If you're interested, there's a link below for coaching. If you're interested in getting help from professionals, from agency owners that are making millions of dollars, then you can do this as well. You can apply by clicking here.

What To Watch Next:

• Becoming a Freelance Web Developer
• How To Get Leads For Your Agency
• Watch hundreds of success stories of entrepreneurs who built online agencies
• Click here to subscribe to Aleksander Vitkin’s youtube channl

Hey, this is Alexander Vitkin from BusinessMentor.com. Are you a web developer who's looking to potentially start freelancing? And are you discovering if it's even worth it? Like, does it pay more? Is it worth getting into? Is it safe? Is it actually better than getting a job? Well, if you look up this topic on the internet, you're gonna find a lot of conflicting information. In fact, most people are against this. They're like, “Don't freelance… it is baaaaad”. 

So in this video, I'm going to give you a balanced view on what it's like actually freelancing. And we're going to figure out if it's worth it, if you can actually make more money with it. And what are some beliefs that people have around freelancing that may or may not be true? Like what is true? And what is not true? And who can you trust when you're researching freelancing? Should it be people who tested it for two months and then failed and tell people “don't try it”? Or should it be people who have succeeded? Because who you listen to, that point of view of that information is going to determine your outcome based on the advice that you want to follow. As such, you should be very careful who you listen to. And I'm gonna do my best. 

After 11 years of doing this, and after coaching 700+ people on how to start as a freelancer and web developer and agency owner, I'm going to help you determine what is the right path for you. Before we get started, please click here to subscribe to my youtube channel, and then click on the bell notification icon. And also click on the like button for the¿ algorithm. You know how it is on YouTube. But let's dive right into it right now. 

You should approach freelancing with an open mind.

So the first thing I want to tell you about freelancing as a web developer is, there's a lot of skeptics out there. And when people want to start a business, even if it's as a freelancer early on, what you don't want to do is be skeptical. You want to be skeptical about weird promises, and inflated numbers. But you don't want to be skeptical about everything. You want to be open-minded to the opportunities that present themselves out there. I've seen so many people, for example, go on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. And they say, “Oh, well, everyone's so cheap here, it doesn't work.” Well, I know people will make $50,000-$100,000 per month just from those platforms. 

So one person sees this terrible place with too few leads, and no one wants to pay money. Another person has figured out how to use it as a funnel to generate leads, right? I have a lot of videos about this. We don't need to go into detail because there's a few videos at the end of the article on how to do this, how to actually use platforms to get started as a freelancer. As for now, let's talk a little bit more about the different things that you need to do to get started as a freelancer and what are some things to avoid. 

Freelance Developers want to build something for themselves.

So who should start anyway? Like, who is this for? Well, freelance web developers, they tend to be people who start for themselves. They tend to be people who want to build something for themselves. They tend to be people who can go out there. And even if they don't know the solution to something, they will still try to find a solution. They'll research it, they'll find a codebase, they go into GitHub, they talk to other developers, they talk to business owners. It’s the same thing for development as it is for business. You're not going to figure out every single thing by yourself, especially because a lot of information is already out there. There's already solutions to business problems. 

Most problems come from communication and sales screw-ups.

And when we talk about freelancing as a web developer, most of the problems you will face are communication and business and sales problems. And also marketing problems and hiring problems and other such problems. In short, they are business problems. They're not technical problems, but non-technical problems tend to have similar ways of solving them, compared to technical problems. 

There's communities out there. There's solutions out there. Instead of a codebase, there are existing business models out there. So yes, as a freelance web developer, you do not have to reinvent the wheel and figure out everything by yourself. And if you listen to too many haters, it really will affect the results that you get. If you listen to people who tried for two months, and they failed, and they tell you it doesn't work, that's gonna probably be your outcome if you believe them. So I highly encourage you to vet whoever you listen to very carefully and go for the outcome you actually want, based on people who have achieved success with that outcome. 

