Most freelancers are making the most out of their careers and earning more than $2000 per month. And on the flip side, some other freelancers seem not to be successful because they do not consider the basic requirements to become successful freelancers. So, if you are a beginner freelancer, or looking to become a successful freelancer, everything is now easy for you.
Summary| In this Wiki Freelancing guide, you will go over the five basic requirements to become a successful freelancer. The tips we’ll discuss below would tremendously boost your freelancing career.
[ads]To become a successful freelancer, there are necessary skills and tools to get hold of. Let’s dive into them.
5 Basic Requirements To Become A Successful Freelancer
- Basic computer knowledge
- A good computer and mobile phone
- Acquire Professional skills
- Professional typing skills
- Great communication skills
1. Basic Computer Knowledge
There is a significant advancement in the technological world today. And, everybody is expected to have at least the basic knowledge of computer and how it works. It would be a nightmare to think of becoming a freelancer without knowing how to operate a computer. This is because freelancing jobs are done remotely, either through the computer or cell phone. However, you don’t need to be a computer wizard as you would only need the basics, depending on the services you offer.
Plus, some freelancing platforms require freelancers to operate with a computer rather than a phone. For example, setting up your freelancing account, gigs, access to all the bells and whistles, and even interacting with your buyers would be way better with a computer.
Again, most of the jobs that you’ll get from your clients are mostly better to handle with your laptop or computer. As a freelancer, therefore, you’ll be super efficient if you know your way about on the computer. And, this takes us to the next requirement.
[ads]2. A Good Computer And Mobile Phone
It is not enough to know your way around the computer. Every freelancer needs a good computer/PC and a mobile phone to speed things up. From the starting point, which is registering with freelancing platforms and setting up your account, to the point of communicating with potential buyers and selling your services, you would need a functioning computer and a mobile phone.
However, you would only have access to all the bells and whistles of the freelancing platform when you are operating with a computer. Again, since it is of utmost importance to respond very fast to your client, you need to also operate your account with a good phone. For example, you may need to attend to your clients even when you are out of the house/office. In this case, it would be best to use the mobile phone for quick response to keep your clients in the loop.
If you have a computer and know how to operate it, bravo! The next is to consider the professional skills you would want to offer as a freelancer.
» MORE: Mind-Blowing Reasons Why You Should Start Freelancing
3. Acquire Professional Skills To Offer
Having a computer and phone and knowing how to operate them are not the only requirements. You would need to acquire some skills to offer in exchange for some bucks. That’s just how freelancing works, and you can make a huge income working from your home.
Let’s see some of the amazing freelancing skills to learn and make huge money out of them.
[ads]21 Lucrative Skills and Services to Offer for Freelancers
- Graphics Designing Skills | With software like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Coral Draw, among others.
- Video Editing and Animation | With software like Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, among others.
- 2D/3D Animation | With software like Blender, Maya, Adobe Animate, among others.
- Whiteboard Animations | With Software like Doodly, among others.
- Ghost-writing, research, and article writing.
- Handwritten, PDF, audio, and video transcription.
- Translation of Languages
- Web Designing Skills | Learning some programming languages | such as HTML, CSS (and preprocessors), Javascript (and its libraries and frameworks, like React JS, Angular, or Vue Js), among others.
- Web Development Skills | Learning some Back-end programming languages | such as PHP, SQL, Python, among others.
- UX/UI Design for android and apple (React Native, Flutter, etc.)
- Building dropshipping, Shopify, Amazon stores.
- Building of SEO backlinks[ads]
- SEO Services
- Blogging | Owning a blog and monetizing it | Through Advertising, selling digital products, doing Affiliate
- Digital and Affiliate Marketing services
- Proofreading and Editing | Learning how to proofread and Edit people’s works, books, documents, etc.
- Social Media Management
- Growing of social media accounts
- Music production, composing, singing, rapping…
- Voice over services
- Creation of brand names, tags, and more
Which freelancing skills should you learn?
