Where can freelancers find work?
To avoid financial pressures that could make them yearn for cubicle life, freelancers must constantly be on the lookout for new projects and opportunities. These resources help thousands of freelancers find work online and in their local areas, keeping their skills in shape and their bank accounts full.
Whether you're a full-time self-employed, looking to earn money at the same time, or you're looking for a freelance writer to help you work for you and your business, we have the best freelance websites for you to consider.
Of course, there are many different reasons that make a website ideal for freelancers. They can reach from the number and diversity of jobs available to freelancers, the frequency with which new opportunities arise, and, of course, one of the most important factors: how diligent they are when it comes to paying for their services.
That's why we've put together a list of the best freelance websites to help you increase and improve your freelance opportunities.
Best Freelance Websites in 2021
1. UpWork
Simply having an UpWork account does not guarantee work. Job openings that require fewer specialized skills, such as website content writing and logo design, tend to have more applicants. More complicated jobs, especially operating-system-specific development work, can be less competitive.
As for traction on UpWork increases, you'll find it easier to compete for coveted projects, as clients prefer workers with higher lifetime earnings, lots of positive customer feedback, and rich portfolios of strong deliverables.
A stellar profile also helps. Take UpWork's profiling guidance seriously - it is established in good faith, as UpWork cannot survive without successful freelancers.
That guide reads, in part: "Think of [your profile] as an introductory brochure, resume, and marketing rolled into one, highlighting your professional skills, experience, and portfolio; education and accomplishments; and online skills test results. The best profiles are complete, well written, free of errors, and have a professional and friendly image. "
With total annual earnings per member of more than $ 1 billion, UpWork is one of the most popular independent platforms in the United States. It is the successor to two previous platforms that were quite popular in their own right: Elance and oDesk. Elance and oDesk were merged to form Elance-oDesk and later changed to UpWork.
If you started with any of the predecessor platforms, you've undoubtedly seen a lot of changes along the way. Otherwise, all you need to know is that UpWork is open for business, favored by the who's who of innovative American companies and organizations, from UCLA and Accenture to ZenDesk and DropBox.
Core UpWork verticals include writing, web development, design, and creative work, sales and marketing, customer service, virtual assistance, accounting, and business consulting.
When you find an attractive job posting, you should put together a proposal that includes your qualifications, your estimated time of completion (including a detailed schedule for each deliverable), and your required compensation, either an hourly rate or a flat rate, depending on the customer specifications.
Typically, clients follow up on proposals that offer the optimal combination of experience, skills, and reasonable compensation requirements. Keep in mind that most jobs involve at least a phone or Skype interview before hiring unless they are matters that require a few hours of work.
All UpWork transactions are carried out through the platform's internal payment system, which has a payment guarantee: if the client immobilizes him for the complete work, he can appeal. UpWork cuts each customer payment on a sliding scale:
20% of payments up to the first $ 500 in lifetime billing with the same customer
10% payments between $ 500.01 and $ 10,000 in lifetime billing with the same customer
5% of payments over $ 10,000.01 in lifetime billing with the same customer
Payment options include PayPal, direct deposit, and bank transfer.
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2. Textbroker
Textbroker caters exclusively to freelance writers. Like Elance and oDesk, he negotiates client-writer relationships, handling payment and dispute resolution on their behalf. It's free to sign up, but you must take a writing test and receive manual approval to begin accepting the job.
It is initially assigned a rating, ranging from two to five stars, which determines its earning power for publicly published work. Two-star writers earn less than a penny a word after Textbroker cut client payments by 35%. Five-star writers earn five cents a word after the cut.
These figures haven't budged for years and are relatively low by industry standards, but high work volumes and an optimized standardized workflow work in Textbroker's favor. If you are fluent in a language other than English, you can get even more articles for one of Textbroker's international verticals: Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, and more.
Textbroker assesses the quality of writing several times a year and may move up or down the ranks based on your latest assessment. The more tasks you complete, the faster you will be evaluated. Higher ranks generally have more work available and less competition.
Once you have established relationships with clients, you can set your own price per job and receive it directly from them. Additionally, clients can create teams of handpicked writers at fixed rates per word. Textbroker also manages content generation accounts for larger clients, many of whom pay significantly more than the regular five-star rate.
Customers, or Textbroker itself, can request revisions to submitted orders as many times as necessary, and payment is made only when the order receives final approval. Proceeds from client-approved orders are deposited into the writer's specific escrow accounts, which are paid weekly. Once the client (or Textbroker, if the client is unresponsive) approves a task, payment is guaranteed.
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3. Accountemps
Run by Robert Half Company, a leading staffing company, Accountemps is a freelance and temporary employment platform for accounting and administrative professionals. Hire medium and large businesses for special accounting or data entry projects, general administrative support, loan origination, audit work, tax-related projects, and collections. Accountemps earns a cut of each employee's total compensation, individually negotiable with their clients (and generally not disclosed).
