I've been wanting to write something new for a while, but I never really found the right time for it. Or maybe I was just being a little lazy. 😄
To be honest, I've also been waiting for some bigger changes and developments in my life. Hopefully, I'll have some good news to share with you soon. Since I want to write more about this new chapter here, including some weekly personal updates and little diary-style posts, I think that waiting made it a bit harder to find the motivation to write anything in the meantime.
Anyway, for the last few weeks I've been working on this website, and I finally moved it to its new Astro setup. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and I hope you like the new look too.
So, here we are again. Enjoy the read! 🤓
Lately I see freelancer sites everywhere. Social media is full of "quit your job and freelance" posts. It made me think about how I started, and honestly, it was much more old school. It was a webmaster forum, and I was still in high school.
The forum days
On that forum people posted job ads, like "I need a website" or "my site has a problem, who can help?" And I was the guy who sent a DM to almost all of them. "I can do this." "I can do that." Again and again. I just kept asking, and some people said yes.
Most of the work was normal stuff. I made websites for people I met there. I also fixed problems on existing WordPress sites: updates, slow loading, SEO. Sometimes it was even boring manual work, like taking a client's data from Excel files (or wherever they kept it) and putting it into their site. Not the most exciting job, but somebody had to do it :p
My blog brought clients too
I had my own blog at that time (gokselozardali.com hehehe), and some people found me there. A few wrote to me from the contact form: "Can you do this for me?" Some people bought banner ads on my blog, the 150x150 and 468x60 kind (does anyone still remember those sizes? 😅). And some paid me for a promo post, so I published it on my site.
Looking back, my blog was kind of a shop window.
The office in Istanbul
One of the people I met on the forum was from Istanbul, and he had a software office. When I was at university, I worked there part time. We made websites, I talked with the customers, and we built the software for their sites depending on what they needed.
I learned so much there. I also got my first Google certificate from that office. I think it was the Google Adwords certificate, but I'm not sure.
Writing for pocket money 💰
There's one more thing. In high school and at university I also wrote articles for extra pocket money. The orders were like "100 words for this much Turkish Lira", and you need this many articles, with this many words each. I wrote about things I knew.
So what would I do today?
Today it's all freelancer sites, not forums. But I think the logic is the same: someone has a problem, you can solve it, and they need to hear it from you.
I should say this first: I don't have time for freelance work right now. But if I did, I would start by looking at the popular freelancer sites like Upwork and Fiverr (and maybe a few other well-known ones).
I would start small, with something I already know. A slow WordPress site is a good example. I wouldn't wait for people to find me, because most of my first jobs came when I asked. I would also have a simple place where people can reach me, like a blog with a contact form. And I would see the first jobs as learning, because working with real customers teaches you a lot.
One more thing: I would look for global jobs, not only local ones. There are more opportunities there, and I think more money too. If your English isn't good enough yet, I would work on that first. (You're reading this in English, so you're probably already on your way 🙂)
These photos were taken in April 2026 at Hub Hoi An, the co-working space I used during my trip to Vietnam. They have accommodation too, so you can stay right there. I'm planning to go back one day. Writing code while looking at green rice fields and drinking fresh Vietnamese coffee was just great ☕ If you work remotely, a place like this makes "work from anywhere" feel real.🌾🌱
And what about AI?
When I started, there were no AI tools. Now everything is different, and I think it made freelancing harder.
Many simple jobs, the kind I used to do, people now do by themselves with AI tools. And even people with no technical background can build small tools with AI today. They're the so-called "vibe coders". Good for them, but it also means more people in the same market, so it's more competitive than before.
So if I started now, I would try to offer something more than a simple job that a tool can do in a few minutes.
What about e-books?
I have never written an e-book, so this is just my opinion, not experience. I see them everywhere on social media now. Honestly, I think the idea is a bit old and overused, but it still seems to work. For me it's more a strategy than a product: you give it for free, you put real information inside (not empty talk), and then you introduce your other product. That sounds like a good way to me.
Anyway, that's how it started for me. If you're thinking about freelancing, you probably know something that someone out there needs help with. So go and send the message. 💪
