5 Simple Ways To Make More Money As A Freelancer In 2025

If you’re a freelance professional and you’re still earning the same money per client that you made when you were in your first year starting out, you’re likely underpaying yourself. You’re undercharging and devaluing your worth.

Your rates should evolve as your business and skills grow; your pricing should never remain stagnant. But unfortunately, many freelancers remain stuck in a vicious cycle of getting paid peanuts while delivering high-value work, all because they’re afraid to negotiate, or they don’t value their own work and expertise as they should.

If this is you and you’re tired of barely surviving as a freelancer, here are five strategies you can implement from today so you can start earning more and get paid what you’re worth:

1. Give Yourself A Regular Pay Raise

When you’re freelancing, it’s easy to get caught up in being busy–responding to requests, marketing your business and initiating outreach, and maintaining the back-end admin. The problem is, you get so involved in your work that you lose track of time, your achievements and small wins, and the progress you’ve made in your freelance business so far.

To change this, schedule a time in your calendar every six to 12 months where you review your progress, much like your manager would do in a 1:1 performance review. Analyze the metrics and results from projects you’ve completed within that time, as well as any client reviews and testimonials. Also consider any upskilling you’ve undertaken to specialize in your niche during this period (this raises your market value).

Use this information, as well as benchmark data from other freelancers in your field with your level of expertise, to incrementally update your pricing when onboarding new clients.

2. Specialize In Niche, High-Demand Skills

You’ll get paid more for being a specialist rather than a generalist, so niche down as much as possible and start skill-stacking. Enroll on short courses or micro-credentials to build credibility and expertise in high-paying skill sets such as content development, UX design, and applied AI.

3. Diversify One Skill

If you rely on one stream of income, one client, or even one client type, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. The best recipe for financial stability and scalable revenue is diversification. Without needing to work any harder, you can take one skill and leverage it so that it makes money in several ways.

You can start newsletters, repurpose your knowledge into e-books, courses, and other digital products, guides, and kits. Several streams of income, just one skill.

4. Work On Retainer/Long-Term Contracts

As much as possible, try to pitch yourself for long-term contracts and retainer-based packages for both new and existing clients. It’ll be easier to pitch to existing clients since you already have a relationship with them and they’ve already seen your results. You can offer monthly deliverables in exchange for a longer-term commitment.

This gives you more financial freedom and breathing room as well as predictability, and you’ll get paid more than if you were pricing yourself by the hour.

5. Use Outcome-Focused Storytelling

One of the best ways to communicate your value as a freelancer is to focus on outcome-based storytelling. This means your LinkedIn website and proposals should all scream results, numbers, metrics, what you’ve been able to achieve in your own life and in that of others as a result of your skills.

Use case studies and emotionally gripping and emotionally-driven storytelling language to catch the attention of your audience and increase their confidence in you so they’ll be willing to part with their money. Without storytelling, your business is lifeless, even if you have flashy ads.

Which of these five income-boosting strategies are you going to apply today?