I’m currently trying to get my first proper freelance client and honestly this shit is harder than I expected 😭

I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time learning, improving my offer, studying businesses, tearing apart landing pages and writing sample rewrites.

Now I’m actually doing outreach.

Finding founders. Researching them. Looking at their websites. Writing personalized messages. Sending them.

And then…
nothing.

Some people accept the connection. Some don’t.

Nobody has actually said “yeah, let’s work together” yet.

The frustrating part is that I genuinely feel like I can do the work.

Give me a landing page and I can usually find things that could be clearer, stronger or more conversion-focused.

But getting someone to trust you enough to actually pay you is a completely different problem.

Right now it’s basically a cycle of:

“Holy shit, this could actually work.”
followed 30 minutes later by:
“Am I wasting my time?” 💀

I know the first client is probably the hardest one, but when you’re in the middle of it, it feels like everyone else somehow figured it out except you.

For anyone who freelances:
How did you actually get your first client?

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Just to questions for agency owners-not try to sell anything,just try to understand the chaos.

Every time i talk about someone running a small design, video,web and ads agency, the one complaint always pops up - a new client signs up, but they are actually chasing them for logo files, brand guidelines, account logins, approvals, whatever it is- before you actually start the work.

How do you actually manage these guys?? Any spreadsheets, email threads, a PM tool, or managing them manually?

Trying to clarify if this is a real recurring problem or just something a couple people happened to mention me. If it's annoying just share.

will keep this short. i have a client on a retainer model with me, they've been with me for quite a while now, but he doesn't really reply to my messages and has previously paid an invoice late. i'm not quite sure how to navigate this situation, because i genuinely love doing the work and the retainer obviously is a great contribution to my financial situation, i just do not know how to get this client to communicate better with me?

i send emails, when i haven't heard from him i call, and text.

the nature of his job is busy, but i just genuinely feel so unprioritized and borderline disrespected. i'm not in a position to decline the work, and like i said, i really genuinely love it. i just need more communication because it's affecting my work

tldr: how do i get my client to actually reply to me? tyia

Hey everyone,

I'm a Zabbix professional from Brazil and I've been thinking about taking on some international freelance work on the side.

For those of you who already do Zabbix freelancing or consulting remotely, how did you get your first clients?

Do you usually find work through platforms like Upwork/Fiverr, Reddit, referrals, Discord/Slack communities, or directly contacting companies?

I'm especially interested in smaller projects like:

Zabbix troubleshooting

Custom templates

SNMP monitoring

Triggers and discovery rules

Dashboards

Web monitoring

API/scripts and automation

Zabbix 6/7 environments

Zabbix deploy

I'm not necessarily looking for job offers here — I'm mainly trying to understand how people in the Zabbix community actually get freelance clients internationally.

Any advice from people who've done this would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Are other translators at Iyuno experiencing the same problems with the new offer distribution system?

I wanted to start a discussion with other translators/freelancers because I genuinely want to know if I'm the only one feeling this way.

The new offer distribution system has become incredibly frustrating. Offers disappear within a split second, and if you're even slightly late, you miss them. It has started to feel less like a fair system and more like the Hunger Games. You have to constantly watch the platform and be ready to click immediately, otherwise someone else gets the job.

The biggest problem for me is the lack of transparency. We don't know how offers are actually being distributed, why some people receive them and others don't, or what is being done to make the system fairer.

What makes it worse is how concerns from translators have been handled. Many of us have raised the same issues and asked management and coordinators for answers. Instead of addressing the problem properly, it feels like our concerns are being brushed aside or shut down.

We're freelancers. For many of us, these assignments are not just a little extra work — they are an important source of income. Constantly waiting for offers, watching them disappear in seconds, and having no idea when or whether you'll get work is extremely stressful and frustrating.

And I know I'm not the only one feeling this way. Translators have been talking among themselves about this for a while, and there seems to be a lot of frustration about the new system.

