Jovan Cicmil's Blog - Finding Clients

How Long Does It Take To Make Money on Upwork?

How Long Does It Take To Make Money on Upwork?
When I started freelancing back in 2011, it only took me one month to find my first paying client after I started learning web development. Is that still doable? If you’re already experienced, then I’d say you can certainly find work within a month. If you’re a total beginner like I ...

Should You Use Local Outreach To Find Freelance Clients: Pros and Cons

Should You Use Local Outreach To Find Freelance Clients: Pros and Cons
Many freelance gurus give the following advice for finding your first clients: Find local businesses that might benefit from your services. Reach out to them offering your services. The logic is: the business owners are more likely to respond to you because you’re a local, you can visit their business, schedule a coffee chat, and so on. This approach has its pros and cons like any ...

Can Anyone Be a Freelancer?

Can Anyone Be a Freelancer?
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 ...

How I Landed a $100k Freelance Client

How I Landed a $100k Freelance Client
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

How To Find the Best Clients on Upwork in Three Steps
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 ...

The Best Ways To Find Freelance Clients in 2021

The Best Ways To Find Freelance Clients in 2021
The freelance landscape is a constantly shifting one. This is a wonderful thing for adaptable, entrepreneurial people — and freelancers are nothing if not adaptable and entrepreneurial. Still, some dangers lurk in the mists of this landscape. For instance, it is not beyond imagination that you might find yourself looking for freelance work in an ecosystem that clients have migrated away ...

How to Turn Your Employer Into Your First Customer

How to Turn Your Employer Into Your First Customer
Imagine this. You drag yourself out of bed in the morning. It’s a rainy day and your commute to the office is hell. The soundtrack you play in your car doesn’t even come close to drowning out the sound of horns and engines. By the time you arrive at the office, you are stressed, apathetic, and counting the seconds until you can drive home again in that same rush hour traffic. In the ...

How I Went From ‘Hello World’ to My First Freelance Client in 1 Month

How I Went From ‘Hello World’ to My First Freelance Client in 1 Month
Back in 2011, I was a university graduate with a very foggy look at the future. The field of study that I had chosen at age 18 now seemed like a foolish choice. Even though it was an engineering degree, in my country it resigned me to office work in one of maybe a dozen telecommunications companies. This is not what I had envisioned when I left high school. I was lucky enough, however, to ...

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