Working as a creative professional from home has never been simpler. With today’s technology, you can be sitting in your kitchen at home, sharing an office room with other freelancers, or living in an Airbnb in Colombia and still have access to clients all over the world. There are more opportunities to find graphic design jobs online than ever before.
Here we look at the key choices available, the benefits and drawbacks of each, and how you can get started in finding the right work from home creative jobs for you.
Before You Get Started
Before finding any online job, you should focus on these things first:
Know Your Niche
There are more opportunities than ever before to work from home as a freelancer using only your mobile device as your office. The architecture was developed by BATHI. You better know just what you’re searching for and there are so many different places and jobs available online. What kind of career do you want to have?
If you want to be able to work from home, or do you want to work in person? How would you charge for your services? If you want to work on a few large projects for frequent clients, or do you want to work on a lot of small projects (which is more flexible but less predictable in terms of monthly income)? Who is the dream customer? Knowing the answers to both of these questions will assist you in identifying the best forum for you and narrowing down your scope.
Build Your Portfolio
Regardless of the medium you use, you must show that you are skilled at what you do. If you’re just starting out, and particularly if you don’t have some formal credentials, you may want to take on some lower-paying jobs and even try to do some work for free (for friends or ventures in which you have a personal stake) so you can develop a decent resume and gather some convincing customer testimonials about your work.
Be Proactive
The most common error is to simply set up a website or build a profile and then sit back and wait for jobs to come in. (They can not.) Make it a habit to search the pages, interact with strangers, and apply for work at the same time every day. Consider setting clear goals on how many pitches you’ll make per day or week to ensure that you’re taking regular steps.
How to Find Jobs Online
Have a look at these platforms which can provide you with the job as per your creative skill and knowledge:
1. Freelancer Platforms
The most obvious way to begin is with websites devoted to freelancing opportunities. These pages will have a variety of different positions available as well as a variety of different customers, providing you with much more visibility than you can have on your own website. Perhaps the most significant benefit is that most of them can handle contracts and billing for you, making the operation much faster and simpler than doing it on your own.
You won’t be the only one there, so you’ll need to do whatever you can to stand out. Take all of the recommended measures to optimise your profile on your preferred site. You can also advertise your portfolio on your own social networks in order to increase traffic to your page.
Don’t go overboard and sign up for anything! Choose one or two that are good for you and excel at them. It is preferable to focus your energies on a few channels and develop a solid portfolio and customer base than to spread your efforts over twenty.
Upwork
Upwork is a freelancer website that includes not only architecture but also blogging, web creation, and marketing. You can apply to open positions, and clients can contact you directly to request a presentation. The website handles the deal and billing processes. You can also send and receive files, there is a smartphone app in addition to the website, and if you are paying by the hour, you can log the time you spent on a job. Upwork does not provide design-specific tools or features.
There are many options available, and you can narrow your quest to find what you’re looking for, from beginner to more experienced, low to high prices, one-time ventures to continuing and regular payments. You will improve your profile and stand out on the website by taking skills tests and being a ‘top ranked’ or ‘rising star.’
- Upwork charges a sliding rate depending on the lifetime earnings for each client:
20% for the first $500, 10% when you make between $500.01 and $10,000, and 5% when you earn more than $10,000. It is important to note that the terms of service forbid you from bypassing the network and collaborating with Upwork clients outside of the web.
Find out more and join https://www.upwork.com/signup/.
Behance
Behance, unlike Upwork, lacks much of the features synonymous with a real freelance work website. It’s sort of a showcase for your work, with the next move being for clients to contact you by email or your own branded website. This isn’t just a place to spill all of your work: it helps to be careful and just display your best work. In certain ways, it’s a social network, and in order to create your own following, you’ll need to follow and engage with other designers.
- Joining Behance is completely accessible
Sign up and create an Adobe account with your email or with Facebook/Twitter: https://www.behance.net/
Dribbble
When it comes to dealing for customers, being paid, and so forth, Dribbble, like Behance, lacks the advanced features of places like 99designs and Upwork. You may instead use it to highlight your work, engage with other designers, and encourage prospective customers to explore and work with you outside of the forum. Dribbble is free to use, but you must be invited to become an involved artist on the web.
- Create an account here (but you’ll still need an invitation to get ‘drafted’): https://dribbble.com/signup/new
Other Freelancing Platforms
- Fiverr: Doing work for $5 can seem to be a bad business practice, but it is an excellent way to build a diverse portfolio when you are just starting out. If you’ve developed yourself, you can even post high-quality, premium-priced gigs (up to $995). It is easy to enter, and they charge a 20% fee per purchase.
