How To Start Freelancing with No Experience (Guide for Students & Newbies)

Are you in the final years of university, or just started college and want to earn extra money through freelancing?

or want to create a full-time income?

At whatever stage you are in your life and career, freelancing is a career path you can always explore.

It has many benefits. It gives you the freedom to work from anywhere and be more flexible with your routine, and work schedule. Allows you to take the days off when you want, and plan to work on days you find the most time.

But also remember that, first, it is not a bed of roses to get clients.

Second, it sometimes controls your schedule, and you may be working around the clock, all night.

On some days, you might not have any work and be overloaded the next week.

So it’s unpredictable. But once you have a pool of resources, long-term projects, or consistent work from certain clients, you can enjoy all the perks.

How to Start Freelancing with No Experience (Guide for Students & Newbies)

So let’s first understand,

What Is Freelancing?

Freelancing means you are not bound to work with/for anyone.

You choose the amount of work you do, how much time you spend, and at what rate. You can create an unlimited (or very small) income— depending on your clients and working capacity.

Unlike a job, where you have fixed working hours, schedule, and no control over workload and you get a fixed salary at the end of the month.

How To Figure Out the Skill You Can Sell?

There can be two approaches to it:

• Try different things and choose to do what interests you the most.
• Research which skill is the most in-demand and master it.

You can do a blend of both, it completely depends on you. But it will be a journey of trial and error. Don’t be afraid of losing path along the process. You will get frustrated, and find it difficult to learn at first. But it’s okay.

You can also provide a service of skill you already know about (however beginner-level it is).

For example, maybe you once created a poster using Canva for your school project, and you really enjoyed it. So you can explore more about Canva and provide social media post-designing services.

Or if you enjoy writing, you can try blog writing.

If you have a knack for tech, try coding.

If you’re good with words and people, you can try bidding and outreach services.

Figuring out your ideal skill might be a long journey. Try multiple things, and you’ll know what suits you the best.

How to Learn (And Master) Any Skill?

Now you are clear on what you want to sell. How can you learn and master this skill?

Start small. Don’t invest in any paid courses. Take free courses.

YouTube is your best teacher.

• Start with any crash/beginner-level course to get an idea of what is it about.
• Create some demos. Don’t fear creating a mess or errors. You’ll learn from your mistakes.
• You can take up some free projects — later use them in your portfolio.

Practice, Make Mistakes, Learn More, & Practice Even More— Your Mantra to Success

Where Can You Find Clients?

Here are the platforms where you can find freelance clients:

1. Upwork: One of the largest freelancing platforms offering various job categories.
2. Fiverr: Ideal for offering services as “gigs” where clients come to you.
3. Freelancer: A bidding platform where freelancers compete for projects.
4. Toptal: Specializes in top-tier freelancers, especially in tech, design, and finance.
5. LinkedIn: A professional networking site where you can connect with potential clients.
6. PeoplePerHour: Best for hourly work in tech, marketing, and content creation.
7. Guru: Offers flexible payment options and a variety of project categories.
8. Behance: A portfolio platform for designers and creatives.
9. SimplyHired: A job search engine that includes freelance opportunities.

Fiverr and Upwork are very popular but saturated platforms. It can be very challenging to get clients there — especially for a beginner. You can try reaching out to your ideal clients through LinkedIn, and other mentioned platforms.

Don’t rely on any one platform. Be active on 2–3 platforms, and try different strategies to find clients.

How Can You Get Projects?

1. Market Yourself Proudly

Don’t be afraid of putting yourself and your work out there. Don’t worry about ‘what others will think’. The best way is to create a professional profile (for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram), or blog where you can document your journey and learning, or simply practice your skill as a writer on different topics.

2. Build a Professional Online Presence

LinkedIn is the new (or maybe now old) Facebook. It’s the best way to present your skills, and achievements to the world.

There are many stories where people got big opportunities from LinkedIn — without approaching the company first.

How? The company reached out to them.

Why? Because they had showcased the skills and knowledge the company was looking for.

Furthermore, it will

• give you confidence;
• build you an online and resourceful network;
• provide you with an opportunity to reach out to ideal clients.

3. Create a Portfolio

Assemble your best work in one place — you can use free platforms like:

1. Behance: Ideal for creative professionals like designers, illustrators, and photographers. It allows you to showcase your work and get discovered by clients.
2. Dribbble: Another platform for designers to display your portfolio — focusing on graphic design, web design, and illustration.
3. Carbonmade: A simple and user friendly platform to create a clean, professional-looking portfolio.
4. WordPress: You can use the free version of WordPress to build a portfolio website and customize it with various themes and plugins — best for writers, illustrators, and designers.
5. Journo Portfolio: Perfect for writers, journalists, and content creators, allowing you to showcase writing samples and projects.
6. Cargo: Provides templates and tools for designers, artists, and creatives to build unique, stylish portfolio sites for free.
7. Crevado: A free portfolio builder for photographers, artists, and designers, offering a simple drag-and-drop interface.
8. Clippings.me: Specifically for journalists and writers, it’s an easy-to-use platform to create a writing portfolio.

4. Make Cold Outreach Your Best Buddy

Cold emailing or outreach through LinkedIn and other platforms is difficult and demands courage as there will be a lot of rejections. But it can land you your dream projects, biggest clients, and maybe a lifetime opportunity to steer your career growth.

Don’t be afraid of reaching out. It doesn’t put you in a weak spot.

In fact, it creates opportunities for you.

Read more to learn tips on how to best reach out to your ideal client.

5. Make Your First Offer Risk-Free and Provide ‘Value’

In your cold message, offer them something of value and risk-free — the best approach is to offer a free trial, a demo, or free suggestions on how to improve them. You can also directly add a few points in the email or attach a doc file with recommendations.

How Much Time It’ll Take?

Let's be realistic - no one knows.

Don’t listen to people who claim that they have earned their millions (or a lot of money) in the first month, or year.

It will take time. Be prepared for it.

No one knows how much time it’ll take for you.

It all depends on your skillset, market demand, pricing, outreach strategy, and sometimes, sheer luck.

But the best way to ensure success is to stay consistent.

So figure out your plan, and stick to it.

Give it a few months without expecting the booming results in just one night.

You might fail, but always remember why you started.