Where to find freelance jobs for creatives
I went full-time freelance in 2020, right after corona hit, because I realized not only did I want the option to stay in pajamas all day, I didn’t want to have to throw on a blazer because my boss wanted to have a zoom call where he pontificated endlessly about “company culture.”
My current supervisor, Griswold the Pitbull.
Freelancing is awesome. You get a ton of freedom in your schedule and work. If you don’t like working with someone, BAM! You drop them.
However, as with many things, the big challenge of freelancing is Making Enough Money.
I’ve done a lot of trial and error with this, and it was a headache.
To save you some time (I hope), I’m going to share the best places I’ve found freelance work, and a few tips on how to get started with each option.
Where to find freelance jobs for creatives
I’m going to list these in the order I found them most helpful, but you might find one or a few of of them to work out even better for you. I suggest trying them in order but make sure you try them all.
Upwork
Upwork is a freelancing website where I found my most lucrative, long-term, and interesting contracts.
People who need freelancers go on and post gigs. Then, freelancers apply for the job, stating their bid (not bidding directly against each other, thank god) and explaining why they’re the best fit. Then, the job poster can interview freelancers and ultimately hire, discuss the gig, and pay all through the platform.
Several features make Upwork great:
Contract mediation if you and a client have a dispute
Payment protection, so if the client doesn’t want to pay up, Upwork makes them
Client reviews help you pick good clients and steer clear of scams or mean people
A job feed that gets smarter as you use it more often, delivering you gigs to apply for that fit your skills and interests
Best of all for my paranoid ass, the message and meeting function allow you to work with the client entirely through Upwork, so you don’t have to give out any personal info.
There are still scammers out there, so be careful! To protect yourself, don’t take work off Upwork until you have worked with the client for a while and you trust them.
This guy was smart and didn’t fall for the scammers. Be like this guy.
For an Upwork profile template that will work for you, download this guide.
It will tell you how to get started on Upwork, get your first gig, and make it to the point where you don’t even need to apply anymore… Upwork will recommend you to clients!
I know people also use Fiverr, but I can’t recommend that, mainly because I haven’t used it myself and tried it out. I’m also not a big fan of anything that says a creator’s work is worth $5.
Surprisingly enough, I have found work through Facebook. Good work, too!
I know, I wouldn’t have believed it if it hadn’t worked for me, but one of my first and best clients started as a Facebook post.
There are two ways to find work through Facebook. Just make sure if you use either of these options, you have a cover letter, portfolio, or LinkedIn profile ready to back you up, as no one is going to hire you based on the strength of the cat photos on your Facebook page.
Post to your page
Announce to the world that you are looking for work! This is best for smaller, quicker jobs that you can do for several people without much commitment.
For instance, one of the services I offer is resume editing. I posted on my Facebook that I was offering that service, how much I offered it for ($25 a pop), and told people to message or comment if interested.
It’s not going to be the biggest part of your income, but it’s a great way to spark word of mouth and get some smaller gigs going.
Posting like this also led me to a much bigger client, as one of my friends who saw I was looking for work passed along my name. That contract was worth hundreds of dollars, so it pays to announce you’re open for work!
Find groups or pages with job postings
I’ve seen this work very well for writers, and I see many posts as well for other fields, even for people looking for local work, like costume designers or models.
To find groups and pages with gigs for your skills and interests, simply search for the type of work you want. For example, search for “graphic design gigs” or “freelance writing jobs” and Facebook will find what you’re looking for.
Check these posts and don’t be afraid to ask for advice! The people on these pages will be happy to share, unless the group rules explicitly forbid any non-job-posting conversation.
Reading the comments on posts will also tell you if the job is bad pay by industry standards or possibly scammy.
Recommendations from friends
Besides posting on your Facebook, tell literally everyone in your life that you are now a freelancer and you are looking for work.
Make it crystal clear what type of work you’re looking for and what you’re best at.
Tell all the people. Some examples of people are pictured above.
Yes, you will get some assholes asking your dumb things like “Can you really make money at that?” or offering you unsolicited advice. But if you get through about five of those jerks, there will be one person who actually brings you a job.
And then it is sooo satisfying to tell the haters, “Yeah, I make money doing what I love. What do you do again?”
Before you even start looking for work, make sure your LinkedIn is updated and super on point. When people are interested in hiring you, the first place they will go to see if you are legit is your LinkedIn.
Make sure you remember to check your LinkedIn messages! I almost missed a BIG JOB OPPORTUNITY because I forgot LinkedIn existed!
The job search function on LinkedIn allows you to filter for part-time, freelance, and remote work. You can also join groups on LinkedIn full of other freelancers who will share their knowledge.
To sweeten the deal, LinkedIn has a new feature where you can directly offer services on their platform, and they will recommend you to potential clients. I’ve had several inquiries this way already, and they just launched the feature.
Forums and specialized websites
No, not THIS kind of forum!
There are still specialized job posting websites out there that only have gigs for one specific field. For instance, this forum from Beafreelanceblogger.com, which includes blog writing ads paying at least $50 a post, or $0.10 a word (this is not a bad starting rate if you’re brand new).
I have found this option the most time-consuming with the smallest non-zero return. It takes a lot of time to apply to each of these ads, because they all have their own particular requirements.
Do this after you’ve done all the options above. Pick a day or a half a day and sift through forums listing jobs in your field. Forum postings don’t change much over time, so you really only need to do this once every few months.
If you need help picking out good ones, shoot us an email at support@makegoodcreativenetwork.com.
Cold contact
By “cold contact” I mean reaching out to businesses who might need your services. For this to work, you need a kickass pitch and a very concrete explanation of how hiring you as a contractor would benefit them.
If you have the guts, doing it in person is best. Call or approach the business in the physical plane. Emails will probably get ignored.
I’ll level with you, this has literally never worked for me. I’ve only tried it three times, but given that Upwork and these other options can bring people to you, this just seemed like a waste of time.
But other freelancers recommend it so I wanted to include it. Try it out and see if it works better for you!
Make money for your art online
If you’re ready to get started, I’d like to give you even more info on how to make money online. Besides freelancing, you an also set up passive income, with varying levels of time and effort needed to get started.
If you ever have any questions or just want to share about your freelancing journey, send me an email at riley@makegoodcreativenetwork.com! I’d love to hear about it.
Which of these options sound most promising to you? Comment below and let us know!