More and more people are tired of their office jobs, and I understand that, I was in that position too. And after being self-employed for years, I’m excited to share the best easy freelance jobs for beginners to get started.
Whether you are a newbie and want to start earning money online or a professional who wants to start applying to freelance programming jobs for beginners, you’re in the right place.
According to a 2023 Press Release by Upwork, 64 Million Americans worked as freelancers last year. Do you think they were all experts? No. Most of them work on easy freelancer jobs for beginners, even college students.
The easiest freelance jobs can help you earn extra money by making small efforts. It can also be used to earn money while traveling around the world as a digital nomad.
Whatever your choice, starting a new career as a freelancer offers many advantages, and you’ll learn the job for you in this guide.
Easy Freelance Jobs for Beginners – Overview
First things first, let’s focus on the essential information you should know, such as an overview of these freelance jobs, what a freelancer exactly is, and more.
What is a Freelancer?
A freelancer is an independent worker, nowadays usually working remotely, who works on both short-term and long-term projects. Freelancers can work pretty much on anything and in any field – from content writing and online marketing to traders and social media marketing.
Finding some freelance work isn’t difficult per se once you built your reputation and gained some good reviews and experience on the best freelance job sites.
What are Easy Freelance Jobs?
Explaining what simple freelance jobs for beginners are, especially ones that are real and easy to start online, can be tricky. But generally, you can either work on specific projects or get paid by the hour for what you do.
These kinds of jobs don’t require years of learning, and you definitely don’t need to go to University to get really good at them. Here are some simple online freelance jobs you can do:
- Copywriter
- Online Tutor
- Photographer
- Virtual Assistant
- Graphic Designer
- Social Media Manager
Related Guide
Here’s a full guide about
finding clients online easily.
What is the Easiest Job to Have as a Freelancer?
Of course, it all depends on your skills and what your idea of freelance work is. That said, you can start freelance writing with no experience as it’s pretty easy to start. Alternatively, being a virtual assistant is a great online job freelance.
These require minimal training and only some common sense and you certainly don’t need to have attended College to get hired. Lastly, these freelance jobs allow you to make money from home and that is certainly a point to consider.
How Much Can You Make as a Freelancer?
Just like normal office jobs, the amount of money you can make as a freelancer depends on your field. For instance, working on social media will likely get you a higher salary than working on a transcription project.
According to a report by ZipRecruiter in 2024, the hourly rate of freelancers in the USA is $48 on average. Of course, it all depends on the job, the industry, individual skills, demand, and more.
Best Freelancing Sites for Beginners
There are several ways to find freelance jobs and make money online. The easiest and most popular freelancing site is Upwork, but there are obviously more options.
If you’re interested in working on Upwork, these are great tips to write a proposal on Upwork and find clients.
Other than Upwork, these are the best freelancing platforms:
- People Per Hour
- Freelancer.com
- Fiverr
- Toptal
- Flexjobs
On top of that, Jooble is a fantastic platform for finding your next gig or job, and I couldn’t recommend their system enough. They help you find a remote job, a normal 9-5 job, and even freelance gigs.
It personally took me months to get my first job online. However, after 2 years, I make 5 figures a year working online with my clients, and I’ve never been happier.
How to Start Freelancing With No Experience
Starting a freelance career is anything but easy, but the final outcome makes it 100% worth it. You might have no experience freelancing, however, there are some easy jobs that anyone can do, including yourself.
Once you start getting experience and working for brands, you’ll get more recognition and, therefore, more money on multiple projects.
According to research by Bloomberg, an ex-Google programmer managed to earn as much as $1000 per hour. Did he get that experience straight out of college? No. And for this reason, you can do it too.
I initially started my career as a freelance writer on Upwork for $12 – Needless to say, the beginning wasn’t glorious. However, that client gave me a 5-star review, and I got other jobs thanks to that, so I saw that as an investment.
So, how to start freelancing with no experience? First of all, find what you want to do. Do you want to be a translator? Or work on data? A salesperson or a writer?
Once you understand the path you want to take, start with small projects and climb up the ladder.
Disclaimer: you’ll probably need to apply to many jobs before getting your first project since you won’t have reviews on freelancing sites.
Related Guide
Here’s a full guide about
using Upwork and finding clients.
Easiest Freelance Jobs for Beginners
Getting your first job on freelancing sites isn’t a hard task – and there are even easy freelance services for students. First of all, you should know the field where you want to work – Social Media, as a VA, or transcriptions, maybe?
Set up your profile on freelance sites (I recommend the ones listed above) and showcase all your skills to find clients.
