7 Whys To Make Money as a Freelancer 

Why work as an employee when you can freelance? By choosing to work as a freelancer, you can earn money while doing what you enjoy, whether that’s writing, building websites, or playing the piano. However, making money as a freelancer requires more than just enjoying what you do; in fact, there are seven ways to make money as a freelancer if you know where to look. Here are those seven ways.

1) Focus on quality over quantity

Freelancing offers the opportunity to set your schedule and pick your projects. As an independent contractor, it's up to you when you want to work and for how long. Though freelancers usually rely on one source of income, it's also important not over-extend yourself by taking on too many assignments and working way more than you would at a full-time job. Quality can be just as important as quantity if not more so in this case.

2) Charge High Prices

One of the first steps in building your freelancing business is to learn how to properly price your services. What you charge may depend on your experience, the expertise you have, and what type of work you're doing.

3) Lower your risk with contracts

Contracts act as your insurance against unpaid invoices and will make clients take you more seriously. It is good practice to have contracts in place when negotiating with new clients. Simply email the contract and they can review it before finalizing the deal. This ensures that both parties know exactly what's expected out of the agreement so there are fewer surprises down the line.

4) Truck and analyze your performance 

I've made the switch from a traditional nine-to-five work day, Monday through Friday, to freelancing on weekends and during my evenings. I'm not sure how it's going to go but here are some ways I plan on measuring my success: 1) Number of jobs completed 2) Rate of referrals 3) Number of reviews 4) Quality of reviews 5) Income at the end of each month.

5)  Do what you love

Do what you love! You have the most motivation when you enjoy what you're doing. In the words of J.K. Rowling, it is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.

6) Build your network, not contracts

When you're starting, it can be helpful to start with your existing contacts. Email people in your network and let them know what you're up to, and why they should hire you. This will take more time than building an email list of connections, but once you get going, this strategy can be more effective than connecting online and searching for work.

7) Use social media for business but now when you stop

As someone who spends about 5 hours each day on social media for work, I thought it would be worth offering my advice on what has worked for me and what hasn't. It's been less than a year since I quit my day job and I'm still not sure if this will be an ongoing thing or just something to tide me over until the economy gets better, but that doesn't matter.