ADVERTISEMENT: “Working online is now the real deal. You don’t need to pay for rent nor worry about any transportation costs. After all, everything you do is on the cyberspace. And the only tools you need are your laptop, your internet connection, and your desk. In fact, you can earn N10 million annually if you are working online without breaking much sweat. Or haven’t you heard about Linda Ikeji, Seun Osewa, and other top online gurus making it big online? And now that a dollar is about N480, you can even earn far more than those working in banks, oil companies, or manufacturing firms. Don’t doubt this. You can be like these people by doing one thing: by buying this manual. The price is just N5, 000.”

Anytime you read something like the above, you shake your head in disgust perhaps because what most people don’t understand is that there is more to working online than meets the eye.

As an online worker, your work schedule is not fixed. Sometimes, you work during the day. But most times, you operate during the night. While a vast majority of your friends are asleep or while they are snoring on their bed, you are on your desk, peering at your laptop, sending emails to clients and chatting with different clients around the world on Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp and other social media platforms concurrently. You sacrifice your time and comfort just to meet customer needs and make more profits. That’s not all.

Not only are you trying to gain competitive advantage, but you also trying to meet crazy deadlines. Client A in Australia wants you to write seemingly difficult algorithms for his company in 2 hours. Client B in America wants you to fix the bug on her website in 60 seconds. Client C need you to design another logo for their new firm in 30 minutes. Client D also need you to write a 2000-word article for their company in just 1 hour, a job that may take you 4 hours to do on a good day. And whether you like it or not, you must deliver their jobs, lest all hell will break loose.

You try to outsource these jobs to other freelancers to meet deadlines. Sometimes, they do the work perfectly for you; at times, they disappoint you either by not meeting deadlines or by submitting a dismal work for you. And when that happens, you are in deep shit. Your clients start asking you for their projects. And you try explaining your ordeals to your customers, imploring them to extend the deadline. Some may give you more time. Some may pour execration on you and end up giving you a bad review for the unprofessional service. And the more poor reviews you get, the more the customer and other clients will avoid you like a plague.

After overworking yourself through the night, you realise that the time is almost 5am. You decide to forgo your morning prayer and take forty winks. This is because you are as tired as an athlete who just finished a relay race. You do this every day to the detrimental of your faith. And guess what: The sanctimonious around you will tag you as an infidel even though you think otherwise. To them, not praying in the morning is tantamount to not going to heaven. In the end, you ignore their holier-than-thou remarks and follow the same routine to make ends meet.

You wake up in the “morning” around 2pm most times. To you, that is the perfect time for breakfast. You quickly go out to get something to eat as you have so many jobs to do. But to your chagrin, anytime you come out of the house, everybody around you looks at you with a jaundiced eye. At best, some of them including your friends criticise you for staying indoor and for not posting your pictures or comments on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp occasionally. They mistake being alone for being lonely and tell you that you are living a boring life. At worst, some of them presume that you are into “yahoo yahoo”, a term used to describe people carrying out nefarious activities online.

Fast forward some months; rumours start flying around your neighbourhood like a bunch of dry grass that has just encountered a barrage of fire. Your landlord hears this spurious claim and starts questioning you. He asks you a number of questions like a military person working in Sambisa Forest, “what do you do for a living, what is the nature of your job, and which company are you working for?” You try to explain to him what you do, but you realise that his ignorance is somewhat incurable. By the time, you liberate some of your friends, perhaps your landlord too, from their misconception, they start treating you like Dangote. They use “sir” for you and praise you as though you are as powerful as Vladimir Putin. They want you to take them out, buy them expensive drinks, and pay all their expenses even though they are working as well. Your girlfriend is not alone in this. She sees you on the one hand as an ATM to remit “free money” and on the other hand as a recluse who is as boring as watching NTA. And when you try to explain to these people that you an extrovert, they be like “you must be joking.”

The most interesting part of working online is when you combine it with your studies. Most times, lectures are fixed by 8am and after forcing yourself to bed at 4am, you always wake up late and miss your class. On the rare occasions, you get to class on time, your classmates give you a stern look and brand you with unspeakable names. They look at you like someone who had just completed a scientific exploration of planet Mars and conclude in their hearts that you are not serious with your studies. Soon, news start filtering in concerning your source of income which undoubtedly endear more friends to you. To them, the Mr. Unserious yesterday has suddenly become the Dangote and Otedola of today. They throng to your residence and distract you with financial requests. The “sharp” guys among them surprisingly become unusually close to you with the aim of tapping from your knowledge. And when you show signs of refusal, they brand you wicked and heartless.

