Are you concerned about losing your job?

Are you concerned about your future? 

Are you interested in a salary increase by changing your current job?

Are you looking for a passive source of income?

If you answered “YES” to any of the above questions, this article may change the rest of your life. 

DIGITAL FREELANCING : TOP FREELANCING OPPORTUNITIES IN 2022

In this article, we’ll talk about the top freelancing opportunities. This article will give you a clear picture of the opportunities in digital freelancing and how you can jump into becoming your own boss by the next few months.

Many of the freelancing opportunities mentioned in this article can be done aside from your main job. We never know when we might lose our jobs, so it’s very important to have a side hustle.

This guide will show you the steps to follow to become a digital freelancer. Whether you are new to freelancing or seeking a career change, the guide will unlock all the possibilities of the freelancing marketplace.

What is Digital Freelancing?

Digital Freelancers are also known as ‘Digital Marketers’ or ‘Digital Workers’ who have skills such as copywriting, social media management, search engine optimization, ad creation, website designing, social media marketing, graphic designing & so on.

When you are a digital freelancer, you are your own boss, you set your own hours and rules, and you are also doing something productive and valuable.

If you decide to stop freelancing, you can still use your experience and skills to start your own online business (this can be a digital marketing agency or an online business of any kind) or find a high-paying job as a digital marketing manager.

Many people who once took pride in having “full-time office jobs” or “real jobs” are now searching online on how to become freelancers (and you may be one of them). It seems like “regular jobs” or “real jobs” are becoming more and more insecure day by day.

The pandemic has also led to the reduction of many salaries – sometimes resulting in a 50% decrease.

Nowadays, more than ever, people are turning to internet-based employment (mostly). Many people want to work from home while maintaining their family relationships and remaining safe.

How to Become a Digital Freelancer?

To become a digital freelancer, you first have to learn a skill most businesses need; then, you can provide your services to company owners and earn a good income.

The best option to start learning digital marketing is to enroll in the masters on digital marketing course by THE SSM ACADEMY.

There are a variety of digital freelancer services available, so it is best to choose the one that suits your expertise and interests. 

Please carefully read this full article if you are planning to start your career as a digital freelancer.

How much do Digital Freelancers earn?

To begin with, you have to have a business mind if you want to start a career as a freelancer. As a freelancer, there is no fixed paycheck. Here, you are your own boss, and the more you work, the more money you make.

Stable income is determined by many factors. In one month, you may earn a five-figure salary, but in the next, you may earn less.

What does a Digital Freelancer do?

The goal of digital freelancers is to offer value. A new mindset is needed to achieve this.

Changing habits are difficult, but the question should focus more on the client. How can you help the client?

To succeed in the digital freelance marketplace, you must show the client how your expertise and services add value to them.

Professionals in the freelancing field must wear many hats, unlike other freelancers. The digital marketing world has a number of channels and processes, and you need to know how to offer a range of services to clients.

As a freelancer, you must also know how to prepare work proposals for clients, manage invoices and accounting, manage projects, and report on results.

Best Freelancing Sites For Beginners

Freelance work doesn’t have to be difficult to find. The majority of sites only require you to sign up for an account and a profile. 

However, make sure you check how each freelance website works before signing up. You should be aware of the payment system, withdrawal method, and service fee.

We recommend these freelance websites for those looking for administrative freelancing or technical freelancing, such as web developers, social media managers, or financial consultants:

• Upwork
• Toptal
• Freelancer

In the meantime, if you’re looking for creative jobs – such as writers, graphic designers, and illustrators – here are the best freelancing websites:

• Fiverr
• Flexjobs
• LinkedIn

As there are so many freelancing platforms out there, it can be difficult to find one that works best for you.

You can use freelancing platforms as a tool to grow your career, whether you are just starting or already an expert at your craft.

In a nutshell, freelance websites for beginners and experts offer a seamless and straightforward way for you to find jobs and clients.

Any given site has advantages and disadvantages, depending on your specific needs and preferences.

So now let’s look at what you shouldn’t be doing before we discuss the various freelancing opportunities.

