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Freelance opportunities are reshaping the modern workforce. Gone are the days of professional constraints. Now, ambitious and savvy individuals have the power to fulfill their ambitions and shape their careers. From virtual assistants orchestrating seamless operations to SEO wizards fine-tuning online visibility, the freelance marketing sphere is full of innovation and possibility.
But it’s more than just work—it’s about embracing the spirit of entrepreneurship. If you’ve ever wondered how you could take control of your career and build a dream job that showcases your talents and passions while delighting your clients, becoming a freelancer may be the best step for your professional growth. Read more to learn how to make that dream a reality.
Freelance Opportunities: Virtual Assistant
If organization, time management, and productivity are your strong suits, you could earn a living providing virtual assistant services. Additional requirements include solid computer skills, attention to detail, and excellent communication.
Your clients might be overwhelmed and need help getting and staying organized. Or they might require you to handle necessary tasks that aren’t the best use of their time.
You could find yourself scheduling appointments, managing email, booking travel, researching, or entering data. These are the tasks that most people think of when they look to hire or become an assistant.
You could offer additional services like social media posting or Excel wizardry to free up extra time for your clients and make more money for yourself. The more diverse your skill set is, the better.
How much do virtual assistants make?
According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual pay for a Work From Home Virtual Assistant in the United States is $67,115 annually.
Learn how to become a freelance virtual assistant.
If you want to learn how to start a business providing virtual assistant services, here are a couple of highly-rated resources:
- Work From Home as a Virtual Assistant
- 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success
Where to find work as a virtual assistant
Besides job boards and freelance marketplaces, some websites specialize in freelance virtual assistant jobs.
- VA Networking – Besides hosting a job board, VA Networking offers training and the opportunity to connect with other VAs for help and advice.
- Assistant Match – Connects VAs with people looking for part-time remote administrative help. It also offers training and other resources you might find helpful when you’re just starting.
- Fancy Hands – Hires freelance VAs to complete tasks for their clients. They might ask you to schedule appointments, make phone calls, conduct research, or do data entry. You get paid between $3 and $7 per task.
- Time Etc. – Prefers to hire freelancers with experience working as an assistant in some capacity. You’ll work on administrative and personal assistant tasks for their clients. Pay starts at $11 per hour.
Every business needs a social media presence. Social media allows business owners to build their brands, reach customers, and grow their businesses.
Many business owners are too busy to manage their social profiles. Others don’t understand how to engage with their target customers through social media without being annoying. That’s where you come in.
To offer your services as a freelance social media manager, you’ll need:
- Knowledge of all the major social media platforms you intend to serve (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube)
- An endless supply of creativity to create engaging content for multiple accounts
- The ability to respond to the feedback and comments your posts generate quickly, professionally, and on brand.
- Tools for managing accounts like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Tailwind
You’re more likely to win business if you have a large, engaged following on your social media accounts.
How much money do social media managers make?
Freelance social media managers charge anywhere from $15 to $100+ per hour. The longer your track record is and the more proven successes you have, the higher your rate can be.
Payscale.com puts the average salary for a social media manager at $51,170.
Learn social media management.
If you’d like to learn more about becoming a social media manager, here are some helpful resources:
- Social Media Management – The Complete Manager Bootcamp
- How To Start Your Simple Social Media Management Side Hustle
- Become A Freelance Social Media Manager
Where to find freelance social media management jobs
- FlexJobs
- ZipRecruiter
- Remote. co
Pay-Per-Click Ad Management
Running pay-per-click ads can be an expensive nightmare if you don’t know what you’re doing. Many business owners would instead outsource PPC management to a professional rather than gamble or learn the hard way.
Managing PPC campaigns requires familiarity with ad platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other search engines or social media sites that offer advertising opportunities.
As a pay-per-click ad manager, you will:
- Manage multiple platforms simultaneously
- Conduct keyword and consumer research
- Create engaging ads
- Design landing pages that convert
- Run split tests on ads and landing pages
- Analyze data
- Optimize ad campaigns
- Implement profitable bidding strategies
- Manage the advertising budget
Experience with ad platforms, experience managing multiple campaigns and budgets, and professional certifications are what clients look for.
How much do freelance pay-per-click campaign managers make?
Glassdoor reports that the average salary for a PPC Manager in the U.S. is $69,239.
Learn how to manage PPC ad campaigns.