More worrying is your sedentary lifestyle. You are always sitting on your chair for about 15 hours. As a result, you experience a bout of muscle strain all over your body, especially around your arms, legs, toes, neck, thigh, and jaws. You read books on how to be physically fit and promise yourself to always go to the gym on weekends. But when Saturday approaches, you have one million excuses to break your promise. And before you say Jack on Sunday, you don’t even have time for any exercise. You continue like this from Monday to Sunday to the detrimental of your health. But you console yourself, muttering “I have tried my best.”

Talking about your social life, you hardly have time to attend events or hang out with friends. And if you are a soccer freak, the best you can do is to watch football highlights on YouTube or DSTV or GOTV. To say it more crudely, you scarcely have time to view live matches or engage in sporting activities. This is because you are always trying to meet clients’ deadlines and stay ahead of the game. Sometimes, when people ask you questions about the latest trends on social media or about the top news concerning your country, you be like “when did that happen.”

Believe it or not, working online makes you not only an introvert but also a nocturnal human being. It cuts you from friends, families and hobbies. It forces you to multitask. And above all, it moulds you to become a philosopher. No matter how hard you try to strike a balance, you can never get everything right.

Writer: Topsquino
Co-writer/Editor: Chidiebere John

Beautiful piece topsquino.You captured the life of a lot of freelancers.Well,i don't think every freelancer can be a recluse(at least I hope so).I'm venturing into the freelance world come January and this article has really given me some pointers on what to expect.#NO PAIN NO GAIN#.

Freelancing is generally the perfect job for an introvert. You can, however, also be an extrovert and freelance as well, even though it will be a bit challenging. I am not the outgoing type, I prefer staying in one place, so freelancing is perfect for me. For knowing what is happening in Nigeria, I use Nairaland. I get every information I need about the country and what is happening from here. I have a skipping rope, so I go to skip every 1 to 2 hours to avoid sitting down for too long. I do that within my house, so I don't even have to go outside.

Using working as a freelance writer as an example, you can decide how much words you can write within a time frame. For instance, you might be able to write 500 words in 30 minutes. Then you might decide that you want to work for only 5 to 8 hours a day. With this, you will try to accept jobs of only 5,000 to 8,000 words in a day. You will want to look for clients that will give you at least 24 hours to deliver their job. With this, you can decide to work from 8am to between 1 and 4pm daily, or 10pm to between 3 and 6am daily. You can therefore have the whole day to do your other activites, rest in the evening and then work in the night or adjust your time the way you want it. If you are earning an average of $2.5 per 500 words article (of course you can earn much more or a little less, depending on the clients), then you will be making about $20 a day (after removal of freelance charges and other charges). That is over N8,000 per day and over N240,000 a month for just working 5 hours a day. That is a decent income to a large extent in Nigeria.

It, therefore, depends a lot on discipline, taking work within the time frame you want to work everyday, making sure you only take jobs with a deadline of at least 24 hours, except when you are sure you can complete it immediately. Most importantly, you need to time yourself daily. This is my working time, my time to go out and socialize as well as my time to sleep. You should also not be too conscious about the money, thereby taking every work even when you know you have so many pending work. With time, and when you are getting well paying projects, you can recruit 3 to 10 freelancers you can rely on. Even when the job is for 24 hours, ask them if they are available to work immediately and only give them jobs that they should deliver within 10 hours. If they fail, you still have 14 hours to do the job yourself, or give to another of your freelancer. Cheers.

gaburiel:
Freelancing is generally the perfect job for an introvert. You can, however, also be an extrovert and freelance as well, even though it will be a bit challenging. I am not the outgoing type, I prefer staying in one place, so freelancing is perfect for me. For knowing what is happening in Nigeria, I use Nairaland. I get every information I need about the country and what is happening from here. I have a skipping rope, so I go to skip every 1 to 2 hours to avoid sitting down for too long. I do that within my house, so I don't even have to go outside.

Using working as a freelance writer as an example, you can decide how much words you can write within a time frame. For instance, you might be able to write 500 words in 30 minutes. Then you might decide that you want to work for only 5 to 8 hours a day. With this, you will try to accept jobs of only 5,000 to 8,000 words in a day. You will want to look for clients that will give you at least 24 hours to deliver their job. With this, you can decide to work from 8am to between 1 and 4pm daily, or 10pm to between 3 and 6am daily. You can therefore have the whole day to do your other activites, rest in the evening and then work in the night or adjust your time the way you want it. If you are earning an average of $2.5 per 500 words article (of course you can earn much more or a little less, depending on the clients), then you will be making about $20 a day (after removal of freelance charges and other charges). That is over N8,000 per day and over N240,000 a month for just working 5 hours a day. That is a decent income to a large extent in Nigeria.

