Any suggestion for newbie freelancer!

Perhaps you can...

1. Build a portfolio site for yourself. So others can see your work.

2. Market your site by linking to it in places where people who want to hire graphic designers hang out.

3. Think about the type of people who are always in need of graphic design.

4. Hang out with those people.

5. Share your designs in as many design-related portfolio sites as you can. If you're good, they'll reach out to you.

6. Read up on articles on how to get started as a freelancer.

7. Read even more.

Market yourself over socail media with your portfolio. Facebook and twitter campaign can help you a lot for sure.

Try social media marketing. Set up a responsive website featuring your portfolio. Know how to promote your services and if you're not getting better results, know where your target clients can be found and show them what you have in store for them.

Hello, Mate
I am a Graphics designer too. And working on fiverr as well as on Upwork. My life is running fine. I am earning full time from freelancing. 100$ from fiverr is not a good money. When i open my account during college time in 2012 then i starts to make at lest 500$ a month. Then i move to freelancer and then Upwork. If you are really serious about building life in freelancing then Make great portfolios. I hope you have. As you told me you worked 2 year just to improve your skills. 2nd thing give test in freelancing sites and score well, Dont bid too much low, Rating is king. If some how you get job then ask your buyer to rate you 5 stars, I think nothing wrong in that. To get your first job on freelancer you must have to be patient. You might get it tomorrow or it may takes 1 month. If you have money to invert then post a WSO. Be active on Behance.
you can also use cafepress like websites to make good amount of money.
I hope this will help you.
Thanks

Try out 99designs.com. They have solid high paying projects there. I would recommend you start a blog about your passion. That would pretty much be your portfolio where you can show samples of your work and attract people who are into what you do or looking for people who can do graphic designing for them. Just work on getting more online exposure.

If you're looking for MORE EXPOSURE you might want to check out the new social media video streaming platform BLAB.IM (yes, that is the URL.)

It would be a great way for you to talk about and share your knowledge. It's a BRAND NEW platform similar to Periscope but better for creating a more engaged community ... and it ALSO runs on your computer so it's easier to create a more positive experience (less hand-held shakey stuff.)

I've been exploring it and can see great opportunities for people to build a brand, a community and as a marketing platform it has great potential. It's also FREE ... and so new that it's wide open for staking your claim.

Check it out, I think you'll see the possibilities are endless.

Get off of warrior forums and work

I'm going to go against the grain here and say not to do anything that others have said so far. You're not a strong writer so marketing yourself will always be a weakness, and there's simply no getting around that. So my advice to you would be to get one single client that's a web designer/marketing firm and do all of their logos for them at a fair rate of pay. If you do a good job, they'll refer you to other designers; and you can let your clients build your network of job prospects instead of trying to do it yourself.

And I'm saying this because I know firsthand how hard it is to find a reliable artist that can deliver on deadlines with stellar quality, and I can name ten others who have the exact same issue. So just find one firm that consistently needs logos/graphics and you're set.

One other thing though; don't just focus on logos. There are PowerPoint presentations, explainer videos, infographics, business cards and dozens of other similar skills that revolve around graphic design and layout. So you need to become a jack of all trades when you approach marketing firms and you'll easily turn this into a possible career.

Take action with advice from others and also use fiverr its pretty good.

Getting your first job on freelancer.com is not an easy task, you'll first have to earn few reviews before an employer can hire you.

build an excellent portfolio and then tell employers that you're willing to do the job at any amount they're willing to pay. since you've already worked on fiverr, no matter what the budget an employer has on freelancer.com, it will be better than fiverr.

and also another trick is this days nobody open a single account with fiverr.

you should open multiple accounts. with 10 accounts you can earn your $1000 a month since you make $100 a month. and make sure to use different vpn's for each account and so on to avoid getting ....... good luck.

