Which Niche Should You Specialize In As A Freelancer?

Many people commonly ask, when they think of working as a virtual freelancer is, what job can they do online? Finding the answer to this question is easy by answering several questions too. It's necessary to know what one is going to specialize in before applying for jobs or offering services to make organizing and consolidating of tasks easier. Having one or two niches will also determine how long one can stay interested and driven to continue working as an online freelancer.

Here are the questions which will help guide any aspiring online freelancer for their first steps to working virtually:

1. What's your educational and work background?

Your vocational, college or university degree is the first determinant of what work you can provide to online employers. The skills you acquired and the trainings you earned while working are additional qualifications too. When looking at online job postings, sometimes it's not very easy to see if your qualifications would match that of the job description. What you need to do here is to simplify the terms which describe your degree, skills and knowledge. For example, you are a graduate of Information Technology. This means that you have basic knowledge in web development and programming. You may then apply to wed design and development job postings or software development home-based jobs. If you are a graduate of English courses or have worked as a writer for the school paper, you can apply as a writer for online content. All you need to do is change your style a little to fit what the writing job opening may be looking for.

2. What are your interests?

Knowing your interests doesn't mean that you are already skilled in that particular field. But it would give you an edge if you have the skills already for that particular interest of yours. If you see online job posts for a social media manager for example and you know that you are an internet and a social network or social media savvy, all you need to do is to find out more how to become better at using the social media platforms, especially in marketing products and services, which is most in demand now. You may then apply for the social media manager position. If hired, you get to surf the social media platforms you like and do an online job at the same time.

3. What Can You Learn By Yourself?

There are some online job descriptions which are not yet taught in school. However, gaining knowledge and skills in them is possible through online research or online courses. Examples are search engine optimization and WordPress Management. These skills can be learned using free resources in so many websites now. Sometimes, just browsing through the FAQ's of sites will give valuable knowledge on how to perform the tasks already. YouTube, Slideshare and similar sites also offer free learning resources. If you are really interested in learning a particular skill, all you need to do is invest some time in studying it. Some aspiring freelancers also invest a little bit of money to good online courses to make them more credible.

4. What are you good at?

If studying doesn't interest you, then find jobs asking for skills which you are already good at. For example, there are various companies looking for telemarketers, home-based customer service representatives and transcriptionists. If you have good telephone and English conversational skills then do apply for telephone and customer handling jobs. If you are good in teaching English, you can also be a home-based English teacher. If you are a fast typist, you should go for general transcription jobs.

5. What can you do for at least 4 hours a day?

This question is also crucial. It's important to determine what you can patiently and diligently do even for just 4 hours per day because working as a freelancer often means working from your own home office which also often means, you are all by yourself. When you are industrious, patient, driven and motivated you will move higher in your freelance career ladder faster than you can imagine.

Jovell Alingod is a web writer and virtual assistant who ventured into freelancing last 2010. You can check out her professional portfolio at http://thepetitepen.wordpress.com/ to see more of her writing styles while her personal blog http://www.awomanstory.com/ shows her motherly, sensitive, and sometimes funny side.

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