- Freelancer: This is a general platform for various types of freelancing services, similar to Upwork. They charge 10% or $5.00 (whichever is greater) on a fixed-price project and 10% per invoice on hourly contracts. There is also a 10% or $5.00 charge if you win a prize and an extra 20% fee if you are later employed to do a job. These payments may be reduced by the Preferred Freelancer service or by referring a new employer to the website.
- Guru: Guru, like Freelancer, has a variety of freelancer options. Depending on the subscription class, you pay a purchase fee ranging from 4.95 percent to 8.95 percent.
2. Job Boards
Job boards remain an old-school method of seeking jobs, but they have migrated online from their previous physical model of notice boards and newspapers. The procedure is straightforward: look for appropriate positions, apply, and then begin working with the client if you are chosen. Most pages also have filters that you can use to narrow down your search as far as possible.
Given the volume of traffic on these pages, you will be competing with freelancers from all over the planet. Speed is critical here, as is writing a personalised application to demonstrate that you are the best choice for the job, ahead of any other applicants.
Schedule some time in your calendar to login every day to search your category for the most recent work postings, then submit right away to be among the first applicants considered.
Craigslist
Craiglist is the most literal translation of a traditional work page, with classified-style postings in various categories. It’s not the most advanced gui, but it’s simple to use until you get the hang of it. Look for appropriate work listings for your skillset under ‘jobs’ (part-time / contract) then ‘gigs,’ and browse through keywords. You can operate anywhere in the country, so look at the various options, but being in a certain area can be advantageous when dealing with small businesses.
The biggest disadvantage to Craigslist is that it is often characterised by high quantities and low volume. You can also keep an eye out for scams, which have sadly been popular on the web. There is no payment feature or legal protection—it is just a website where you can locate job listings, organise the data, and perform the work offline.
Some Other Job Boards:
- The big freelance design platforms also have their own job boards, for example, Behance and Dribbble.
3. Your Own Website
Your website is, of course, the only forum where you have complete control over how you are viewed. It’s something you’ll want to start working on earlier rather than later, and you’ll want to keep it up to date while you gain more experience. This is where you can introduce yourself and your expertise, as well as highlight your portfolio and deliver unique services and packages.
Your website is your sandbox, where you can tell your storey and show off your best work. Think who the audience is, what you want to share, and what the key call to action is—is the next move for them to book a call with you or ask you for a quote?
4. Social networks
Using social media is something you’ll want to do regardless of which sites you use to showcase your work. At the very least, you can share your work on specific sites, such as Instagram (with client permission). You may also use social media to reach out to customers and create partnerships. However, this is a long-term approach, not a fast fix. Every day, schedule time in your calendar to engage with new customers, update on, and exchange related material.
By extension, as a freelancer, you would have a lot of visual material that lends itself to a website like Instagram. Share your completed designs, tagging clients or other designers you’ve collaborated with, and have a look “behind the scenes” by sharing drawings and even lifestyle shots to tell a rich storey of who you are and where you get your inspiration. You may also look for unique hashtags and accounts, comment on them, and connect with prospective clients that match your ideal profile.
LinkedIn is the most used technical social network. Find your perfect customer, chat with them, and then comment on and post related content to get on their radar. To build yourself as a trustworthy player in the industry, you can post your completed designs, but you can also write an article or film a short video on a subject like “how to choose the right designers,” “how to get a designer to create what you want,” and so on.
You’d be shocked how much business you can generate by regularly providing value in a Facebook community and creating goodwill and reputation.
You can build your own business profile on Facebook, but finding and joining existing communities is the easiest way to use the site. Find organisations whose participants are your dream clients—for example, young businesses and small business owners—and then spend a few minutes there every day. This isn’t about hard selling, but about creating long-term relationships, so just aim to have value, address design-related questions, and share your perspective when people ask for advice.
Offline / In-Person Networking
We do not neglect offline in the midst of all the conversation about online channels. Any interaction with a stranger (or a friend!) has the ability to lead to a new opportunity, so keep your eyes out, be prepared to tell people exactly what you do when they ask and don’t be afraid to ask whether they know someone who may need graphic design help.
Of course, there isn’t a single magical platform that can fit well for everybody, and you’ll want to use more than one. The best strategy would most likely be a mixture of building a profile on a few freelancer sites, developing your own stunning website, and engaging on social media on a daily basis.
Wrapping It Up
So now you have it: our list of the best remote job boards for authors, designers, musicians, and other creative professionals. We hope one of them helps you find your dream job! Have any questions, comments, or other top job boards for remote creative workers to add to our list? Please let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
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