1. Don't rely on fiverr alone, join other places where your customers might hang out like...
2. ...business groups in FB - you might find long term customers there if you give value in the group
3. Increase your personal brand's value perception. Create your own webpage (portfolio + testimonials about "how easy it is to work for you")

Try to "break" your previous price point every time you have a new client... eventually you find the sweet spot where you're not leaving money from the table.

By now you're mostly competent enough to take on bigger or "package projects". Connect to other business owners offline too to get the hang of dealing with customers. And lastly, be a good dude to your customers - they bring in referrals and additional projects.

I'd rather have few customers ordering projects over and over again, rather than lots with single orders (it's just easier because you eventually find what kind of work they are happy with if they're regulars)

Hi D,

Congrats on your globe trotting dreams AND your graphic design business!

I have circled the globe for 51 months straight. No better way to live...at least for me I have moved away from freelance writing toward publishing eBooks on Amazon but I've run a full time income freelance writing biz for years. On the road. As I traveled the world.

Here's what I did: I practiced writing a bunch every day. Improving my writing skills gave me the confidence to charge higher rates, so I could make $40 or $90 or $200 per article instead of peanuts Writing regularly also attracted clients who dug my writing skills. So, fall more deeply in love with your graphic design biz, learn it inside out, and improve your skills, to attract higher paying clients. Of course, bump up those rates to industry levels. You deserve it.

Connect with leaders in the graphic design business. Learn from them. I learned from my wife, who'd been successfully freelance writing for years. She also referred me to one of her big clients. Mentors open prospering doors for newbies, both through knowledge sharing and references.

All the best

Ryan

Network your brains out. And visit more sites like Upwork, Genuine Jobs and similar. It's important to have a good client feedback so making a website with your work is also a good idea.

I'm no graphic designer but I've been around the web for a while so here are my 2 cents.

Don't work on freelancer.com, their payment structure does not benefit the worker as much as it does the company. For example: you pay a fee when the project start, not when it's completed. I'd suggest researching upwork.com and perhaps moving there to build a strong freelancing portfolio.

Don't do contests, it's to much work for a small chance of winning. Also, there seems to be many large "design firms" that focus on them and they have economies of scale.

Something I think that you should do is establish your style and service offering before getting clients. Instead of bending to the clients every little request or doing logos one day and flyers the next you can say "This is what I do and it looks like this, don't you think its amazing? Now pay up and I'll do it for your company!".

I do agree with the people above about building a solid portfolio and going to where your potential clients are to network with them. Self-promotion is a key skill for any freelancer.

I hope this helps
- Simon N.

I think you'll find a better quality of clients on eLance and UpWork. Just focus on making sure you have a strong portfolio, a good proposal (if English isn't your strength, then hire someone to put a great template together for you that you can easily modify to customize for each job you bid on), and just keep submitting proposals. It takes time, but once the ball starts rolling you can get some good projects.

The problem with mainly using freelancing sites is that it's often a 'race to the bottom' because people hire based on fees, rather than quality.

As someone suggested upthread, I'd focus on building a website for yourself and getting your own, independent clients.

As a freelancer, technically you still *trade time for money*. So it's a job. A very well paid job, but a job. If you want true autonomy.... you need a business that can work for YOU... about 98% of the time. But you working hard everyday to fulfill services will burn you out. Soon you will get tired of it, and slack off, become indifferent, and wish you had an easier way to make money.

Find a business model where the money works for YOU. You want an ideal business where you can work 30 minutes to 1 hour per day, and have cash coming in all the time... no matter what you're doing.

What exactly do you want to know by this thread? If you know how to work, you will get more & more work. So you need to have some good positive feedback & previous work history. Thanks.

What exactly are you asking? I don't really see a question in your post...

Provide quality work at a fair price. Happy customers become repeat customers. The more positive reviews you build up, the more gigs you will get. Market yourself. Explore other avenues for advertising your services. Collect and share testimonials. Check out the Warriors Looking to Hire section right here on WF.