It is highly recommended to acquire the skills that are related to the ones you have already, or the ones you are passionate about. So, if you have acquired some graphics designing skills, then it is time to get into Animations, starting with 2D to 3D with some amazing software like Adobe After Effects, Doodly, Adobe Animate, Blender, and many others.
As a freelancer, you would want to learn skills that are also in high demand in the marketplace and less competitive. Even if you want to go for a low-demanding skill, you should work on how to advertise yourself more to reach out to more clients within and outside the freelancing platforms.
» MORE: How To Make 6-figure Income With Amazon Publishing – Secret To Success
In addition, it’s important to consider how much you want to earn from your freelancing career. Of course, higher demanding skills and professional skills pay more than others. You cannot compare the income of a web developer to that of a transcriptionist. They are of different levels in the hierarchy of professional skills. You can choose from the list of 21 lucrative skills above to get started.
4. Professional Typing Skills
As a professional freelancer, you should have professional typing skills. No matter the type of services you offer, you need to type super fast to steal the heart of the buyer and speed up the project.
[ads]What is a professional typing skill?
Professional typing skill is the dexterity to stroke the keys on your keyboard without looking at the keyboard. It is practically the idea of mastering the keys with your fingers instead of your eyes. This way, you focus on the screens. To acquire a professional typing skill, you can use any of some typing tools and software, such as Mavis Beacon.
So, with professional typing skills, you can simply stroke the keys super-fast and accurately, without looking at the keyboard. As a freelancer, this helps you to respond faster, impress and delight the buyer, and get the job done 40% faster. There’re super benefits of acquiring professional typing skills and amazing tips to respond quickly to your clients.
» MORE: 63 Fantastic Reasons To You Should Start Freelancing Today
7 benefits of having a professional typing skill
- Fast response to your clients
- Practically speeds up your project
- Pretty much ideal for writers and developers
- Saves you tons of time
- Makes freelancing interesting
- You can offer typing as a service and earn hugely
- Helps in real-time projects when a buyer buys your time [ads]
5. Great Communication Skills
To become a successful freelancer, you would need to have exceptional communication skills.
As a freelancer, good communication skill helps you to have a smooth project with your buyers and also have them rate you excellently in communication skills. It’s also important to use your communication skill to convince and convert your potential buyers into buyers and even returning buyers.
Poor communication skills irritate and chase buyers away instantly. Remember that excellent communication is one of the good qualities of a professional freelancer. It does not matter the language you’re communicating with. The key point is being professional and yet friendly with your communication. Additionally, here’s a list of how to communicate better with your buyers.
[ads]Five Important Communication Tips for Freelancers
- Use simple and not ambiguous terms
- Don’t go against the platform’s terms
- Proofread before sending messages
- Discuss what the buyer discusses
- Study the buyer’s psychology
1. Use simple and not ambiguous terms
While communicating with your potential and returning buyers, you would want to use simple and not ambiguous terms. This enables you and your buyer to assimilate every point and requirement needed for a successful project.
However, if you’re in the category of writing, proofreading, editing, and other related services, you can employ some idiomatic expressions and a little more advanced vocabularies. This is just for the nature of the services, alongside reminding the buyer that you’re up to snuff. So, if you’re offering any writing or proofreading-related services, your semantics and logic must be top-notch.
2. Don’t go against the platform’s terms
While communicating with your clients, it’s important to observe the communication terms and conditions of whatever freelancing platform you’re using. Most freelancing platforms would strictly prevent sellers to share their personal contact details with the buyers unless it’s necessary needed.
In the same manner, freelancing platforms have zero tolerance of pulling your buyers out of the platform to work with them elsewhere for cheaper and more income. In fact, they can go to the extent of blocking, suspending, or disabling your freelancing account if they discover you’re in the game.
[ads]Again, to make the most out of your freelancing career, you would want to maintain professional and friendly communication with your clients to avoid having them report you to the platform. When you get reported severally, your freelancing account suffers from it. Plus, the buyer may cancel your order or even rate you negatively, which would affect your account terribly.