Once you’re accepted, write an appealing cover letter and start applying to easy freelance projects. While not ideal, I personally recommend applying to low-paying jobs to start with and get your first reviews. The more reviews you have, the higher the chance of finding clients
All in all, finding easy freelancing jobs for beginners highly depends on your skills and the efforts you put into finding your first job. Now let’s talk about the main section, the easy jobs for beginners.
Content Writing and SEO Specialist
Content writing jobs are easily some of the best ones to start freelance work online. Research papers, e-books, blogs, web content, academic writing, there’s a huge list. There are immense opportunities in the writing field, and every beginner can do with some little research.
According to a survey by Zip Recruiter, freelance content writers make US$23 on average per hour.
However, after their first year, and according to Glassdoor, freelance writers on Upwork can make up to $46 per hour when they have multiple years of experience or work on more difficult tasks like marketing content or legal content creation, to name only a couple.
Search Engine Optimization is how any website can get ranked on Google. Content, images, the background, and everything related to the site should be classified in a certain way.
For SEO ranking, the website must be created so that it reaches the top page of the search engine. There is also some technical work involved, so learning how SEO works will help you get a job.
Both fields are related. In fact, knowing SEO will make you a better content writer, and knowing content writing will make you better at SEO.
Some of the most requested Content Writing and SEO jobs are :
- SEO Specialist
- AI Content Editor
- Article and Blog Writing
- E-book Writer
- Technical Writing
- Revamp blog articles
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Content Manager
Related Guide
Here’s a full guide about
becoming a freelance copywriter.
How Easy is it to Get a Freelance Writing Job?
Finding freelance jobs can be a challenge, especially if you’re just starting out and you don’t have a portfolio. That being said, you can learn with online courses on Skillshare, Udemy, or even YouTube and practice with topics you’re comfortable with.
You can also post your first articles on Medium so that, eventually, some readers will give you feedback, and you’ll know what to improve. All in all, once you’ve acquired experience in content writing, finding freelance writing jobs isn’t difficult, and you should be able to make a decent living out of it.
It took me personally 3 to 4 months to find good clients online and start seeing some results before making a real income, and I’m sure you can exceed in a similar timeframe.
It’s worth noting that everything got easier since AI helped content writers, and I personally use Jasper AI, which is by far the best software to write content, whether you have experience or not. I recommend checking it out now!
Freelance Data Entry Specialist
Data entry jobs are one of these jobs that pretty much anyone can do. Working on Data Entry projects essentially means finding data online and writing it on an Excel file/Google Sheets, or more.
Freelance projects are endless on websites like Upwork or People Per Hour and you’ll certainly find new clients online easily.
However, if you’re a newbie, there are tons of opportunities online, and doing some web research will benefit you to find the best freelacing jobs. Start with small projects, improve your experience, and find bigger projects with time.
Freelance Graphic Designer
A designer is someone who has an eye for design and can turn ordinary images and motion graphics into beautiful pieces.
A successful career in this industry requires you to have both creativity with a well-defined aesthetic sense as well as technical skills from being able to Photoshop or Illustrator effectively.
A designer also takes care of electronic media like advertising material and brochures creating a logo design for private blogs or online stores such as Amazon.
As a designer, you’ll also be designing social media graphics and creating logos, which isn’t that hard once you learn. Yes, you need different skills, but I’m confident you can learn quickly.
According to ZipRecruiter, the average rate for a graphic designer is $35 per hour or $72,122 a year. Of course, when starting out and getting your first projects, the hourly rate is expected to be lower.
Freelance Accountant
For many businesses or entrepreneurs, having staff members dedicated exclusively to accounting is not a priority. However, this area is important for optimal development, so the vast majority consider it more profitable to go to a freelancer financial consultant.
Normally, the accounting professional knows the functioning and development of the organizational, administrative, tax, cost, legal, accounting, and control aspects.
It doesn’t matter if you work under freelancer terms; accountants perform tasks that require a high managerial profile.
Also, they facilitate the company’s tax planning since it can provide ideas, strategies, and advice for intelligent tax planning, which allows it to comply with the law. The most requested jobs, according to this category, are:
- Accounting
- Financial planning
- Management consulting
Sell Stock Photos as a Freelance Photographer
Another easy career to start as a freelancer is in the photography world. While being a real professional photographer requires quite some experience and training, you don’t need to highly skilled to find easy freelance jobs.
Get your camera and start practicing. You will then be able to post your photos online on social media or on public websites such as Pixabay.
Ultimately, once you’ve acquired some experience, you’ll be able to sell your photos and videos and get a commission out of them.
The most popular stock photo websites to sell your images are iStock, Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Adobe Stock.
