Online Freelancing: 9 Ways to Get Excellent Clients Who Pay

You want awesome clients who value your work and pay well.

However, if you're just starting out, freelancing may seem hard, confusing, and even scary! This is made worse when you read horror stories from people who've been conned after working so hard. And those who've been applying for long with little to no results.

The good news is that it's possible to get high-paying and valuable clients with proper direction. In fact, if you do things well, you can go through your entire freelancing life without ever getting conned.

Read on for effective ways to get clients.

1. Bidding sites

Here you bid/apply for posted projects. Currently, the best one is Upwork. It's the largest and most-loved freelancing website. Here, you can get long-term clients who pay well consistently. 

Need help with Upwork? Join The Upwork Mastery Course. I'll show you all the secrets that have helped me to become Top Rated in Upwork and earn tens of thousands of dollars.

You can also try out PeoplePerHour, another exceptional bidding site.

2. Microjob sites

Here you post what you can do and clients order your service. The best by far is Fiverr. In this site, you package your service in what they call gigs.

The best thing about Fiverr is once you post your gigs, you may start getting clients semi-passively.

3. "Take" accounts

Here jobs are posted on a queue, so you just pick what you want to do. These are specific to a skill. There used to be some good writing ones, but they're now restricted to only a few countries.

Transcribers still have "Take" accounts like SpeechPad, GoTranscript, and CastingWords.

4. Job boards

These are sites that need no sign-up, but they publicly post jobs with instructions on how to apply. These include the ones by ProBlogger, BloggingPro, and FreelanceWritingGigs.

5. Social media

For some people, when they need writers, transcribers, graphic designers, etc., they quickly post it on social media. One of the best places to get jobs is LinkedIn. Specialized Facebook groups also do the trick. 

6. Blog

You can start a blog and post excellent content that targets buyers. Have a "Services" or "Hire Me" page where clients can see your freelance services and hire you. This one gives some of the best quality clients ever.

7. Trainers

Do you know why people scramble to pay for training? It's because trainers really push to help trainees get started.

As much as you can learn things for free, your trainer will give you a structured approach. This starts from the very first basic step and takes you through to a veteran level.

Trainers may not promise all students jobs, but some of the best students end up working for the trainers. Or they get direct clients through a hookup by their trainers.

Even if they don't get work directly from the trainer, they can still get hired by clients after implementing what they learn.

I train in freelance writing. Check out my Complete Freelance Writing Course here.

8. Collaboration/Networking

This is so much fun and makes life easy. It is where you build close friendships with freelancers in your niche. Whenever they get a job you can better handle, they give it to you for free and vice versa. You can get excellent quality clients this way.

9. Pitching

Do you remember when you were once jobless and stepped into any of your target companies with a CV and cover letter? You really hoped one of them would look at your job application and hire you, right?

Cold-pitching works the same way, just that you do this 10 times better.

How?

You reach out to the brands and influencers in your niche via email or social media, offering them your writing services. First, you grab their attention, build some rapport, place your offer and keep following up.

The reason I say you do this better is this:

Unlike those letters you'd randomly dropped in offices, here you directly contact the person who matters, such as the CEO of a company or the head of content. It may take time to get a response, but once hired, you get just the right job at just the right rate.

Conclusion

A great online freelancing strategy is to always diversify sources of work. Don't rely on one source only to end up sad and frustrated when it has issues. Take a step and start implementing each of the tips above.

Aim to get to the level where you're so good that clients look for you instead. To sharpen your skills, join either my Upwork Mastery Course or my Complete Freelance Writing Course.