Freelancing in Pakistan – A Comprehensive Guide to Starting a Successful Freelancing Career in Pakistan

Recently, an increasing number of people with the knowledge and skills required in the job market are still facing unemployment. This is due to scarce employment opportunities in the country, which have made the job market more competitive. Thanks to the advancement in the new technology in the country. It has brought hope among Pakistan’s many skilled, knowledgeable, and unemployed citizens. A freelancing career brought about by the latest technology has become a great way out for many people in Pakistan. Through freelancing, many people in Pakistan have gotten a better alternative to earn a living outside the job market.

However, before successfully joining the freelancing business, you must understand the opportunity and how it works. This will help you identify the best freelancing job that matches your skill level and potential to do work and determine your income amount. In this article, I will take you through a comprehensive guide on how to start a successful freelancing career in Pakistan. Therefore, by reading this article, you will learn a better alternative money-making opportunity that will help you earn a living. You will no longer stress yourself looking for a job in the job market if you have knowledge of freelancing jobs in your palm. To begin, let’s first define what freelancing is.

What is Freelancing?

Freelancing is a term used to refer to a business that involves an individual working independently by performing simple tasks for clients to earn a living. Freelancing is done worldwide with jobs involving offering services and your skills to clients. Most freelancing is done via the Internet, especially for clients far away. Note that no specific period, job, or company will hire you in a freelancing business. As the job instructions state, every service you deliver will depend on the company or client’s requirements. The person assigning the freelancing job to you is called the client. On the other hand, the person performing the task or providing the service is known as a freelancer.

You will become a freelancer when you learn to freelance and start doing the jobs. You can develop your freelancing career as either a full-time or part-time freelancer. It is a type of self-employment that hosts many unemployed people worldwide. Websites are offering freelancing jobs in Pakistan. However, all these websites target work with highly skilled freelancers who can develop quality work upon the agreed deadline. For this reason, by guiding you through how to start your successful freelancing career, there is much to learn. Here are the benefits of starting freelancing as a career.

Benefits of freelancing as a career

Starting freelancing as a career benefits you as a citizen of Pakistan, including other freelancers worldwide. The numerous benefits attract many people interested in joining the program. Becoming a successful freelancer has also proved achievable for most people who join the business despite being challenging to get started. When you successfully get started, you will enjoy the following benefits;

• You will have more freedom.
• Proper self-management
• You work in a flexible location.
• You will have control over your earnings and compensation.
• It helps you improve your skillset.

You will have more freedom. One exciting benefit of joining a freelancing business is that you will enjoy more freedom when working compared to when you are employed somewhere else. The freedom results from the fact that you will be the one to decide how you want to work. For instance, you will decide on the hours you want to work, the hourly rate, and the clients you want to take on. You also can turn down jobs that seem more complex than your level. You can also turn it down if a client brings a complex job that pays poorly.

Proper self-management Working as a freelancer enables you to become your boss, allowing you to manage yourself as desired. For instance, you can choose your preferred workload, dress code, draft your schedule, and many other aspects of work. However, you must keep your clients happy and search for new ones. So, as much as you have self-control and freedom, you must know how you will effectively work to maximize your production.

You work in a flexible location. When you become a freelancer, you can choose where you want to work or live since you are your boss. The freelancing job also allows you to work while traveling or working near your client as preferred. Most freelancers work digitally, interacting with their clients and doing the work online.

You will have control over your earnings and compensation. As a freelancer, you will set your earning rate, unlike other jobs requiring you to ask the boss for a pay rise. However, the payment rate you set will depend on the market forces, which will also determine your chances of getting work. Most freelancers online choose to raise their payment rate as their skill level and job exposure increase to build a strong reputation.

It helps you improve your skillset. When freelancing, you will bid for projects from many clients worldwide. Your different jobs will bring additional knowledge, enabling you to improve your skill level. With the increasing skill level, you will learn many new things and increase your job experience.

How to Start a Successful Freelancing Career in Pakistan

After looking at the top benefits of freelancing, let’s see how you can get started with the business. Remember, it is how you do your freelancing business that will determine your ability to achieve success. Getting started in the freelancing business is challenging, as it requires hard work and determination. However, it has proven to be successful for most of the freelancers across the world. This means you can achieve it today; here are essential guidelines to consider when starting a successful freelancing career in Pakistan.