For job candidates, the enrollment process is similar to hiring a traditional position - submit your resume or LinkedIn profile online or at one of the company offices (there are over 300 worldwide). If approved for an interview, visit in person or consult with a human resources staff member via Skype. Interviewees assess proficiency in Excel, QuickBooks, data entry, and general accounting principles.
Accountemps approves workers based on experience, qualifications, and test performance, so entry-level employees cannot be approved. If you are assigned to a project, you immediately get access to a generous benefits package that includes a 401k, health care plan, online training classes, and tuition refunds. If you work a certain number of hours, you can also receive performance and vacation bonuses.
Accountemps-based relationships are generally project-based but tend to be more stable than those achieved through self-service platforms like Upwork. Project durations range from a couple of weeks to a year or more, and solid work can be rewarded with a full-time job offer or priority consideration for future positions.
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4. Guru
Guru connects individual clients and companies with designers, developers, accountants, administrative professionals, writers, translators, marketers, and legal specialists. Unlike UpWork and Textbroker, where clients must post individual jobs and accept applications from freelancers, Guru freelancers (known as Gurus) actively advertise to clients. Those clients can select Gurus before communicating the details of their projects.
Clients can also post jobs, for which gurus can search and apply. Projects are paid by the hour or flat rate, with no offer required. Total earnings and positive customer reviews increase the likelihood that freelancers will be selected for competitive projects.
It's free to join Guru as a freelancer, but the platform offers paid membership tiers with added perks like higher annual bid allotments, superior customer service, and free skill tests for profile-enhancing credentials. (Basic and Basic + members have to pay up to $ 4.95 per skills test).
Basic: Free
Basic +: $ 8.95 per month, billed annually
Professional: $ 15.95 per month, billed annually
Business: $ 24.95 per month, billed annually
Executive: $ 39.95 per month, billed annually
When you sign up for Guru, you create a profile that highlights your skills, experience, and minimum compensation requirements. Once a client hires you, Guru holds the funds in escrow until all project outputs are approved or, if they mutually agree to split the project into milestones, upon successful completion of each milestone.
Guru takes from 4.95% to 8.95% of the total payment on each project, depending on your membership level - higher-level members keep more profit. Guru claims that its freelancers have made more than $ 250 million since its inception, which is not bad for a platform that caters to a broad, not especially specialized workgroup.
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5. 99designs
The 99designs platform is aimed at freelance designers, who submit drafts in response to reports generated by clients. Published work includes everything from corporate logos and book covers to digital advertising materials and screen prints. Each job is structured like a contest, with an unlimited number of designers submitting mockups over a seven-day period. After that period, clients select their favorite design and reward the freelancer. It's free to join and maintain membership.
Customers can choose from four levels of membership, ranging from a bronze package that costs $ 299 to post a contest, to a platinum package that costs $ 1,299 to post. The dollar amount represents the winning designer's award.99designs generally take a 40% commission before passing the prize money to each winner, although this cut is less for bulk projects (designers can request payment after winning a single contest).
Contests can attract dozens or hundreds of submissions, so the competition can be steep. And keep in mind that customers don't necessarily have to guarantee payment, which means it's theoretically possible for them to back out even after selecting your design.
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6. PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour combines clients with a wide range of freelancers. Its scope is quite wide, similar to UpWork. Verticals include administrative assistant work, customer care and customer service, marketing, and social media, software and web development, design, writing and translation, and multimedia production.
By opening a free PeoplePerHour account, you create a profile that highlights your experience, competencies, and minimum compensation requirements. So, you can find a job in three ways:
Post "hourly". " These are publicly direct offers to complete short jobs, such as writing a single blog post or developing mobile apps. Set the parameters of the job, including your hourly rate, delivery schedule, and what the final product includes. Any customer PeoplePerHour may hire you to complete this service, and satisfactory performance may lead to more work from that client.
Respond to job postings. You can submit up to 15 proposals per month for client-posted jobs that are publicly available to all PeoplePerHour freelancers.
Customer requests. You can receive an unlimited number of requests from clients who view your profile and send work directly to you.
In all cases, specify the desired compensation. Keep in mind that you are competing on price with other freelancers, many of whom are based in lower-cost overseas markets when submitting a proposal for client-posted jobs.
Total earnings, previous client endorsements, and a number of successfully completed jobs increase your appeal to potential clients. You can manage your active jobs, proposals, posts, and much more in your WorkStream, basically a super-loaded account dashboard.
PeoplePerHour is a UK incorporated company, but you can be paid in US dollars if you wish. Projects are compensated by the hour or flat rate - When you successfully complete a project and send an invoice to your client, your compensation is deposited into an escrow account. PeoplePerHour deducts a 15% commission on the first £ 175 you earn in a given month, plus 3.5% on any additional earnings. It also costs a pound to send an invoice.