I managed Google Ads campaigns for one of my former employers only because no one else wanted to do it. The most helpful free resource I found is this one, which covers Google, Facebook, and Twitter:
- PPC University
Google offers several free online courses and certifications for Google Ads, Analytics, and other Google products. Facebook, Microsoft, and LinkedIn also provide free classes to get you up and running with their ad platforms.
- Google Skillshop
- Facebook for Business
- Bing Ads Certification
- LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Training
Those courses will familiarize you with creating ads, managing accounts, and generating reports. They’re enough to get you started but don’t teach you how to write great ads or run profitable campaigns.
Next-level courses with specific strategies and tactics for running winning campaigns on various platforms include:
- How to Double Your Pay-per-Click Performance
- Ultimate Google Ads Training: Profit with Pay-Per-Click
- Become a Facebook Ads Specialist – Advertising Masterclass
How to get pay-per-click management clients
Getting clients without agency or in-house PPC management experience will be hard. You will be managing someone else’s money, after all. Potential clients need to trust you and have confidence in your abilities.
There are some things you can do to attract attention and show expertise even if you lack experience:
- Build up your social media accounts. Focus on posting content related to pay-per-click advertising. Answer questions, join groups, and participate in LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Quora discussions.
- Start a blog. You don’t need to create an agency website. Your blog will do to demonstrate your expertise. Keep your blog posts focused on PPC topics that interest your potential customers. You can create how-to, informational, or industry trends-type content.
- Run your campaigns for hands-on experience. You can experiment with getting traffic, capturing leads, or selling an affiliate or information product on your site.
- Reach out to your friends, family, and other contacts. If anyone does any PPC advertising, offer to manage their accounts for free to build references.
- Create profiles on freelance job sites highlighting your skills.
Freelance PPC manager jobs
- Upwork
- Indeed
- People Per Hour
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for almost every business. If a company is nowhere to be found on Google when a potential customer searches for its products or services, customers will likely go to the competitor listed in search results.
SEO is in high demand and pays well, but many technical skills are required. To get started as a freelance SEO expert, you need to:
- Understand search algorithms
- Create content that both users and search engines love
- Identify on-page ranking factors
- Build quality links
- Analyze results
- Stay on top of changes
Beyond that, you should also know how to use tools like Ahrefs or SEM Rush, create dashboards and reports in Google Analytics, be familiar with HTML, and have experience with content management systems, mainly WordPress, since it’s the most popular.
The list of skills required is long, and things are constantly changing. That’s why many businesses would instead hire someone to handle SEO. That someone could be you if you have the technical knowledge and experience.
How much do freelance SEO experts make?
According to SEO salary research conducted by Backlinko.com, the mean annual salary for an SEO professional in the U.S. is $60,548, about $29 an hour.
If you search SEO experts on Upwork, you’ll find a vast range of hourly rates. They start at around $25 per hour and go as high as $500 per hour. Most fall somewhere between $45 and $75 an hour.
You can charge a flat fee for a la carte services like technical audits, but most SEO pros look to sign clients to monthly maintenance contracts. SEO services run between a few hundred to several thousand dollars a month.
Learning search engine optimization
The best way to improve SEO without working at an agency is to learn everything you can and practice on your sites. Here’s a comprehensive SEO primer if you’re a beginner:
- The Beginner’s Guide to SEO
Ahrefs, one of the leading SEO software providers, has a terrific free course where you’ll learn how to do SEO site audits, do keyword research, find backlink opportunities, and more using their application:
- Marketing with Ahrefs
If you want to help small businesses in your area get found in Google, learn local SEO. Ranking for local terms like “plumber in New Haven” is a bit of a different animal. This course will help you get started:
- Local SEO: A Definitive Guide To Local Business Marketing
And here are a couple of courses that are more focused on building an SEO business:
- Start Your Own SEO Business from Home – Complete Blueprint
- Start and run a Successful and Profitable SEO Business
Where to find freelance SEO jobs online
People looking for marketing and SEO help turn to the big freelance marketplaces first, so check the popular freelancing platforms:
- Freelance SEO Jobs on Upwork
- SEO Gigs on Guru.com
- People Per Hour SEO Work
Cold emailing is another option for finding freelance SEO clients. Choose a niche and run Google searches for businesses in different cities. Everyone who isn’t on the first page is a potential lead.
As freelance marketing continues to evolve and expand, the remote and freelance work landscape will likely change. However, it is evident that the demand for these types of marketing talents is high and will likely not disappear anytime soon. Whether serving as virtual assistants, SEO specialists, or exploring other facets of freelance work, individuals can redefine success on their terms and shape their futures in many ways.