1. Choosing a niche and learning appropriate skills

The first step to getting started freelancing in Pakistan is to identify your best match skills and services. Your best match skills are those niches that you possess and can help you succeed in finding work online. When choosing your skills, try to identify the areas you can successfully excel and the services you can offer at your best level. Here is the importance of selecting skills that best suit you in the freelancing business in Pakistan;

A good niche will help you better communicate with clients and companies and win more freelancing jobs. When you have chosen a skill that best suits you, producing quality work to help you maintain your clients will be much easier. You can also complete the projects and submit them to your clients efficiently upon the agreed timeline. In addition, choosing your best match skills will help you build a reputation among your clients and companies and increase your experience faster.

2. Top 6 Freelancing Skills in Pakistan

Considering that there are five major freelancing skills available for you in Pakistan that you can choose and specialize in. These skills include the following;

I. Guest Blogging Outreach Business (GBOB)

Guest blogging outreach business or GBOB is a freelance skill where you collaborate with popular bloggers to exchange guest articles for payment. It involves offering guest blogging outreach services to businesses seeking brand awareness, SEO, or PR. GBOB has gained significant popularity as a freelance skill in Pakistan over the past four years. Here’s how you can start freelancing with GBOB:

1. Search for high-authority blogs in popular niches (health, tech, marketing, travel, fashion) and create a list using Google Sheets or the GBOBER app.
2. Find the email addresses of the blogs on your list.
3. Send individual emails to the blogs, requesting acceptance of your guest blog post. Negotiate discounted deals if they ask for payment and track the details in your spreadsheet.
4. Create freelance profiles on different platforms and offer guest blogging services through customized gigs.
5. When you receive an order, allow the client to select the website(s) from your list for publishing their guest blog post.
6. Request the client to provide guest post article(s), or offer your writing services for an additional fee.
7. Contact the blog owners where the client wishes to publish their guest post, forward the articles, and politely ask for publication.
8. Once the bloggers publish the client’s articles, receive payment from the client and pay the bloggers while keeping your cut.

If you’re interested in learning GBOB, we have a free GBOB course that has helped over 50,000 people in Pakistan launch their freelance careers and earn money online. Additionally, we offer a paid GBOB course along with a one-month internship program to provide comprehensive training under our supervision.

II. Content Writing

Content writing is the most popular skill many freelancers in Pakistan venture in to start their freelancing career in Pakistan. It is the most easily freelancing skill you can learn and specialize in without spending much on other courses. You will only have to practice writing content on websites to become perfect. Under content writing skills, you will dwell in writing blogs, copywriting, academic content writing, website content writing, and writing web novels. To successfully venture into content writing, you should be fluent in the writing language. In addition, you need to be able to paint thoughts from people into writing. In addition, you will not need any qualifications to become a content writer. You will only have to duel much in practice focusing on grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The skill also requires you to be more creative and follow project instructions to meet your client’s requirements. It is Pakistan’s most practiced freelancing skill for students, part-time workers, and housewives.

III. Online Tutoring

Online tutoring is another freelancing skill many stay-at-home students or graduates practice in Pakistan. It is a trending freelancing career as most people are increasingly concerned about educational activities. You can choose to launch a tuition center at your home premises in online tutoring. You can also consider tutoring in the client’s home or even online, depending on the agreement with your client. To become an online tutor, you must be qualified in a particular subject you want to teach people. You will then have to register yourself as a tutor and share your qualifications, including academic skills, with clients worldwide.

IV. Web Development

Software engineers are the most favored when venturing into web development skills in Pakistan. If you can develop stunning websites, you will not have to struggle to look for jobs in vain from different companies in the country. You can shift to looking for clients online who can hire you to make websites for their businesses. Due to increasing digitalization worldwide, many business owners have turned to running their businesses digitally through websites. This has led to an increasing demand for web development across the world. For this reason, if you can practice front-end or back-end web development, you can use the skills to develop your freelancing career online.

V. Graphic Design

Graphic design is another freelancing skill that can make you earn a living at your doorstep. The skills move around playing with your creativity to create excellent graphical website components. Graphic design skills are critical in creating and designing multimedia components such as photos, videos, animations, and texts. You can also apply the skills in web design, social media marketing, and writing other projects online that require any form of multimedia.

VI. Cryptocurrency and Blockchain

Cryptocurrency has become the future of the new currency in the world we live in today. It has allowed many people in Pakistan to earn a living. Such people utilize cryptocurrency skills to make money in the cryptocurrency market. You can adapt cryptocurrency skills by looking for cryptocurrency freelancers in Pakistan. There are also many online courses offering cryptocurrency training both on websites and on YouTube. You will then have to learn about blockchain technology by getting to master its programming language. Because blockchain goes hand in hand with cryptocurrency, you can succeed in the cryptocurrency market. Cryptocurrency is one of Pakistan’s cheapest and growing opportunities to make online money online.

