What is the easiest freelance job?

best freelancing sites

Get to the office, punch in, count down the hours, punch out? I don’t do any of that, and neither do 18 percent of all workers around the globe. We choose to work from home instead of pursuing traditional careers thanks to the best freelance jobs available.
There’s no reason why you can’t work this way too. It’s not easy, of course. Tax complications and running a solo business can hobble you. But it has its perks! You are your own boss, you work your own hours, and you live every day doing what you love.

Web development and mobile development are two of the highest-in-demand programming jobs right now. Java, Swift, Python, Ruby, JavaScript—whatever language you’re fluent in, there’s likely someone out there looking to hire you.

But as lucrative as programming can be, keep one thing in mind: working with non-programmers on programming-centric projects (like web and mobile apps) is often frustrating. Be ready to pull out your hair as you bounce from one unreasonable client to the next.

Where to find freelance web or mobile developer jobs:

Want to work for a startup? Then Product Hunt and AngelList have the two best job boards to check out. White Truffle is an option if you want to get anonymously matched with best-fit tech companies. WordPress Jobs is good for WordPress developer positions. Otherwise, you can’t go wrong with general programmer-centric job boards like GitHub Jobs and StackOverflow Jobs.

Freelance Jobs You Can Work From Home

freelance projects

When most people think of freelancers, they think of creative jobs: writing, editing, perhaps advertising and marketing gigs. While those areas are full of opportunities for entrepreneurial types who want to work at home, either on a full-time or part-time basis, they're far from the only occupations that lend themselves to the freelance life. Here's a roundup of several freelance jobs -- some you'd never expect.

Writing

Let's start with the obvious: freelance writing is the classic work-from-home job. If you're not already toiling away in virtual ink, however, you might not realize how many different types of freelance writing jobs there are. From journalism to copywriting, blogging to social media, there are writing jobs for every temperament and type of experience.

Editing and Proofreading

Whether you're a seasoned grammarian or just someone with a solid eye for detail, the internet teems with editing and proofreading gigs for your level of skill and experience.

Marketing and PR

If you have a phone and an internet connection reliable enough to sustain a Skype meeting, you can do your marketing or PR job from the comfort of your own home. Just be prepared to take the occasional on-site meeting. In many cases, the client will want to look at their marketing or PR pro in the eye once in a while -- and not just over a webcam. Social media coordinator and manager jobs also fall under this umbrella, and as easy to do from home as from an office.

Transcription

Transcription jobs generally come in three flavors: medical, legal, and market research. The latter requires the least amount of study, in terms of familiarizing yourself with the specialized technical language of the field. In most instances, transcription jobs are meted out by an agency, which will require you to take a typing test and then set you up with jobs as needed.

How do I find a freelancer?

find freelancers

These sites are excellent resources when you're seeking the right person for a project.

As your business grows, so does your need for talented workers. It can be a challenge to find the right people to expand your team, not to mention the budget to add them to your operations. Freelance workers offer your company the opportunity to work with talented individuals on the specific projects you need them for. You can keep your overhead to a minimum while also gaining access to the skill sets you need for the project to turn out perfect.

There are many websites available where you can find a freelancer who has the exact skill set you are looking for. To help get you going, we asked 12 entrepreneurs from YEC to weigh in on the best websites to find talented freelance workers. Here are their favorites.

1. LinkedIn, AngelList

"There are many websites to find talented freelancers. Oftentimes, we look to our own personal networks, and to LinkedIn and Angel.co, to find available and skilled freelancers who can handle a particular workstream or project. On these sites, you can find background information, testimonials and information about skill sets." 

2. Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr

"Outside of my own personal network of people I've worked with in the past, I tend to rely on websites like Upwork.com, Freelancer.com and Fiverr.com, in that particular order. I find that by being able to filter through candidates based on reviews, job success rates and other pertinent criteria, I'm able to zero in on the right candidates for an outsourcing job in order to free up my staff." 

3. Remote job boards

"Since we operate a fully remote company, we like to post jobs on remote-specific sites. Some of our go-to sites have been RemoteWorkHub.com and FlexJobs.com. We've had good success finding top talent whose No. 1 desired benefit is being able to work from anywhere."  

4. Craigslist

"It may seem old school, but many people are surprised by how effective outsourcing through Craigslist can be. It's one of my top three outsourcing sites. I've used it to successfully outsource writing, development, customer support and more. The key is to use early filters in your application process to cut down on the noise (like mentioning a keyword in the subject of their application)." 

5. Scripted

"It's a hit and miss when hiring content writers, and the entire training period takes a few months. All of this makes the content team pretty expensive to manage. We hire content writers from Scripted, which frees up a ton of management time, as well as helps us deliver more content without compromising on quality." 

6. Indeed

"Indeed provides access to some really good freelancers who tend to have more experience. It's been a very successful resource in terms of finding the right mix of skills for either remote or onsite freelance staff." 

Best freelance websites for beginners

best freelancing sites

Whether you have a great job you love that just doesn’t pay a lot, you need to find a new job or you need some extra money to tide you over during a tough time, freelance jobs can be a great way to make up the difference. Believe it or not, there are a lot of ways to make extra cash and very few of them require any special skills or training. Depending on your interests and what you have available to you, you can try a few different things or concentrate on one. Who knows? Maybe you’ll end up with a new career.https://www.fieldengineer.com/blogs/where-to-find-freelance-jobs-online

1. Social Media Guru

Believe it or not, your time on Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites can actually pay off. Offer your services to businesses as a social media expert — assuming you are one and understand the types of social media out there – you can write blog posts, Facebook posts, Tweets and other messages for companies that don’t have time to keep up with their social media platforms. Check out just what you need to be a social media guru here. A social media guru can charge per post or per month, often as much as $150 per brand per month.

