Jovan Cicmil's Blog
90% of My Freelance Work Comes From Recurring Clients and Referrals
February 15, 2023
Most freelancers dread the process of looking for new clients. It can be frustrating and time-consuming. Worse still, it can take away our focus from what matters most: delivering superb results for our existing clients.
The first several years of my freelance career were a constant tightrope walk between working and finding more work.
However, in the last 3 years, this changed. During this ...
How To Effectively Use Twitter as a Freelancer
February 8, 2023
Social media is notoriously bad for your focus, your productivity, and, ultimately, your mental health.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Used properly, social media can be a valuable tool in your arsenal.
Freelancers who master their social media presence rarely lack work. Their problem changes from “how do I find clients” to “how do I scale my business to keep up with ...
How I Write Proposals That Win As Many Freelance Clients As I Want
February 1, 2023
What if I told you that you could get as many freelance clients as you want by following a few straightforward principles? Finding freelance clients can be more simple than you think.
Note that I said “simple”, not “easy”.
Writing great proposals to prospects is something most freelancers never master. I have over a decade of freelance experience and I’m still learning. Here’s ...
I Wrote My First Book 18 Months Ago — 3 Things I Would Do Differently Today
December 16, 2022
Who would have thought that writing a book would be a learning experience more than a teaching experience?
Not me.
I thought I had all the answers and all I had to do was organize them into chapters and do a bit of promotion.
Far from it. A year and a half after publishing The Unstoppable Freelancer , I am still ...
The Time a Guy Spent $600 in 5 Minutes on My Freemium App
November 17, 2022
I used to run a fantasy football (soccer for Americans) game that I built myself.
I learned many different things from that experience, from bootstrapping a company to negotiating an exit.
This morning, I remembered an interesting tidbit that I’ve never written about — the time a guy logged in and proceeded to spend $600 on upgrades for their fantasy team.
Context
About 97% of my ...
Should You Use Upwork or Cold Email as a Freelancer?
October 26, 2022
Freelancers face the same dilemma all the time — should you sign up for a freelance marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr, or make your own way by directly contacting business owners and offering your services?
Some freelance teachers swear by one approach. Some swear by the other.
I swear I will help you understand both approaches so you can make an informed decision.
Is the Upwork fee ...
I Published the Same Book on Amazon, Gumroad, and Draft2Digital — Here’s What I Learned
September 24, 2022
In June 2021, I published The Unstoppable Freelancer — a book about freelance success, work-life balance, and everything in between.
I published it on Gumroad first, then jumped through Amazon’s hoops to make it available through Amazon’s KDP, and then put it on ...
I Self-Published a Book One Year Ago — What I Learned
September 13, 2022
In the 90s, unsigned musicians used to print their own CDs and sell them on street corners. It was a way to step around the music industry and its exploitative contracts.
Since then, the proliferation of the internet has improved the prospects of artists of all kinds. Now we have many platforms to choose from when publishing our work. Writers are, perhaps, the primary beneficiaries of this ...
How To Hire the Best Freelancers
September 3, 2022
Hiring is an art form. Large corporations often implement complex processes with the sole aim of weeding out candidates.
If you’re a small business or startup, things are even trickier. You don’t have a massive infrastructure to guide your hiring decisions. You don’t get to delegate that responsibility to an internal team of experts.
And, most ominously, you have much less room for ...
The Main Reasons Not To Hire Freelancers
August 25, 2022
In over a decade of freelancing, I’ve had clients tell me a lot of stories about their businesses. Some of these stories were about the bad experiences they had previously had with freelancers.
They weren’t discouraged by those setbacks, but many others are dissuaded from hiring freelancers when they hear the horror stories.
My aim today is twofold:
To explain why the most common ...
Freelance Writing vs Freelance Software Development
July 14, 2022
I’ve been a freelance web developer since 2011. In 2020, I started freelance writing on the side as well. I started unintentionally when a startup approached me to write for them, having been impressed with a piece I wrote here on Medium.
Since then, I have found writing to be both a welcome change of pace from coding and a lucrative business.
After two years, here’s how freelance ...
How I Reduced My Earnings by 14% With a Single Email
June 24, 2022
Tired of stories about how people got crazy returns from a single brilliant move? They’re everywhere these days. There were probably a couple on the page where you clicked on this article.
Not to worry — I’ve got you covered. Here’s an (arguably more instructive) story about how I cheated myself out of thousands of dollars with a single wiseguy move.
On being far-sighted…
In ...
Don’t Write Simply. Write Honestly Instead.
May 21, 2022
Is there a more common piece of writing advice on the internet than “keep it simple”? Reigning in your tendency to show off your vast vocabulary and poetic flair is supposed to widen your reach, make your writing more persuasive, and make you more approachable.
I agree in spirit. Keeping it simple is better than keeping it complex, everything else being equal.
The trouble is, in the ...
The Top Five Traits of a Successful Freelancer
May 18, 2022
How do you imagine the freelance lifestyle? If you’re like most people, you think it’s a frantic life full of project-hopping, pitching, meeting deadlines, and oversleeping team meetings because you got drunk on a beach in Bali the previous night. The stereotypical freelancer is chaotic and makes up for his ...
A Guide to Creating and Capitalizing on Viral Tweets
April 21, 2022
On March 22, I wrote this tweet and it went viral.
On the morning of March 23, I had over 1000 notifications. The tweet had over 10,000 likes and over a million people had seen it. I had some good fun with the responses, but I also profited in more concrete ways.
Here’s what happens when your tweet ...
How To Find Creative and Meaningful Software Development Work
March 16, 2022
A lot is written about how to find cutting-edge work in software development. “Learn this tech over that tech.” “Take this bootcamp.” “Buy my ebook.” You know the drill.
Even more is written about how to make a certain amount of money in tech. Apply to this company. Jump through hoops. Silicon Valley. Buy my other ebook.
Not nearly enough is written about finding work that is ...
Five Lessons I Learned Bootstrapping a Fantasy Sports Company
February 21, 2022
I was a bootstrapped founder before it was cool.
Back in 2013, when it was all about building a startup and jumping through the funding loops, I bootstrapped a fantasy sports company.
It was profitable from the first month.
I ran it for a few years before finally selling to a larger competitor. Along the way, I learned a ton of important lessons. Here are the main ones. If you’re ...
How I Landed a $100k Freelance Client
February 2, 2022
Freelance success rarely comes easy. If it did, a lot more people would be writing blog posts like this one.
I spent a lot of time in the trenches before I started getting quality freelance work.
Starting in 2011, I spent about a year on Freelancer.com doing mainly small Javascript/CSS projects. Then I switched to Upwork in September 2012 because the opportunities were much better there. ...
How To Find the Best Clients on Upwork in Three Steps
January 25, 2022
A lot of people complain about the quality of projects available on Upwork these days. Cheap clients , ridiculous requests, impossible projects — you name it, it’s there.
Well, I’ve got some news for you.
First of all, none of this is new. Upwork (and every other freelance platform, for that ...
My Trip Down the web3 Rabbit Hole: Separating Hype From Substance
January 17, 2022
If you’re anything like me, you hate hype and you despise pump-and-dump schemes.
Suffice to say, watching kids sell pixelated monkey avatars to each other isn’t exactly the sort of thing I enjoy. At first glance, this is what the much-hyped web3 is: an unregulated marketplace rife for speculation and fraud. A breeding ground for Ponzi schemes and a graveyard for many get-rich-quick ...
Connect with me:
