Get your first client through LinkedIn
If you’re a freelancer in Pakistan, chances are you didn’t choose this path because you love sending proposals on Upwork or working 24/7.
You chose it because you wanted freedom.
Freedom from:
- applying to jobs every day,
- praying someone replies,
- waiting weeks for a single message,
- earning peanuts despite having real skills.
But here you are… doing exactly what you tried to escape.
You’ve made profiles on Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com.
You’ve sent hundreds of proposals.
You’ve rewritten your gigs, watched tutorials, edited thumbnails, changed your pricing.
Yet:
- clients ghost you,
- your gig doesn’t get clicks,
- the clients who do reply only want to pay Rs. 2,000 for work worth Rs. 20,000.
And deep down, it hurts.
Because you know you’re capable.
You know you can do great work.
You just can’t seem to get clients who trust you enough to give you a chance.
The thing is:
Platforms like Upwork and Fiverr are not built for your long‑term success.
They favor:
- people with old accounts,
- people with hundreds of reviews,
- people who can bid cheaper than everyone else (yes, there are exceptions)
So what happens to freelancers like you?
You get stuck in a cycle:
send 100 proposals → get ignored → try again → feel worse → repeat.
That’s not freelancing.
That’s a digital 9–5 job hunt, and you didn’t sign up for that.
You want something different.
You want clients to come to you, not the other way around.
You want people reaching out, asking,
“Hey, can we work together?”
You want a pipeline full of clients who value your skill, trust your expertise, and pay you what your work deserves.
And here’s the part most freelancers don’t realize (and it’s the reason you keep feeling invisible):
Your skills alone are not enough anymore.
You can be the best at what you do, have the perfect CV, have years of work experience, but that’s not enough in this age.
In 2025, the most overlooked skill is not coding, designing, or writing.
It’s your ability to make the right people notice your work.
Not in a loud or fake way. But in a way that earns trust before the first DM ever lands in your inbox.
Freelancers who know this are booked out months in advance. They rarely pitch. They don’t compete on price. They attract clients ready to pay more, not less.
So what are they doing differently?
They’re building visibility engines.
They’re showing proof, making it easy for clients to say:
- "Oh. This person gets it."
- "They’ve done this kind of work before."
- "I like the way they think."
- "They seem professional and easy to work with."
This visibility engine is called your personal brand.
Not a logo. Not a fancy website. Not fake titles like "CEO of Me."
Just a simple, clear way to show up online that answers three things:
- What do you help with?
- Who do you help?
- Why should they trust you?
And here’s where LinkedIn comes in:
It’s not the only place to build a personal brand.
But it is the best place right now to get seen by decision-makers; the hiring managers, recruiters, founders, and marketers who need your exact skills.
More than 900 million professionals are on LinkedIn.
Many of them are hiring, building, or outsourcing.
Most of them never post jobs publicly.
They check your profile. They read your content. They look for clues.
This is why Pakistani freelancers with average portfolios are still closing clients, because their brand is visible where the clients already are.
Most people think LinkedIn is just for job hunting.
They open it when they're unemployed. They scroll a bit. Maybe send a connection request. Then close it again.
But what they don’t know is this: LinkedIn is where clients watch quietly before they ever reach out.
It’s where founders, marketers, HR managers, and recruiters go when they want to:
- Find someone who gets the job done.
- Check if you're serious about your work.
- See proof before they waste time on calls.
What makes the difference?
A profile that builds trust.
A post that shows how you think.
A DM that sounds like a real person, not a desperate pitch.
In this new system:
- Your LinkedIn profile is the new proposal.
- Your posts are the new cold pitch.
- Your DMs are the new discovery call.
You don’t need 500 likes. Or perfect grammar. Or a fancy design.
You just need to:
- show up clearly,
- show your skill,
- and sound like someone worth hiring.
If you master this, you don't need to beg for work.
You become the obvious choice.
This guide will walk you through how to:
- Build a LinkedIn profile that acts like a mini sales page
- Create a portfolio, even if you’ve never had a client
- Write simple posts (yes, you can post on LinkedIn) that get people to trust you
- Send messages that actually lead to responses
Even if:
- You have zero experience
- You’re from a small city
- You don’t speak perfect English
The system works because it's built on proof, trust, and positioning — not gaming an algorithm or competing on the lowest price.
And by the time you finish this guide, you’ll have a brand that works harder than any proposal ever could.