How to Make $80,000 as a Freelancer This Year
Freelancing Hacks You Don’t Know About
(Originally on my blog funnelhour.com)
Have you ever wanted to make more money as a freelancer or online service provider?
In this blog post, I’m going to share with you how I made $80,000 in 1 year selling freelance design services (and how you can do it too!)
I’ll share the steps and tips that helped me get there.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a freelance designer or not. This blog post will show you how to start your own freelance business and sell your skills online, and also continue to learn so you become an expert in your field.
What is a freelancer?
Freelancers are people who do work for customers for a fee to earn a specific amount of money.
They can work from home or use their talents for side hustle. They can choose their preferred and private projects, but work can be more unstable.
Freelancing is a great way for anyone who wants to earn some extra cash on the side while doing something they love (or start a real, profitable business and quit their job!)
And best of all, it’s simple (disclaimer: not always easy though).
All you need is an internet connection and a laptop (or desktop) computer.
Freelance Writers
Freelance writers use their skills to write articles, blog posts and web content for companies.
The popularity of blogging has increased the demand such that many blogs require employees or paid contributors who can produce quality work quickly.
Freelance writers are also needed to write product descriptions and help with sales copy for sales funnels.
Freelance Jobs
There are many great freelance jobs that you can do online such as:
- - SEO Expert (Search Engine Optimization)
- - Social Media Manager — Virtual Assistant
- - Transcriptionist / Video Editor / Data Entry Operator & More!
- -Being a tax preparer or helping entrepreneurs with taxes
- -Being a financial analyst
- -Being a coach to help others with their career or offering career advice
- -Being skilled in one project management software like Clickup and helping others use it
Average salary for a freelancer can depend on many different factors, but you generally earn more with more experience.
There are several reasons why I wanted to become a freelancer.
1) You are never limited by time or place.
You are never limited by time or place as a freelancer. You can work at home, on the beach, or from your favorite coffee shop. It’s entirely up to you!
2) Work as much or little as you want.
One of the great things about freelancing is that you can set your own schedule. You don’t have to answer to a boss or anyone else, so you can work as much or little as you want!
3) Get paid up front before starting any work so there’s no risk involved.
As a freelancer, you should be paid upfront for your work. It’s the best way to get paid because you will know exactly how much money you have coming in and when it’ll arrive!
Getting Started
I was intimidated when I first became a freelancer because I wasn’t sure how good my work would be, so getting clients seemed even more daunting.
I started to learn about sales funnels from a Facebook ad I saw for Clickfunnels.
I was able to see how they’re different from websites and I knew from that moment I wanted to start building sales funnels.
When you have a sales funnel, it makes it easier for people to buy what they want from your site.
There are less distractions and the path to purchase is shorter.
This means that you will make more sales and people will buy things from you more often.
This is what I started to tell clients when they asked “What exactly is a sales funnel and how will it help me?”
Two Important Books
Once I knew what my service would be to offer clients, I was still reading and consuming all of the things Russell Brunson (the founder of Clickfunnels) wrote.
Russell Brunson’s best books include Dotcom Secrets and Traffic Secrets.
They both can help you set up and launch your online business the right way.
You can grab your free copy of Dotcom Secrets here with my link and your free copy of Traffic Secrets here with my link.
Everything Clicked
After reading those books, I saw how there are different types of sales funnels and I learned how to tell which one is best for certain products.
I started to learn how to make high-converting pages quickly and got my first design client from Upwork (for only $8/hour, but I figured I had to start somewhere) and liked the quality of what I could offer.
I quickly fell in love with the process of figuring out how to structure my client’s offers specifically for tripwire funnels to make them irresistible, which they found more helpful than just simply helping them build and improve their offer.
My Skills Really Took Off After Taking The One Funnel Away Challenge.
The One Funnel Away Challenge is a 30-day challenge that will take you step-by-step through the process of building your very first sales funnel.
You’ll gain the confidence to hit the ground running and start generating results for yourself or your clients within just 30 short days.
After taking the One Funnel Away Challenge, I started getting more freelance gigs because clients were drawn in by my portfolio of copywriting and design projects so much that clients started coming to me without the need for interviews or sales calls.
This was a tricky point for me.
It was hard for me to find the perfect balance between pricing my services correctly and not undercharging or overcharging.
The anxiety made it almost impossible for me to set my prices with any certainty and this uncertainty usually led to undercharging and feeling burnt out.
That’s when I realized how important it was to start treating this as a business and not just me doing some work for a few clients each week.
I focused on consistency.
As opposed to creating individual assignments that are completed randomly for a client, my preferred way is to pursue monthly agreements for my freelance writing and designing.
Not only does that help me keep a real reliable work load for myself but has also led to much more reliable income.
This is when I learned that setting fair but competitive rates will take care of two major things: attracting high-paying clients who are impressed by your work…and not burning yourself out because you are undercharging.
I finally got to a point where I had enough confidence in my work and pricing to raise my rates while still growing my number of clients.
Tip: Focus on the high-value jobs after you have experience
Each independent contractor had stories about feeling ripped off when given a client.
It can be difficult and time consuming for individuals to earn money from freelance jobs if you pick the wrong clients.
It’s important to not just accept any client after you get some experience.
Being a Freelance Writer
After I had been doing this for a while, I became known as the go-to freelancer in my industry for design, but also for copywriting.
I noticed that anytime clients in my industry asked me to build a sales funnel, regardless of if the pay was by the hour or per project, it was the writing that clients loved and never asked me to revise.
They liked the design too, but that usually required some revisions.
But not with the copywriting.
In other words, the only part of my freelance work that I could ultimately expect for companies or clients to love completely was my copywriting.
I had a light bulb moment.
I saw the demand from entry-level self-employed business owners that wanted my help with not just building a sales funnel, but they wanted to know how to write about the latest trends and topics related to marketing ideas, Instagram marketing, social media in general, email marketing, making money online, etc.
I saw a bigger need with copywriting and companies looking to not just hire another freelancer for another standard hourly rate, but they were trying to search for ways to be more relevant in the digital world.
For the first time, I really felt like my business had potential and that it could grow into something more than just spending my days on another job and getting paid per hour.
That is when I sought to reach the six figures mark and go beyond what most freelancers earn by writing, creating, and launching a new side hustle that would include other freelancers or companies never needing to think about what to post on social media again.
That’s when I launched The Content Vault!
The Content Vault is a bundle of over 1,300 pages of done-for-you content for over 7 niches that you can use to write, plan, and organize your youtube videos, blog posts, Pinterest pins, facebook ads, website sales copy, and more!
The Content Vault can help you write better blog posts, videos, Pinterest pins, facebook ads and so much more.
All of my done-for-you templates follow proven formulas that will help your content to be as effective as possible.
No need to hire a freelance writer to think of hot topics for social media marketing content.
You can grab the 1,300 pages of done-for-you content for over 7 niches here!
Serious Money
I decided to be more aggressive with my done-for-you services and only work with the best of the best.
I simply took a new approach by building my own website/funnel to sell my own services vs. just relying on gig marketplaces.
I decided to build a video sales letter funnel.
A video sale letter was really the best way for me to attract new clients because it’s so quick and easy for new leads to opt-in.
They just had to click on “watch this free training” then they’re taken through a video on the second page explaining what a sales funnel is and how it’s different from just having a website.
The video then took them through some steps about how my process would work if I was to help build a funnel for them, and invited them for a complimentary call so they could book time directly from me with no trouble at all with a Calendy link under the video.
This technique worked really well.
Within a week, I had built my video sales funnel and was soon booked with new clients that would find me from posting my funnel to Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook groups, etc.
Although the social proof from job sites like Upwork helped me not have to always take sales calls, since I was working within my own funnel and raised my prices, I wanted to take sales calls and make sure I was attracting the right clients to me.
