Courtesy of Shealey.
- Thirty-nine percent of the workforce freelanced in 2022, up 3% from 2021, according to Upwork.
- Many Americans are looking to earn extra income to offset inflation and economic fears.
- Marketing, social media, and tech services are trending Fiverr searches for 2023.
Many Americans are looking for ways to earn extra income to manage inflation, a potential recession, and analysts' predictions of future economic uncertainty. Career experts said this will lead to increased business creation and more side hustlers in 2023.
Today it's easier than ever to start your own business or side hustle because all the tools you need exist online and are free.
Sixty million Americans, or 39% of the workforce, freelanced in 2022, up 3% from 2021, according to a study by the freelance platform Upwork. Services like marketing, social media management, and programming are already some of Fiverr's top trending searches for 2023, a representative from the online freelance network told Insider. What's more, some freelancers are earning millions of dollars through their work.
Jennifer Shealey, a digital-marketing entrepreneur who promotes her services on Fiverr, is part of this growing trend. She's found success on Fiverr by offering digital marketing services to the platform's more than 4.2 million active buyers.
Her customers are, "either a solopreneur or starting a company and have to play a lot of roles," Shealey said. "They just don't have the time and they need someone to fulfill those roles."
For entrepreneurs who are curious about which freelance services are gaining popularity, here are seven of the top trending searches globally across Fiverr between October 2021 and March 2022. What's more, Insider included advice for starting a freelance business in these categories.
Courtesy of Shealey
Many entrepreneurs turn to Fiverr freelancers for help prompting their businesses through strategies like Facebook and Instagram marketing, paid ads, and SEO to attract customers to their pages.
In fact, searches for "affiliate marketing" and "e-commerce marketing" increased 32% and 30%, respectively from the first half of 2022 to the second half, a Fiverr representative told Insider.
Additionally, searches for "Google ads adwords'' and "pay-per-click campaigns'' increased by 193% between October 2021 and March 2022, according to a Fiverr quarterly report in 2022.
Shealey started offering marketing and advertising services on Fiverr in 2014 for $5 per project. Today, her prices range from $15 to $125 per project and she's booked $480,000 in total revenue, which Insider verified with documentation.
She started by learning crucial terms and skills — like marketing funnels and lead-capture pages — and suggests other entrepreneurs study the same processes.
Shealey is also a proponent of looking forward when determining which services to offer instead of being reactive to the market. For example, since e-commerce continues to grow, she's adjusting her services to match the needs of her clients. That means offering more digital image-and-design services, she said.
courtesy of Camara
Customer searches for "logistic website" increased by 268% between October 2021 and March 2022, according to Fiverr's quarterly report.
The increased demand for website development has allowed AJ Camara, who joined Fiverr in 2020 after launching a creative agency a year earlier, to find a consistent customer flow.
He initially offered both website development and business branding on the platform, but has since shifted to focus on web services because that's what most Fiverr customers are looking for, he said. He suggested other sellers look at their analytics and most-common requests to determine the services they should prioritize.
"This is something that I can offer for similar quality that you would find at an agency, but on the Fiverr platform."
That high quality of work has helped him garner enough positive reviews to receive a five-star rating on the platform. What's more, he's booked more than $200,000 in total sales, documents verified by Insider showed.
Courtesy of McCall.
Demand for promotional-video advertising increased by 453% between October 2021 and March 2022, according to Fiverr. Through the pandemic, Fiverr sellers like Kit McCall have found success by offering unique video-production services when other in-person tasks are suspended.
For example, sellers launched video-advertising packages — a choice of 15-, 30-, or 60-second videos — created solely from stock footage.
His basic-service prices range between $395 to $1,800 per project. But he also advises production freelancers to sell their services a la carte, meaning there should be a baseline price depending on the length of the video, with additional fees for voice-over, script writing, or expedited completion, he said.
McCall booked $74,000 in sales for production services last year, which Insider verified with documentation, thanks to a wide range of clients including Google and small businesses.
His best pieces of advice for someone looking to become a freelance producer are to start out by offering cheaper services to build your portfolio and to constantly communicate with any customers you bring in. "Communication and delivering a quality product really will pay off," he said.
What's more, between the first and second half of 2022, Fiverr searches for "TikTok video editing" increased 73%, Fiverr told Insider, making social media another growing avenue for video production.
