What does the word "freelance" mean? Freelancer - who is it and what does it do? (Review) Who is a freelancer and how to become one

When looking for remote work, we often come across the concept of freelancing. The word is new and not entirely clear. Today these people are not bad and therefore attract great attention. Who is a freelancer and what does he do, where to look for available vacancies and how can a beginner become a successful freelancer?

In fact, each of us can try ourselves in this activity. We will talk where to start, how and where to work and, most importantly, find out what we will be paid for. Well, at the end of the article I will give examples of sites on which you can make money. I will immediately please everyone who wants to become a freelancer, you can learn this profession on your own. Or maybe you already have all the necessary skills and knowledge.

No one here requires a diploma and you don’t have to spend 5 years in college. Anyone without special education today can easily figure out how to become a freelancer from scratch and earn money while sitting at home. Agree, this is a very tempting offer, right?

Who is a freelancer, what does he do and how does he earn money?

This is what people on the Internet call those who work remotely. A person earns money at home by completing orders and tasks of other people or companies. Freelancing or remote work comes in different forms. This could be constant cooperation with one customer, part-time work in your free time, or searching for orders and completing one-time tasks. This is what a freelancer is in reality.

Your communication with your future customer will be carried out via the Internet. And often you won't even see each other. You just need to do the work efficiently and on time. Then the money will go to your e-wallet, card or account.

A beginning freelancer can easily combine remote work from home with his main profession. And this is understandable, because a beginner needs to figure everything out right away. But there are many examples when making money online became the main source of income for a person.

In-demand professions on the Internet, or what a freelancer does

I suggest you familiarize yourself with the list of the most in-demand online professions. It is for these actions that real money is paid on the Internet today.

  1. Work with text. Writing, editing and selection of articles. This could be writing term papers, dissertations, essays, solving problems, essays, tests, and so on. And also regular or SEO, . Don't forget about editors and proofreaders (check spelling errors, punctuation and style). Well, and a content manager (a person who is responsible for filling the site with the necessary information). Here you will need fast and dexterous pens to type texts. As well as knowledge of the desired topic and the ability to express your thoughts beautifully and competently.
  2. Translation of texts on various topics. How to become a freelance translator? You can do technical translations, translate literary texts, advertising slogans, and even entire websites. Or audio and video recordings, computer games, etc.
  3. Make money on social media networks. These are various kinds of specialists such as SMM (brand promotion on social networks), SMO specialist (website optimization for social networks). Either a novice user who makes money from his group or simple ones.
  4. Programming. Writing programs and scripts, solving various tasks for administering a website, application, etc. These can also be testers of any software products. These are games, again programs, mobile applications, online services, usability of the desired site, etc.
  5. Designers, working with graphics. You can be an interior and landscape designer, a graphic designer (drawing banners, buttons, etc.), and finally a web designer (creating website designs). Here you will need the ability to work with programs such as (Photoshop, CorelDraw, etc.).
  6. SEO Specialist(website promotion). The essence of making money is to increase the site’s position for certain queries and increase the number of visitors from search engines. As well as increasing the income of the project. To do this, you need to study the search engine algorithm. It is advisable for an SEO specialist to understand the work of optimizers and link managers.

How to become a freelancer and where to find remote work?

Freelancing is an interesting job that requires free time, the Internet and a desire to earn money. Basically, these people find tasks for themselves on special exchanges. Each freelancer chooses his own work. You can search for orders by price, lead time and volume.

Every day hundreds of new tasks appear on freelance exchanges, so there is enough for everyone. Moreover, even a beginner can find an easy job. As a rule, a beginner will not be trusted with an expensive order, and he will do the simplest and cheapest work. But when you gain experience, you will be able to choose who to collaborate with. But how to become a freelancer and start making real money?

You, like everyone else, must register on one of the exchanges. Next, select the type of work and see what orders are available. If you have decided, simply submit a request for execution.

Here is a list of the most popular exchanges for making money:

  • Author24.ru. Earn money by writing coursework, dissertations, essays, solving problems, essays, translations, tests, and so on. If you have worked as a teacher, or are well versed in the desired topic, then this is the place for you.
  • Fl.ru. Today it is one of the largest and most famous freelance exchanges. Suitable for almost any specialist.
  • Freelance.ru. An old proven remote work exchange.
  • . This site allows you to make money by writing articles.

