Jovan Cicmil's Blog - Content

SEO Lessons for Freelancers: How To Help Clients Find You

December 25, 2024

The most common pain point for freelancers is finding clients. Most of us are confident in our skills and our work ethic and our dedication. We just can’t wait to get out there and shine. And then…crickets. Not a client in sight. In freelancing, the first step is often the hardest. I’ve written a lot about finding freelance clients, but that’s not the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

I Published the Same Course on Udemy, Skillshare, and Gumroad — What I Learned

October 19, 2021

About a year ago, I decided to challenge myself to compress ten years of my professional experience into a 2-hour course. While I leave it to you to judge how well I’ve succeeded, I’ve learned a lot about the online course business and I can at the very least share that knowledge with my readers. Since first publishing the course, I’ve had ups and downs in traffic and conversion ...

Insights From Publishing My First Book

June 30, 2021

After ten years of freelancing, I finally sat down to share my experience with the world. The idea of writing a book had been simmering in the back of my mind for at least a year, but it needed time to mature. The Unstoppable Freelancer is now available on Gumroad and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FS72HTK" ...

Six Ways to Monetize Your Upwork Profile

July 30, 2020

I’ve been a freelancer for 9 years. Upwork has provided me with the sort of work that I never thought possible before that. The sort of work that you can enjoy doing and make good money while you’re at it — all on your own schedule. But, that’s not the whole story. Contrary to popular belief, there is great value to be found in a ...