I've noticed that getting good at the actual skill isn't necessarily the hardest part of freelancing.
Finding clients seems to be the real struggle.
For those of you currently freelancing in Nigeria:
- Are most of your clients coming from Upwork/Fiverr?
- LinkedIn or X?
- Cold DMs/emails?
- Referrals?
- WhatsApp/network?
- Or somewhere else entirely?
And if you started with zero clients, what was the first thing that actually worked for you?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who are currently getting consistent freelance work, not just general advice.
What has actually worked for you?
For me, it's Upwork. I have earned over USD 80k on Upwork, so I know a lot about freelancing there.
However, I got my first freelance gig from a family friend. That gig, plus my personal projects, were the portfolio that helped me land my first Upwork role.
Once I got my first Upwork role, the rest, as they say, is history. Now, I have gotten multiple jobs on Upwork.
As for other options, they can work if done well. But if you want to be getting consistent, high-quality, dollar-paying jobs, I really don't see a better way to do that than mastering Upwork.
That’s really valuable insight, especially the part about your first gig coming through a family connection and using that work + personal projects to build your initial portfolio.
Do you think having a strong portfolio is more important than having actual client experience when you're trying to land your first Upwork job?
And for someone starting today with zero portfolio and zero clients, what would you recommend they do first?
A strong portfolio and actual client experience go hand in hand. But if the actual client experience is very weak, it won't help. Likewise, if you don't have actual client experience but you have managed to somehow build a strong portfolio of personal projects and little side jobs for friends and family, it would really help you massively.
Hence, actual client experience is only useful if it's a quality one.
As for someone with no portfolio or client experience, I wrote about what they can do here: https://thenigerianfreelancer.com/create-work-portfolios/