taylor can create a video of his/her design of dresses so that fashion designers, companies, or online boutique owners can watch the video on social media or youtube and contact them by phone or messages to start a business. Similarly, A motor mechanic creates a video of buying and selling cars, tips, and tricks for driving a car or repairing and maintenance of a car so that people can watch and pay to learn or hire for any car job. like driving, cleaning, dent & pent, etc.

Also, Females or home-sitting moms can write recipes for different food items and tips to use in the kitchen, house cleaning tips and tricks, sell drawings, homemade jewelry, dress designs, home decoration tiny items or toys for children, and a lot more things.

IT Students and Professionals scope as a Freelancer:

Nobody can make money as fast as an IT student or professional can. The reason is simple preferences are always given to IT students and professionals because they understand and are familiar with the latest information and requirements. IT students can easily pick up the nature of relevant jobs and provide quick services to make money online with their skills and experience. Freelancing is like an ocean for truly skilled professionals who want to seriously create potential income from providing services to buyers around the globe.

Some Easy and Quick start Freelance Categories (Niches) for IT students and Professionals by grading:

Graphic Designing: 

• Logo Designing
• Banner Designing
• Pamphlets, Flyer Designing
• Visiting Cards & Brand material designing
• Pictures and Photographic jobs and resizing, compressing work

 

Web Designing and Development: 

• Website & blog designing
• Personal or Corporate Websites and blog development
• Website template/Theme designing
• Website coding and other development jobs
• Website bug fixing, Customization, Error resolution, and different other jobs

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): 

• Websites and Blogs keyword research and optimization
• On-page & Off-page SEO
• Traffic generation and website ranking services
• Content marketing, Advertisement, and PPC
• Google utilities and services

 

Content Writing:

• Article writing
• Copywriting
• Sales letter writing
• Press release

 

Web Hosting:

• Webhosting reseller
• Website Transfer server to server
• Website Transfer within the account
• Website security
• Virus removal and bug fixing

 

Earning Potential in Freelancing:

Ok, so you know freelance meaning and introduction + top trendy categories.

1. Now the million-dollar question is, How much money you could make from freelancing? 
2. 2nd question often asked, Is freelance a genuine earning source or it’s a fraud or scam? Do the buyers really pay? 
3. 3rd most important and frequently asked question is, How the payment can be received in a local bank account or any virtual bank account available online?

 

Question-1: How much money a freelancer could make from freelancing?

Honestly, there is no limit to making money online as I already told you millions of people and millions of companies are generating 5, 6, and 7 figures from the internet but Freelancing is a game of knowledge, skill, and experience.

Knowledge: it’s essential to know the trends like what to do online that bring income in the present time. A “Freelancer” must be aware of current trends and demands in order to stay in the competition. Just remember you are not the only one and not above all. It’s just a play of passion, patience, and potential.

• Passion to accept challenges
• Patience to get results and accelerate
• Potential to grow with what you’ve learned

 

So a Freelancer needs to be in the market with a personalized portfolio of services and enough experience to inspire people who are looking for a service provider like a Freelancer.

Skills: Of course, the skill set of a freelancer is a tool to generate handsome income using the freelancing field. Skills are key to success in every field but it’s a weapon to kill difficulties and hurdles that come in the line of freelancing. As a freelancer, you must be skilled in a particular niche or category and there are hundreds of useful skills over the internet that you can learn to polish your freelancing portfolio but initially, you need to pick one and focus till you are a master in that particular field.

Experience: I usually quote the phrase “Experience has No Shortcut !” and it says all itself. You can never beat experience so as much as you learn and practice, you’ll gain experience that is a major factor in a successful freelancer’s career from start to finish. If you want me to grade knowledge, skills, and experience, I’ll ask you to reverse the order of Experience, Skill, and Knowledge as far as Freelancing is concerned in my opinion. Now the question is, how one can be experienced before doing the jobs on the internet? The answer is simple, Try to learn from different sources on the internet a most popular way to learn is through video tutorials, then articles, and finally the already done work from other freelancers and you can find them on Google search.

However, Let me evaluate the basic Earning levels that a newbie Freelancer can make with basic knowledge and little experience.

