What is Freelancing? How to Find Freelance Jobs Online And Clients in Your City

Whether you’re a new developer or you’ve been in the game for a while, you might be thinking about doing some freelance work.

If you’re thinking about striking out on your own, you’ll likely have two questions. First, you may ask “what is freelancing?” This is understandable, given that the phrase can mean different things to different people.

The second question you might have is how you can get clients. This is, of course, important, since working for yourself without having any customers will result in you looking like this:

The good news, if you’re thinking of spinning up your own brand, is that if you go about it right then you can wind up looking like this:

I’ve written for freeCodeCamp on how to make money as a freelance developer. I’ve also written a comprehensive guide to working as a freelancer. This article is going to be different in that it is going to solely focus on two issues.

First, I’ll give my personal opinion as to what it means to be a freelance developer. Second, I’ll give my thoughts on getting the customers once you’ve struck out on your own.

I’ll break the latter of these points into three parts. First, I’ll discuss the tasks you should complete before you even begin attempting to get customers. Next, I will go over how to get clients through your online presence. The third part will cover ways in which you can get customers locally in your own city.

Here’s a quick roadmap of this article so that you can jump to a particular section:

What does it mean to be a freelance developer

The term “freelance” has been thrown around a lot in today’s society (including in lots of areas outside of software development). So much so that it has really become a buzzword that can mean different things to different people.