Thoughts about the freelancing niche

It seems to me that if you're going to become the expert in your niche, you need to be able to guide your audience based upon your own experience and success.

Are you going to tell your audience "I'm not 100% sure how to do it"?

I would simply suggest that you spend some time in doing market research and find out exactly what people contemplating freelancing really want. Validate your niche to be sure you have a buying audience.

At the same time, you need to be successful at freelancing so you can give sound advice based on your own past work experience.

Steve

Hey Santiago!

The freelancing niche sure is very interesting and huge! It has a lot of potential. But...
1. Most freelancers who need help, don't have a lot of money. That's why the need help ;-)
2. There is already a lot of stuff out there about freelancing. A more specific niche is required.

Maybe this is an interesting twist when it comes to your target group: People who want to become freelancers.

Why? Because they still work a job and earn a steady income. Hence they can afford products.

About your monetization idee: I think you will need a produkt like an ebook or course since most freelance plattforms don't have affiliate programs (Fiverr, Upwork).

I've been selling voice acting on Upwork for two years now, quit my day-job a year ago, and I'm just getting started.

You claim that freelancing is your passion, and yet:
These should be taken as red flags that perhaps this is not the niche for you. Certainly if it's wearing you down after only a year, how are you going to convince anyone else that this is something worth pursuing?

Modern "FREElancers" are some of the most enslaved people around.

For all those reasons you mentioned, especially CHASING after a Pay Check.

Yes, you are FREE to not work for someone, to not have a commitment, to "control your time"...but, too many Freelancers are experiencing what you did...which begs the question...

WHY do you love it?

Don't take my word for it, many (maybe even most) FREElancers spend more time per week working than the regularly paid
wage slaves
they make fun of.

Some Worker Bees LOVE their job too, and when they leave it, they are done for the week with a paycheck and often benefits, like health insurance...

So, there is a certain MYTH of being FREE with freelancing. Just an opinion here, but if one has the talent to freelance (anything)...

they have the ability to create/acquire products which could work for them for decades.

Just some food for thought, OK?

gjabiz

Even if you set up a brilliant page, put tons of great information and everything, how are you gonna get people to find your page? Will you pay adds to get them to your page or do you simply hope they will find it by some miracle? It is one thing if you have a certain know-how but you should also know how to market your know-how else no one will read it and you will just waste more time on something that doesn't make you any money.

It seems you love to design more as designer, not loving that freelancing as freelancer.
So, you better create the design as much as you can (love) and start to make your own design library website to sell your creation as membership.
Hope it helps.

Can't remember where I read it (Seth's blog, maybe?), but whoever it was addressed freelancing as a means of support.

The gist was that you leave a job to become a free lancer, and you end up having several bosses, none of which is you.

If you are "feeling the burn" already, spend the time and effort to figure out how to make dealing with customers and the back office stuff easier, and sell/teach that. If you're feeling the frustrations of freelancing, I can pretty much bet you are not alone.

OP:

Bill 50% up front. At least. 100% if you feel confident. Make sure you get paid. Don't chase money. Legit business owners are happy to pay you up front.

Limit the number of revisions and tell them up front for them to agree. I limit to three and have never needed more than one.

Didn't see what niche you serve, though you said you know all about targeting.

Thank you for such good answers.

I guess I'm not ready to jump on the authority site wagon when I haven't figured it out myself how to get out of the rat race.

Now that I read your answers I understand this is not the best way to go. At least for now.
I don't want to be a scammy guru giving advice that I can't follow myself.

Ultimately, what I'm trying to do is get some extra income. Maybe you could help me with some ideas or systems to explore.

Don't get me wrong; I love freelancing and the idea behind it, but I want this to be my plan B.
I know there must be some better ways to make money online, and I hope you can help me on this matter.

Thanks again for taking the time to give me your advice. I really appreciate it.

There is a script out there that pulls job listings from various job search engine sites. You can build a website / WordPress blog with this script and it will populate it with job feeds. Then just put affiliate links throughout the blog.

There are also classified ad scripts that can create job boards, etc.

HI Santiago

Your question is enticing , however answers to this question can be multiple. A review of facts follows

1. floating a freelance site ,,, some of the most successful sites have seen merger ,, ( may be due to common understanding and decision to cut down intraspecific competition ,, however that also didnt see much rise in their popularity.. ( they were just able to retain their customer base and merge them .. it has partly to do with their USPs as well.. I am talking about elance and odesk. elance was a bit higher paying jobs platform. and odesk, after they became upwork. you can see the changes

2. If you see another platform PPH , quite successful unique business model.. but has its flaws when it comes pricing and fees. protection towards freelancers is not impressive , but yes they are evolving. but if you see their second venture taskrabbit has not been able to gather much eyeballs.

I have helped in concpetualizing semi freelance sites. but that needs an indepth knowledge and commitement, once you decide to take a leap. should give it at least 18 months. As it is a bridge between payors and providers of services .. both are your internal customers and it needs a multi prong approach.

if you need any help do not hesitate to get in touch.

Sounds like you are over-working.

Take a week break and get back to work.

Thank you for all your responses.

I'm starting to realize that I need to try something different in order to get different results.

I want to learn more about niche research.

Can you help me?

I opened this thread: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-research.html

Thank you!