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7. iFreelance
iFreelance links third-party clients with freelance designers, photographers, multimedia producers, writers, and administrative professionals, as well as more highly specialized professionals working under contract, including IT workers, architects, engineers, and accountants.
There are two ways to find work ifreelance. You can browse and bid on job postings posted by clients, or you can create your own posts for general services like blog writing, logo design, and website builds. In either case, you need to develop a profile that highlights your skills, experience, and minimum compensation requirements.
Anyone can join iFreelance, but unlike UpWork and PeoplePerHour, the platform has an inescapable upfront cost. Basic memberships are $ 6.25 per month, Silver memberships are $ 9, and Gold memberships are $ 12. Discounts are available for 6, 12, and 24-month prepaid packages.
Project offers are prioritized based on membership level, with gold members getting the best placement. Gold members can also publish their services in an unlimited number of subcategories, such as translation and mobile app development, while basic members are limited to just three. If you do a good amount of work on iFreelance, it's definitely worth updating.
The result of a freelance's paid membership model is a complete lack of commissions. You can keep all of your income on every project you complete, so your only cost of using the platform is your monthly membership fee. This comes with a potential headache: iFreelance does not keep funds in escrow while a project is in progress, which means that you are responsible for charging your clients. iFreelance can intervene on your behalf in disputes with slow or unpaid clients, but its protections are not as strong on this front like most other independent platforms.
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8. Freelancer.com
With more than millions of users and published projects, Freelancer.com calls itself "the largest market for freelance, outsourcing and crowdsourcing in the world by a number of users and projects." It caters to freelance mobile device and software developers, writers, designers, accountants, marketers, data entry specialists, and even legal professionals and virtual personal assistants.
There are two ways to find a job at Freelancer.com:
Bid on a published project. Similar to UpWork, clients can post projects and request offers from freelancers. Free accounts get eight offers per month. To bid on a project, specify the deliverables you will provide, the required compensation, and the project schedule.
If the client approves your offer, you will start working on the project and can begin communicating with the client directly. When the client accepts their completed work, they will be paid through Freelancer.com's trust transfer service or through an external payment method. For safety, it is better to go the above route.
Enter a contest. You can also enter a contest in any of the Freelancer.com job categories, although they are more common for creative specialties such as marketing and design. Simply select a contest that appeals to your skillset and submit your original entry. If your entry is selected, you will be paid the listed contest prize, minus the Freelancer.com cutout, through the platform's escrow system.
It's free to set up an account on Freelancer.com and create a profile that includes 20 of your most relevant skills, but both clients and freelancers pay fees to advertise and accept the job.
If you have a free account, Freelancer.com takes 10% of your earnings for hourly projects, 10% of your earnings or $ 5 for fixed-price projects, and 20% for work completed through posts from Service. To withdraw your funds, request a bank transfer or prepaid debit card when your account reaches $ 30.
For freelancers, there are several paid membership plans that entitle you to more offers and other benefits:
Introduction: For 99 cents per month, you get 15 offers per month and a total of 30 skills on your profile.
Basic: For $ 4.95 per month, you get 50 bids per month and 50 profile skills.
Plus: for $ 9.95 per month, you get 100 bids per month and 80 skills.
Professional - For $ 29.95 per month, you get 300 offers per month and 100 skills. The professional is useful for project managers and entrepreneurs managing teams of freelancers.
Premier: For $ 59.95 per month, you get 1,500 offers and 400 skills.
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9. DesignCrowd
Like 99Designs, DesignCrowd is a competition-based crowdsourcing platform that connects freelance logo, t-shirt, print, and website designers (as well as other graphic artists) with clients.
Unlike 99designs, clients can pay whatever they want for the winning design, as long as it exceeds the DesignCrowd minimum of $ 30 per contest. On average, each contest attracts more than 100 entries, so the competition is steep. Competitions that pay more get bigger and better quality entries. There is no cost to enter a contest.
You can search for relevant contests by category, like WordPress design and t-shirt design. When you find a contest you like, enter it and submit your work. If customers like your design but are not ready to accept it, they can request changes before giving final approval.
If your design doesn't meet their standards, they'll just scrap it, and move on to the next opportunity. DesignCrowd holds client funds in escrow for the duration of the contest, freeing up the money for the winning design (minus the 15% flat fee for all contests).
You do not retain the copyright of your designs, although you can ask the client to allow you to display them in your portfolio. Once you've won a few contests, customers can start inviting you to their contests, which can increase the chances that your submissions will be accepted. DesignCrowd mediates disputes about payment and acceptance.
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10. Crowd
Crowdspring is a contest platform that caters to graphic designers, creative writers, web designers and developers, and packaging designers.
