[rmcastil]

Lean how to sell. When I was in college I got frustrated at not having software dev opportunities and only opportunities working at the mall (I went to college right after the dot com bubble). This curse ended up becoming a blessing because I learned how to empathize with what people wanted and what they were trying to accomplish.

A lot of freelancing is just being able to sell yourself. When you find a lead you have to convince them (aka sell to them) that you won't run away with their money and are trustworthy enough to finish what they asked. Each week/day/month you have to do a smaller version of this sale to convince them to continue to stick with you and pay you. Even at the end of the project you have to convince them (aka sell to them) that they should provide positive reviews for you.

Aside from selling you've got to be sure you deliver on time and perform the work asked. You'd be surprised how much of freelancing is more about soft skills (listening, empathy, communicating, saying no, etc) than technical skills.

If have any more questions don't hesitate to reach out to me at ryan at challengeacceptedhq.com

I write a newsletter on freelancing but have taken a couple months break to wrap up my book: The 7 Recurring Revenue Recipes for Freelancers.

[rmcastil]

Here's the source regarding being able to make money on elance: http://copyhackers.com/2014/12/how-to-earn-on-elance/

[SerialMiller]

I second this. Well, the part about the soft skills. Of course you need to be a good web developer, but typically you won't get judged by your uber development skills. (Depends on your client though.)

Clients usually come to you (or you go to them, but preferably the first) because they are not knowledgable in the part where you specialize in. But in order to prove (show value) that you are a good web developer, you actually have to be a good salesman.

You can start dropping HTML, CSS, Frameworks, Libraries, Angular, React, Ruby, Python, Symfony, Django, Hibernate or Spring on them, it does not tell them a thing.

And once you got the gig, depending on the client, you will have to reassure them on a daily/weekly/monthly basis everything is on track so they keep believing in you.

Furthermore, in order to get some quality leads, you will have to get your name out there. I started at an early age as well, doing websites for family members and small companies in my community for a bargain. Doing so I got some exposure, got more requests and slowly raised my prices.

[NicoJuicy]

This is how i'm doing it and i see it's slowly working out ( creating websites and etc..). Still not expensive, so you can contact me for the next 3 months or so if you need anything ;) - some waiting time depending on your needs / how busy it is for me though.

Stay away from "doing something for big companies"... I have created a HackerNews clone without any success and a time tracking app in AngularJS for 2 big companies... They let me down bigtime and lost a lot of time ( = money) because of that -> they won't help in publicity.

Also created www.ledenboek.be - a member management application, before i found out that sporting clubs don't have money in Belgium... ( it does work great though).

I'd do it all again any time (although you should have some patience though... Not all your friends/acquintances want a website / app right now... ). I'm releasing a website tomorrow, working on one right now and got a new request for a website today. So that's 3 websites in 1.5 weeks without any publicity. Be fair to everyone, be honest also! ( don't try to cover things up, if something is hard / difficult to do. Give them an alternative). They understand if you do something a different way, if it saves a lot of time. When you notice someone isn't "communicating", but just rammeling what they want without any discussion. Stay away from those clients, they think everything is easy peasy.

When someone says they want this or that. Ask them why they want it... Some people don't know IT and give a "bad solution". If you create it, they won't be happy, because they don't realize their solution is bad! Talk to the client and discuss.

PS. And i still haven't asked my brother ( who totally needs a website, because his current one is lame for a clothing store :P ). I'm delivering a website for a collegue of him tomorrow (as mentioned). So he'll hear about it on his own work ( his girlfriend has the clothing store)..

Know how the world works, people talk - i recreated a website for a "student club" in the neighboorhood for a bargain. They'll know me in the future ;)

If you're good / honest / fair, people will come to you. Raise your prices when you have too much work.

Don't be afraid to share knowledge / they'll remember you as the guy who can help them.

If you know someone who has a problem, if one of you're clients has the solution. Redirect them (or introduce them), say something particular so your old client will know you referred him ( like one of my clients is creating an airplane, i always mention that... It is an extreme example though :P - if you don't believe me : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su1RCCxCMEs , that's the guy)

I wouldn't do odesk / elance / whatever... You have less competition in your neigboorhood and you won't have to drop your prices under the hourly wage. Talk about what you do, there are always opportunities if you LIKE what you do.

And at last, LIKE what you do. If you wouldn't do it for more then a year, then think about something else.