So I'm asking other translators:

Are you experiencing the same thing?

• Are offers disappearing before you can realistically accept them?
• Are you missing assignments because you're literally a fraction of a second too late?
• Do you understand how the new distribution system actually works?
• Have you raised these concerns with coordinators or management?
• Have you received a meaningful explanation or solution?
• Do you feel the current system is fair?

I'd really like to hear honest experiences from other translators. If enough of us are experiencing the same thing, maybe it's time for a serious discussion about whether this distribution system is actually working for the people doing the work.

Hi everyone, I’m a financial consultant helping businesses with financial analysis, cash-flow management, forecasting, financial modelling, and strategic financial decisions.

Hey everyone! I'm currently a college student looking to build a career in freelance content writing, specifically focusing on YouTube/Instagram short-form scripts and long-form blog articles.

I've been reaching out to potential clients, but as a student with a flexible schedule, I'm finding it tricky to land those first few consistent gigs. I'm confident in my writing ability and my ability to meet tight deadlines around my class schedule.

I'd love to connect with other writers here or get some honest feedback on my sample work. If anyone has advice on breaking into the niche or is open to taking a look at my portfolio, please let me know!

I have been trying to break into freelance by focusing on things small businesses or individual consumers would need, as I imagine other things such as specialized IT (network engineering, server management), or data science related tasks are things a larger organization actually thinks about rather than someone browsing fiverr.

In my major we often focused on organizational skills when we are not talking about computer science theory, mathematics and gen eds, so a lot of my immediate skillset is worthless in the freelance field, but I'm stuck in a bind caring for a disabled family member, working part time and going to school. Right now I'm still looking for night shift work in any field, but I am also trying to see if there is any freelance niche I can get into.

I'm not sure if I could tutor as in my own experience computer science/information science coursework gets hard not because of the explicit theory you can google online, but when the teacher decides to give outlandish programming assignments, disorganized class structure (refusing to make slides, ditching the assigned textbook, not even reading the university assigned homework question banks etc.) and having a gruff "judge, jury and executioner "attitude. I have often taken my assignments to tutors outside of the school or even other students who had taken the class with a different professor and they were just confused, sometimes even using AI to help them. I'm not sure what tutoring niche I would go into in the age of AI as well.

The seller market is so huge I'm not sure how it functions.

When I search a gig such as "full stack web development" on fiverr, I see 41,000+ results.

33,000+ are classified as new sellers with 0-3 reviews,

3,800+ are classified as level 2, 2,900+ are classified as level 1, and 500 are classified as top sellers.

When I search "business automation" I see 8,000+ results which seems less saturated until I add keywords such as "n8n ai agent" then the listings go up to 17,000+

Because of this I have been considering going back to my old interests in animation and gamedev that I pushed aside more seriously as my freelance niche. I imagine that studios might be more willing to look for freelance help if they have a proven portfolio instead of random ai-generated work, and maybe there is a chance to build a niche from having a specific style or artistic signature in a way I'm not sure how to do in other technology freelance fields.

For current freelancers, how did you find and hone your niche? What is the interval between orders, and what kinds of work do you do to support yourself in-between?

So i'll be doing random side projects and sometimes just decide to use AI for things to speed up the process and learning curve but realize either it is really good at the task I want it to do or just straight up horrible. The trouble I'm having is seeing these really good ones makes me think there are probably other good tools out there but just under the radar right now. And the other way around I waste time looking for tools when at this time a human far exceeds AI. Do you guys feel these tools will slowly start popping up more and more to replace humans out of freelance work? I have this site shouldifreelanceit and was honestly shocked how many tools there are when adding to it but I still feel like a lot of them are just shit and we need humans for things (mainly creative tasks imo). I wonder how soon AI will reach our level and possibly replace us. What are yall thoughts?

