How I Made $1,000 Per Month as A Freelancer in Just 3 Months

Honestly, if I told myself last year that I would be able to make $1,000 online as a freelancer, I would not believe myself! But here I am, a year later, making – almost – full-time income online as a freelancer. So, if you are thinking of becoming a freelancer but having doubt whether or not you can make it, let me tell you that you definitely can do it!

So, here is how it starts. I quit my full-time job in March 2020, literally before lockdown. I was going to travel to Asia and move to Australia (yeay!), I was so excited for it. I had saved enough money to cover my living for 3-4 months, so I was not thinking about earning any money for a while. However, when the pandemic started and the world suddenly under lockdown, I was not able to continue with my plan. I ended up not moving anywhere, but because I had saved enough money, I was not that bothered to look for another job, especially when lockdown started, there was no job opening at all! Then it hits me, I should start earning money online.

I have a blog (with a self-hosted domain) since 2017, but I did not make any money from my blog. I just did it for fun, but I know from this I have the skills to become a freelancer. Not to mention that I have 20,000 followers on Instagram (if you want to know how to grow 20,000 followers on Instagram, I have a separate blog post for it here), again, I did not make any money from it, I only did it for fun. So, from this I realized I could be; web developer (I created my website myself!), Social media manager (yes, my Instagram!), and perhaps visual assistant or admin assistant, as I used to work as an administrator in one of the government bodies.

Anyway, from this, you can see that anyone can be a freelancer. If you have at least one skill that you can provide as a service to your client, you can become a freelancer. When I realized this, I started using my freelancer account properly. I started this at the beginning of June, and by September, I was able to earn $1,000 a month ($1,000 as of September income only). Yes, it only took me 3 months to make $1,000 a month! This might not be a lot, but it is still something, especially when you’ve just started. So here is how I do it – in other words, here is what you should do to start making $1,000 a month as a freelancer.

#1 Focus On One Freelancer Platform

The first thing to note is to focus on one platform. People often get too caught up in setting up as many accounts as possible. This could be a waste of time because setting up accounts and managing all account in all of that platforms takes a lot of time. In the case of setting up everything at once, it’s better to just choose one platform and nurture it properly, in other words, use it as maximum as possible. The platform I use is PeoplePerHour (PPH), but there are other platforms such as UpWork or Fiver, and many others. Remember, it is best to focus just on one platform when you just start, because it can be overwhelming to use all three platforms at once.

#2 Focus On Three Main Skills You Can Provide

Another thing that often became an issue is that people tend to put too many of their skills out there, expecting people to buy their services because they think they are ‘multitalented’. This is wrong because buyers would rather buy your service knowing that you are an expert at it, rather than buying your service because you can do so many other things. This also could be confusing to potential buyers or clients, as they would not understand what your niche is or what you are good at. It is important to focus on a maximum of three things that you are good at, so people could see that you are an expert in your field. For instance, you can provide legal advice or you can provide graphic design service or you can help with research – there are so many services you can provide, but make sure you only focus on a couple of things rather than focusing on too many things.

#3 Search For Projects To Apply

When you just started, people would not directly come to you and ask for your services. You would need to get out there and reach out to people. The best thing to do this is by searching for projects to apply to the platform you choose. When you search for projects, make sure you search for projects related to your skills. From this then you can send a proposal for the project you would like to apply for. Don’t just apply for one project then give up. You need to apply for as many projects as possible. Especially when you just started, it is hard to get clients if you have not had a reliable review. So, make sure you apply as many projects as possible. 

#4 Create Your Offer

Another thing you can focus on is creating an offer. Creating offers is basically the opposite of creating projects. If buyers create projects, freelancer creates offers. By creating offers, you can put out there what you are offering. For instance, you can offer ‘social media services’, then in the description, place together what would you offer in this service together with the price and timeline. Once your offer out there, people can search for your offer and buy it if they are interested. However, it can be difficult for your offer to reach buyer when you just started, that is why it is best to focus on applying for projects in the beginning, but it would not hurt to put the offer out there, in case someone would like to buy it – you never know!

#5 Invest In Your Business

Last but not least, is to invest in your freelancing business. Believe it or not, being a freelancer is running a business! What I meant by investing is not to buy a course to be a freelancer (you can if you want to, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessary). The number one investment would be to upgrade your freelancing account to premium. For instance, I use PeoplePerHour (PPH), they give us 15 credits in a month for free. One credit equal to one project that I apply to, in other words, I can only apply for 15 projects in a month. This for me was very low, considering I had just started and I did not have any reviews yet, so the chance for people to want to work with me was not high. So I upgraded to the premium version, which gives me 300 credits in a month. This for me was more than enough and I was satisfied with it. It was only around $30, and if you get at least one good review in three months, your credits would not expire at all – meaning that I still have all of that credits until now. This is what I believe is a good investment for a freelancing business. It brought me success, so if you want to succeed in your freelancing business I would recommend you do the same!