Use Your Common Sense When You Read Freelance Advice Articles

I cannot lie and I must say that I am quite mad to see that there are so many articles that offer freelancing tips that simply suck. I will only offer one example. There is this general tip going on that states you should never do work for free since you are opening yourself up to not making money and clients will take advantage for you. This is simply rubbish. If you use your common sense that will never happen.

One of the best ways to land a job as a freelancer is to offer your services for free. This has one huge advantage. You get the opportunity to highlight your skills and you basically take the interview to a brand new level. Instead of focusing on portfolio and your CV, you get to show the client what you can do. It is so rare to find a client that does not agree to seeing a special free sample of the work that you are about to do. However, it is obvious that you should only send something small, not the entire project.

A simple example. Let us say that the client needs a logo. You can apply for the job and bid without any work done for free. This is the “recommended” approach. I can apply against you and submit a sketch of that logo with a nice watermark on it. Who do you think will have more chances of being hired?

Getting back to the subject at hand, it is so important to use your common sense. When you blindly trust the advice that someone else offers, you basically end up using the exact same strategy that the person used. As a freelancer, you do have to come up with something original, with something that catches the attention of the potential buyer. Think about what would work in the situation you are in. If you just blindly follow the steps you find on an advice site, you might open yourself up for failure without even knowing it.

It is completely normal to look for advice when you start working as a freelancer. It is also normal to want to follow some sort of blueprint. The problem is that the path to success varies from one person to the next. You should never blindly trust a blueprint if it does not work for you. In time you will build your own blueprint. Share it with others so that they can learn from the mistakes that you did. That is how things should go.

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• F*ck You. Pay Me. – A Brilliant Talk by Mike Monteiro for Freelancers & Agencies (theultralinx.com)