Jovan Cicmil's Blog

Can Anyone Be a Freelancer?

November 20, 2024

I write equally for beginners and for experienced freelancers who want to earn more or scale their business. But, often, I get questions from those who are only starting to consider freelancing as an option. Here are some of the most common questions I get asked by such readers: Could I become a freelancer? What does it take to become a freelancer? Can anyone become a ...

The Four Kinds of Freelance Clients and How To Manage Each One

November 13, 2024

Freelancing advice often insists that we should communicate relentlessly. Send an email, follow up, send updates, ask for input, rinse, repeat. But that doesn’t take into consideration the clients that: Have more important things to do. Want to give you free rein and see what you come up with. Simply hate talking. I’ve worked with clients who left me alone for the full duration of ...

Should Freelancers Create Content?

November 6, 2024

I started freelancing in 2011. I wrote my first ever piece of content in 2019. In that space of 8 years, I worked for over 60 clients, started two companies, ran one for several years, and sold it. All that time, I never wrote anything. Not even a blog post. Not even a tweet. Nothing. How come? How much do I regret it? What changed in 2019? And how can you apply what I learned to your own ...

The Elephant in the Room: Where You’re From Matters

August 23, 2023

We would all like to be judged on merit alone, but that’s not how the world works. Here’s one example: in a job interview, we should be judged only on our fitness for the role. But, in reality, we are judged on our appearance, our choice of words in an introductory email, our small talk prowess - and the interviewer’s current mood. As freelancers, this truth takes another form, one we ...

How To Use Downtime Between Projects as a Freelancer

August 16, 2023

Freelancers dread dry spells. The moment a client project is finished, we feel a void that can only be filled by a new project. Every day not spent working on client projects feels unproductive. It makes us anxious and stressed. Does it really have to be this way? After a decade of freelancing, I’ve been through it all. I’ve been overworked, underworked, evenly worked, and oddly worked. ...

Four Reasons Your Freelance Business Isn’t Growing

June 21, 2023

I remember the early days of my career when almost every month was better than the previous one. I never stopped to question how long I could keep this up. My rates were growing, the number of offers in my inbox was growing, my network was growing…and my ego was growing. But, growth never remains linear forever. Eventually, you reach a plateau and you have to put in a ton of effort to break ...

Two Cold Email Examples That Worked

June 14, 2023

Today’s blog post will be short and to the point - just like a great cold email. Many people think they need to amaze a cold prospect with their writing skills, amicability, and humor. As someone who has been pitched probably thousands of times across various platforms, I think I speak for all prospects when I say: If I’m after writing skills, I’ll read a novel. If I’m after ...

Is Upwork Premium Worth It?

June 7, 2023

I’ve been on Upwork since 2012. During the first couple of years on the platform, I made over $150,000 and worked for clients from all over the world. In recent years, I’ve naturally migrated away from Upwork - <a href="/blog/90-of-my-freelance-work-comes-from-recurring-clients-and-referrals" target="_blank">recurring work ...

Pitch Ideas to Your Freelance Clients Like a Pro

May 31, 2023

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a freelance client back in 2013. We were talking about the software we were developing. He paused for a moment, sighed, and then said: “You developers are full of ideas but I always have to drag them out of you.” That stuck with me. How many opportunities have I missed out on because I kept my mouth shut? How many products could have been ...

Avoiding Single Points of Failure: The Key to Surviving as a Solopreneur

May 24, 2023

Freelancers were solopreneurs before the word solopreneur existed. As a solopreneur, your life and your business are inseparable. Work-life balance is a concept that doesn’t quite apply here. As a business of one, your business is inseparable from your life. Businesses and investors often use diversification to reduce their risk exposure. As freelancers, we can do the same. Diversify ...

How To Handle Clients Asking You To Lower Your Rates

May 17, 2023

Of all the things clients do to freelancers, asking you to lower your rates mid-project might be the most treacherous. It might be worse than being ghosted. When a client disappears, you know where you stand. Being asked to lower your rates after you’ve started work feels demeaning. But, it’s not always an act of malice. Sometimes, it’s a justified business move. It’s happened to me ...

How To Optimize Your Upwork Profile

May 10, 2023

Upwork sometimes gets a bad rep. There’s a 10% service fee, many clients are cheap, and the competition is brutal. It’s been dubbed a “race to the bottom” by many freelancing teachers who prefer other client acquisition channels. I have nothing against cold emailing , LinkedIn, or any other alternative to Upwork. ...

How To Double Your Rate as a Freelance Writer

May 3, 2023

Imagine you’re a freelance writer charging $0.50/word. How hard do you think it would be to grow your rate to $1/word? How many hours of practice? How many referrals? How many writing samples? How many years of hard work? What if I told you that pricing is a function of positioning rather than a function of delivery? In other words, it’s a function of marketing skills rather than ...

Seven Pieces of Freelancing Advice I Wish Someone Gave Me When I Was Starting Out

April 26, 2023

I got a lot of things right in my decade-long freelance career: I found a bunch of great clients, helped others transition to freelancing, bootstrapped a successful startup, and did the digital nomad thing for a while. But, it wasn’t perfect. When I was starting out in 2011, I didn’t know a single freelancer, let alone a more experienced one. So, I had to learn on the job and adapt ...

Should You Quit Your Job and Become a Freelancer?

April 19, 2023

I’ve written a lot about finding freelance clients, writing great proposals, and scaling freelance businesses. Somehow, I don’t think I’ve ever answered the fundamental question: should you go down this road in the first place? Leaving 9-to-5 employment to become a freelancer is a major decision that can change your life trajectory forever. It’s important to know exactly what ...

How To Promote Your Freelance Services the Right Way

April 12, 2023

Freelancers often shy away from self-promotion. It can feel awkward, cheap, and untasteful. When I started freelancing in 2011, I felt the same way. It took close to a decade to change my mind. If you think of freelancing as a business, self-promotion is nothing but marketing for that business. The trick is to do it in a way that matches your personality. You need to promote what you offer ...

How To Make Money on Upwork With No Experience

April 5, 2023

I’ve been freelancing since 2011. From 2012 to around 2018, I used Upwork as my primary way to get freelance clients. Since then, I have helped many freelancers find their first projects. The one question that always comes up is: how can I make money on Upwork with no experience? Is it even possible? The resounding answer is: it’s not only possible, it’s inevitable - if you adopt the ...

Crafting Freelance Offers: Charge So Much That It Makes You Uncomfortable

March 29, 2023

Let’s perform an experiment. For this experiment, you will need an account with a freelance platform, but the results will be universally applicable. I’ll take Upwork here as an example. Go to Upwork. Find 10 projects with a maximum budget of $5,000 (on Upwork, this is a common budget because it’s one of the default options for fixed-price projects). Make sure you ...

How To Avoid Burnout as a Freelancer: The 70-30 Rule

March 22, 2023

Have you ever pushed yourself so hard for so long that you woke up one morning and found yourself unable to work? If the answer is yes, you’ve experienced burnout - something that many live through, but far too few talk about. The consequences of burning out can be dire. To name a few horrifying ones: sleep disorders, aimlessness, depression, social isolation, and even diminished ...

The Only Certain Way To Never Be Replaced by AI

March 15, 2023

How worried are you about AI replacing you? Many people are worried about losing their livelihoods to the fast-approaching robot invasion. Many people are right to be worried. However, there’s a way to be robot-resistant. You can prosper in the age of AI - assuming you take this advice seriously. Is this article genuine? First of all, most advice on this topic is written by people ...