Courtesy of Hernandez.
Demand for social-media-content managers increased by 361% between October 2021 and March 2022, according to Fiverr. Searches for Facebook and Instagram ads campaigns were particularly popular, jumping up 44% from the first half of 2022 to the second half.
Cathy Hernandez and her husband John founded their business, Agency Social, in 2014 and used Fiverr to gain clients. They offer a range of social-media services such as management, content creation, blog writing, social-media audits, and content calendars. More recently, they've incorporated NFT creation and Web3 into their marketing services. Rates start at $10 for a voiceover and go as high as $10,000 for business consulting.
Agency Social doesn't have employees, but outsources some tasks to other freelancers and independent contractors on Fiverr. The cofounders earned $93,137 in sales on Fiverr in 2021, which Insider verified with documentation.
At first, Hernandez set low prices for her services. "I literally made a video for $5 because I just wanted to get on the board," she said, referring to building a reputation on the platform.
Over time, she gained more reviews, built up her credibility, and raised her prices. While her corporate clients include the apparel brand Columbia Sportswear and the software company SAP, Agency Social mostly serves small businesses and entrepreneurs who need help navigating social media.
"They don't understand it, but they know that they have to get in the game," Hernandez said.
Alessandra Basher
Demand for 3D and CAD, or computer-aided design, modeling increased by 297% between October 2021 and March 2022, according to Fiverr.
Dani Prado, an interior designer, founded her business Go! Organizer and started freelancing on Fiverr in 2020. She finds all of her clients through the platform, where she earned $36,454 in sales last year, Insider verified with documentation.
Prado creates design plans, mood boards, and shopping lists for people who want to redesign their homes. She often uses 2D and 3D modeling to walk her clients through each room she designs for them.
"This tool helps my clients to better understand the layout, the position of the furniture, the decor accents, and to visualize how it will be in their homes," Prado said.
Her rates start at $150 and go up to $690 per project. One way she attracts more business is by offering clients a 5% or 10% discount when they purchase more than one room design.
"Normally clients that are looking to decorate their home are not just looking for one room," she said. "They want to do two or three rooms."
Courtesy of Rico Mercado.
Demand for NFT artists grew by 3,504% between October 2021 and March 2022, according to Fiverr.
Jose Fernando Rico Mercado previously told Insider that COVID-19 curtailed demand for his notebook-printing side hustle, so he began selling digital artwork for people to mint and sell as NFTs. He joined Fiverr to tap into the demand for NFT art and increased his prices over time.
"The first set of artworks we sold for around $2,000," he previously told Insider. "Every time I sold another one, I raised the price by $1,000. It went to around $6,000."
Now, he charges $10,000 per project.
Cathy Hernandez, the social-media manager, doesn't have to be an NFT artist to take advantage of the format's popularity. She offers NFT-art creation in conjunction with her marketing services and hires artists on Fiverr to create the pieces for advertising or funding campaigns.
"Most people don't realize that the technology behind the NFT graphic, which is the art that everybody recognizes, is really where the marketing power comes in," she said, adding that it's an effective way to form a fan base. "You can have people buy into your NFT and then a portion of what you raise goes to support related programs."
courtesy of Vazquez
Carlos Vazquez tapped into the growing community of crypto traders when expanding his services on Fiverr: Searches for "crypto whitepaper," "crypto logo," and "crypto promotion" increased by 248%, 185%, and 174% respectively, between October 2021 and March 2022, according to Fiverr.
Vazquez was originally a marketing expert but transitioned into crypto-specific marketing in 2020 to tap the growing number of crypto traders, he said. Last year, he booked $37,000 in sales, which Insider verified with documentation.
Vazquez provides two types of services: One is building back-end systems for businesses that want to start collecting cryptocurrency as payment. The second is marketing crypto coins as the product itself.
The latter service, which makes up more of his business, requires Vazquez to create crypto-specific marketing funnels to bring traders to coins he's hired to tout.
To become a provider in the space, Vazquez said one of the most important steps is learning about coding and blockchain technologies.
"Not many people know how to deploy a token or deploy a contract," he said. "If you understand how these contracts work, how these blockchain contracts work, that's something that's needed right now."
Additionally, he emphasized the importance of familiarizing yourself with crypto communities and building trust.
"You have to know what your customers want," he said. "Because if you don't, your marketing campaigns are not going to reach them."