Portfolio Designers: Progress and Success

In recent years, the freelancing industry has grown, with most startups and organizations opting to outsource their operations to freelancers. While many people seek the independence that a freelance job gives, others see it as an opportunity to earn more money.

Many people were looking for side hustles on various social media platforms and were striving to get into the realm of content writing. Many of them gave up hope after being rejected for their work.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas Edison

When people lack internal drive or feel down, they use external factors to push them toward their goals. When you have that “Oh, I’m not sure I can do this” moment and someone pushes you through it, that’s when you have a breakthrough.”

The trick to writing impeccable content is to “write, write, and write” until it is right.

While focusing on the first principle of Amal, we began with introductory sessions and progressed to SEO writing and affiliate articles. It took me 30–40 minutes to provide feedback on a single task at the start, and it was hectic and time-consuming. Going through the blogs of all 24 mentees rapidly drained my energy. However, seeing students incorporating that feedback and publishing it on Medium.com strengthened my inner drive.

Freelancers are constantly looking for writers who can generate SEO-optimized Amazon affiliate articles that rank high on Google to drive traffic to their websites. Affiliate product reviews are challenging to write; trying to be truthful while persuading people to buy through your affiliate link. Therefore, after tackling the most demanding niches, we had a whole session on affiliate articles and offered our students the required materials for writing appropriately.

Then, we headed towards the final part of our Mega Project i-e How to Earn money as a Fiverr Content Writer? The content writing business on Fiverr is not only profitable but sustainable. The biggest perk is repeat buyers. Articles are products that the buyer needs every week and in a handsome quantity. So, if you have 4 to 6 permanent buyers, you can make great money as a Fiverr content writer. We arranged this webinar as a bonus session for our most promising content writers so that they can start working as a freelancer on Fiverr.

Challenges and Solutions

Seven people with diverse backgrounds and experiences working on one platform is a challenge in and of itself. We couldn’t always agree on something, and conflict arose. With our problem-solving and conflict management skills, we respond to the needs of all team members, including their availability for sessions and meetings, task completion, and striking a balance between PWs, exams, and the Mega Project. Moving forward with shared leadership and cooperation (1+1 = 11) has helped us reach this stage, where we are ending our project with great success.

Managing the team of 24 content writers virtually was also a new experience for us. With our tight schedules and strict deadlines, our students fall back gradually, which leads them to procrastination. We dropped several students owing to their lack of seriousness. Some of them returned because they had valid grounds for postponing assignments, while others did not bother to react. Our teams’ supportive feedback and repeated reminders about the bonus sessions kept them continuing with the workload.

Change in Approach

A total of 24 people from all over Pakistan have joined us due to our social media campaign. They were devoted to refining their writing skills and broadening their knowledge. We organized sessions successfully and attempted to cover all areas of content creation.

Unfortunately, some of them could not continue with us due to various factors. We let go of those who did not meet deadlines since we required them to develop a portfolio on Medium.com. However, we then changed our strategy and restricted their access to resources and materials while allowing them to remain with us. This benefited in reviving the energy who were delaying assignments. The shift in approach enabled us to have a more significant influence on the lives of those around us.

Whether students or our team members, many people come across technical glitches. We managed to provide recordings to people after the session, which reduced their participation and engagement in live sessions, and we lost students’ attendance as time went on. We altered the approach and offered recordings to those only who attended the sessions. This leads to learners regaining their energy and participating with passion and interest.

At first, we provided feedback in comments on their blogs. As a result, we were inundated with queries in our inbox, making it extremely difficult to deal with everyone. We modified our strategy and began providing comments in WhatsApp groups so that everyone could get the benefit. We were also able to offer voice notes for mistakes in DM, allowing them to incorporate feedback more quickly and rapidly.

Impact of the Project

We began with homemakers, students, and men searching for a side hustle. We wanted to help people create their portfolios to receive work from freelancers. We are delighted to see our students earning paid jobs.

A student from the University of Punjab shared her experience:

Another medical student found a job after our mentorship.

“Your progress won’t always look graceful but it’s still progress.”

Our mentoring didn’t just help students make money. When we first started, we received a lot of queries from students who were having trouble with their university projects. The Portfolio Designers team helped them much, and they can now pen down their thoughts efficiently. They’ve progressed from making 100+ mistakes to making only ten, and they’ve learned a lot.

Project Sustainability

We proposed the idea of paid certification for this mentoring to make our project more viable. We had a guest speaker session for our first batch of students to teach them about Fiverr. We hope to use this money to invest in our upcoming batches, where we will provide full-fledged Fiverr training for our students in partnership with other organizations.

Freelancing is on the rise worldwide. The future of freelancing is bright, and demand is surging globally. The freelancing economy has grown exponentially over the past decade. By 2027, nearly 60% of the world’s workforce will be freelancers, According to Upwork’s freelancing and American study. Therefore, we will expand our modules for freelancing skills, including graphic designing, web development, and digital marketing, and help people build a portfolio in different areas of interest.

Final Thoughts

Rapid changes in technology and workplace expectations have proven that there’s no longer a singular way to work, and traditional employment models are just one of many options. Self-employment is a dream of everybody who does not want to be their boss. Therefore, many take freelancing as the work of mode for the future. In the end, more and more companies are switching their workforce to freelancing for a wider variety of tasks. We want to be one of those who will help people who look to enhance their skill set to earn themselves a more flexible career path.