Not-Recommended Options To START

Here are a few options that are often discussed but are not recommended for a variety of reasons:

• Blogging :- Blogging is a very good way to build your personal brand. The goal of blogging should be to build a business, a career, or a new venture. If you are writing for your own blog, you cannot earn much money to spend your life smoothly. Blogging is a content marketing strategy, not a money-making strategy.
• Social Media Influencer :- Social media has become too chaotic. Influencers are great for gaining popularity but can’t guarantee a steady income.
• Stock Market :- Don’t think of trading the markets as a short-term way to make money. Stock market investing is a way to hold money for a long time and get good returns. So this is not a legitimate way to earn money.
• Digital Mentor/Trainer/Coach :- Mentoring can be very lucrative, but no one can teach someone something without first doing it. So if you have expertise on anything and you have done it a few times(maybe a few years), then mentoring would be a great money-making option for you. 
• Ebook Selling :- Excellent for personal branding. But not suitable as a money-making strategy. 
• Startup Company :- You can’t launch a business and expect people to buy your products or services. It’s a journey starting with freelancing, blogging, and building a brand. Afterward, you can move on to consulting, mentoring, and eventually starting your own company. 

Recommended Options To START

In freelancing, you will undergo different stages. When you start a business right out of a job, you will burn your fingers and then blame the market and external conditions for your failure.

Freelancing isn’t going to make you a millionaire, but it’s a natural progression from a job. You will learn sales, how to deal with people (or your clients), and how to manage a team without putting too much money at risk. It’s like a middle-point between a job and a company startup. 

The best part is that you won’t have to quit your job to start this.

If you are in a job, you can aim to earn at least 60% of your salary as a freelancer, so that you are not broke when you quit.

It’s a mistake to burn your savings to start a business or to borrow money from friends, family, or the bank. 

Thinking big the wrong way means crashing before you can take off, which is what too many people do. To take off, you need a runway. Here, your freelance career will serve as your runway.

Below are the steps you need to take to develop your personal brand :

• First, learn a new skill.
• Work as a freelancer
• Publish Blog articles
• Share your knowledge with others
• Gain some popularity
• Build a startup company from your experience

Let’s move on to the top digital freelancing opportunities in 2021 that will help you earn some side income.

Best Freelancing Jobs For Beginners

A digital freelancer has a variety of options available to him or her :

1. Content Creator

Nowadays, content creation is one of the most popular jobs.

Content is the king of modern marketing, so companies have hefty budgets for creating high-quality blogs, guides, press releases and other types of written and visual content.

To become a freelance writer, you need excellent writing skills, stellar grammar, and a knack for storytelling. Having a robust portfolio is essential to showcase your work and attract potential clients.

Content writing is a profession that dates back hundreds of years. Even before paper and pens were invented, people wrote on clay tablets.

There is a statement that you must write a million words in order to become a proficient writer. It is imperative that you get rid of all the bad words from your system before the good words can flow.

When you are just starting out, it might be a good idea to write articles for other publications to build your portfolio. In addition, you can start your own blog and write a few articles so that potential employers can get a sense of what you can do as a freelance writer.

In the beginning, you might not earn much for every word you write if you do not have a strong personal brand. Writers in India and other countries are paid about 2 cents a word as their basic salary, which is around 1.5 rupees. Although it might appear very low at first, but that’s how you begin.

Here are the types of work that a freelance content writer can do:-

Ghost Writing

Ghostwriting refers to the creation of writing that is officially credited to someone else or to a different person than the writer.

Initially, people may expect you to write without attributing your name to it. The pay will be good, but you might not improve your personal brand through this way.

Transcription

Convert audio and video files into written content, like podcasts and course videos. There are a lot of opportunities like this.

Copywriting

A copywriter is generally a writer with experience and an established brand. It takes a lot of life experience to become an effective copywriter. You need to study sales, consumer psychology, and persuasion to be a good copywriter.

Experienced copywriters can earn up to 30 rupees per word on certain occasions. If you write a 1000 word sales page that brings in sales for the client, you can earn as much as 30,000 rupees (around $400).

If you learn SEO in addition to content writing, you can become an SEO content writer and charge more since your clients do not have to hire an SEO professional separately to optimize their content.

The best way to learn how to write well is to START writing.

Just create your own blog, write guest articles, and do SEO for your own content. 

If you learn how to create text-based content, you can also create video content and charge for it.

Students taking the masters in digital marketing course by THE SSM ACADEMY will find a special module about Content Marketing where they’ll have an opportunity to use what they have learned in a practical setting.

So now let’s talk about the next type …

2. Traffic Generation

Businesses face the biggest challenge of attracting traffic to their websites. For businesses, traffic solves many problems. Lead generation is impossible without traffic. Ad revenue cannot be generated without traffic. Brands cannot be built without traffic. Email lists cannot be built without traffic.

