Hello everyone, I want to say a big thank you to all those who where inspired by my last thread and really showed me support, i am not really a phone person but due to mentions by several nairalanders I decided to write a follow up thread explaining the ups and downs you should expect while building up a career as an online freelancer(programmer).
Building up a name on freelancer sites is not really easy especially if you are a Nigerian , because believe it or not there is high discrimination against blacks.but the fact I came to realize (however alittle bit late)is that "if you ever depend on any freelancer sites to generate clients for you, you are only kidding yourself", in this thread I will be be sharing some tips that I used personally to at least attain soluable state on the freelance market.
However before I drop these tips I will l like to say a little to those who still have double minds on whether to practice professionally as a programmer or not.
You can never ever become good in anything if you don't sacrifice a thing or two for it, I advise you should stop any active job and dedicate 70% of your time to your programming career,am not saying you should render yourself financially broke but am simply saying that you can't float a career as an active programmer and do another thing at the xame time.
Back to the reason for the thread as I said before I will be talking about tips which you could use to build up your career as a programmer freelancer on Fiverr,upwork and the likes.
1.The one gig strategy: I will assume that you have you profile already on any freelancer site, if you haven't,drop a comment i might write a thread on it if I have time (am currently working on an Android project) first, classify your services into groups that can be easily represented in gigs, create not more than 3 gigs representing your areas of maximum expertise.
If you are doing webdevelopement, create one gig representing blog creation,1 representing company and personal branding websites e.g school website, company website, personal portfolio websites.then the last gig should represent functionality sites like YouTube,quora,ponzi sites or forums(but Sha any complex functionality site you know you can build...) NEVER create more than 1 gig for one skill make sure you fully explain in detail what you can do in any particular field under 1 gig(me personally I have three gigs, I for webdev,1 for Android dev and one for machine learning)
2.find your own clients:
After customization of your profile to be at least acceptable standard ,the next thing is to get clients, I started by building a Facebook page and paying for page boasts then I paid for does N400/day ads carrying an advert which leads back to my gig.for instance I will create a banner or giff saying "build an Android app and promote your brand and services on mobile click here to hire an Android developer now!!"
The button carrying "hire an Android developer now" will be linked to a gig that talks about the same thing on Fiverr. With that only clients interested in your services will contact you and they are already prempted about your services before they click on the button so all they do is just to view your gig(well detailed) and pay, I have done business with more than 12 clients this way.
3.your portfolio outside;
Aside for your freelance profile some clients will want to see your work in a more detailed form.... with dis in mind I advise you get a website, the website should be simple (no too much text) but should show your works in an orderly and presentable form..as a developer links to de website you have built or your apps on playstore should be supplied.your website should be be linked back to your portfolio on Fiverr or any freelancer site you are on...the trick is..you are only using the freelancer sites as a trusted platform for your clients to do business with you, because it is hard for clients to pay for services to unpopular companies,but dis is not so on freelancer sites.
4.keeping favorite clients: I won't write Much on this bcus everyone has thier own ways of doing business, try to lure your clients which you have worked for more than once to do business with you outside the freelancer environment,this will help you escape the dues you have to pay to Des sites in any job you get and also give you a firm ground of clientbase for you to settle down on your own in future.
Soo, these are my tips I will appreciate if you guys tell me how you feel about it like you did the last time... you guys have really encouraged me to write and i will be glad to answer your questions or concerns in the comments section.

That's impressive and motivating too. But the steps outline here are daunting for a newbie like me just stating out as a developer. I must commend you, You really tried.

Johnmattee:
That's impressive and motivating too. But the steps outline here are daunting for a newbie like me just stating out as a developer. I must commend you, You really tried.

I wrote about my journey in programming also in a thread here nairaland...cj check my profile..I think you will like it also

Great write-up. Concise and comprehensive. I'll ask questions if I encounter challenges in the process, going forward. Thanks OP.

Grandlord:
Great write-up. Concise and comprehensive. I'll ask questions if I encounter challenges in the process, going forward. Thanks OP.

No problem am here to answer them @ Grandlord