It, therefore, depends a lot on discipline, taking work within the time frame you want to work everyday, making sure you only take jobs with a deadline of at least 24 hours, except when you are sure you can complete it immediately. Most importantly, you need to time yourself daily. This is my working time, my time to go out and socialize as well as my time to sleep. You should also not be too conscious about the money, thereby taking every work even when you know you have so many pending work. With time, and when you are getting well paying projects, you can recruit 3 to 10 freelancers you can rely on. Even when the job is for 24 hours, ask them if they are available to work immediately and only give them jobs that they should deliver within 10 hours. If they fail, you still have 14 hours to do the job yourself, or give to another of your freelancer. Cheers.

Wow.

Seem we think alike sir.

We need to hook up.

Can I send you a pm, or can you drop your whatsapp number?

Interesting15:

Wow.

Seem we think alike sir.

We need to hook up.

Can I send you a pm, or can you drop your whatsapp number?

You can send a pm.

As a potential would be Freelancer, I have skills in E-views, MS Word, MS Excel and MS Publisher as well as writing skills. Could u share with me various websites my skills needed so I can start earning money. My a graduate of Economics awaiting NYSC and would like to continue with Freelancing even during my service year. Thanks. Your feedback highly appreciated...

You just described my life

Rays123:
As a potential would be Freelancer, I have skills in E-views, MS Word, MS Excel and MS Publisher as well as writing skills. Could u share with me various websites my skills needed so I can start earning money. My a graduate of Economics awaiting NYSC and would like to continue with Freelancing even during my service year. Thanks. Your feedback highly appreciated...

Your writing is abysmal. Forget the writing niche. You can work as a virtual assistant and a typist. You'll make cool money doing that.

Go through these threads for guidance.

https://www.nairaland.com/1833989/how-make-1000-month-writing

The above is for freelancer.com

https://www.nairaland.com/2947212/exclusive-how-make-level-2

The above is for Fiverr.

There are other freelancing sites and threads as well. Search around. Get ebooks.

DO NOT PAY A KOBO TO ANYONE!

All the information you need is available online.

@Topic.

It hasn't been easy for me at all. Combining freelancing with NYSC is no easy task. It's not easy meeting deadlines and then keeping up with PPA work. I even have to reject some jobs.

So many sleepless nights. I am an avid reader but from August to December I read just 2 books. When normally, I read a book every week.

I hardly watch Chelsea matches again.

Now I sleep for about 4 hours daily.

But the pay has been rewarding.

By God's grace, will be through with service by May, outsource to a solid team of writers and get my self involved in other projects.

Happy New year, i sent you a mail.Please check your mail

wman:


Your writing is abysmal. Forget the writing niche. You can work as a virtual assistant and a typist. You'll make cool money doing that.

Go through these threads for guidance.

https://www.nairaland.com/1833989/how-make-1000-month-writing

The above is for freelancer.com

https://www.nairaland.com/2947212/exclusive-how-make-level-2

The above is for Fiverr.

There are other freelancing sites and threads as well. Search around. Get ebooks.

DO NOT PAY A KOBO TO ANYONE!

All the information you need is available online.

Thanks for the eye opener.

wman:


Your writing is abysmal. Forget the writing niche. You can work as a virtual assistant and a typist. You'll make cool money doing that.

Go through these threads for guidance.

https://www.nairaland.com/1833989/how-make-1000-month-writing

The above is for freelancer.com

https://www.nairaland.com/2947212/exclusive-how-make-level-2

The above is for Fiverr.

There are other freelancing sites and threads as well. Search around. Get ebooks.

DO NOT PAY A KOBO TO ANYONE!

All the information you need is available online.

Thanks for the eye opener. Shalom

wman:
@Topic.

It hasn't been easy for me at all. Combining freelancing with NYSC is no easy task. It's not easy meeting deadlines and then keeping up with PPA work. I even have to reject some jobs.

So many sleepless nights. I am an avid reader but from August to December I read just 2 books. When normally, I read a book every week.

I hardly watch Chelsea matches again.

Now I sleep for about 4 hours daily.

But the pay has been rewarding.

By God's grace, will be through with service by May, outsource to a solid team of writers and get my self involved in other projects.

I sent a mail

Nice read mate. You captured it all.