Dealing With a Dry Client Market: Go Online and Keep Those Projects Coming
Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of freelancing for a living is its relatively instability. Unlike that 9 to 5 job where the paycheck is assured, a freelancer needs to take a more active role in acquiring new work—and even the most steady job lookers have a hard time attracting new clients for reasons beyond their control.
That being said, there’s at least one way to make a consistent living and keep bread on your table. Unless your work requires that you be onsite (a slight minority I’m assume?), you can market your skills online, get hired by a foreign client, and submit your work to someone halfway around the world.
Limiting yourself to local markets can be very… limiting, especially if you’re immediate area has some slow seasons. But making yourself available online grants you access to literally thousands of employers throughout the world.
That’s the beauty of the Internet: previous barriers such as distance practically don’t exist. It can be a pain to work during the graveyard shift, in sync with your client’s time, but the point is that you’re still getting paid to do the work you enjoy. At the same time, there also online money transfer services that make it possible for you to get paid with funds sourced from another country.
There are a few things to watch out when looking for a freelance gig online though. You have to make sure to avoid clients who rip-off the freelancers they hire, and to limit yourself to legitimate job sites.
That being said, as freelancers, you should maximize all opportunities and possibilities, for the sake of keeping the flow of paying clients consistent. One way to do this is to branch out beyond your local market, and accept work online.
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POSTED IN: Marketing Your Skills
1 opinion for Dealing With a Dry Client Market: Go Online and Keep Those Projects Coming
Change Your “Engrish” to English for Freelancing Success
May 8, 2008 at 11:31 am
[…] the risk of over-simplification, the better you can reach out online, the greater your chances of building connections that lead to freelancing success. […]
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