#008: Freelancing skills for Beginners

Welcome to the Freelancing Marketplace Podcast. Your freelancing guide delivered your brand online remotely. 

Hello everybody. Welcome to the Freelancing Marketplace Podcast. My name is Grace Locsin, I am the CEO and owner of Surge Digital Agency. 

This show is for freelancers, marketers, and business owners who would like to leverage their online presence through freelancing. I am so happy that we are finally here we are on Episode Eight. And what excites me in today’s episode is we will be discussing freelancing skills that beginners can start with when it comes to venturing into freelancing.

I’m going to share the freelancing skills that you can start with as a newbie and I will also discuss what are the types of tasks under each skill. Later down in the show, I will also share my freelancing Tip of the Week and some key takeaways. Like I mentioned earlier, I am so excited to be finally here in episode eight and discuss freelancing skills for beginners. Because what we have done so far in the last few episodes is building the momentum for you to really start properly. 

So in the past, we have been talking about how I turn to a business owner from scratch from freelancing, the benefits of freelancing, how to get started when it comes to your setup, and understanding a few words transitioning into the work from home setup. Even evaluating the importance of free freelancing courses and paid freelancing courses and understanding freelancing niches in different categories. If you haven’t checked the last few episodes, please go ahead and check it out. I am sure that you’re going to love each of the episodes, as it’s going to help you understand the broad in the specific world of freelancing and effectively start when you want to venture into freelancing. So for this series, the Getting Started with freelancing this is really dedicated to a lot of our freelancers or those who would like to consider working from home.

After 15 episodes, we are going to transition into marketing. So we will be discussing some marketing tips, some advertising tips. And then afterward, we will also have a serious dedication to business owners on how they can leverage using freelancers around the world. So let’s go ahead and discuss our topic for this episode, the Freelancing Skills for Beginners. 

I search the keywords simple work-from-home jobs and freelancing jobs with little or no experience in Google. And to my surprise, the freelancing skills that were added there, highlighted or given us an example, are not simple. They make it a little bit complicated for the newbies to go and launch their career as freelancers you know, examples are web developers, or those into AI or robotics or web design, or those that are a little bit complicated. 

So most of those when we’re talking about simple or with little or no experience, are needing some online training and a little bit of experience to venture into the online world. But what we’re going to talk about when it comes to freelancing for beginners here is really for beginners. What I listed when it comes to the skills that you can start with and the tasks that you can do under the following skills are something that may allow you to get started as a freelancer, without training or even without any experience.

Maybe the ones that are very much needed in the following are your resourcefulness, your patience, and hard work because it needs a lot of research and it needs a lot of figuring out so yes, you can go into the easier route or the shorter route of just taking online courses and learning what the skills are and how it’s being done. Or you can do the free resources. You just need to be proactive to be resourceful and of course, you need to have a lot of patience and hard work.

Going back to the topic on the Freelancing Skills for Beginners, allow me to share with you 10 Freelancing Skills that you can start with as a freelancer with little or no experience or no training at all.

1. Virtual Assistants

A virtual assistant is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative tasks or assistance to clients remotely from home or from anywhere around the world with access to a computer and internet, virtual assistant can also be called remote worker online jobs worker, online freelancer, virtual professional, independent contractor, and the light. When it comes to a virtual assistant, the following tasks are usually done. For most of it, you’re going to be doing administrative work. So whatever the office works may be, you need to be doing it virtually. So it might be admin work, personal tasks, content creation, managing finances, social media management, maybe a little bit of research, customer service, email management, usually it’s managing tasks, managing emails, managing calendars, and if you have a little experience or may not even have experience, but you’re just on top of things, you know, you know how to manage calendars, you know how to respond to emails properly, you can work as a virtual assistant on office or administrative tasks.

Now, if you’re going to be a virtual assistant that’s a little bit more high-end, it’s usually called executive assistance. And this time, you’re not only doing administrative tasks, but you’re also doing a lot of assistance for a CEO or a company. And it usually involves also a lot of technical skills or sales and marketing skills may even take some online financial skills or human resources because when we’re talking about executive assistance, this is anything under the sun, the company or the person that you’re assisting for is needing when it comes to your tasks. But if you don’t want to go and venture into executive assistance, because you don’t have the skills right now, you still need training, you can be a virtual assistant focusing on admin work or office work. And these are usually just simple copywriting data entry you know, PowerPoint presentation, preparing reports. Basically what you’re doing when it comes to Office tasks in an office setting, but doing it virtually this time as a virtual assistant. 