There is no business in the world that would say it does not want traffic. We all need more traffic.

As a digital freelancer, you can help businesses increase traffic to their websites.

Here are some strategies you can use:

Paid Marketing

There are many businesses that spend millions of dollars on Facebook and Google ads. To manage campaigns on a platform, freelancers and agencies charge between 10 and 20 percent of the ad spend. This includes writing ads, creating images, setting up campaigns, managing campaigns, and optimizing them for maximum return on investment. The people who are good at managing paid campaigns are called performance marketers. In this case, figuring out the right audience, outlining the right message (through copywriting), and getting scalable high-quality traffic is crucial.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most exciting fields of digital marketing. As one of the most popular freelance jobs, SEO comes with a long list of required technical skills, including an understanding of link building, Google algorithms, keywords, and more.

SEO is the way to get free traffic or organic traffic. All businesses want free traffic. They wish to rank for keywords related to their customers’ searches. There are many websites out there that aren’t search engine friendly, and they improve their rankings with the help of a professional SEO. According to Google Trends, SEO is one of the most in-demand skills in today’s world. Your value increases even more if you combine SEO skills with content skills.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Don’t confuse SEM with SEO. SEO is done organically, while SEM increases a website’s visibility on search engines by using paid methods, such as Google ads, Bing ads(AKA PPC ads). Digital marketing strategies generally include PPC ads, which are especially useful for companies looking to increase their revenues and sales within a short period of time.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Today, the ability to market via social media is also a very important skill for digital freelancers. Branding, engagement, and traffic are all very important to any business. Social media presence is a must for every business. In recent years, social media marketing has become more difficult as more brands are active there, creating a lot of noise. A freelancer who can help companies have a social presence is more needed than ever before. By developing expertise in a few social media platforms, you can assist clients in their social media strategies. Additionally, you can also provide Social Media Management services.

Digital PR

If you’re a public relations or brand communications specialist, you’ll have no shortage of freelance opportunities. This field entails media relations, product launches, brand awareness campaigns, advertising campaigns, and more. You will need experience with storytelling and a solid understanding of the competitive landscape to be successful. Furthermore, if you have an extensive list of industry and media contacts, this can be a great asset.

It is advisable to do some research to make sure there is a market for your skills and experience before pursuing such work. Check out freelancing platforms, job boards, and reach out to others in your industry. If you are clear-eyed about the options available to you, start drafting a clear path to getting your freelancing career underway.

3. Sales Lead Generation

Leads are the second most important thing for a business after traffic.

Every high-end product needs a Lead Generation model.

Digital freelancers can do research and generate B2B leads for their clients. There are two methods of charging: per lead or conversion-based.

Most businesses do not follow up with the leads once they are generated. But follow-up is one of the crucial factors of higher conversion.

You can begin by offering clients the following services:

Lead Magnets

Lead magnets can be built for your clients as a way to simplify the lead generation process. So you can create lead magnets, and make landing pages for your clients. Next, drive paid traffic to the landing pages so you can generate leads.

Our list of freelancing skills is listed in an order where you can combine them. If you know how to create content, you should be able to drive traffic to it. If you know how to drive traffic, then you can generate leads. Freelancers with many skills can charge their clients more with integrated solutions.

Lead Nurturing

Many businesses that generate plenty of leads ignore them. Leads begin to dwindle. The investment in a lead generation goes to waste. In addition to generating leads for a business, you might as well nurture those leads with follow-up messages(via remarketing ads, emails, text messages & so on).

In this case, marketing automation is useful. This is something that you have to learn before you can assist your clients. It is one of the best skills you can learn – because without automation and lead follow-up, you will not be able to convert cold leads into warm leads. If you don’t get warm leads, you won’t be able to sell. If you do not generate sales, you will not be able to reinvest in generating more traffic.

So lead nurturing is important for both B2C and B2B businesses.

4. Sales Service

If you cannot drive traffic to your content, having good content is useless. Traffic is of no use if it cannot be converted into leads. Leads are worthless if they cannot be converted into sales. Unless you make sales, you can’t reinvest in content creation, traffic generation, or lead generation.

You can offer sales as a service and earn a commission for each sale. You can also work as an affiliate, earning money from the sales of other people’s products and services.

You can sell via email, blog posts, videos, telephoning, or even by meeting in person.

You should be able to sell without being overly pushy as long as you understand the needs of your customers and you have converted cold leads into warm ones.