To become a full-fledged freelancer, you must also have an E-mail. For starters, this is quite enough. Perhaps later you will need Skype, but almost everyone has this goodness today.

If you are interested in remote work, then feel free to register on one of the above exchanges. And then look for tasks on your own and start earning money without leaving home. And it doesn’t matter what profession you have now, because as I already said, everything can be learned and freelancing is no exception!

Good afternoon. Today we are opening another sub-section in the “” section called “ Freelancing" Specifically in this article you will learn what is freelancing And who is a freelancer.

Freelancer? Who is this anyway?

Everyone has heard the word freelance. But not everyone can say exactly what it is. No, many of course have a modest idea of ​​what it is, but I’m sure you would like to know more. If you think that freelancing is some kind of profession or some kind of website, then you are mistaken, although, of course, you are thinking in the right direction.

  1. Who is a freelancer and how to become one?
  2. What do freelancers do?
  3. Benefits of freelancing
  4. Cons of freelancing
  5. Freelancer earnings

So, what is freelancing? Or freelance, if you want to. Essentially, this is a way to earn money for a living by doing what you know and can do well. The difference from an ordinary job, which men and women go to all their lives, is that you don’t get a job anywhere and don’t owe anything to anyone. Of course, there are obligations in freelancing, but you are free to control them yourself.

If freelance translated into Russian, you get something like “free warrior” or “free worker”. Literally, then free– freedom/will, lance– spear/pike. Since ancient times, freelancers were called warriors who fought for the army that was willing to pay the most. So you get the point, right?

Who is a freelancer and how to become one?

From what is written above it becomes clear who is a freelancer. In simple words, a freelancer is a free worker who chooses who to work for, sets the price of his work and the conditions.

Let’s say you are an excellent specialist in your field, but your bosses don’t notice this and don’t increase your salary. Or you simply don’t like to comply with all the whims and wishes of your management. Or you feel that the circumstances at your job are against your career advancement. It's time to become a freelancer!

By becoming a freelancer, your income will directly depend only on you. There is no boss, there is only you and the customer, and the customer often treats you with more respect than you were treated before in a permanent job. Professional growth is unlimited. You are free to prove to yourself what you are capable of.

You will only have to look for work for the first time, until you acquire regular clients and fame. This is exactly what usually happens. First you look for a job, and then the job finds you.

To find a job, you can use both the Internet and real acquaintances and connections. You can at least post notices on the fence offering your services. But I am sure that using the Internet for these purposes is much more convenient and comfortable.

On the Internet you also have a large variety of tools for finding customers.

  1. Regular job search sites. For example hh.ru or worka.ru. Yes, you can find one-time projects for yourself on them.
  2. Social media. VKontakte, Facebook, Twitter. Create public pages with your services. Subscribe to job search groups, as well as communities on topics related to your specialty. Leave an ad on your page after all.
  3. Specialized forums.
  4. Special exchanges for freelancing. Freelance exchanges can be both general-purpose (for example, to plant potatoes) and specialized (for example, for or for programmers).

As you can see, there are many more ways and opportunities to find a job on the Internet.

What do freelancers do?

Freelancers can do absolutely any kind of work, but most often freelancers are attracted to work on the Internet. Examples of freelance work: write an article, translate an article, draw a logo, create a website, draw a drawing, process an image in Photoshop, process a video, type text from an audio file, PR, promotion... The list goes on and on. When you start digging in this direction, everything will immediately become clear to you.

Benefits of freelancing

And, of course, there are many advantages. Almost any freelancer will tell you that being a freelancer is better than being an employee. So, advantages of freelancing:

  1. The biggest plus is undoubtedly flexible work schedule. You can wake up at whatever time your heart desires. And you don’t need to go to bed early to get up early for work in the morning.
  2. You you can save a lot of time, because you don't have to commute to and from work. Wait for public transport. You can also save some money by doing this.
  3. Since you will likely have many customers, it won't hurt if you lose one or more. And in a permanent job, you may lose your job if your business suffers losses. Therefore, the 3rd point is relative stability.
  4. You can live anywhere. You are not tied to work. You can live in a village and work for large customers from big cities. You can live in the mountains, by the sea. The main thing is the presence of the Internet.
  5. You can work while traveling. Your family will no longer have to wait until your boss deigns to let you go on your next vacation.
  6. Freelancer potentially you can earn more. Theoretically, when working for yourself, you can earn 1.5-2 times more than your office colleagues.
  7. Yet again absolute freedom. After all, this is the only reason why many people become freelancers. Because they are uncomfortable working in the office.
  8. It is likely that your Freelancing can grow into a big business. Everything here is according to your rules and everything depends on your ambitions.

Cons of freelancing

Let's add a fly in the ointment. You can't go anywhere without this. That's life, guys. So, cons of working as a freelancer:

  1. Competition. You will have to read a single book about how to present yourself correctly to the customer so that he chooses you among the countless number of your competitors.
  2. Sick leave and vacations Now you pay yourself. This is the price for freedom and mobility.
  3. When you work from home, it's not always your family members understand that you are at work and not at home. They distract you and constantly tug at you.
  4. Taxes. Yes, it's your job now to deal with taxes. Or hire a freelance accountant.

Freelancer earnings

Freelancer earnings or how much do freelancers earn. The question is inherently meaningless. Because freelancing, as we said above, is not a profession. This is the same as asking, how much do they earn at industrial enterprises? We need specifics.

A freelancer’s earnings directly depend on his specialization, his experience, his desire to work and develop, and so on and so forth. Keep in mind that, on average, freelancers earn more than employees. How much more depends on many factors. And sometimes even less =)).

Well, I'll give some examples. An experienced copywriter can earn up to 60,000 rubles (and simply must master the touch typing method, or in short -). Programmers can earn up to 200,000 rubles and more. Website developers earn on average about 100,000 rubles, but can be more or less.

I think the approximate picture is clear.

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Good day to all! It doesn’t matter whether it’s day or night, whether you’re working or relaxing, but know that somewhere right now freelancers are hard at work. You probably have a question: who is a freelancer and what does he do? This is exactly what we will talk about.

The term freelancer literally means “free spear” and dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries, when hired knights fought for those lands where they were paid more. They did not delve into who was right and who was wrong and went where they were invited if this option suited them. However, in their defense there is another interesting fact: after the conclusion of such an agreement, they no longer went over to the enemy’s side, even if he promised them more gold.

Nowadays, freelancers are quite peace-loving people and fight if only for a tasty order, and then virtually. These include specialists who carry out orders for clients without being their full-time employees. They can be located anywhere in the world, just like their clients.

Their interaction with each other occurs thanks to the power and power of the Internet. Accordingly, professions that may be suitable for such remote work are mainly of a creative nature (copywriters, advertising specialists, photographers, web designers, illustrators, translators, screenwriters, etc.).

In addition to the above, the majority of the freelance services market is occupied by IT specialists: layout designers, programmers, web analysts, etc. They can also be lawyers, teachers, etc., who perform their work via the Internet.

I hope this has become clearer to you. Let me give you a real-life example: if a painter comes to you to hang wallpaper, and at the same time he does not officially work anywhere, this does not classify him as a freelancer. Even if he, having picked up a fashionable word, proudly calls himself that.

By the way, regarding modern terms, I remembered a case where one company beautifully called a vacancy for a cleaning lady “cleaning manager.” This was 7-9 years ago, when only a few knew this term.

How is freelancing different from remote work?

Not everyone who works remotely is a freelancer. Typically, remote work includes employees who are part of the company’s staff, or who are not part of it, but who make up its team, and who work at a distance.

These could be girls from a call center or remote sales department who call clients and answer their questions while being at home all day, rather than in the office. Or accountants who prepare reports, but are not physically present at the place of work.

It is profitable for companies to hire such employees, because this reduces production costs and does not require the provision of a workplace. And employees benefit from the fact that they have a stable job, and they can do it in a comfortable environment.

Whether in pajamas, even in curlers, even in the Maldives, even in a hut in Bali, the main thing is that there is Internet and the work is done.

Freelancers also have complete freedom in what form and place they work, but their orders are usually one-time in nature (although there are also large large projects). They often work with several clients at the same time.

To make it even clearer for you, I will continue with an example. Let's say you wanted to open an online store. You have a product, you have an understanding of its business processes, but you need people who will come up with a cool name for the store and website, then develop its design and layout so that it works, then write a good description of the products, promote it on the Internet, etc. P.

It is not advisable to immediately create a whole staff of such specialists; even less so, looking among your neighbors for someone who can develop a website design. But it is beneficial to register on a special freelance exchange on the Internet, where those who offer their services of a similar nature and those who need them meet.

There you will entrust one specialist with developing a logo and how your website will look, another with texts and a tasty description of your products for customers, a third with setting up advertising, a fourth with maintaining an account on social networks...

Pros of freelancing

Freelancing is not for everyone. It is clear that a doctor cannot be a freelancer and diagnose and treat a patient while on the other side of the world. However, there are many other features. But I’ll start with the advantages of this work:

  • There is no need to be present at the workplace, “working” a standard working day.
  • You adjust your work schedule yourself, freeing up time for work or rest when you need it.
  • You are your own boss, how many clients you find, how many projects you complete, and how much you earn. There is no income cap. The higher your qualifications, the stronger your experience and the more active you are, the more customers for your services and the higher your earnings.
  • There are no office intrigues and prying (by the way, what to do if your boss kicks you out of work, read in). If a client is terribly unpleasant to you, you may not work with him.
  • You set yourself goals, both short-term and long-term, and move towards them yourself. Although for some this is a big minus.
  • Based on the previous point, freelancing can be considered the first step to starting your own business. There are many cases when a freelancer could no longer cope with the flow of orders and opened his own design studio or copywriting agency, etc., recruiting other specialists to join his team.
  • There are no age restrictions, you can be a school student or a pensioner. The main thing is not age, but whether you know how to do what is required.
  • Allows you to try yourself in a different role or get a part-time job, combining freelancing with your main job (for example, a doctor writes articles on medical topics).
  • And also use it to “keep up your pants” while there is no permanent job - for mothers on maternity leave, students, the unemployed...
  • Self-development in the chosen field. You simply cannot stand still, you need to be aware of new products, constantly hone your skills in order to be competitive.

Perhaps there are other interesting advantages that I forgot about. Then write them in the comments.

Cons of freelancing

This job is not suitable for everyone, since for some, even one minus can cancel out all the pluses. Really evaluate your strengths, knowledge and experience, and most importantly, your character! And now you will understand why:

  • There is no stability. Today you are inundated with orders, and the next week is empty. The periods may span several months depending on the complexity of the work you perform.
  • There is no length of service, no tax or pension contributions, unless you create an individual entrepreneur for yourself.
  • A high level of discipline is required, the ability to structure your work day in such a way as to get everything done. No one will adjust except you.
  • The responsibility is yours alone; it cannot be “shared” with the entire department, as in a company, or pushed onto another.
  • Constant activity is required, because the search for clients in freelancing does not stop until you have a stable client base and word of mouth. For some, it takes several years of daily work before this time.
  • It follows from the previous point that you need to work a lot in order to provide yourself with a constant normal income! Especially at the beginning of your journey, when there are no clients or regular orders.
  • Lack of teamwork and face-to-face communication with colleagues.
  • Some lose their tone, being at home all day, relax, begin to give up on finding clients and interacting with them, postponing it “to tomorrow.”
  • There may be a complete misunderstanding of such work on the part of loved ones. Like, if you are sitting at home, then cook borscht, make dumplings, walk for a couple of hours with your child, put things in order and clean, wash, iron, go to the store... And when to work? Well, after all this you can work).

Your family should be taught that this is a full-time job, and there is no need to distract you for a minute every 5 minutes, which lasts for a couple of hours.

  • At first, you may run into scammers, or clients who place an order, and then spend several months making endless edits and blowing their minds. With the advent of freelancing experience, such cases will be extremely rare.
  • A romantic visual image of this profession. As a rule, this is a picture of a beach in the style of a bounty advertisement, palm trees, ocean, sun, sand and somewhere in the background of all this a small laptop. I repeat once again, you can earn money for such a life, but not at all quickly, and you need to work a lot for it. Many times more than in the office.

How to become a freelancer from scratch

I have already written that you can become a freelancer at any age; you can do this even without experience. The most important thing is to decide what your abilities and talents are, what area you want to improve and earn money in it. Be prepared that you will have to learn a lot and quickly.

But the most important thing is desire. If you love writing texts, start small. Learn the basics of copywriting, keyword writing, and go! Don't delay the learning curve, otherwise you won't get started. Take the simplest and cheapest orders first.

If you just need a temporary part-time job, but you don’t know how to do anything and don’t want to learn, look for options like transcribing audio or video recordings, etc.

If you are good at drawing and want to develop in this direction, take a closer look at web design. Again, start small, don’t immediately start developing a corporate identity or website design, but at least make a layout of business cards. Gradually increase your level and complexity of the work performed.

If you are a mom on maternity leave and need a part-time job, then take a closer look at the profession of group administrators on social networks, managing Instagram accounts.

In general, there are many options, start from your needs and interests!

If you don’t know what might suit you, watch videos and webinars on YouTube on this topic. There are online courses that offer you to try several options in a short time and then choose your direction.

I don't know if you need them. Maybe it will be easier to find this kind of information on your own, and take courses in your chosen field, for example, web design.

Now you know what a freelancer is and how to become one. I wish you professional and creative success!

And finally, I want to offer you a cool video about a video blogger! Watch it and you won’t regret it)

Until we meet again, Smolynets Anastasia

Hello, dear readers! I would like to tell you about freelancing and help you understand what this direction is and why it will be of interest to everyone.

What advantages does it have in contrast to office work and why did I start doing it? Freelancing what is it?

What is freelancing?

Every morning as scheduled. The alarm clock rings, you rush to get ready for work. Everyday life in a stuffy office and the work race waiting for the weekend. Sound familiar?

At such moments, you want to find a job where you can independently control your daily routine and not depend on alarm clocks, your boss, your location, or the day of the week.

Is this real? Certainly! There is such a wonderful activity as freelancing. And the one who deals with it is . So who is this man?

A little bit of history

Freelancing- this word comes from two English words "Free"- "freedom" and "lance"- “spear”, literally translated as “free spear”. In the Middle Ages, freelancers were hired soldiers who chose who they wanted to serve.

Currently the word "lance" simply means doing some kind of work.

Therefore, now this is what they call a person who works from home. The advantage here is a free schedule. You choose the type of activity yourself, decide when and where you will work, be it:

  • favorite coffee shop near home,
  • a cozy room in your apartment,
  • another country or even another continent.

You are no longer tied to where the work is done. Isn't this a dream? You can compare this to a constructor. We all remember this interesting game from childhood, but you can implement this game in your life and put together its design yourself.

Sometimes everything is much simpler than it seems at first glance! Force yourself to look at the world through a new lens and appreciate new facets. Real work can be done remotely and it's real!

Where to begin?

What should you do if one morning you woke up with the idea of ​​learning something new for yourself and finally starting making money online?

What do beginners need to know? Where can I get a guide for beginners?

First, you need to get to know the area of ​​freelancing better, read articles on this topic, and look through. If difficulties persist, you can always ask for advice from a more experienced freelancer.

Try to be more attentive and delve into the essence of this area; the faster you learn the material, the faster you can complete orders and earn money. You need to learn to think analytically and put everything into perspective. Understand the essence of the task and then there will be no confusion in your head and fear of the unknown.

How to make money freelancing?

Of course, everyone is interested in the most pressing issue of making money from remote work. You need to understand that the less you know, the less choice of work you will have.

Another advantage of freelancing is that you will constantly develop, and diversify, you have a lot to discover for yourself. Do you agree that this is good news? Learn something new for yourself every day.

This will be useful in life, because you will be an interesting conversationalist anywhere and in any company. Not to mention how this will affect your inner world, self-esteem as a person. Harmony will be your faithful companion.

Let's return to the question of earnings. Each person decides for himself what results he wants to achieve in his field. For some, it is enough to complete a task once a week and have additional income, but for others it becomes a matter of life, and they are constantly developing and learning new tasks.

For a person starting out in freelancing, there are many areas that he can master. You can watch it in detail or read the book “7 professions”. Where the simplest professions are described that anyone can start with.

All roads are open to you, all you have to do is choose the path. And more experienced colleagues in this field are ready to help you with this.

Now is the time to remember your childhood dreams. Maybe you dreamed of becoming a writer or journalist, reporting on interesting events and traveling a lot. So, the time has come - it's time to act!

In the future, when you get acquainted with all the exchanges and try various tasks, you will be able to determine the most interesting specialty for yourself.

At first, you will need to independently monitor various remote work exchanges and collect orders. But over time, if you do your work well, you will have your own list of customers for whom you can work on a permanent basis with a stable income.


What is important for a beginner to know?

  1. Save information that is important to you.
  2. Subscribe to newsletters.
  3. Constantly develop.
  4. Try even difficult tasks.

If you suddenly have questions, you can always ask them to a freelancer who has more experience than you. In the world of modern technology there is no place for fear and ignorance. You can find out and learn everything, the main thing is desire and assertiveness in achieving your goals. There is no need to waste time, start earning money today, right now.

Only daily work will lead you to good results. And who knows, maybe one day we will meet over a glass of freshly squeezed juice on the ocean shore, and you will sincerely thank me for such a useful article on the verge of changes in your life.

I wish you good luck and harmony in everything that surrounds you. All the best, dear readers!

Documentary about freelancing.

Who is a freelancer? This is a person who is engaged in performing any work without concluding a long-term employment contract with the employer. He is hired only to perform a certain list of actions, that is, he is a freelance employee. Also, a freelancer is an individual who was invited to work during outstaffing. Since a person engaged in such activities is not on a permanent staff, he can carry out projects for several employers at once. The term “freelancer” was first used in the novel “Ivanhoe” to refer to a mercenary warrior in the Middle Ages.

Most often, a freelancer offers his services himself - through the World Wide Web, newspaper advertisements, and also with the help of personal connections. This activity is common in areas such as journalism, writing unique content, translation, consulting, design, computer programming, as well as private video and photography. Currently, the freelancing market is well developed in Europe and America. Now it is rapidly developing in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries.

What are the disadvantages and advantages of actually working from home?

Pros of freelancing:

For an employee:
- flexible schedule;
- work is possible in any place where there is the necessary equipment (PC, laptop, Internet);
- fulfilling only one’s duties;
- lack of dress code;
- work online from home;
- there is no need to pay for travel to the office and back.

For the employer:
- payment only for quality work done;
- significant savings on expensive office space;
- quality control and the opportunity, provided on all freelance exchanges, to send everything for revision.

Disadvantages of freelancing:

For an employee:
- lack of division of labor;
- uneven income, you need the ability to plan your budget;
- when working outside the exchange, there is no guarantee of receiving payment for the work performed;
- in the absence of an individual entrepreneur, there may be problems when filling out an application for a loan;
- who is a freelancer from a legal point of view? This is a person who provides certain services in the field of freelancing. For this reason, it is advisable to register an individual entrepreneur;
- the need to keep accounts and pay taxes;
- for some personality types this is a more nervous type of work;
- constant search for new orders

For the employer:
- it is necessary to spend effort on drawing up assignments;
- the risk of receiving low-quality work;
- the risk of lack of author's support;
- the risk of not getting a job on time;
- inability to hold the performer accountable.

Who is a freelancer on the Internet?

Currently, a stable group of freelancers has formed on the World Wide Web who successfully make a living by working remotely. This type of activity is common among programmers, designers, optimizers, translators, copywriters, design engineers and participants in various affiliate programs. Currently, there are a large number of specialized websites that help freelancers find customers.

Legality of activity

In the Russian Federation and former USSR countries, freelancers are individual entrepreneurs who provide certain services. Freelancing is an activity that requires mandatory registration, payment of taxes and reporting. But due to weak control of tax authorities, this point is ignored in most cases. Many freelancers don’t even think about the fact that they are breaking the law.

So we answered the question of who a freelancer is. If you are not embarrassed by setting up an individual entrepreneur on your own and are attracted by a free schedule, then this type of activity is for you!