5 Steps to Become a Freelance Web Developer

Step #2: Figure out your service offerings.

First, you need to figure out what services you’re going to offer. And, I mean know, very specifically, what you’ll offer. Just saying “I’m a graphic designer” or I’m a “web developer” isn’t enough. We’ll start there, but we need to get much more specific.

The 5 steps to figure out your service offerings are:

• Your Category
• The End Result
• Features
• Packages
• Prices

Let’s start with your Category.

This is the one place where it’s all about YOU. Most services at this general of a level are going to have a market, so you don’t need to worry about profitability all that much at this point. Just pick the thing you enjoy doing most. You likely already know what this is.

Graphic design, web development, writing, etc.

This is the general service.

And, frankly, where most people stop. We’ll get much more specific, but start here and ensure it’s something you really do enjoy doing.

Next, is the End Result.

The majority of your clients don’t want a “service”. They don’t want “graphic design”, they want a logo. Or a website mockup. They don’t want a “web developer”, they want a website. Or a mobile app.

Clients think in terms of “end results” or “objects”, not services.

So, your service offerings should reflect that. Fiverr is a great place to figure this out. Forget the pricing and all for a second, Fiverr pushes its service providers to “productize” their services. To transform them from services into products.

So, if you go under “graphic design” on Fiverr, you’ll see things like “logo design”, brochures, posters, CAR WRAPS. They’re all “things”. End results… not services. That’s what you want to do. And, Fiverr is a really good place to figure out what’s SaaPs (Service as a Product) are popular in your category.

Next up is the Features of your service.

Click into just about any gig on Fiverr and you’ll see a section like this:

This list of features tends to be common across all gigs in the same category. These aren’t random. There’s no question in my mind that a lot of research and data went into picking these features, in particular.

So, at a minimum, your service offering should include these things, as well.

If you’ve ever seen a pricing table like this:

That list of “what’s included” is what we’re building here. And, again, Fiverr is a really great place to start finding what those items should be. You can also google your service offering and look at what other freelancers in your market are doing.

Also, try to look for things that others aren’t offering that seem obvious to you.

Or, that you could offer.

This is one way you can set yourself apart.

Now, we need to Package our services.

We’ll go back to this:

But, this time, notice the packages across the top AND how certain features are not included in some of those packages. That’s how you turn your services into product packages. We can, also, go back to this one:

Notice some of the subtle differences in the packages.

This, again, is what you’re after.

So, do the research and figure out what your service packages look like.

Finally, it’s time to Price your services.

I’ll be straight-forward with you, pricing is tricky. The biggest mistake people making is searching for the “right” price. There’s no objective “right” price. Value is subjective. Your services will have different values to different people.

It also depends on exactly what you’re offering.

How good you are.

How much authority you have in your space.

Your pricing strategy (something that is almost never talked about by freelancers).

There’s all sorts of factors that affect price. Heck, even the examples I’ve used here. Prices on Fiverr tend to be lower, because Fiverr spend years touting itself as the place you could “get anything done for just 5 bucks”.

Nothing to do with you.

Or, your service.

Simply, their platform.

In any case, there’s enough there and it’s such a critical piece of this (you can do everything else right, but get this wrong and still get no clients, as a result) that I created an entire course on it. It’s in my Freelancing 101 series and it’s called What Services to Offer.

If you’re interested, you can learn how to get free access to that course here.

Ok, now that you’ve got your services offerings figured out, it’s time to get clients:

Step #3: 3 Ways to Get Clients.

One nice thing is having your offer clear and based on real-world data like I’ve showed you here… that’s 90% of the battle. You put the right service offerings in front of the right people and they’ll tend to sell themselves.

Still, though, people will need to find them.

So, how do you got about getting clients. There’s several things you can do. I’m going to cover the “Big Three”: Freelance Sites, In-Person and Content.

Let’s start by talking about freelancing sites.

You’ve likely heard of freelancing platforms like Upwork or Freelancer.com. The nice thing about platforms is they do most of the work, for you, of getting clients to their site. So, there’s a lot less “marketing work” that you have to do.

Upwork, for example, has thousands of new jobs posted to its platform every day.

The downside of platforms is they’re ultra-competitive. They have millions of freelancers all fighting for the same projects. And so, it can be hard to stand out and get hired when you’re brand new to these sites.

As for as how to get clients with these platforms… the thing is, they’re all different.

Upwork VS Fiverr VS Toptal, for example, those are all completely different platforms and require completely different approaches. The biggest piece of advice I can give you that will apply to any platform is to take some time and see what the top freelancers on these platforms are doing and model that.

Get a client account if you can.

Or, do some research in Google.

And, look at a bunch of different profiles of the most successful people on a platform. And, I mean look at a LOT of them. Because, as you do, you’ll start to notice trends. Things common to their profiles.

Note those things and be sure to include them in your profile when you create it.

Also, take a look at their job history if you can (Upwork allows this, for example) and trying to get a read on their bidding behavior. What kind of work did they get early on? Did they take lower paying jobs at first, then move up? What kind of jobs do they tend to bid on now?

Things of that nature.

There’s a ton you can learn just by looking at what successful people on the platform do. And, a lot of the information is right there for you to see. Also, if you plan on going on Upwork, you might be interested on my free Upwork tutorial here.

I’ve done all this research for you.

So, it can save you some time.

Next up, is getting clients In-Person.

This is one of the most underrated ways to get clients, but was super effective for me. I joined two local business meetup groups when I lived in Omaha, Nebraska. Each one met once a month and every time I went, I got 2 or 3 leads people looking for a web developer.

And, every one of them came from someone who’d never actually seen any of my work!

I just showed up and they assumed I was good and wanted to hire me. It’s a bit baffling, but it happened consistently for over 2 years until I moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere.

So, if you’re in even a moderately-sized town, there are likely local business meetup groups in your area. Or, if there’s a bigger town nearby, it’s worth traveling a bit. Usually, you can look them up online (Meetup.com is a good place to start) OR ask the businesses you hire.

If you have a local insurance agent, lawyers, realtors, plumbers, electricians… these meetup groups are very common in these industries. Just ask them, “hey are you apart of any business meetup groups?” If so, ask “does your group already have a [whatever you do]”… graphic designer, web developer, etc.

Most local businesspeople are more than happy to talk about it.

And, these groups are usually starving for people that offer digital services.