Browse By Interest

10 Ways to Increase Your Revenue as a Freelancer

Alex Jones | Updated On December 21, 2023

Life as a freelancer is not the easiest. In most cases, you’re the manager, accountant, marketer, and salesman. 

Handling these tasks only becomes worthwhile when your earnings reflect your hard work. Still, a successful freelancing career means making more than enough to put food on the table.

If you want to increase your revenue as a freelancer, do these things.

Expertise in any area is important. As a freelancer, you are free to specialize anywhere and in anything. But nothing beats being an expert in a chosen field. Two things stand out from that statement: choosing a field and being an expert in it.

When you reduce the number of niches you are involved in, you can focus on a few. Really, one is enough to help you stand out and rake in more revenue. All you need to make this happen is sustained focus. 

Keep doing the same thing with increasing efficiency and you will become an expert first and then an authority in that field. Then your revenue will increase.

Working alone can only do so much. If you want to raise your revenue to an extra zero or two, you need a team. 

With a team, you can increase your workflow and efficiency. Someone else can handle your marketing, and someone else your client relations. The goal of working with a team is greater efficiency. It will help you do more meaningful work in the shortest time possible and make more money.

Raising a team for your freelancing is very advantageous. It will help you choose exactly who you need and how they work for you. You can even spend a bit more effort grooming them for your niche. This way, your team is an extension of yourself rather than a separate entity. 

Freelancing requires a lot of multitasking. Even with a team, you still have to deal with many day-to-day manual tasks. Responding to emails, mapping the work schedules for the next month, and compiling your financial reports are examples of repetitive tasks that will eat into your work time. You need mental power to do these things, and that is mental power that you can spend elsewhere.

The solution to conserving your strength is automation. Using task automation software, you can better sort out your tasks, affixing everything to a necessary period. 

This strategy will give you more breadth of time and opportunity to work, level up, rest, and play. Furthermore, it will boost your productivity and, by extension, your earnings.

Time tracking is a lifeline for freelancers. In the same way, you need to automate your workflows, thereby getting a firmer grip on the progress of your work, you need to do the same thing with your time. And the best way to monitor how much time you spend here and there is to use a time tracker.

Using a good time tracker for freelancers will boost your cash flow in many ways. 

One, it will help you identify tasks that don’t add anything to your workflow. 

Two, it will give you hints to restructure your task schedule. The more of a grip you get on this schedule, the more time you have to specialize in your niche, raise a team, and grow your income.

Three, it can help you automatically create invoices for clients. That way, you’re able to accurately calculate your billable hours and know how much to charge clients for future projects. If you have a team, a time tracker can also help you with payments.

Four, you get to keep tabs on your activities, identifying time-wasting tasks and engagements that you need to eliminate.

Social media offers a wellspring of opportunities to grow your income as a freelancer. Using the platforms can save you the stress and expenses of having a marketing and promotional team or plan. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and even TikTok are platforms you can use to showcase your expertise and gain a foothold on the networks.

Beyond getting and solidifying your presence on social media, you can link up all the networks. A simple way to do this is to add links to your accounts, profiles, and channels: link Facebook with LinkedIn, LinkedIn with YouTube, and YouTube with Instagram. This is how to consolidate your presence on social media and position yourself for more income.

In addition to boosting your presence on social media, you should get a website. You don’t have to build or pay for a fancy website. You can get a simple website where you can show off what you have done so far and customer reviews.

You can also use your website to start podcasts, blog regularly, and compile a textbook about your niche for others to follow. If you get a website and use it this way, your earnings could even double.

A freelancer rate is used to measure their work. If you charge $0.05 per word for your writing, that is exactly how much your writing is worth to your clients. 

So, when you are sure that your writing should be worth more, be direct and raise your rates.

Freelancers decide how much they want to be paid based on their skill and competence. Once you level up and are more confident about your work, raise your rates by at least 30 percent. If you think that 30 percent is too much, how about 20 percent?

It’s important that your rates reflect your work quality. But clients will see right through you when you charge more than your worth. That’s why it’s important that you build your skills whenever you want to raise your rates.

Building your skills doesn’t necessarily mean branching out to other niches. You can offer more services within that niche and provide results-driven ideas.

You can take these ideas for a spin with your clients at your previous rates and then charge more once they confirm it’s worth the pay.

There are numerous online courses you can go for to level up your skills. You can also take university courses and workshops to make sure you’re learning more. Another way to grow your knowledge is by following industry experts on social media and learning from them.

There are many different freelance communities by niche that you can join to build your network.

For starters, connecting with other professionals in your industries means you get to explore opportunities to collaborate on projects. You also get to learn first-hand industry insights from experts that have been in the game a lot longer than you.

That said, you don’t necessarily have to only join communities within your niche. 

Other professional communities can help you grow and spread the word about your brand. You can get referrals and also expand your client base.

To join a community, you should look out for conferences, engage with other experts on social media, and organize talks.

For example, you can join Twitter spaces on conversations covering your niche. You can also create spaces.

Your freelancing career is as profitable as the quality of your clientele. 

Dealing with clients is one of the most critical skills you need to keep your career alive. You must understand the art of understanding and communicating with your clients. That way, you know what they want and know how to sell offerings.

You also need to know who your ideal client is so you don’t take up projects that will end up costing you. Having an ideal client profile lets you know when to say no. 

After all, there’s so much that you can handle at any given time. Also, your ideal clients will be willing to pay your rates because they know what you offer and how it will benefit them.

Summary

Increasing your revenue is more than just increasing your client base and handling more projects. It involves boosting your earning power project, increasing your value proposition, and boosting your brand image.