3. Creating a portfolio and profile that showcase your skills and experience

After identifying the freelancing skills you want to venture into, the next step is to develop a portfolio that best showcases your experience and skills. The portfolio should show your expertise and skills, including your work samples, a brief description of yourself, and your client testimonies. Your portfolio will help you attract potential online clients who will intern and offer you jobs. Remember, your portfolio will show your sample work to your potential clients online. In the process, the clients will see if your skills, style, and level of experience match their job requirements. For this reason, you should create a portfolio that perfectly describes your ability and strength.

On the other hand, when creating a portfolio, you need to set an hourly working rate that reflects your experience and skills. To achieve this, consider checking what other freelancers are billing to help you much the competitive market. When setting your hourly rating, search for freelancers whose portfolio, skills, and experience level perfectly matches your experience level. In addition, you need to consider your job description when setting your hourly rate. For instance, your potential clients will look for your job description, skills, and experience level to judge whether you match your rating. Therefore, they will be more attracted if your rating is within the limit of their expectations regarding your job description.

3. Choosing a platform and bidding on projects

When you have your portfolio well created, the next step is to choose the freelancing website where you will find clients to view your portfolio. In Pakistan, the most popular websites that offer freelancing jobs in Pakistan include Upwork, Fiverr, Guru, and Freelancer. Let’s look at how to join Upwork and Fiverr, for example:

Upwork

Upwork is the most popular website that offers freelancing jobs in Pakistan. It allows you to sign up for free and start bidding for projects online. Here are the step-by-step procedures to sign up and get started on the Upwork platform:

1. Sign up for the platform by visiting the official website to create your profile. The platform accepts up to three sign-up options, including signing up with your valid email address, Google account, or Apple account. The platform expects you to use a sign-up option that you will easily remember when especially the email and password login into the system.
2. Complete your account setup by adding your personal information to your already signed-up account. The required personal details include your first name, a password you will use for signing in to your account, your location, and indicating you want to work as a freelancer in the profile, then click Create an account. Remember to accept the Upwork terms and conditions by clicking the checkboxes beside them.
3. Fill in your Upwork profile by adding your personal details, including your profile photo, the title of your profile, a brief description of your overview, work history, a skilled tag (at least one), and your experience level.
4. Add your educational background by adding any degree you earned, your area of study and profession, and any additional information, including any activities you were involved in and got awards during your studies. You can also consider adding your past work experience in the section that follows the education section to create high credibility with your potential clients.
5. Add a language proficiency by adding English as your language proficiency, which gives you a greater advantage as the Upwork platform operates in English. However, the projects in Upwork are from all parts of the world and can be presented in any language.
6. Set up your hourly rate, bearing in mind that you can customize the rates any time you want. When you are new to the platform, you can start with a lower rate of, let’s say, $10 per hour depending on your experience level and skills. You will then increase the hourly rate as you continue building your reputation on the platform. Remember, the platform also takes a fee of 20% of your set rate. For instance, when your set rate is $10 dollars, you will receive $8 dollars in your account while the platform receives the remaining $2 as a service fee.
7. Indicate your title and overview, where clients will easily give you responses to your submitted proposals. When adding a title, ensure to keep it short and straight to the point and make it count in the first sentence.
8. Add your contact details, which include your location (country, city, estate, and postal code) and phone number that begins with your country code. You will then receive a message on your phone with a code you need to enter to verify your phone number.
9. Preview and submit your profile information. You will have to preview your profile again to ensure the information you have filled in is correct before clicking the submit button.

When you click on the submit button, your account will be well set and ready to start working. You can then start bidding for jobs and writing winning proposals to start working instantly.

Fiverr

In the Fiverr platform, there are two types of accounts you can open, including a buyer account and a seller account.

Buyer account

The buyer account is a default account where you have the ability to purchase orders (Gigs) from sellers in the platform.

Seller account

In the seller account, you will have the ability to offer services to buyers through gigs on the Fiverr platform. Here are the steps for creating a Fiverr account as a freelancer:

1. Sign up on the homepage.
2. Add your username and password by entering your email, and username, and set a password you will be using to sign in to the platform. You will then complete the registration process by clicking on join. You will then receive an email that you will use to activate your account. The activation link in the email is valid for only thirty days after which it will expire.
3. Activate your account by clicking on the activation link in the email from the Fiverr team.
4. Login to your Fiverr account and choose Become a Seller.
5. Once you select to become a seller, you will be directed to watch certain videos that explain what will make your Fiverr profile successful. The videos also explain what you should tear clear as a seller. After watching the videos, click “Continue”.
6. Fill in the mandatory part by linking your Fiverr account to the social media platform of your choice.
7. Verify your account to complete the process using your phone number.
8. After verifying your account, create your first gig which will allow you to offer services as a seller on the Fiverr platform. To create a gig, log in to your account, switch to selling, click on “my business”, and then click on “Gigs.” Next, click on “My profile” and then “Create new gig.” Complete the easy 1 to 5 steps and finalize by clicking “save & continue.”

