FREELANCE SUCCESS: Real freelancers share the email templates and strategies they used to build 6-figure careers from scratch

• You’re looking to switch careers or start a side gig as a freelancer, but getting started seems like an impossible process to navigate.
• These stories offer an inside look at how some of the most successful freelancers launched a career, and the strategies and platforms that helped them hit the ground running.
• Business Insider regularly interviews freelancers about their tips and tricks, and what’s worked for them since they’ve started. You can read them all by subscribing to Business Insider.

The ups and downs of freelancing might seem like a treacherous path to success, but these freelancers found a way to combine their passions with consistent work — and now make five to six figures doing it. 

Whether it’s the exact emails they sent to their first paying clients or the freelancing platforms and tech they used to get going, they share candid advice about their journey and recommendations on getting started. 

Freelancers who took the leap from full-time to freelancing

• I earn three times as much as a freelancer as I did in my full-time job. Here are the 5 lessons I’ve learned about going off on your own.
• How to become a freelance ghostwriter, according to someone who left her $50,000-a-year banking job and now makes $80,000 a year on her own time
• A freelancer who has pulled in a 6-figure income every year since 2010 shares the exact process he used to quit his job and become successfully self-employed
• An actor turned freelance copywriter went from making $50,000 to $250,000 in one year. Here are 3 unique strategies she used to make it happen.
• I’m a stay-at-home mom who went from making $8 an hour at Starbucks to over $100,000 a year as a freelancer. Here are 5 steps I took to build my client base and income from scratch.
  

Freelancers who used email to land clients and increase their rates

• A freelance web designer who makes over $200,000 a year says the majority of his income comes from referrals. Here are the emails he sends to get businesses to refer him to their customers.
• The email template a freelance designer used to attract clients and earn $200,000 in her second year of self-employment
• A marketing director making $50,000 quit her job and now makes five times more as a freelancer. Here’s the email template she used to build a subscriber network of over 100,000 people.
• I landed a $10,000 gig as a 6-figure freelance writer thanks to this cold email — but the real secret sauce was following up with the client
• The pitch and email template a 6-figure freelance copywriter uses to sell additional services to her clients — and get them to say yes
• The exact email one freelance presentation designer uses to increase her rates — and how she plans to make $400,000 this year

Freelancers who substantially grew their income and business

• The strategies a 27-year-old freelancer used to build her income to over $350,000 a year on the freelancing platform Fiverr in 5 years
• I’m a freelancer who’s brought in 5 figures a month in income since the start of the pandemic even after losing half my clients. Here’s how I’ve found additional work and kept business up.
• 6 crucial steps I took to quit my job and grow my freelance business to nearly $300,000 a year in revenue in just 2 years
• The exact steps a freelancer turned entrepreneur took to build up a 6-figure salary and self-fund her own startup
• I’ve already made 6 figures in 2020 while only freelancing part time. Here’s how I’m able to set high rates and work less hours.
• I made over $10,000 in September as a freelance writer. Here’s how I landed gigs quickly and the system I use to stay organized.