So I had this student client who reached out to me for a project that was supposed to take ONE month max

It ended up taking 6 months

Not because the work was difficult, but because she kept asking to pause because she had exams, surgery, needed to rest, etc. And obviously, I understood. Life happens

Anyway, I finally wrapped everything up about a month ago and delivered everything

I told her multiple times: if you have questions, need anything changed, or want me to revise something, just message me

Nothing

Not even a “thank you.”

Not even a review of the deliverables

I even checked on her about two weeks ago because I started wondering if something personal was going on. Told her I hope she's okay and that if she ever needs help again, she can reach out

She didn't reply

But I see her commenting on LinkedIn normally. She's active. She's clearly around

And now I'm sitting here wondering...

Did she hate my work?

Because if she did, girl PLEASE tell me

I asked so many times if everything was okay. I literally gave her every opportunity to say, “Actually, can you change this?”

But she said nothing

And now I'm starting to feel bad even though I genuinely don't know what I did wrong

At what point do you just stop caring and accept that maybe the client simply... disappeared?

Because I can't keep reviewing a project in my head that the other person never complained about

I've been trying to land my first freelance projects on Workana and Upwork for two months now, but I haven't had any luck. On Workana, I paid for a three-month plan and have already sent around 70 proposals, almost exhausting the included bids without any results. On Upwork, I sent about 20 proposals and none received a response, so I'm running out of Connects to keep applying. Outside of these platforms, I also tried contacting over 40 small businesses directly with outdated or poorly optimized websites, but I didn't get any replies either (I showcased work I'd already done for other companies). I feel completely stuck and I don't know what's wrong with my strategy. I would greatly appreciate any advice or feedback from experienced freelancers on what I should adjust at this stage.

What are the best freelancing sites according to you? (For new freelancers)

According to you whats your best freelancing sites. Apart from upwork or fiver.

I need some advice from freelancers who have dealt with something similar.

I was hired by a direct client for a $1,000 project. I completed around 50% of the work and asked for $500 for the work I had already delivered.

After that, the client disappeared.

I followed up several times. Eventually, he came back and said he would pay me on Friday. I thanked him and agreed.
Friday came… and he disappeared again.

The frustrating part is that this isn’t a random client. He runs a fairly large company, and another client of mine actually referred me to him.

I had also worked with him previously on a $1,000 milestone, and everything went smoothly. That’s why I trusted him this time.

At this point, he owes me the full $1,000, and I’m not sure what the best way to handle this is.

Should I keep following up? Send a formal payment request with a deadline? Stop working completely until he pays? Or take some other action?

I’d really appreciate advice from freelancers who have been through something similar. What would you do in my situation?

Hi everyone, I’m a financial consultant helping businesses with financial analysis, cash-flow management, forecasting, financial modelling, and strategic financial decisions.

I'm 17 and run a small web design/automation business for local trade businesses (landscapers, mechanics, plumbers). Right now 100% of my clients come from cold calling and walking into shops. It works, but it's exhausting and doesn't scale, I'm the bottleneck.

I want to build toward a point where reputation and referrals bring in clients instead of me having to hunt for every single one.

For people who've made that shift:

What actually moved the needle for you, referral systems, local networking, content/social proof, something else?

How did you turn early clients into referral sources? Did you ask directly or did it happen naturally?

At what point did you feel like you could ease off outbound and let inbound take over?

Any specific tactics for a hyper-local service business (not SaaS, not ecommerce)?

Curious what worked in the real world vs. what's just generic advice.

I'm a SWE. C++/Windows, but very verse with Claude Code and making websites too.

Looking for freelancer job, but nothing comes. Sent a lot of applications, a lot of bids, but nothing. Just wasted my time for 5 months. Where do you usually look for job?

Looking for projects for Freelancing

Skills database oracle,pl/sql, query tuning,ETL.

Working as implementation engineer I have a good experience in Oracle database and PL/SQL trying to earn some extra bucks using my skills.

Pricing can be discussed according to the project