I’ve been building websites since I was 15 and have had far more unsuccessful ventures than successful ones. My failures don’t really bother me, though, as I believe they were necessary and helped me to get to the great position I now find myself in. This position is one with both financial abundance and an excellent lifestyle.

I only quit my job 7 months ago, but have been making money online for over 4 years. These days, I sell products: both my own and for others. In the past, however, I didn’t used to sell products. Instead, I sold myself.

I’m not talking about anything illegal of course; I’m talking about freelancing. At 16 I had become fascinated with internet marketing and wanted to learn more about it. I specifically focused on SEO (getting traffic from Search Engine’s) and devoured every piece of information on the subject I could. Within a few months, I soon found myself having a lot of success with this practice and my websites were getting a lot of targeted traffic.

In fact, I started to have so much success with SEO, that I did it for others. I set-up my own website which included a blog to show off my expertise and a list of the services people could hire me for. I made sure to include examples of my previous work so that people could trust I knew what I was doing (there are a lot of shady characters in the industry).

For the next 2 years, this is where 90% of my internet income was generated. There was even a point when a big mobile phone manufacturer paid me thousands of dollars just to write a couple of articles for their blog. At 17, while working from my bedroom, I had managed to generate over $20,000 in the space of just 4 months.

And if that doesn’t seem like much, let me add that I was going to college 5 days per week at the time.

You Can Do The Same

In the past year, I’ve stopped doing pretty much any form of freelancing. This is for no other reason than wanting to create my own products. I absolutely loved what I did, but I love writing for you all on PluginID and promoting products that I believe in on various sites. As I started to focus more on this side of my business, my freelancing work took a back seat.

Over 300 of you have purchased a copy of Cloud Living and you’ll know that the content there shows you how to both build a successful blog, and how to sell products successfully online. I know many people who have followed the course and are having success, but admittedly, it’s not for everyone.

Some people can’t find a product they believe in or feel like they want to put more of themselves into the work. For a while, I didn’t have much advice to give the people who wanted to be a bit more creative, but now I do.

Introducing The Unlimited Freelancer

The Unlimited Freelancer is a guide that has been released by two good friends of mine: Mason Hipp and James Chartrand. It is the exact thing I wish I had when I was offering services to clients. Instead of creating and selling your own products or the products of others, freelancing is about selling yourself (for a good return, of course).

This is by far the best guide I’ve ever read which shows you how to make great money online by exploiting your talents and doing what you love. Some freelancing opportunities from the top of my head include:

• Copywriting
• Programming
• Graphic / Web Design
• Blogging
• Data Entry
• Community (Website) Manager
• Marketing

I know there are tons of readers here with talents in any one of these fields. Especially the ones in bold. If you have a skill or are willing to expand your expertise, there’s a lot of money to be made (yes, even in this economy).

How do you know if The Unlimited Freelancer is for you? I think the opening paragraph answers that question nicely:

Would you like a life that lets you grow, enjoy more free time, do what you love every day, make more money, and build a valuable business? If you said yes, then this book is for you.

Unlimited Freelancer Contents

The Unlimited Freelancer (TUF, as I’ll now call it) is jam packed with 200 pages of quality content and as one of the authors is a professional copywriter, it has been very well put together.

The guide itself is based around 5 main sections, each of which I’ve mentioned below.

1. How to Be an Unlimited Freelancer

The authors go into detail on what it really takes to be a successful freelancer. They don’t share any over-hyped claims and do admit that at times, freelancing can take some work. They do share though, and quite rightly, how freelancing is one of the best ways to utilise your talents and use them to work your own hours and build an income you deserve.

2. Systems, Software & Automation

This to me, was perhaps the best part of the guide. It is literally crammed with advice on how you can organise your time to take on freelancing work and get jobs completed within schedule. Not only that, but it goes into detail about how to handle your finances, your contacts, and even your marketing.

Each of the topics in this section contain tons of resources for outside advice and shows which tools these professionals really use.

3. Building a Freelance Team

I think this is a great addition to the guide and I’m glad they included it. This section gives you the knowledge you need to (if you wish) turn your freelancing career into a fully fledged business. It looks at taking on staff or simply just outsourcing certain work which is often necessary and a great business move in itself.

Just like in the other 4 sections, they really go all out here. James and Mason share their tips for creating excellent relationships with your staff (that can be used with clients) and great ways to get the responses that you want.

4. Revenue-Generating Assets

One thing you may come across as you start your freelancing career is that your time tends to equal your income. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you stop working, your income stops flowing. This section looks at how you can create other assets (and they give great examples) so that you can be making money on the back of your brand without having to put all of the extra work in.

5. Combine Strategies for Unlimited Potential

Section 5 looks at how you can live on your own terms and create a business that has an unlimited potential. I like that in this part of the guide there is an approach on how to make your business run smoothly as a whole and how to decide what to work on. After all, there is marketing, communication, branding, and other things that need attention.

Shown here though, is that it doesn’t just have to be your attention, or at least it doesn’t have to take up all of it. Each can either be tasked off to other sources or even just combined with tools to make your life easier.

Final Thoughts

In over a year of blogging, I have never recommended the goods of anyone else. This should show that I wouldn’t break this record for a lacklustre product. James and Mason have really hit the ball out of the park on this one and if you feel like you have some kind of service to offer, they show you exactly how to turn that into an income.

I love that each section of this guide contains both real life scenarios and mini take-aways from other professional freelancers who have ‘made it’ in their respective industries. I highly recommend that if this sounds like something you might be interested in, then you should pick up a copy today.

Disclaimer: I will only ever recommend products I have used or own personally. Trust is a hard thing to build (especially online) and I wouldn’t break it by putting my name behind something that I don’t believe in.