engineer or have job skills in just about any other production area that doesn’t require the production of physical goods, chances are that you can make a lot of money using your unique skill-set online. This can be a part-time job to bring in some extra cash, or it can also be your full-time job if you have the self-discipline to go out and find jobs and make yourself work.
There are a lot of small businesses, start-ups, and other companies that require the type of services that you might have, but they might not have enough demand to bring on a person full-time to take care of that issue. A lot of companies end up outsourcing these types of tasks to freelance professionals that do that type of work for a living, and they are increasingly finding them online through freelance job-posting sites such as oDesk.com, Elance.com and Guru.com.
Chances are you will have to pay a membership fee to bid on projects on these sites, that’s how these companies make their money. Work on these sites is quite competitive, so you’re going to have to have a portfolio of your previous work, and be able to provide several reasons why you’re the only person or company to go with. You’ll have to be very diligent about pursuing potential opportunities, and you can’t let yourself get frustrated when you don’t get a job.
You should also have an individual website for yourself or your company with examples of your work, a list of services that you can perform, and some sort of price-structure. You can see the website that I’ve made for my web-development/consulting business at http://www.mattpaulson.com/. This will give your potential customers (people that you talk to in public or find online), somewhere to go, look at your work and see what you have to offer. This will give your small business / freelance operation a lot of added credibility and professionalism.
Scouring through internet forums relevant to the type of work that you do is also very helpful. As a web-developer, I’ve had success on marketing my services on sites such as SitePoint.com and the Digital Point Forums. Chances are there are some big forums related to the skills that you have, and by advertising your services on those forums and by responding to people who are looking to have some work done, you can get a lot of work that way.
After a while, you should find that a lot of your projects are from repeat customers. This will allow you to focus less on searching out jobs and more on the actual work itself. If you’re clients only use your services once, chances are there’s something you could be doing better in the quality of work that you’re producing, or in the level of customer services that you’re providing.
Ultimately, there are a ton of freelance jobs out there, but most of the people vying for these freelance jobs aren’t very professional in the services that they offer, or provide very low quality work. Work to set yourself from the crowd by offering a high level of customer service and a good product to go along with it, and you’ll have no shortage of potential clients.