Welcome to the World of Freelance Working!

Welcome, and may this mode of an exciting, alternative career be the right choice for you!

Why am I calling 'freelance' work an alternative career choice?  It is certainly not something new that we, the new generation, has suddenly discovered out of the blue!  People have been successfully working for themselves for decades, and never have there been so much hype about this choice, till now!

It is the present generation of Bangladesh actually who have suddenly found 'freelancing' or 'outsourcing' to be the fad of the decade, and there's ample reason for that.  Compared to the local talent we host in our country, the job market is tiny, catering only to a percentage of the population.  Our offices and institutions may be able to house thousands of teachers, doctors and engineers and give them a salary suitable to their potential, but it is really hard to do the same for job-seekers who have talent in more unconventional sectors.  Thousands of our graduates who are skilled and talented do not find jobs that can challenge them enough intellectually.  There are only a limited number of websites to be built, only a number of mobile apps to be designed for the Bangladeshi market, only so many places where we can write!

Who can Become a Freelance Worker?

Can you become a successful freelancer? Do you have what it takes to excel in this field? Let's see!

What exactly would you need to start your career as a freelancer? First, let us compare this career with a traditional job search. For a traditional job, the first thing you would need is a degree - a graduate or a post-graduate degree, or perhaps, higher. Without a few certificates in your resume, you won't be able to get an interview call, let alone a job. The first and sometimes, the only, thing that companies look for in a candidate in a degree, with a good CGPA, from a good institution.

For the world of freelancers, a degree is not important, not so much. A client sitting in USA does not care whether you graduated from a public university or a private university; most of the times, they don't care whether you graduated or not. It's not important to them, not at all. They might, in some cases, ask what your educational background is, but they would never ask your CGPA. At least, that has never happened to me yet.

What Do Freelance Writers Write? - Part 1

If you are thinking of starting your freelance career online as a writer, you are in for a huge treat! There are literally hundreds of different kinds of content writing opportunities for you to try your hand at. From the easiest to the most complicated, I have put together a list of all the different kinds of writing jobs that you can find online.

(N.B. I primarily work on Upwork, and these types of jobs are the different ones that I have faced or experienced so far. There can, of course, be hundreds more that I am not yet aware of. Besides, it is better for me to explain the categories that I am experienced in personally.)

I am just going to list all the jobs and explain them in this particular post. Later, in separate posts, I will expand on the ideas for your convenience.

Introducing UpWork!

UpWork is, till date, the best online marketplace there is for freelance workers. While others may disagree to this, personally, I am more comfortable on UpWork than anywhere else. 

UpWork began as oDesk, but later merged with Elance to create a new platform - combining all the old clients and freelancers from both platforms. I had accounts on both of them but only one completed job on Elance. From the very beginning, I concentrated on oDesk and till now, I only have one account on one single marketplace.

Some people - freelancers, mostly - would argue that UpWork is strict. I agree with them, but I also think that it is necessary for UpWork to be a little authoritarian if they want to maintain their good work. I also think that they are a little too lenient towards the clients than to the freelancers, but I see that they are trying to change that. In conclusion, I have no complaints towards UpWork; I have complaints towards some of their clients, though, and I think they need to be a little stricter in choosing their client profiles as they do with freelancer profile.

Articles - All About Bulk Articles

"Bulk articles" refers to when a client will ask for a large number of articles on a particular topic from a writer. This can be from 10 articles a week to 150 articles every 5 days. The articles are ideally 500 to 1000 words long, or more; they are also related to a particular topic, usually a topic closely related to the product or the service the client offers. 

Freelancers on marketplaces aren't the only source of bulk articles that client go to. There are hundreds of writing agencies that supply articles in bulk, at a very reasonable price. Most of the time, all the client will do is supply a title or a niche, or explain their business to the writer and you'll have to come up with 100 to 500 articles based on that. 

Sounds hard, doesn't it?