50+ Freelance Jobs

Some freelance careers to consider.

I’m a late bloomer to the freelancing world — but you don’t have to be.

I’ve been stuck at a government job for the last 2.5 years because it’s comfortable and stable. That being said, it is causing me so much unhappiness, I’m doing tasks that are not even in my field of study, and most importantly it forces me to conform to a culture that isn’t me.

My younger emo-self would be disappointed.

But now it’s time for me to make a change. I’ve decided to test the waters with freelance copywriting and email marketing.

Trying to manifest my freelance writer dream into reality, I am at my local coffeehouse on a Saturday morning at 9 AM in a camo green t-shirt and black camo pants — dress to manifest, right? — with a large mocha frappe writing this blog post instead of sleeping in until about 2 PM.

I kinda-sorta started this journey during the pandemic but it kinda-sorta got me nowhere.

So I’m going to try a different approach, I’m going to wake up early on the weekends and devote my time and efforts to building a portfolio and following leads to land clients. After all, I have a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Diploma in Journalism, so I have the skills to do this. If you don’t, don’t let that stop you as there are MANY resources online to help you get started.

Going to hold myself accountable by writing an article every Saturday about what I’ve accomplished so far and how I got there — I’ve already laid the groundwork by starting my journey on Fiverr, so this shouldn’t be difficult, right? Well, only time will tell.

Now for the fun part! Many of us want to keep our colorful hair, piercings and show our tattoos, so I have compiled a list of freelance careers you may want to consider:

1. Graphics and Design (Logo & Brand Identity, Gaming, Art & Illustration, Web & App Design, Social Media, Packaging & Covers, Visual Design, Fashion & Merchandise, Print Design, Product & Characters Design, etc.)
2. Digital Marketing (Social Media Marketing, Social Media Advertising, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Marketing Strategy, Public Relations, Content Marketing, Video Marketing, Email Marketing, Web Analytics, Affiliate Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), etc.)
3. Writing and Translation (Articles & Blog Posts, Translation, Proofreading & Editing, Resume Writing, Cover Letters, LinkedIn Profiles, Ad Copy, Sales Copy, Social Media Copy, Email Copy, Book & eBook Writing/Editing, Scriptwriting, Creative Writing, Legal Writing, etc.)
4. Video and Animation (Video Editing, Visual Effects, Subtitles & Captions, Lyric & Music Videos, Character Animation, Logo Animation, Corporate Videos, Short Video Ads, 3D Animation, etc.)
5. Music and Audio (Voice Overs, Producers and Composers, Mixing and Mastering, Songwriters, Sound Design, Podcast Editing, etc.)
6. Programming and Tech (WordPress, Website Builder, and CMS, Game Development, Web Programming, Desktop and Mobile Apps, etc.)
7. Data (Data Processing, Data Analytics, Data Engineering, Data Science, Data Visualization, etc.)

Once you hone in on your skills and start building a portfolio, check out these sites to get started finding clients (this list is no particular order of preference):

1. Fiverr — It’s free to sign up. The downside is you have to create a few ‘Gigs’ before finding clients on the ‘Buyer Request’ page. You will not get a list of jobs all the time so it’s a matter of refreshing the page every so often — but when you do, you will have to send an eye-catching offer to land the gig. Also Fiverr take a percentage of your earnings.
2. Upwork — It’s free to sign up and you get about 50 ‘connects’ to start with. ‘Connects’ allow you to submit proposals to job listings. So make sure you have a killer proposal! You will have to purchase ‘connects’ once you run out so make sure to use them wisely. Upwork does take a percentage of your earnings.
3. Flexjobs — This is a paid site. However, you will get a list of many remote jobs that could use your services. It is a monthly subscription, but you get in contact directly with the employer. Flexjobs does not take a percentage of your earnings.
4. Freelancer — This works similar to Upwork where you have to ‘Bid’ on projects. Freelancer gives you ‘Bids’ to start with but you can opt-in to a membership where you pay a monthly fee.

So while it seems like a lot of work to get started, building a great portfolio and killer pitch/proposal is 80% of the work. The next 20% is landing the clients and putting 100% into your awarded projects.

All the best, my dudes!

Until next week.