# LinkedIn Freelancing: Your Guide to Finding Clients through LinkedIn - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/linkedin-freelancing-your-guide-to-finding-clients-through-linkedin/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Illustration & Drawing · Quick win · Rated 6 /10 # LinkedIn Freelancing: Your Guide to Finding Clients through LinkedIn By Gareth B. Davies · Updated August 2026 Christopher Dodd · Web Developer / Educator All levels · 48 min A former Shopify freelancer explains how he lands clients on LinkedIn by messaging them directly instead of bidding on Upwork gigs. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Flinkedin-freelancing-your-guide-to-finding-clients-through-linkedin%2F906375042) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## What it actually covers The course opens by positioning LinkedIn against Upwork, arguing that a marketplace forces freelancers to wait for gigs while LinkedIn lets them approach clients directly and build a public audience at the same time. From there it moves into niching, using the instructor's own path from generalist Ruby on Rails developer to WordPress freelancer to Shopify theme specialist for agencies as the illustration. The point lands clearly: vague profiles read as unremarkable, and a narrow, well-labeled specialty makes cold outreach look relevant instead of spammy. The profile-building lesson is the most detailed section and the one with the most transferable substance. It walks through a real LinkedIn profile and two others, highlighting the headline and photo as the two elements that matter most, and making a specific, slightly uncomfortable recommendation: strip out irrelevant past jobs, internships, and old degrees so the whole page reinforces one message rather than padding out a resume. Seeing the advice applied to three different profiles, including a tax advisor and a content-removal specialist, makes the principle concrete rather than abstract. The marketing and outreach lessons cover LinkedIn's content history, from the 2014 Pulse launch to its folding into the main feed, before recommending native video and text posts over off-platform links because LinkedIn's algorithm favors content that keeps users on the site. The outreach lesson introduces a colleague's more elaborate connect-then-convert method as a contrast, then shows the instructor's own approach: a short, unpushy message sent cold, with a real example of it converting into a paying contract within two days. The bonus lesson backs this up with screenshots of actual replies, including a rejection, a delayed acceptance that took two months to convert, and an inbound recruiter message, which gives a more honest picture of outreach than most freelancing courses bother to show. ## Where it falls short At 48 minutes across ten lessons, the course moves quickly and leans heavily on one person's specific niche and one recurring outreach message. Viewers outside web development or agency-style freelancing will have to do more translating than the course does for them, and two entire lessons are spent on finding a niche without offering any real framework for doing so beyond "take a job that gives you relevant experience and see what sticks." The Sales Navigator subscription needed to message people outside your network, at roughly 100 Australian dollars a month, is mentioned almost in passing despite being a real cost barrier for the exact beginner freelancers this class might attract. There is also no discussion of pricing, contracts, or managing a client relationship once outreach succeeds, so the class ends exactly where the harder work of freelancing begins. As a narrowly scoped lesson on using LinkedIn for direct outreach, though, it delivers a workable, evidence-backed method in under an hour. The standout The direct-outreach message template, walked through with an actual reply from a client that turned into 200 hours of paid work, shows exactly how low-pressure cold contact can work on LinkedIn. ## What you will learn - · How to distinguish LinkedIn outreach from Upwork-style marketplace bidding - · How to define a specific service niche and target client type before building a profile - · How to structure a LinkedIn headline, photo, banner, bio, and featured section around one clear message - · Which experience and education entries to trim so a profile reads as specialized rather than generalist - · How to use LinkedIn native video and articles to build authority and attract inbound leads - · How to write a short, non-salesy direct message to a prospect and read the three likely response outcomes Best for: Freelancers or consultants who already know their service and niche and want a low-cost alternative to marketplace bidding sites. Skip it if: Complete beginners with no defined skill or niche yet, since two full lessons just tell them to go figure that out elsewhere first. Helpful Examples Clarity of Instruction Engaging Teacher Audio & Video Quality [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Flinkedin-freelancing-your-guide-to-finding-clients-through-linkedin%2F906375042)