Tips on how to write a winning proposal

When writing your winning bid, consider the following information:

1. Write a quick and simple greeting followed by a brief introduction of yourself.
2. After a short introduction, write a concise and brief reinstatement of the core need or problem of the client.
3. Write a clear statement to the client to show that you can perfectly solve their problem when given the task.
4. Explain to the client in a short writing about three sentences why you feel you are fit for the job to give the client reasons to offer you the project.
5. Provide the client with a detailed description, not too long, of the processes and methods you will use to handle the project.
6. Complete the proposal by attaching relevant documents matching the project type to showcase your experience.
7. Also, attach your well-created portfolio to showcase your skill level and hourly working rate to the client.

4. Delivering high-quality work within the agreed deadline

Delivering high-quality work on time is essential to make your clients happy and build your reputation. Every client is looking for high-quality work delivered within the agreed timeline. Therefore, it is a crucial factor that will help you maintain your clients happy and satisfied, and also have an excellent rating on your job history. Here are some tips to ensure you deliver high-quality work on time:

Tips on how to ensure client satisfaction

To ensure your clients are happy and satisfied working with you, there are some basic things you have to consider, including the following:

• Exercising self-discipline. In this case, you will not have to show off as a boss, which will intern backstop with you. This will land you are needing help maintaining clients. Therefore, your main priority is to stay focused on your projects to ensure they are well done to your capability. To stay focused and deliver a quality job, you must minimize distractions such as phone calls, popping notifications, and house chores, which may take much of your attention and time.
• Good time management. Managing your time effectively when handling a project is crucial in enabling you to submit your work within the required time frame. It is a critical factor that will help you satisfy your client, whether handling pay-per-hour or pay-per-project jobs. You should accurately account for the time you take on projects to help you manage the work in the required time.
• Be professional. For a client to choose you over other clients, you must submit convincing information about yourself. When you produce professional information about yourself, you can satisfy your potential clients to choose you over other freelancers. To be professional, showcase your excellent communication skills to clients. Try as much as possible to fulfill your promises to your clients, complete your projects on time, and maintain high-quality work with more excellent standards.
• Be motivated. Despite freelancing jobs targeting every person who can showcase their skills online to earn a living, it may only work out for some. Some people may find it challenging and lose hope before meeting their success in the job. So, if you ought to have started, you need to get motivated more to help you love your job and produce quality work. As the saying goes, everything comes with its advantages and drawbacks. You should, therefore, maximize the benefits limiting the disadvantages you face to motivate you to do the work effectively.

By following these tips, you can ensure client satisfaction, deliver high-quality work on time, and build a good reputation as a freelancer.

5. Getting paid

After submitting your high-quality work within the timeline, you deserve to get paid. The platforms that offer freelancing jobs online mediate between freelancers and clients to ensure you get paid for your job done safely. For this reason, you will not worry about your money getting lost in the program or being scammed on the platform. So long as the clients approve your project, you will get paid from the platform that connects you with the client. After receiving your payment in your freelancing platform account, you can withdraw your money to use. Let’s see the available payments you can use to withdraw your money in Pakistan.

Available payment methods for freelancers in Pakistan

When working as a freelancer, most international websites offering freelancing jobs pay you through the dollar, a US currency. You can withdraw it and link your payment method account to your local bank to convert your currency from dollars to your preferred currency. Here are the available payment methods for freelancing in Pakistan.

1. Express withdrawal – It is another faster way to withdraw your funds from the freelancing website directly to the bank account of your choice. You will only have to create an account and link your local back together with the freelancing website account to the platform. It also offers withdrawal services for free.
2. Freelancer debit cards – You can also use the freelancer debit card option to withdraw funds from your freelancing account for free. In the freelancer debit card method, the use of a master card is accepted, which makes the withdrawal method much easy to use. However, you must first check if your freelancing website agrees with using freelancer debit cards for withdrawal.
3. Skrill (Moneybookers) – Skrill’s payment method was initially known as money bookers. The method allows you to withdraw your funds from the freelancing platform to your account created on their website for free. You will then link your Skrill account to your local bank to finish the withdrawal process. Once again, you must check if your freelancing platform accepts this payment method.
4. Wire Transfer – This payment works for countries where express withdrawals are not available. It allows you to withdraw funds from your local bank account. You can visit their official websites to learn more about this payment method.