3. Proofread before sending your messages
It would be bizarre to send messages full of grammatical or punctuation errors to your buyer. It simply creates a negative impression about the seller, no matter the type of services they offer. In the event you mistakenly send a message with an error in it, you would want to resend the message while correcting the initial error.
Keep in mind that this idea is not limited to writers, editors, proofreaders, and other related freelancers. Therefore, it is of utmost necessity for all freelancers who want to make the most out of their freelancing careers.
4. Discuss what the buyer discusses
If you’ve been in the freelancing game, you would observe that some buyers bring in discussions that are not related to the project. For example, a buyer may introduce football, hobbies, food, holidays, school, and events during the project. Most especially, this happens when your freelancing account displays the same location as the buyer, or when the buyer wants to be sure you’re from the location displayed on your profile since some people operate with Foreign accounts.
Well, don’t let the panic set when this comes your way. It’s friendly to go with the flow but not overreact to the buyers’ ideas or ignore them. This type of abstract discussion helps to unite you and the seller to become more familiar and psychologically connected. And, if you’re operating with a stealth freelancing account, you would want to be critical not to implicate yourself while having abstract discussions with your clients.
[ads]5. Study your buyer’s psychology
Everybody has a unique personality. Some buyers are super authoritative, arrogant, and not straightforward, while some others are friendly, polite, and happy to work with you. So, it’s vital to understand the psychology of your client. This will give you more edge to work along with him seamlessly, with no issues.
How to study your buyer’s psychology?
Some freelancers ask, ‘how do I study the psychology of my buyer?’ The answer is super simple. You have a few minutes to study your buyer after the first set of your communication with them. You would observe the way they express themselves, talk about the project, and how original and polite they are.
Benefits of studying your buyer’s psychology
Some other freelancers may wonder, ‘why do I need to study the psychology of my buyer?’ Interesting! These are the major benefits of studying your buyer’s psychology and reading their minds.
- You get to know how best to work with them
- You discover what they need pretty much faster
- To understand when and how to respond to them
- You can take advantage of luring them to pay more
- You can get them to review and rate you excellently
- Also, you become a kindred spirit, and can easily seduce them back [ads]
The Bottom Line
If most freelancers can make more than $2000 monthly, you too can. There are some caveats which to note, but with the requirements above, you would always get going on your journey of becoming a successful freelancer.
According to some statistical reports, most freelancers find it difficult to excel because of their location, especially those from less popular countries. This is understandable, but there are ways out. If you find yourself in this situation, you probably want to create a foreign freelancing account provided your services are top-notch. You would want to contact the Wiki Freelancing Agency to help you out in this process. The good news is, if you get everything right, you would surely get the bang of your bucks.
Thanks for sharing.
Very valuable content. Thanks for sharing
This post is ideally helpful, especially for new freelancers.
Well said! Thanks for sharing
Interesting! I have all expect the typing skills. I already know it’ll boost my thing but I’m too lazy to learn. Thanks for sharing anyway.
Is it possible to offer copywriting services with mobile phone since I don’t have a set of computer?
Hi Juliana, using mobile instead of a computer/laptop would only reduce your efficiency.
To make the most out of your copywriting career, you would want to get a computer and also consider other factors discussed in the post.
Good luck!
I think I’m afraid of combining my work with freelancing. I’m an expert in Architectural drawing in both 2D and 3D, and I would want to earn more income through rendering my services online.
Hi Clint, you’ve got a cool skill there. If you are afraid of losing your job or combining the two worlds, you can start by doing freelancing as a part-time job. Nothing is limiting you now!
Full of inspiring ideas, but I’m pretty new to freelancing, and don’t know the platform to start with. Any good suggestions, please?
Hi Preda, you’re at the right place… The type of service you offer determine the best freelancing platform for you. Generally, you would want to start with Fiverr and upwork, especially if you’re from the developed countries. Here’s a helpful guide to start your freelancing journey and the requirements to become a successful freelancer. Thanks.
Exactly what I needed. Thank you!
Exceptional guide, full of helpful information.