 

2. Transcriptionist

When you’re a transcriptionist, this is very easy, especially if you are very patient as well when you are transcribing. Usually, the tasks involve listening to an audio or watching a video and then typing in what the recorded or live audio or video is all about. And then transforming it into a text file converting the audio or the video form into a text format of what they can hear. Like, for example, I’m doing this podcast right now. And if somebody is transcribing this one, you can go ahead and write everything that I said. There are a lot of apps right now that will help when it comes to transcribing. So maybe the transcriptionist will just come in and edit a little bit, but it takes a lot of listening skills. It takes also a little bit of proofreading because if there is wrong grammar, from the application result or the app result when the app will generate the transcription, you have to edit it a little bit. So the services can be offered to the medical or legal or general transcription industry. Again, this is very simple because all you have to do is just type in what you’re hearing or what you’re watching from the audio into the word document or other documents that the client will prefer and then edit it a little bit before sending it. Some clients will refer you to summarize things so maybe instead of just writing everything from top to bottom word for word, they will like you to prepare a report may be a PowerPoint presentation out of it because they want to upload it in different social media sites that will require slides. Others will use it for subtitles, so you have to write everything. 

3. Editing or proofreading

So if you are a freelancer, you will be likely an editor or a proofreader. What you do here is basically find mistakes in a written article, and then correct it and make sure that it has the right grammar. It has the rights capitalization and reliance. So if you love words, if you love articles, and right now we have a lot of apps again and software’s that can help you with this. So all you have to do is read everything that sounds correct and it’s going to be correct when it comes to the grammar and the tone.

If you are a freelancer who wants to venture into editing or proofreading, you need to find a market that is going to be suited to this need. So maybe the ones that are into medical research or the qualitative or quantitative researchers or those that are writing books, or maybe even the ones that are writing articles. 

4. Writing skills

It can be an article, it can be a blog, it can be preparing reports, it can be copywriting, anything related to writing, a lot of people are willing to pay you $5 or $10, depending on the number of words in an article. Let’s just say, for example, you’re writing an article with 300 words, you can be paid five to $10. If it’s 800 words to 1000 plus words, it can be $10, or more, if you are writing with SEO knowledge in it, and it involves a lot of keyword research and a lot of HTML tagging, you can charge up to $100 per article.

5. Data entry

So data entry is typing and transferring from one source to the other. So it might be that you are typing in the very words, maybe this is calling cards, and you need to add it into a spreadsheet from a PDF copy or pictures of calling cards. So that’s called data entry. Maybe also information from a spreadsheet into a CRM or customer relations management, these are usually software, you need to just move it from this one source to the other source, maybe even adding information for a product in e-commerce, maybe adding information into a website, or maybe even adding information into different documents. So if it’s a form of entry, no matter what the data may be, most of it is going to be text data, but it can also be uploading videos or uploading audios or any forms of other content if school data entry. So we’re able to talk at least five so far. And before I’m going to move forward, here is our freelancing Tip of the Week. 

Here we start freelancing Tip of the Week.

For this week’s Freelancing Tip of the Week, let’s talk about Digital discrimination. 

I don’t know if you’ve heard of this one. But I recently saw this on Instagram. And I wondered why there is, per such a thing, you know, they have been talking about this in the article that in the offices, there is digital discrimination in the older office workers because it’s assumed that when they are older, they’re not that modern. So maybe if you’re more than 40, around 50, especially when you’re 60. You’re not any more digitally inclined. And the issue here is if you are working or applying, you’re not given the same opportunity, or probably you won’t be considered if you are not a digital native. digital natives are everybody under the Millennium under those that are born with technology, so maybe Generation Z, the Millennials, Generation X. So these are usually digital natives, and the ones who are more recent are the ones who are given more priority when it comes to digital jobs. So there is digital discrimination against those that are a little bit older. 

When I saw the article, I was wondering if this is present in freelancing, and in my experience, maybe I would say that there may be a little bit but the beauty of freelancing is if you can prove yourself when it comes to your skills, they will love you. It’s going to be skill base compared to looking at you and your age, and what generation are you’re coming from? Are you a digital native or not, because if you have the skill and you have the experience, you can carry out the job in freelancing, you’re good to go. So for our freelancing Tip of the Week, I would highly recommend that when you’re older or young, okay, because this also probably applies to those that are younger because more and more especially during the pandemic, we have been observing that there is the younger audience in our target market as young as 10 years old, our CRM is eight years old. So this or enrolled by their moms before our youngest is around 15 years old, 16 years old, but now it keeps younger. So if you are too young or too old, you might be discriminated against in the digital world. But the beauty with freelancing is if you can carry out the job that’s needed by the client with value, and it’s going to be exemplary, you are going to get that spot. I can say this one because, in my experience, I was able to teach a 15-year-old homeschool girl who was enrolled by the mom. After all, you know, she wanted to have more opportunities outside of her homeschooling. And to the mom’s surprise, she was earning big every month, because she is good with writing. And despite her being young and having no experience at all, she has been writing for years, and the clients loved her that she was earning so much that the mommy enrolled the next month, and then afterward, they were both freelancing. So the mom was also hired afterward. So it’s not about your age, it’s not about lacking experience. 