Freelancers want to control their lives

So freelance developers are also people who want to control their own lives. They want to have their own unique way of living their life freely, and their own independence and their own assets in something that they own themselves. They don't want to build just stuff for other people. They want to build something for themselves by helping other people. And this is the way that a business owner thinks. 

And a freelance web developer will adopt this way of thinking, along with their technical expertise to become a business owner. And this gives so many opportunities because you'll be able to outsource. You'll be able to build something much bigger. You'll be able to make more money, potentially. So everything is possible, as long as you expand what you know, and get into a new skill set like sales, marketing, and all the other stuff we discussed. 

Freelancers are open about to share the workload.

Another thing that freelance web developers and agency owners do is they're not overly attached to doing every part of the technical work themselves. They understand that in bigger companies and small companies people work together. You don't have to sit there and do just technical work. In fact, if you want to really build a business, and not just freelance or sell your time forever, what you'll end up doing is hire people to help you with the lowest level activities first. And then the more difficult level activities like the delivery work and project management and sales later on. 

Becoming the best technical expert is not the goal.

They don't want to just be a developer. They want to be a business owner. This is a very common theme that I see. And they understand that they need to work in teams. It's not just “oh, I just want to be the best technical expert in the world.” Because ultimately, probably, you won't be the best technical expert in the world. But you can get close to that. And with your team, with a team, you can be more powerful than any individual. 

So, freelance web developers, they're also not afraid of putting in the work. They're not shying away from the actual work. They also have a drive to spend their time as efficiently as possible. Because they understand that that is the number one currency. Whatever clients may pay you, as a developer on an hourly basis or on a project basis, it doesn't really matter if you sacrifice all your time. And there's ways around us. 

There's ethical, morally acceptable ways of building a business where you don't have to give away every hour of every day thinking and working on the business nonstop, like 16 hours a day. You don't have to do this. 

There are perfectly viable ways of building a business. And trust me, business owners don't really do that. They don't sit there constantly focused on business, 16 hours a day. It will drive you crazy eventually. But a certain amount of hours is okay. We recommend eight to 10 hours a day, five to six days a week, and this is sufficient to build a business. You do not need to kill yourself. This is a marathon, not a sprint

You should learn in the process.

There’s also no such thing as quick money, a quick fix, just some side income, and then you become a business owner. There's no such thing as a quick fix. In short, what you're gonna have to keep doing is the same thing you did to become a developer. You're gonna have to slowly learn a skill while you're implementing. And while you're getting feedback, a feedback loop from the market, from clients, from people that are paying you money. You can do this in months, if you get help. You can also do it in years by yourself, by figuring out every step by yourself. It's up to you how you want to do this. I recommend taking the most efficient route possible. 

Freelancing platforms give you access to clients.

So before we get into how much freelance developers can make, and what are the expectations in terms of what the possibilities are in a business, let's talk about leveraging other people's time and platforms. So you could either go out there and try to build a website and try to build everything from scratch, figure out your marketing from scratch, write blog articles, or something like that. 

Or you could just go on freelancing platforms where clients already exist, and they want to pay that money. They're ready to go. And you could offer your services for a good fee on the platforms. They've done a lot of the marketing credibility building for you already. So you don't have to start from scratch. 

Hire people in order to expand your business.

Furthermore, as soon as you can, you should hire people. You shouldn't just have to do everything yourself, as I mentioned earlier in the video. 

So what are some income expectations that freelance web developers could have? For example, if you work as a developer, if you're a web developer, you make, usually on average, below $100,000 per year, if you're from North America. So as a freelance web developer, what you can do is you can charge between $50 and $150 per hour, depending on your skill level. What this means is, maybe you won't work quite as many hours doing the technical work early on. But you'll get paid more on an hourly basis, which means you'll be able to make more money. 

Lead Generation and Business Development is mandatory.

