This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon
Introduction
“Data Science” and “Data Analytics” are the most booming fields today and a large number of the crowd is inclined towards learning the same. Starting a career in Data Science and working in this field may not be as easy as it seems in the courses that are available online. You need to have a firm hold on critical thinking and analysis and need to pay great attention to details while solving any problem. Along with solving assignments and exploring the field you might as well get paid for it! keeping in mind that you have the knowledge about this field. So how to start freelancing in Data Science? There are many ways for doing so and we will look at some of those, mostly what tasks can you do as a freelancer in Data Science.
When you say freelancing, Fiverr is a name that pops into your head. This is a very vast platform for a huge variety of domains including Data Science. It’s very simple to start with and can be very helpful if you want to get a hands-on experience rather than just watching videos. There are many other platforms like Upwork, Kaggle, etc. These gigs apply for all of them as well, except for kaggle, it works a bit differently. Kaggle has many competitions going on throughout the year and they have a winning prize for the top 3.
To Do
First things first, create a Fiverr account. Write a nice bio.
Next is Gigs. In Fiverr you can create various Gigs for your offerings. You have to give a relevant and precise title for your gig and set a price for anything you want starting with $5, but should be appropriate. As gigs are what represent you on Fiverr you should put some effort into making it appealing by adding images related to your gig. Say it is for data visualization, then add some dashboards that you created. Check the image below to get an idea.
Also, don’t forget to write a proper description of the gig and what will be provided. Now for beginners, it is ok to start a gig with $5 and as you start getting recognized and start getting more requests, you can raise the prices. Almost 50% of the gig on Fiverr are $5-10 and that is why it’s a popular freelancing platform. Another important parameter can be your response time. Make sure you don’t take too long to respond and out on the request. Create multiple gigs with specific offerings.
Also Fiverr allows you to add milestones and get paid for each milestone. That will be all about building a profile, now let’s get started with what gigs are on-demand and useful.
source: screenshot
Gigs
1. Create an interactive Dashboard/Visualization using Tableau, Power bi, or Excel
Many people are looking for a systematic visualization for their data as they don’t know how to do it or have no time for it. You are the one to offer them a visualization. There are a couple of data visualization applications. You can learn how to use them properly and start with this gig. Usually, people have this gig for $5 but, as you go on and get ratings/comments that will speak for your work, raise the price if you want.
2. Create an interactive Dashboard/Visualization using Python, Dash, Flask, Shiny, Django
If you have a good knowledge of python or any of the mentioned frameworks, this is a gig for you. Many people need a more customized dashboard as Tableau has limited operations. These frameworks will help in adding customization to the dashboard. There is a fewer number of gigs with python, frameworks than that of Tableau and Power bi. Again many of them starting with $5.
3. Help in completing Data Science Assignments
Another popular gig is solving assignments for people. A lot of people get stuck with an assignment and need help in solving it. You can increase your skills along with helping people also, make some money.
4. Converting Excel Dashboard into Python, Dash, Flask, Shiny, Django apps
A lot of times people create excel dashboards but need to add more functionalities that are possible using python. If you know how to work with these frameworks for data visualization, the conversion would be an easy task. You just replicate the excel dashboard with the same data.
5. Data cleaning and Feature Engineering
Data cleaning can be an easy and sometimes boring task but is an important step when it comes to precision. Whereas Feature Engineering sure requires skills and understanding of the domain. Understanding how the columns are related to each other or are completely unrelated, choosing the right features, and increasing the accuracy. Price can vary according to the scope of the project, usually $5-10 for beginner tasks.
6. Creating Machine Learning Models
Having a very good knowledge about ML algorithms and being aware of which model is suitable for the task is the requirement. If you are confident you can do it, then this gig can be very helpful in gaining practical knowledge. Starting simple models at $5 and can get higher for more complex models, even multiple models for multiple purposes.
7. Creating Deep Learning Models
Getting one step ahead, creating deep learning models. It may be a help in someone’s personal project as well, but people are ready to pay you if you can associate them correctly in completing it. Depending on your skills around $5-10 for initial assignments.
8. Web Scraping
There are also requirements like collecting data from a website for example after every 2 hrs or every day. Being familiar with APIs and web scraping you can write code for the same. Many offerings start with $5-10.
9. Teaching Machine Learning, Python, Web scraping, creating an interactive dashboard using the application of programming
Last but not the list, if you have detailed knowledge about any of the above-mentioned you are good to start teaching people on an hourly basis for 2-7 days. You may also keep a special 2hr session gig to explain any of the topics related to the domain that the customer wants to learn instead of the whole course. Provide proper instruction in the description about the platform that will be used for the lessons. Try to keep multiple options like zoom, google meet, skype, etc.
Challenges
Every good thing comes with a price and the price here is efficiency and honest work. Being a great platform Fiverr has hundreds of other candidates offering the same service as yours, and there are few things you need to take care of to stand out, get more offers and sustain among the huge crowd.
1. Response time
You don’t wanna miss out on a request just because you were late to reply. After receiving an email notification, try to reply asap.
2. Communication
Getting to know all the correct needs of the customer is very important and this should be done at the very beginning. Once you have completely understood it, you’re good to go. Also, keep communicating throughout even if you face any problems. Communication also helps in negotiations so don’t let that slip.
3. On-time delivery
You have to set a deadline for your gig and it’s a good practice to follow it. Delivery before the deadline is even better. But failing to meet the deadline and taking way too much time can sometimes lead the customer to cancel the order. Yes, it is possible to cancel the order or reject it if it’s not satisfactory. On the other hand, delivering an excellent project can get you tips as well.
4. Good work
Never accept something that you don’t completely know. You have a deadline and you have to submit a neat project in order to sustain and to get more orders in the future. As a freelancer, this is an important factor.
So, these are some gigs you can get started with side by side and earn some experience and money. There are tons of other gigs as a programmer like doing python work, teaching any programming language, helping with android apps, JavaScript, etc, but these are the ones for data science and data analytics. Hope this helps in starting your journey in freelancing in Data science.
Author
Shraddha Shekhar
Computer Engineering student, exploring the field of Data Science and Deep Learning.
LinkedIn: Shraddha Shekhar
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