Freelance Virtual Assistant
Administrative support is a branch with a wide variety of applicants; despite its importance, companies prefer to hire freelancers who handle desktop tools such as Microsoft Office: Excel, and PowerPoint.
For this reason, being a VA is one of the best freelance jobs for beginners to make money online. In fact, it is mostly related to office activities without moving from home.
A study by The Week found that there are more than 110,000 virtual assistants online. In fact, 5,000 are listed on Upwork, 74,000 on Guru, 26,000 on Freelancer, and over 5,000 on PeoplePerHour. Needless to say, that’s definitely a job for beginners you should look into.
Becoming an assistant is ideal for those who have skills in the administrative area and want to make more money online. Plus, it’s easy to learn and clients usually tell you the instructions you need to know, which makes it easier.
Just like other easy freelance jobs for beginners, you can start on Upwork, Fiverr, or People Per Hour as a VA.
Freelance Translator
Mastering more than two languages is the perfect opportunity to make money online; the translator can adapt concepts between two or more languages. At any time, someone needs your writing in other languages or an interpreter for your international business meetings.
There are tons of translation opportunities online. However, most of the time, they don’t pay as much as they should. As you can see from the screenshot below, showing French translation job offers, 2 out of 3 offers pay very low.
For this reason, I’d recommend spending more time writing your proposal on Upwork to impress your clients and get you hired. It worked for me and I’m pretty sure you can make it too.
These are the most requested translation freelance simple jobs:
- General Translation.
- Legal Translation.
- Medical Translation.
- Technical Translation.
Advantages of Working as a Freelancer
There are several advantages of being a freelancer.
First of all, you have the freedom to work with the clients you want. That translates to quitting ungrateful employers that many have at the office or simply rejecting arrogant clients. Needless to say, that’s one of the best advantages of working as a freelancer.
Also, you have more control over your schedule. You can schedule your holidays, work whenever you want, day or night, or even take more days off if you need to.
Secondly, you’ll earn more money as a freelancer. In fact, according to the Freelance Survey by Payoneer, freelancers can make about $20 per hour, no matter where they’re located.
Above all, you’re free to work from anywhere, and that’s my favorite advantage of working as a digital nomad. Whether you’re in the States, in Thailand, or in Europe, you’ll be able to work on your project wherever you are.
Last but not least, you are more in control of your workload. If you have too much on your plate, you’re free to refuse a new project or postpone it. That would simply be impossible in a traditional office job.
Tips to Get Easy Freelance Jobs for Beginners
If you have considered taking the leap and working independently, for whatever reason, you have to know some tips that will help you carry out this work properly.
Create a Professional Website
Creating a website where they can see your work, where your brand is reflected, is essential to stand out from other users. This can also work as a link so that companies or clients meet you and be selected for other jobs.
Connect With Clients
Make contacts, talk about your services, connect on LinkedIn, and share your freelance profiles on social media; you never know where your potential client might be.
Take Some Online Courses
The online world constantly progresses and changes, and continuous training is essential. In fact, it is the key to success in every job. You’ll be able to get more knowledge on websites like Skillshare, Udemy, and more. This will ultimately get you some easy freelance jobs.
Use a Contract Before Working on Every Project
As much as we all want to impress and please all our clients, a contract is extremely important before working on any project of freelancer platforms.
I personally wasted money with clients working on their projects before opening the contract. Once the article or translation was sent to them, I never heard of them again. Simply put, the freelancer platform won’t be able to help if you don’t have an official contract.
Be Transparent with Your Clients
From a client perspective, if I were to hire you for your services, I would want to know to who I am giving my money to.
Also, when a client is interested in working with you, be transparent when talking to them. If they are going to hire you, explain how your process works.
Show interest in them and your business, and then analyze what they can expect by working with you step by step. This helps build trust and maybe the seal of the deal on a proposed project.
Building Your Reputation and Increasing Your Rate Over Time
Should you decide to work on freelancing sites, then you’ll only need to get your first projects to build your reputation. Once you excel on your first projects, you’ll get good reviews and it will be easier for you to find future jobs.
Make sure to always give your best in terms of results and deadlines. Never miss a deadline and reply to your clients’ messages as soon as possible to increase customer satisfaction.
Over time, you will be able to increase your hourly rates and get high-quality jobs that will last months rather than one-off opportunities.
On the other hand, should you want to find clients by yourself, you will need to prove your experience.
In this case, I’d recommend getting your first pieces of content published on your blog or Medium if you’re a copywriter. If you’re a photographer, posting your photos on Instagram, Pixabay, or Unsplash will certainly open some opportunity doors to you.
Last but not least, reviews are not everything. Experience comes with time and getting yourself educated with online courses (on Udemy or Fiverr, for instance) will go a long way.