The other example is this lady from London who enrolled in our freelancing course, and she is 64 years old. And what she did was applied the various techniques of the freelancing course into her agency, she opened an agency serving a lot of clients when it comes to digital marketing because that’s basically what you’re learning in your freelancing course. And she was able to offer that as a consulting company because she knows how to deliver the job, she knows how to deliver value, and she was able to carry out the tasks needed by her local clients. 

So in freelancing, there might be a little bit of digital discrimination against whoever is older or younger. But in my own experience, it’s going to matter to your skills and what you can offer on the table. If you’re a freelancer, that’s going to be so so even if you are a digital native, but you don’t add exemplary work on the table, they’re not going to hire you. So in freelancing, I am happy that most of the time it’s going to be no discrimination at all, we function in a world that’s going to be focused on your skill, the value that you can offer. However, this also challenges everybody to always have excellence in our mindset because it’s not about age. It’s all about the skill. And of course, yes, you have to add a little bit of work ethic there and being smart as well. So going back into our freelancing skills for beginners, so far, we were able to talk about virtual assistants, transcriptionist editing, or proofreading, writing, and data entry.

6. Call Center Representative

I added this here because a lot of you guys so are in our freelancing community who are listening to me right now have or have a little or probably have cousins, or relatives or friends who are in the call center. And many of you don’t know that you can bring that very experience into the freelancing world, it may be not in a BPO setting. But yes, in an online world, as a freelancer, you can still work as a call center representative and you can start as a beginner in the freelancing world but your experience or little experience in the BPO setting is going to give you a lot of competitiveness and opportunity in the freelancing world. 

7. Online Teaching

I included this here in the freelancing skills for beginners because a lot of online teaching companies offer training so all you have to do is maybe have their requirements, make sure that you are on top of what they ask you during the application and they provide training from scratch to success even the higher-ups when you’re already this you know are multi-awarded, you know and you go from different levels, they provide training throughout. So all you have to do when you are starting as an online teacher is make sure that you have the right requirements is going to be competitive and the rest will follow because you will be trained. 

The numbers eight, nine, and 10 are almost the same because you can search them online. Line sign up. And then afterward, follow the required procedures or send the required documents. 

And then you can start working in number eight, which is online surveys, number nine online testers, and number 10 Search evaluators.

8. Online Surveys

There are a lot of researchers out there who would pay you at least $5 per survey, they are wanting to know what you like the behaviors, what are your trigger points, so and they can use the very results of the analytics into certain marketing ideas or advertising campaigns. So go and find a lot of online testing sites, sign up, do the required procedures or requirements, and then afterward, you can be paid for each survey that you’re going to answer. 

9. Online Testing

You can just sign up, do the required procedures, and then afterward, try different products, or if they’re from the product company, or maybe try the website or the application, and they’re going to pay you each time you’re testing and sending them feedback. 

10. Search Engine Evaluator 

So we’re going to do it again, sign up, do the requirements. And then you are going to critic and read the search results when certain terms are being searched, you know, in a specific and then you’re going to go ahead and send the feedback. So you can go ahead and apply it to different companies, like for example, Google, they’re hiring Google raters, and then you need to pass the qualification tests and then afterward, do some tests with the whole process. And then after completing the paperwork, so you can be paid each time you’re going to test their search engines. Very simple, right you can be paid when it comes to freelancing may be per project, per task, or hour. And the beauty of it is, the more you would go into more technical skills like digital marketing, social media, SEO, real estate, virtual assistants, podcast management and marketing, web design, the more that you will also have opportunities not just now as a beginner, but somebody who’s starting to leverage your online presence as a freelancing expert. So so far, we were able to talk freelancing skills for beginners, and this our virtual assistant transcriptionist editing or proofreading writing data entry, call center representative online teaching online surveys online testing and search engine evaluator.

My key takeaway for this episode is that you won’t enjoy what you don’t know because maybe some of you don’t know how to start freelancing. And these opportunities are just waiting for you. You just don’t know how to get started because you don’t know that opportunities are waiting for you as simple as this. So go and learn to continue to embrace a growth mindset. Don’t be stuck and spending your hours in things that will distract you or keep you into being the same person a few years ago, you be a person that’s always a forward thinker and always embracing a growth mindset. So few years down the road you are going to be achieving time freedom, financial freedom, and grow as a person because again, you won’t be able to enjoy the things that you don’t know so keep learning and keep embracing change. 

I would like to thank you for being with me in this episode of Freelancing Skills for Beginners. Don’t hesitate to connect with us we are on social media at a Surge Digital Agency. Also, check us out especially on our YouTube and Facebook pages where we give free tips and guides for you all. If you have anything for me especially you can check out my account – Grace Locsin on Facebook and I would love to hear from you.

I look forward to seeing you guys on our next episode here in your freelancing marketplace podcast. God bless and enjoy your day. The Freelancing Marketplace Podcast is a production of Surge Digital Agency.