I’m Elveera Abraham and I live in India with English being my native language. I was a university lecturer for many years which kind of got a bit monotonous. With a little kid to take care of, I quit full-time work and stayed back at home. But I still needed something that could ensure my freedom and independence. That’s when I looked into freelancing. I went through several websites which talked about the best freelancing jobs out there and how to go about it. I did a lot of research to understand the freelancing market and the categories of jobs that were available. Once I gained knowledge of what freelancing is and how to charge for my work, I took my first project.
Being new to Content Writing and inexperienced, I was paid less though. I did take this as a learning curve and understood the nuances of writing well. After many months of work for the same client, I started to look for other jobs and websites that were offering freelance jobs.
Upwork seemed to be very reliable and trustworthy, so I joined the website. I do a lot of Content Writing as well as Data Research & Entry. As a Content Writer, I have written topics on Travel & Tourism, Education, Automobiles, Home & Garden, etc. With Data Entry and Research, I have transcribed records into Excel, researched information on the internet and collate data in a required format. These two services are most interesting to me as they are not monotonous and each new job is exciting.
The great choice that sites like Upwork give me is remote work. Most of my work is remote with clients from all over the world. So I can sit at home in India and help clients with their projects without having to go to a site. Having achieved a 100% success rate on Upwork also ensures that I get repeat clients and great work to do. New clients see the rating available and choose to send me project proposals too. This helps me a great deal too.
Apart from Upwork, I also do freelancing for other clients. I am a Content Writer for a tech company where I need to complete around 10 articles a month. This is a simple yet interesting job as my Masters in Computer Application background comes in handy.
With these freelancing jobs, I feel great to be able to work from the comfort of my home and earn a decent living at the end of the month. Managing my house as well as being financially independent is what makes freelancing so desirable. It is truly a great opportunity for women and I am making the best of it.
There are certain challenges that come with freelancing though.
First and foremost would be the reliability of websites and clients. Several work-from-home jobs that are posted online every day but many of them are fake. Many of them ask for money from freelancers but don’t give you a payment at the end of the job. So checking out reliable sites or clients is the first task for every freelancer.
Second would be a steady income at the end of the month. This is a problem because you may or may not have a project that lasts more than a month. Finding jobs that are contractual for a longer period is the key to getting paid monthly. Once a contract or project ends, it could take some time to get another one. This lax period can be a cause for worry when you need to pay bills, etc.
Another factor is the area of expertise. There are quite a few categories of work that can be done remotely today. These include Content Writing, Data Entry, Virtual Assistant, Design & Development, etc. You need to have some knowledge of these before you start applying for jobs. The first few projects I took up paid me less as I had no experience. But this helped me in gaining knowledge of how Content Writing works as well as Data Research. So if you are a fresher in the freelancing world, then it may take some time to get paid well.
That’s the fourth factor that’s challenging in freelancing. There are quite a few sites out there that offer much less to newcomers and this can be quite daunting. The question I would like to ask the clients is that if they are saving on-site charges like electricity and general upkeep as well as health insurance for employees, etc. then why not pay a freelancer well? It is common knowledge that freelancers who are paid well for their services do a much better job. Yes, something like a universal basic income would be a great idea for all freelancers, including me.
All in all, freelancing for me has been a boon that works well with my current situation. I would like to explore other categories of freelancing too so that I can expand my work profile. Learning is always a great way to move forward. The freelancing world gives me a great opportunity to expand my horizons.
Being new to Content Writing and inexperienced, I was paid less though. I did take this as a learning curve and understood the nuances of writing well. After many months of work for the same client, I started to look for other jobs and websites that were offering freelance jobs.
Upwork seemed to be very reliable and trustworthy, so I joined the website. I do a lot of Content Writing as well as Data Research & Entry. As a Content Writer, I have written topics on Travel & Tourism, Education, Automobiles, Home & Garden, etc. With Data Entry and Research, I have transcribed records into Excel, researched information on the internet and collate data in a required format. These two services are most interesting to me as they are not monotonous and each new job is exciting.
The great choice that sites like Upwork give me is remote work. Most of my work is remote with clients from all over the world. So I can sit at home in India and help clients with their projects without having to go to a site. Having achieved a 100% success rate on Upwork also ensures that I get repeat clients and great work to do. New clients see the rating available and choose to send me project proposals too. This helps me a great deal too.
Apart from Upwork, I also do freelancing for other clients. I am a Content Writer for a tech company where I need to complete around 10 articles a month. This is a simple yet interesting job as my Masters in Computer Application background comes in handy.
With these freelancing jobs, I feel great to be able to work from the comfort of my home and earn a decent living at the end of the month. Managing my house as well as being financially independent is what makes freelancing so desirable. It is truly a great opportunity for women and I am making the best of it.
There are certain challenges that come with freelancing though.
First and foremost would be the reliability of websites and clients. Several work-from-home jobs that are posted online every day but many of them are fake. Many of them ask for money from freelancers but don’t give you a payment at the end of the job. So checking out reliable sites or clients is the first task for every freelancer.
Second would be a steady income at the end of the month. This is a problem because you may or may not have a project that lasts more than a month. Finding jobs that are contractual for a longer period is the key to getting paid monthly. Once a contract or project ends, it could take some time to get another one. This lax period can be a cause for worry when you need to pay bills, etc.
Another factor is the area of expertise. There are quite a few categories of work that can be done remotely today. These include Content Writing, Data Entry, Virtual Assistant, Design & Development, etc. You need to have some knowledge of these before you start applying for jobs. The first few projects I took up paid me less as I had no experience. But this helped me in gaining knowledge of how Content Writing works as well as Data Research. So if you are a fresher in the freelancing world, then it may take some time to get paid well.
That’s the fourth factor that’s challenging in freelancing. There are quite a few sites out there that offer much less to newcomers and this can be quite daunting. The question I would like to ask the clients is that if they are saving on-site charges like electricity and general upkeep as well as health insurance for employees, etc. then why not pay a freelancer well? It is common knowledge that freelancers who are paid well for their services do a much better job. Yes, something like a universal basic income would be a great idea for all freelancers, including me.
All in all, freelancing for me has been a boon that works well with my current situation. I would like to explore other categories of freelancing too so that I can expand my work profile. Learning is always a great way to move forward. The freelancing world gives me a great opportunity to expand my horizons.