I started learning a lot about sales scripts and how to do well on sales calls. I always tried not to be “sales-y” and I wanted to provide as much value of front possible when I had potential clients on a call with me, so instead of just talking at them like most people in the industry would have done, I helped them imagine what type of funnel would work best for them and brainstorm possible offer stacks.
When I first started out, one of the most difficult parts about building my business was figuring out how to build a team and outsourcing projects.
That’s still a challenge for me if I’m honest.
Once I had proven the video sales letter funnel and was maxed out on how many more projects I could take on, I decided that it would be more efficient if people filled out an application form instead of booking a call with me at the end of the video.
This helped me to validate and qualify clients, and instead of booking a sales call with them, I sent them my onboarding form and offered to send my free suggestions for what type of funnel would work best for their business and organize the flow of the pages (for example, opt in page, then tripwire offer, then up-sell page, then thank you page)
I used the program Funnelytics to show potential clients the visual flow of what the funnel would look like for them.
This process helped me get more dream clients as well, because I was able to follow up with leads that filled out the application form quickly and offer them suggestions for what type of funnel would work best for their business in order to increase conversion rates after they filled out my onboarding form.
In their minds, they were already getting a glimpse of what it was like to work with me, so they were 90% convinced to work with me.
I still had to take some calls, but I dramatically cut down on my number of sales calls by sending them my application and onboarding form.
This approach resulted in increased revenue per client and an overall higher satisfaction rate for both ends when it came to taking on new projects.
If you’re looking for ways to earn a decent living and grow your freelancing agency or business without doing any sales calls (or at least not much), this might be one option worth exploring!
My onboarding form questions included:
- The potential client’s name
- Business name
- Description of business
- Price point of products
- Examples of funnels they liked the look of
- Invitation to send me a google drive folder of product images/descriptions/testimonials/etc
As a business owner, this gave me all I needed to provide great suggestions for the type of funnel to offer. My offer was normally about $1,000 including sales copy, funnel design, set up, and mobile optimization.
That may be a lot or not enough depending on who you ask, but that was the sweet spot that allowed me to build funnels within 3 days on average and keep clients (and my brain) happy.
This also helped me plan out my earning potential and pay that I would earn.
At this same time, I also worked with different agencies on behalf of their clients through job boards such as WeWork Remotely, which provided a steady client load that I didn’t have to onboard, and I was able to simply build the funnels for clients on behalf of an agency (essentially they brought me on their team as an on-going funnel builder).
There’s always something new to learn and there’s always new trends within this industry!
I tried everything from having a full time job, being a virtual assistant, a graphic designer, spending days looking for freelance writing jobs, being at an entry level position at a brand strategy agency, and have worked with lots of small business owners who all have the goal to save money but still create more revenue each month for their businesses than the month before.
But nothing was as rewarding as focusing on copywriting and sales funnel design.
I started investing in more tools and software to help automate my business. This would make it easier for me to work with new clients and get them onboarded quickly.
I also invested in different fonts and paid graphic design software (no, not Photoshop, just Canva!) so that my final graphics for the funnels would be better than ever.
Freelancing is hard but if you’re willing to put in the time and effort- you’ll be able to grow your freelance business into something sustainable too!
You just need persistence, patience (lots) and some guidance from people who’ve been there before ;)
Closing Thoughts for Freelancers
I’m sure you’re still wondering what’s the secret to building a successful sales funnel or freelance business.
Well, it starts with understanding your customer and their buying process.
I’m not going to lie, it was hard at many parts of my journey. It took a lot of time and effort — but the end result is worth every second.
And you know what? You can do this too!
Use platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, We Work Remotely, or search similar platforms on places like Product Hunt.
Don’t forget that I have free tips, resources, and gifts for learning how to build sales funnels which has helped many designers (and non-designers) overcome the fear of writing compelling content and designing new offers!
Thanks for reading!
Resources Mentioned:
- Clickfunnels
- One Funnel Away Challenge
- DotCom Secrets
- Traffic Secrets
- The Content Vault
- Canva
- Clickup
This post contains affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, none of which will be at any extra cost to you for your purchase.
