5 Top Ways Freelancers Can Make Money Online

The freelance jobs that make money are:

• Writing
• Graphic art
• Video creation
• Virtual Assistant
• Web building

Let us begin!

1. Writing

The internet needs content—it cannot exist without it. No matter what many people say—that videos are the thing today—there will always be a craving for words.

One of the most lucrative ways to make money and freelance online is to offer writing services. There are many types of writing gigs, and you can choose a few that you want to specialize in.

Here are some examples:

• Copywriting – you will write materials that will be used for advertisements.
• Blog writing – a form of writing where your articles will be published on websites; blog writing encompasses many writing structures such as listicles, tutorials, and product comparisons.
• Product descriptions – this is a kind of writing where you will describe a particular product to entice a site visitor to buy; it goes beyond writing the features of a product.
• Technical writing – a kind of writing where you will produce instructional material, whitepapers, and most processes for businesses

To become a writer online, you can put up your website, or you can post your services on freelance marketplaces such as Fiverr, Freelancer, People Per Hour, and more. Choose one that does not charge a lot of fees. That way, you get to keep a huge chunk of your earnings.

2. Graphic arts

Graphic art is a huge thing—and there is a lot of work that you can do here. As you know, the internet is full of images, and many of these are not just your typical photo editing, but real graphic work.

Here are some examples of jobs you can offer:

• Business cards – a lot of business people need a designer; you do not need to print the card, but it is better if you can so you have more ways to earn money.
• Logos – online businesses sprout like mushrooms every day; there is a huge demand for logo makers. Even if there is free online logo maker software, nothing beats the creativity of a real person who can create personalized logos.
• Social media banners – social media banners are the huge cover pages found on business profiles. People use this to show their visitors what they do and what services they offer. You can also target social media influencers who want a creative banner for their social profiles.
• Hero pages – These pages are like social banners, but they lean toward product-related or service-related art. A hero is a horizontal image found at the top of website homepages. Most of the designs that you will make here have something to do with showcasing a product, or models wearing the product. 

As a graphic artist, you need a suite of tools to get the job done. While the most common are Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, you have the option to use a suite of free tools. Examples of these are Inkscape and GIMP. Both of these are open-source software and can do the job that you require. 

RELATED: 5 Top Ways on How to Make Money with a Blog

3. Video creation

Another freelancing gig you can offer is video editing. As you know, YouTube is now part of any business marketing checklist. Many influencers do videos but do not know how to edit their videos.

As a video editor, you can add intros and outros, adjust the video timeline, cut and connect different images and video sequences, and also alter the sequence of the audio.

Another option you can provide is animation. Today, you no longer have to draw your characters, as there are many animation tools you can use where there are ready-made templates. An example of this is Powtoon.

As a video creator, it also makes sense if you can write a script or do the voiceover so you can charge more money. If not, you have to be clear with the client and set expectations that you only do the video editing, but not the scriptwriting or the voiceover.

4. Virtual assistant

As a virtual assistant, you can offer a myriad of things to your clients. For as long as the office job can be done remotely, you can offer that service.

Here are the types of freelance jobs for a virtual assistant:

• Data entry – copy scanned data and enter them in a spreadsheet or an online tool.
• Data scraping – look for information online and put it in an organized list; for example, your client will ask you to look for all dentists in a specific area, and you need to list their names and addresses.
• e-Commerce backend – these are tasks like fulfilling orders, uploading new products to a web store, or uploading blog posts written by another person
• Customer service – answer customer inquiries about your client’s store, products, or the status of the order.

As a VA, you are paid by the hour. Because the job of a VA is what we can call a commodity job, the pay is low. Most of these jobs are easy to do, so you are competing with a lot of people. As such, there is a balance between demand and supply, thus affecting the rate that you can charge by the hour.

5. Web building

You can do this in two ways. The first one is by being a coder, which means you will build websites from scratch, and do all the things that your client asks you to do.

The other one is to build websites via platforms like WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, Ecwid, and so on. If you go this route, you need to tell your client that these websites have limitations. You also need to price your gig properly—will the price include the subscription to the service or not?

As a web builder, you need to specialize only in a few. Each platform has so many integrations and apps that you need to master, so you should concentrate on only a few.

If possible, choose platforms that also offer recurring affiliate commissions. With this, you can charge your client a fee for building your site, and you will earn a monthly commission for as long as your client’s website is up and running. 

Summary

Make sure you investigate your competitors. Price your services accordingly, so you are competitive enough but are still paid enough to make a living—also, factor in the cost of the fees to your pricing.

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