How to profit from the gig economy

Starting out – just do it!

It’s no secret that getting started is the hardest part especially when it is a crowded marketplace with lots of noise.

When you desperately need to pay the bills and make ends meet, you will find a way to utilize or transform your skills to earn additional income through various platforms.

If you have creative skills to sell, go to marketplaces like 99Designs, Behance, Coroflot, CrowdSpring, DesignCrowd, Dribbble, Fiverr, and UpWork.

If you have technical skills to sell, go to marketplaces like Envato, Studio, Fiverr, Freelancer, Guru, Project4HireToptal, and UpWork.

If you want to sell online courses and educational services, go to marketplaces like Codecademy, SkillShareTeachableTreehouseUdacity, and Udemy.

If you want to write, publish and sell an e-book to sell, go to marketplaces like Amazon and Smashwords.

If you have digital products to sell (either your own or purchased from third parties), go to marketplaces like Affpaying, AmazonClickBankCJ AffiliateGumroadJV ZooMax BountyOffervaultPayLoadzPeer FlyWarrior Plus, and WeLoveAffiliates.

If you have physical products to sell, go to marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Fancy, Gumtree, Handmade, NeweggShareASaleTophatter, and Wish. You may want to drop ship your products by heading to AliExpress.

If you have professional services to sell, go to marketplaces like Freelancer, Gigbucks, Guru, and UpWork.

If you are a handy person or like to run errands for people, go to your local digital marketplaces like Craigslist that advertises micro-jobs.

If you are new to the gig economy, Fiverr can get you immediately started. The marketplace works because of its traffic and awesome community.

Fiverr is now one of the most popular marketplaces where thousands of people are working and making money from home. People are providing various types of works like video creation, voice-over works, content writing, search engine optimization, traffic generation, lead generation, email marketing, banner & info-graphic design and so on.

The key to making money using these established marketplaces is to provide superior and quality services that are unique or have a slightly different twist to the many ones on offer.

Your aim is to reduce the number of competitors that are offering the exact same service as you. The existence of a lot of competitors can reduce the potential premium fee you can charge for your services based on supply and demand principles.

The lower barriers to entry mean that you need to sub-niche and find the intersection of the following six criteria:

  1. You are so passionate about and committed to your gig that you will spend all your free time working on it (even on weekends!).
  2. You want to create value for people and desire to make a difference in peoples’ lives. Having a servanthood mentality will go far for you.
  3. You have desperate niche customers who are willing and able to pay you for your unique product or service because you can solve their pain points or problems.
  4. You can create a sustainable stream of income out of your gig when you do decide to quit your 9-to-5 job. Remember always that you have to pay your bills!
  5. You have or are capable of acquiring the necessary skills and experience to build your gig business without much re-skilling or learning.
  6. You want to align your gig business with your personal and religious reasons and beliefs. Your WHYs of embarking on a gig business must be crystal clear.

Identifying your skills

You don’t need to be a graduate in college or university to make money. It will take commitment, dedication, and willingness on your part to explore and learn new skills.

Here are some examples:

  • If you have a good voice, offer a song using your skills in singing.
  • If you are an expert in drawing and painting, offer your skills in drawing using pencil, watercolor, paintbrush, etc.
  • If you are an expert in video making, offer videos that will benefit people or make videos for them.
  • If you are an expert in computer graphics, offer graphics designing for web pages.

It is only when you start offering the gig that you would start learning more about yourself and identifying your skills and strengths better.

In case you don’t know where to start in creating your gigs, you can browse the list of services currently being offered on Fiverr. Search for relevant ideas in which you are comfortable in the offering.

Identify the potential target customer group you would like to offer your services to. When you have a good idea of who your customers are and what are their pain points or service requirements, you will be in a better position to sell them your service that specifically meets their needs.

Another point to note is that your customers must be willing and able to pay you your asking price. Some people are willing to pay the price but are unable to pay because of their circumstances – e.g., university students. And some people are able to pay you your asking price but are not willing to open their wallets – e.g., skeptics who do not believe in you or what you are offering.

Once you have identified your service category, brainstorm the unique selling proposition (USP) that you will be offering your target customer group.

The ability to understand what your customers actually want and 100% meet their specific requirements will be your critical success factor in earning money from your gig.

Failure to give what your customers really want is a definite recipe for failure.