Not many people still know that we can freelance and get paid while working from home. But, I was fortunate and got this opportunity back in 2009 when Upwork was known as Odesk. I got my first remote assignment of writing about a travel company which was operating from Calgary Canada. I had never written an article till then.
I got paid less than 0.5 cents per 100 words. And it looked like a lot to me back then.
After my first assignment and a generous review after completing the assignment, I applied for many more jobs and got some more to work. But, I did not know how to ask for a raise. I had no expertise in it. And then someone gave me wonderful advice that changed everything. And that advice is evergreen which will always work till the remote jobs exist on the planet.
- When you’re new, apply to as many jobs as you can to gain experience.
- Be sincere and always honour deadlines.
- Always ask for the areas of improvement from your clients, and follow their advice. Change accordingly and see whether that works.
- Make a webpage for your jobs completed, and note down the reviews of the clients and ratings they had given you for your work.
- If you don’t know how to make a webpage of your job portfolio, you can use free hosting platforms for example; WordPress, wix.com etc.
- Attend the courses of your job profile and ask as many questions as possible to hone your skills to pro levels.
- Be polite to your clients. They are your bread and butter and they will help you out in finding more clients if you do your best, listen to them and provide good service.
- Never discourage yourself when you get any negative reviews. It is life and everything just loses its intensity over time here.
- Look around you and find out how much people are charging for your types of work. Note down all the things like their experience on the platform, number of hours and jobs they have done. All the things that are important to make a solid assessment. Once you get it done, compare how you can too replicate the same. You can get many high paying remote jobs if you get good reviews. People want to work with people who provide genuine services, are rated well, honour deadlines, provide quality services, listen to the clients and are polite and responsive.
- When you have done all these things, always ask for a raise when you get enough solid reviews of your work. Remember if you don’t ask you don’t get.