Registration and participation in the contest are free, with no limit to the number of entries you can submit, but Crowdspring takes up to 40% of the winning submission award in all cases.
Customers can set their own prize amounts for contests, with a minimum customer cost of $ 299 (with a prize of $ 200 for the winner) and delivery times between 3 and 10 days. On the designer side, prizes range from $ 725. Some contest packages have multiple prize tiers, for example, the Elite contest tier pays out three prizes: one at $ 300 and two at $ 150. For the duration of a contest, client funds are held in escrow, then disbursed to the winner at closing.
Clients who prefer to work with certain designers, usually after selecting at least one of their designs through the contest process, can opt for one-to-one projects (direct, private orders) starting at $ 149. No matter how you submit, You must waive the copyright of any design accepted by the client.
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11. LivePerson
LivePerson is an online marketing and analytics firm that offers a conversion-focused chat platform for website managers and marketers. A large portion of its business comes from chatbots and other automated customer service and marketing applications, but it also has a freelance-friendly human component: a massive remote workforce operating on a contingent or temporary basis.
It's free to apply to work for LivePerson, but you must document your qualifications and experience before being approved. Pay varies based on your job duties, experience level, and other factors. If your home office setup isn't equipped to handle intensive customer contact functions, you may need to invest in better equipment.
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12. Craigslist
Many established freelancers avoid Craigslist, which has a reputation for accepting questionable listings. While it is possible to report potentially illegal shipments and scams (after the fact), there is no internal framework to assess integrity. For freelancers who are confident enough to get around some fraudulent and fraudulent applications, Craigslist is a useful resource.
Unlike other platforms, lists are sorted by geographic region, making it easy for freelancers to face-to-face with their clients. With low listing costs, it is also a preferred compliance tool for small or one-time employers, such as people who need an editor or ghostwriter, or boutique marketing firms who need a designed logo or researched white paper.
Clients have Craigslist job posting costs, which are $ 75 each in the San Francisco market, $ 45 in the Boston area, and $ 0 to $ 50 in most other markets. It is completely free for freelancers, but they use it at their own risk. Craigslist does not hold funds in escrow or offer dispute resolution services.
As you no doubt know, Craigslist is a popular place to sell stuff online as well. If you're looking to dismantle and downsize your home and don't feel like buying a garage or garage, check out our head-to-head comparison of the relative merits of selling things on Craigslist, Amazon, and eBay.
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13. MediaBistro
As an aggregator of educational content and media-related resources, MediaBistro offers two main employment platforms for writers, editors, developers, and other industry professionals: a traditional job posting board (considered the "number one post" for industry media ") and an independent market.
The former includes temporary, part-time, and full-time jobs. The employer pays listings, at no cost to applicants. However, many of these traditional jobs are location-specific, and most are clustered in media centers like New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC
Once you are hired for a job, MediaBistro does not take a portion of your earnings or help resolve disputes. All additional negotiations take place directly between you and the customer. Since this platform's pool of freelancers includes many experienced media professionals, you may have trouble finding work if you don't have verifiable experience in the past.
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14. LinkedIn ProFinder
LinkedIn ProFinder is an independent talent marketplace operated by LinkedIn, the social media giant. Freelancers, known as professionals, are free to get started, although there is an application process that requires you to convincingly defend your expertise and experience in one of ProFinder's core verticals: software development, IT services, design, writing, and editing. marketing, business consulting, legal, financial services, accounting, coaching, real estate, photography, insurance, home improvement, management, events, and wellness.
ProFinder reviews potential Pros applications within two business days, returning a top or bottom decision. If denied, you will receive feedback on how to make your app more compelling next time. If approved, you will be invited to develop your ProFinder profile, which is different from your main LinkedIn profile.
You can directly apply for publicly posted jobs or reply to client messages with full project proposals. Once you reach 10 proposals, you will need to upgrade to a LinkedIn Premium Business subscription to continue. LinkedIn Premium Business subscriptions cost $ 59.99 per month, with a 20% discount for subscriptions paid annually. All price negotiations and payments occur between clients and professionals outside the ProFinder platform.
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conclusion
If you've been disillusioned with your office work, freelancing can sound like a big gig. It offers the freedom to make your own schedule, tackle creative or challenging projects, and spend more time at home. However, it offers many challenges, including the uncertainty of a project-based pay scale and a complete lack of employee benefits.
As a freelancer, you must also pay the full amount of your Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) obligations, which funds Medicare and Social Security. These represent 15.3% of the gross earnings of freelancers, compared to 7.65% of the gross earnings of traditional employees. And instead of waiting for an assignment, you must also look for new work and forge new relationships with clients.
Fortunately, all freelancers, regardless of skill set, have many valuable resources at their disposal. It's just a matter of knowing where to seem.