2. Yard Work

Post a sign on the board at the grocery store, post in groups on Facebook and let everyone know that you can weed, mow, weed whack or whatever. Those who do yard work for a job often charge by the job, so call around and find out what others in your area are charging and adjust your prices accordingly.

Freelance jobs near me

freelance jobs near me

Can you make more doing freelance work than you can on salary? A new report reveals some surprising details about what freelancers earn.

Want to start a freelance career but afraid you won’t be able to earn enough money? Business News Daily and Payoneer have some new statistics that might assuage your fears about what you can earn for freelance work.

Let’s start with the big question: how much can freelancers expect to earn? Although individual freelancing income differs from person to person, a recent Payoneer survey reveals that the average freelancer can expect to take home about $21 an hour. To quote Business News Daily:

“According to Payoneer’s data, the average freelancer works 36 hours a week at a rate of $21 per hour, giving them an annual pretax salary of more than $39,000.”

Freelancers earn more than traditional workers

Here’s another fascinating fact from Payoneer: in most countries, freelancers earn more than average workers working traditional jobs. (Click here to tweet this fact.)Add in the fact that freelancing for multiple clients means that you can lose one client without losing your entire income stream, and freelancing starts to look like a pretty good career move, right?

Of course, for some of us a $21 per-hour wage doesn’t sound like a lot, even if it’s more than you might get at an entry-level job. In fact, Payoneer reports that only 46 percent of freelancers are satisfied with their current income. That’s why it’s it’s important to learn how to earn better freelance rates and negotiate for higher pay. The secret to beating that $21 per-hour average is probably a mix of negotiating rates and promoting your work.

The catch: while traditional employers take taxes out of workers’ hourly wage, freelancers have to monitor their income to account for tax payments down the road.

Can I do freelance work while employed?

freelance workers online

Yes, I have freelanced workers online while holding a full-time development job. It is possible, but everything needs to be right. Any time you do something like this, it is important to act with integrity ... both to your employer and the person you are working with. If you don't, it will likely all cave in on you. Here are a few things I think are important if you decide to do something like this:

1. You have to love what you do. If you don't love writing software, you will not be able to handle the fact that you are spending ALL of your time working. If you love what you do, then you aren't working, you are doing what you love.
2. You need to have a job where you have time do freelancing. In my case, my boss wanted me to put in 40 hours/wk and no more. I have been at organizations where they believe the own you 24x7. If you are already working 60 hrs/wk or more, you don't really have time to do any freelancing.
3. Your current employer needs to be aware of what you are doing. In my case, I asked my boss (who also happened to own the business) and he said, "Yes, I think everyone should own their own business". This kind of attitude is rare in the business world, but if you care about your employees, this is the right attitude to have. Sure, you could freelance without talking to your employer, but only do this if you don't care if you will be fired. In many companies, having a "second job" of any kind is grounds for termination. The world is smaller than you think.
4. You need to be doing something that is not in competition with or interfering with the market of your main job. The customers need to be different, the focus needs to be different and you need to make sure that you are not courting customers that are already customers or potential customers of your main job. This points back to the integrity point. This may be a bit vulgar, but dogs have a rule: "Don't poop at the same place where you eat." It's a good rule for your work life as well.

If the situation is right and you follow the advice above, you can do well freelancing and potentially turn it into a full-time business for yourself. If the situation isn't right and/or you don't follow these rules ... you will be putting both your full-time job and your freelancing career in jeopardy.

Best freelance sites

Best freelance sites

I wrote this Medium post of wanting to become a digital nomad. There I discussed why the digital nomad lifestyle appealed to me and how I wanted to accomplish this dream of mine.

Wannabe Digital Nomad

The last step in that article was getting selected into Toptal. Mind you, I hadn't applied to Toptal back then and just thought that if I could do it, it would make my dream of becoming a nomad so much more possible.

And I did get selected a few months later.

Months passed and I haven't started nomading yet (for personal reasons). But in this last few months, many people have asked me to share my experiences on applying to Toptal. So here I am with a walkthrough of the same.

Round 0: Applying

To get yourself considered for a freelancer position at Toptal, you will have to submit your profile to them. You can do so by going to their website and using the "APPLY AS A FREELANCER" option.

I would very much appreciate if you use my referral link to do so.

Round 1: Screening call

This is the first step of the screening process. In this round, you will be interview by a recruiter.

It will be more or less like a normal interview, just answer the questions to the best of your abilities.

One thing though, if you are a non-native English speaker, it would be advisable to work on your speaking skills first. That is, be sure that you speak clear and correct English. Practicing English speaking in your daily life for a few days should do the trick.

Round 2 and 3

Due to certain NDA, I can't disclose the exact details of this phase.

But it was a challenging round which tested my problem-solving skills, especially on the speed and efficiency parameters.

If you want to prepare for it, I would recommend practicing some code based problem-solving. A recent letter I wrote could help here.

Getting started with Competitive Programming - Build your algorithm skills

Round 4: The Project

This is probably the easiest of all rounds. Basically, you need to do a project in the primary tech domain of yours. The only catch here is that the end product you make should be production-ready.

What do we mean by this? I mean it should have ...

• Proper input validation (example, only take email in email fields)
• No UX glitches (example, clicking on user photo should open their profile)
• Optimized code (example, sending an email should not happen on the main thread)
• Neat design (example, the text should not overflow and should be readable at all places)
• https://www.fieldengineer.com/blogs/where-to-find-freelance-jobs-online

You are given a fixed amount of time to do this task. Use this time properly and give this project your best effort.

It is very easy to miss the things I just mentioned. Test your project many times to make sure it is perfect.

This is the final round. Get through it and you will be able to work as a freelancer through Toptal.