Here Are a Few Ways to Make Good Money As a Freelancer One should filter out the intersection of their passion and sellable skills and then work around them to build an offering

The world we live in today, powered by the Internet and large-scale globalization, brings with it a plethora of opportunities for anyone who has value to offer. Gone are the days where freelance work was looked at as a source of paltry money. There are so many individuals (both young and experienced) I know, crafting out lucrative careers and securing comfortable living standards piggybacking on the rising trend of freelance opportunities available globally.

Shreya Dutta, Founder of StarWords India, a platform dedicated to providing freelance content services, from her experience testifies, "Freelancing makes it possible to earn more than a full-time role along with the luxury of working at home with complete flexibility. The only prerequisite being, the person is dedicated, skilled and can build a trustworthy relationship."

And it's true. There are tons of portals offering a multitude of opportunities across skill sets in the freelance model. There is complete freedom, flexibility and quality work opportunity. There is absolutely no shortage of work that's available. In fact, freelancing opens doors to the huge global job marketplace. However, not everyone is able to tap into this rising trend. So the question is how to make money as a stay at home freelancer?

To put it simply, in order to build a sustainable career as a freelancer, there are two aspects to focus on. The first part is, mindfully selecting your genre and building the supporting trail to sell value. The second part being developing the intrinsic attitude or core to ensure consistency and persist in the dynamic marketplace.

Here's what Entrepreneur India found out of the discussions with two individuals closely connected with freelancing. One who has extensively worked in the capacity of a freelancer, and the other who hires freelancers on a good scale.

Meet Deep, Marketing Director at Growzila. Deep is a 21-year-old growth hacker who's already worked with over 30 start-ups including an INC 500 company as a consultant. Here's advice coming from his enriched experience as a freelancer:

Pick the Right Niche

The freelance domain has a multitude of opportunities. If you are skilled in something, more often than not, there does exist some mechanism to monetize it.

It's important to correctly choose your niche instead of just thinking freelance work as the low paid data entry freelance jobs flooding the marketplace.

Kakkad suggests that one should filter out the intersection of their passion and sellable skills and then work around them to build an offering."

He says, " If you're good with logic and are skilled in coding, you could consider being a freelance programmer. If you have a way with your words, you could try copywriting services. The possibilities are endless, and if you're good at something, you will mostly be able to earn out of it."

Build Your Own Funnel

Most freelancers rely only on online portals on the likes of Upwork, Fiverr and so on to generate leads. While that is a technique that does work, building your own network can help you harness much more. Once you have figured out your expertise, it's a good idea to build a funnel that helps you capture leads, regularly nurture and convert them with the least amount of friction. For instance - You could build your website/blog with a free e-book giveaway against an email address to help potential clients solve a problem.

Once you have them in your funnel, you can add value by emailing more useful content, providing a free consultation that actually ends up in paid consultation or paid services.

Deep says, "With your own funnel, you can customize better, set your own price, eliminate the need to pay more commission. It also allows you to present yourself and your service in a more refined way."

Not only does this give you a stream of clients, it also helps you establish a robust brand for yourself.

Position Your Self As an Expert

It's possible to earn more from the same hours you put in by establishing yourself as an authority in your niche. It's not freelancing that pays you the premium, but being a specialist.

Engaging in activities that demonstrate expertise, thought leadership and authority helps to project your self as a specialist and command a higher fee.

"You can step up your game with something as simple as writing an e-book helpful for your customer. You could do public speaking gigs. There's nothing that would present you as an authority than speaking at events that your potential customers attend. The secret is to give away a lot of value and expertise you can charge for. The ones who were going to ask for your services will still do so even after reading your book/attending your talk. People generally don't have a lot of disposable time, they just want someone credible to handle their work", testifies Deep.

Deep's suggestions are actionable to in order to pick up a segment and start finding jobs in the freelance space.

The second person Entrepreneur India spoke to is Aditi Chaurasia. She is the inspiring co-founder & CEO of Engineer Babu, an award-winning, VC funded startup for providing IT solutions to the startup community. Engineer Babu in its operational framework gets a sizeable part of work carried out on the freelance model.

Here's what Aditi recommends to those seeking to earn through freelancing -

1. One must inculcate an attitude of discipline for the time devoted to work at home. That is the foremost prerequisite to work well on a freelance model.

2. It is essential to develop accountability in terms of submission deadlines. The key to getting more work is to deliver assigned work correctly and as per schedule.

3. Since freelancing thrives on a flexible pattern of work, the individual should devote his/her extra time to up skill and explore additional learning possibilities.

4. One should put in consistent effort to stay updated and connected within the industry. Companies prefer to engage and hire individuals who are equipped to deal with the latest technology.