Evaluation of Earning Potential for “Low Skilled, Basic Knowledge and Inexperienced Freelancers in Start of Freelance Career!

(This is an expected one-month evaluation based on my personal experience)

• From Individual Online Services like Graphic Designing, Web Designing: USD $100 to $300
• From a marketplace job board like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer: USD $300 to $1000
• From Individual Online Services like Article writing, Content writing: USD $200 to $800
• From a marketplace jobs board like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer: USD $100 to $1000
• From Selling personal products online using an E-commerce store: USD $50 to $500
• From Selling Affiliate products from other suppliers or advertisers: USD $100 to $1000
• Front Selling Hosting packages as a web hosting Reseller: $USD $200 to $1400
• From Selling Hosting packages as a web hosting Affiliate: $USD $60 to $300
• From Selling SEO services as an individual freelancer: $300 to $1500

 

This is just a basic income estimate not for everyone but an average income for the first month till 3rd month. Once you are in the market, you can polish your portfolio of services, start learning related things and improve your freelancing career. Also, you can add more services that are relevant to your primary services.

For Example: If you provide web designing services, You can easily sell hosting packages to your client if they don’t already have one so it will be a plus income in your earning. Similarly, if you are a web hosting reseller, You can offer Web development services to your customer if you know about web development.

Another example is, if you are a web designer, most often the client asks you to design a logo as well so you can add logo design charges to your basic web designing fee and increase your income so you should be active and knowledgeable about the relevant types of jobs. The sky is the limit!

Ok, I hope you are now ready to move to the next level after gaining the basic information about freelancing.

The most common way to start freelancing!

Freelance Services through a job marketplace as an individual Freelancer:

Freelancing is actually a way of providing online services independently as a single entity or as a team to the person or a group or any company (supposed to be buyer, customer, or client) for a particular job which is mutually agreed by both the parties (person who need a job to be done and a service provider who claims to be the same service provider that is required to be done)

Example: Mr. “John” needs to hire a Logo designer in the USA but the lowest market price of a logo is $100 USD in USA Mr. John has a low budget and wants the same job to be done under a budget of around $10 to $25 USD within a certain duration so he submits a job of creating a logo on one of an online job marketplace so that someone who is related to the logo designing field can contact him to provide the required logo design for a fixed price or on an hourly fee.  So Mr. John can save $75 by outsourcing the job to anyone available online on a job marketplace. Similarly, the service provider (logo designer) can make money online by providing logo designing services without spending any money sitting at home or office in his/her available free time.

So Let’s see why the client or customer needs to outsource any job and why a home-based local or overseas service provider (freelancer) is willing to provide service to him. Even both the parties don’t know each other so they obviously don’t know anything about each other. The client doesn’t know who is the man or women at the other end and so is the freelancer!

Neither party (client and freelancer) are sure if the freelancer can provide reliable services exactly what is needed by the client and similarly, the freelancer (service provider) is not sure if he will get paid by the client after successfully delivering the completed job to the client. who is sitting God knows where. Here comes an ultimate role of a middleman or a company who can make sure the client will receive an exact required job done by the freelancer and the freelancer to be paid the agreed amount of fee for the particular job from the client. This middleman is an online job board that is available online where the clients submit their jobs and the freelancer submits their profiles and proposals to get that job. the job board takes a percentage of the commission which is already fixed and mutually agreed by the client and freelancers.

For instance, Mr. John submitted the job for logo designing after fixing a budget of $100 USD on a job marketplace and depositing the fee of $100 in advance, and a freelancer from a different country or a local submitted a proposal for showing interest in designing a logo for Mr. John,s job and later he successfully delivers the job, and Mr’ John accepted the job with satisfaction, Afterward, Upon Mr. John’s request to release the funds to the freelancer, the job marketplace team will release $100 to the freelancer but after cutting a percentage like 10% or 20% so the final payment a freelancer will receive is $90 or $80 accordingly.

This is a very simple and easy to understand example of a freelance system on the Internet.

 

Question-3: How the payment can be received in a local bank account or any virtual bank account available online.