However, the real magic happens when you build a team and when you outsource a lot of the work and when other people help you with your business, because then you have more time to spend on lead generation and business development activities, and not just coding and doing other such things. What this means long term is you can scale a system that works to millions of dollars. 

Well developed business means more opportunities.

What this means long term as you can have a team all over the world. You can run a business remotely, and you can build a business that supports other businesses, your family and whatever else you want to do like philanthropy, for example, right? 

So you don't have to just spend money on Lamborghinis. You can actually help people as well in other ways. As such, I have a bunch of videos ready for you below this article that will help you get started as a freelance web developer. There's videos about lead generation. There’s videos about other stuff. 

Also, if you're interested, there's a link below for coaching. If you're interested in getting help from professionals, from agency owners that are making millions of dollars, then you can do this as well. You can apply by clicking here.

What To Watch Next:

• Becoming a Freelance Web Developer
• How To Get Leads For Your Agency
• Watch hundreds of success stories of entrepreneurs who built online agencies
• Click here to subscribe to Aleksander Vitkin’s youtube channl

Have you tried to freelance programming in Upwork and has your experience been not so ideal? Well, you wouldn't be the only one. I've seen such reviews and testimonials on the internet. It’s all over Youtube, in fact, of everyone saying, “Oh, this happened and Upwork. And it's cheap, and people don't want to pay and all these types of problems”. 

Most people don't approach Upwork properly

In this video, I'm going to dispel all this, and I'm going to show you how exactly to approach Upwork in a way where you can get projects that are worth 1000s of dollars at $50+ per hour, because all the people are telling you that it's not possible, they haven't done it properly. And they've tried freelancing instead of running it as a business. And essentially, what they've done is they approached it as a job interview, instead of using Upwork as a lead generation source, which is what it is.

Upwork is a lead generation source for businesses

You should approach Upwork as a business opportunity, as a lead generation source. It's not like this magical Wonderland where you get cheap reviews. And then eventually, maybe one client is going to hire you hourly or something like that. 

Most people treat Upwork accounts as job applications

So people go on Upwork. And they create an account. They write their little resume, because that's what they're used to, because that's the thing they did to apply to jobs. And then they write about all their little skills, about their life and everything, and their education. And it's usually just a few paragraphs because they run out of ideas of what to write. And then what happens is they get treated like a cheap employee, or they never even get a job interview. That's because Upwork is just not for this at all. 

Upwork is not a platform to get cheap contracts done

Upwork is not a platform to get cheap contracts done as a developer. If you have skills, you should never ever, ever, ever do cheap contracts on Upwork. 

Upwork is to sell less tech-savvy people a well-paid work

The point of Upwork is to sell to people that are less tech-savvy than you and to charge them a lot of money. That is how it works for smart developers who make good money out of work. As such, this whole idea of starting off with a small hourly fee of $5/hour or something like that, forget it, forget it. 

Start with $50+/hour on your profile. 

Just get rid of anyone who's trying to get you to do $5-or-$10 projects. We're not there to do $5-or-$10 projects. I've been in our work since 2011. Don't do $5-or-$10 projects. We're on Upwork to get highly paid contracts. Especially if you have experience, get highly paid contracts. 

You do not need to do cheap stuff to get your first review

Worst case scenario, bring one of your existing clients from outside of Upwork to the platform, do a project for them. And then after that, to have them leave you a review. You don't need Upwork clients to get a review. You can bring your own clients to the platform, and they'll leave you your first review. 

You don't need to sell your soul and work 20 hours for $50, just to get a five-star review on Upwork. You can do it with your existing clients. It's much easier, safer, and the odds of getting a bad score are non-existent. And once you do get a bad score on Upwork, it's very difficult to get leads that way. So don't do that. Don't risk getting a bad score on Upwork.

Do not write your Upwork profile as a job resume

Next up, your profile. Don't write it like this job resume thing, because that's not what people are looking for on Upwork. They're business owners and people that are non-technical, hiring someone technical to solve a business problem. That's who you want to work with. As such, you want to talk about them and their business. And you want to learn how to communicate with these types of people. 