Now let’s look at the next way ..

5. WordPress Developer

Approximately 70% of the web is powered by WordPress. There are many business websites that are static HTML and not dynamic. If you learn WordPress, it’s a skill that you can monetize quite easily. 

There are several benefits to using WordPress :

• It is free and open-source
• Modify it according to your needs
• Templates and plugins allow you to customize the functionality of your website
• You can get very professional designs with ready-made free and premium themes without having to design and develop from scratch
• A large percentage of hosting companies worldwide offer WordPress hosting and even manage it
• A single click can update WordPress in real-time

It is still recommended that you begin your WordPress journey with content writing, traffic generation, marketing automation, and sales. You can use these skills not only to annoy your clients but also to grow your own brand and sell your services.

You can charge up to Rs.70k – Rs.80k for a complete website setup. As additional services, you can offer SEO, site speed optimization, SMM, analytics, daily backups, and security monitoring.

6. Graphic Designing

As soon as someone has their website up and running, it also needs to look good & well designed. In other words, if you learn graphic design, you will be capable of offering premium services, in addition to those mentioned above.

Here are some design-related services you can provide:

Logo Designing

Not everyone is capable of designing logos. When you feel you have a flair for design, you can become a designer. You can, however, hire a freelance designer if you have no idea about design and you can bundle your services with website design and other services. Additionally, businesses need business cards, brochures, infographics, letterheads, and other assets as well.

Video Editing

The future of content will revolve around visual content and videos will be a key part of it. People now prefer to watch videos rather than read posts. As part of the filmmaking process, video editing is called post-production. 

There are several courses available at low cost that will teach you how to use Adobe premiere pro, final cut, and other editing programs. 

Depending on the video, video editing can be simple or complex, but the process is always enjoyable.

Depending on how much editing your clients need, you can charge them up to rs.100 per minute.

Ad Copy Design

If you offer advertising marketing services, you should have some knowledge of ad copywriting. Digital marketing campaigns are measured by the ad click-through rate (CTR). Good copy will increase CTR.

If you are unable to do so, then you can hire a copywriter to assist you.

Social Media Contents

To be effective on social media, businesses need good graphics. This includes designing cover images, video thumbnails, infographics, memes, and much more.

UI / UX Developer

Have you ever booked a ticket at IRCTC? That’s an example of a bad UI (user interface) and a bad user experience (UX).

Most websites need UI / UX support, especially functional ones. If you are just starting out, this is not recommended. UI / UX would be a better specialization.

7. Coding Specialist

It is no secret that coding is one of the most lucrative freelancing skills.

As a coder, you can offer these services:

Website Coding

WordPress offers many features, but it may need some customization. It is possible to custom-build WordPress websites for a premium fee. It is also possible to build HTML websites by hand-coding.

Mobile App Development

Businesses can benefit from mobile apps because they can assist them in reaching out to more customers, improving their sales, creating a better brand image, and creating loyal customers. This can put them on the path to success. 

It is possible to charge your clients up to $1500 (above 1 lakh) for the normal application development. (with limited features)

Software Development

If you have expertise in developing web apps or software, then this is an extremely valuable skill. However, before you spend years learning how to code, it is highly recommended that you learn how to write, how to build your personal brand, and how to use digital marketing.

Few More Digital Freelancing Jobs

Here are some more freelancing opportunities for you :

• Business Consultant
• Business Assistant
• Voice-over services
• Affiliate Marketing
• Video editing services
• Cybersecurity
• HR & Recruitment Consultancy
• Video production
• Business process planning
• Market Research

DOWNLOAD “DIGITAL FREELANCING” EBOOK

You can simply click this image to download the DIGITAL FREELANCING ebook:

Simply click this image to download the DIGITAL FREELANCING ebook by THE SSM ACADEMY.

Final Thoughts

Awesome! You’ve completed this bumper guide, and you’re now an unofficial expert on starting a freelance business.

We aren’t sugarcoating things – there are a lot of freelance marketers out there, and it’s hard to stand out in this crowded market. However, if you’re willing to learn new skills, there’s nothing stopping you from doubling or even tripling your income by working as a freelance digital marketer.

In the end, it is up to you to find your path and choose a domain name.

In any field, you need to be adept at communication and networking. The more people you know, the more leads you generate. 

The above are the few top-paying freelancing jobs in India and we hope the information addresses your question.

We wish you good luck in your search for the best freelance project. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions.