The rush to leave the 9-5 grind in favor of the freelance life continues to grow. Freelancing is an excellent way to make a living, but if you don’t have a way to stand out, you’ll struggle to make a living.
One of the best ways to stand out in a crowded freelance market is to find your niche and become awesome at it.
One of the best ways to stand out in a crowded freelance market is to find your niche and become awesome at it
There are lots of generalists in the freelance space.
That’s great, but as a generalist, you’re competing with tons of other generalists.
And while you do open many doors by offering multiple skills for hire, you may also find it difficult to find the time to fine-tune any of those skills to the point that you stand out.
On the other hand, if you find your niche and focus there, you can position yourself as an expert and thought leader and rock your freelance growth.
Let’s take a look at a few niche freelance jobs you can focus on to stand out and make a really good living.
Graphic Designer
In today’s saturated digital marketplace, it’s critical to make your website, social media posts, and other marketing materials stand out.
To make this happen, you need to incorporate high-quality, engaging visuals in your content.
Team photos, infographics, eBooks, social media graphics, and other visuals can really help a brand’s content jump off the page and into your audience members’ minds.
Despite the importance of visuals, not many brands have the budget to hire a dedicated graphic designer. This makes freelancing as a graphic designer an excellent way to make a living.
I recommend focusing on learning an in-depth tool like Adobe Creative Suites.
It contains a ton of wonderful tools to help you create a lot of different types of visual content.
With InDesign, you can create brochures. With Adobe Photoshop or Express you can edit photos.
Illustrator allows you to create logos. You can even learn to produce amazing videos with Premiere.
Take some courses, use online tutorials, and practice, practice, practice to fine-tune your skills.
Build an amazing portfolio, create an eye-catching website, and conduct outreach and inbound marketing.
As you build your portfolio and create happy clients, your legend will grow, and you can position yourself as a top designer generally or even in a particular industry.
Become to go-to graphic design freelancer.
Digital Ad Copywriter
Despite the massive proliferation of AI tools that can write and paraphrase competitively with humans, copywriting is a skill every marketer should possess.
That said, there are many different types of copywriting.
One of the most lucrative niche specialties in this space for freelancers is copywriting for digital ads.
Why?
It’s simple. When ads are written in a compelling enough way, conversion levels rise, and revenue can be tied directly to your writing.
If you hone your copywriting skills to the point where you can boast that you write the best social media ads or your Google ads copy drives X times more revenue, you’re set.
Make sure you understand the benefits of writing a variety of copy so you can run some A/B tests to see what works best.
Learn to write for a niche industry or take on work across multiple industries so you can expand your reach and grow your freelance ad copywriting business quickly.
When you work with a client, write it into the contract that you will have access to the results of the ads you write.
Add a note to your contract that you can use the results to develop a case study to share with future prospects.
Place some of the highlights on your website so people know you mean business and can easily see the benefit of hiring you as their freelance digital ad copywriter.
Web Designer/Developer
There’s a lot of money to be had in the web design space. Most businesses don’t employ a full-time web designer simply because, with most websites, there isn’t enough work once the site is up and running to justify hiring someone 40 hours per week.
This is where you come in with your freelance business. Freelance web designers and developers charge anywhere from $50 to $200 per hour.
The better you get at your craft and the more completed projects you have to show, the more quickly you will grow your business.
Learn how to build websites from scratch or complete a website redesign.
Learn about the technical side with hosting, coding, and other aspects, and become an all-around force in the website space.
Make sure you know how to conduct a website audit and that you have a deep understanding of how SEO works.
If you can become a skilled designer or developer and also know how to optimize a site for search, you’ll be well-positioned to grab the top freelance website jobs on the market.
Photographer
Savvy businesses understand the impact of professional photos on their website and other marketing photos.
They get that team member photos should present the team as competent and cohesive.
They should also match the brand’s personality and show the humans behind the brand.
To make all of this happen, quality photography is key. This is where you come in.
Buy a nice new camera. Then train and practice and fine-tune your photography skills. Play with lighting, framing, and other elements. Become the best photographer you can be.
Then find your niche. Do you focus more on stuffy corporate clients? Or are you the artsy photographer that works with trendy coffee shops or marketing agencies?
Develop your skills and get the word out to position yourself as the most sought-after freelance photographer on the block.
If you get really good at photography, you can charge a ton of money, as businesses will understand that you get what you pay for when it comes to photography.
Start Rocking Your Freelance Career With Niche Focus
Going too broad can slow down the growth of your freelance business and ultimately cause clutter.
Narrowing down your focus, “niching down” if you will, can allow you to become the trusted leader in your space and help you really stand out.
What’s your thing?
Figure that out, then become amazing at it.
The more you become known and the more respected you become in your space, the more you can charge your clients.
So, what are you waiting for? What’s your niche skill?
Drop a line in the comments about what you do as a freelance.
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