You are running a business

You would be running a business. You would not be selling a technical service to technical people. Very, very different from a job. As such, you need to learn sales. You need to learn project management. You need to learn how to communicate in markets to people that are non-tech-savvy. 

Write from the client point of perspective

So, what you do is you write your profile based on this video on how to write your Upwork profile, with enough proof and everything. And what you do is you write based on the point of reference of your client, where they're coming from now, instead of where you want to take them with your technical mumbo jumbo. You want to write about their experience, their point of view and their problems and help them solve them on a sales call. 

Proper sales calls are helping people to make the right decision

I don't know what you feel like or how you feel about sales calls. But if you do sales properly, and ethically, you're actually helping people make the right decision. Because they're not technical, they don't know how to make a decision based on technical information. So you need to guide them through this and consult them. 

Do not scope a project to the point of delivery

What you do then is you get payment from them as soon as possible. Preferably, you don't scope a project to the point where you're guaranteed delivery in a certain timeframe and a certain amount of hours. But you say, “This is my prediction. If you add more, if it changes, I will let you know. But as of right now, this is my prediction, we can safely start on this, just be aware that any extra work will cost money if things change.” 

It is normal to charge for unpredicted work

What this avoids is you getting stuck doing a project for days and days and days. For example, you deliver a project and it doesn't work in their system for whatever reason. It's not a big deal, because they're gonna have to pay you because that is an unforeseen circumstance where you have to fix something new. And if it's estimated outside of the scope of what you've predicted, then it's perfectly normal to charge more and the client should fully expect this based on your written contract and your verbal agreements on the sales call. That is the purpose of the sales goal as well. And if you treat it like that, you'll find that you can get very high-end contracts of $50 to $300 an hour from Upwork on day one.

You don’t have to wait or build a portfolio for years

You don't have to wait. You don't have to build up a portfolio over years on Upwork. You can start like this on Upwork from day one. People don't believe me. They watch all these freelancers and whatever talk about it on various websites and YouTube. They’re all saying the same nonsense. That's because they don't know business. If you know business, you should understand what I'm talking about. If you don't know business, it is time to learn. Anyone can learn this. If you're a developer, this is a great business opportunity right now. Upwork is an amazing platform to learn how to get leads, and how to do sales. 

Always treat yourself with respect

So just keep in mind, I'm in no way affiliated with Upwork. Some people are like, “Oh, you're just selling Upwork.” No, I don't care. I'm looking out to help you. Because I've succeeded. And you can succeed as well in this. What you have to do is treat yourself with respect. All the days, weeks, years, and months that you spent learning the skills that you've learned should be respected, and it should be paid for. 

Freelancing gets paid more than a job

Freelancing gets paid more than a job, right? So if a developer makes six figures, as a freelancer, you should make multiple six figures. That is the only acceptable and fair way of dealing with this. 

You should not go on these platforms and expect to do very cheap labor for some reviews or hand-me-downs. You should work at a fair rate. And you should charge as much as possible. As much as it's fair for the type of work to justify the complexity and the value that you're creating for the client. That's how to treat this funnel. That is how to treat your business. And that is how to treat yourself as well. With respect. 

And if you do that, you'll see that the platform (Upwork and also other platforms) will treat you much better and the clients will treat you much better. A higher-quality client will appear and you'll be able to do business properly instead of having to, you know, scrape the bottom of the barrel. 

So what I have for you next is the next video that explains how to get started on Upwork, how to write your profile and also have a video on how to send proposals, and everything else you need to know to get started as a freelance programmer on Upwork and other platforms. So click on the link below for the next tutorial on how to continue from here.

What To Watch Next:

• Upwork Proposal Sample (2021 Update)
• Upwork Profile - Things I Wish I Knew
• Watch hundreds of success stories of entrepreneurs who built online agencies
• Click here to subscribe to Aleksander Vitkin’s youtube channel