What is freelancing ?
Freelancing means to work as an independent company rather than be employed by someone else. Freelancers are self-employed and often referred to as independent contractors.Freelancers are hired by other companies on a part time or short-term basis, but they do not receive the same compensation as full-time employees or have the same level of commitment to any particular company.
Freelancing provides a lot of flexibility and control to the individual. Most freelancers choose their own hours, the work that they do, the clients they work with, and may even be able to work remotely.
Freelancing is also a form of entrepreneurship, which means the freelancer has total control of their earning potential. Freelancers aren’t locked into a salary, and so they can earn as much as they are able to bill to their clients.
And as a freelancer, you are your own boss.
Freelancing provides a lot of variety in the type of work you can do, too. If you are someone with a lot of interests and are drawn to trying new things, freelancing can help you explore all kinds of projects and industries.
Here I have mentioned some of the best freelancing websites.
If you want a more exclusive freelancing platform, Toptal is the top choice. They claim to be home to the top 3% of freelance talent in the world, so getting approved here is a good boost to your reputation.
As of now, they only cater to freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers.
According to the users of Toptal, the application is strict and takes about a month or so. Once you’re inside, you’ll get access to the job board where you can see gigs posted by companies by the likes of Airbnb, Shopify
Pros
- You’ll get access to important high-paying projects by some of the leading companies in the world.
- They have a tech blog where freelancers can contribute pieces to boost their reputation.
- They also have a community of freelancers where you can expand your network, get tips, and get access to exclusive freelancing events.
Cons
- The application process is stringent and takes a while.
- Some users note that the users far outnumber the projects, which means the competition is fierce.
Fiverr has become popular among freelancers because of its unique system. Instead of clients posting gigs, freelancers can post their services and rates. Like Upwork, it has quickly become a marketplace for the “cheapest” services, with some freelancers asking for $5 for an infographic.
There are strategies you can use to find higher-paying projects here. For example, you can create a pricing tier where clients can get more value the more they pay.
Pros
- You can set the price for your services.
- You can customize your profile to stand out from the competition.
- Most gigs are 5$, but you can see this is an opportunity to introduce a pricing tier.
Cons
- Lots of competition.
- Fiverr takes a 20% cut from every transaction.
- You can’t contact clients outside of Fiverr, so if you want to leave Fiverr you can’t take them with you.
Upwork is probably the first answer you’ll get if you ask a freelancer what freelancing website they use. That’s because it’s one of the biggest remote work platforms with over 16 million registered freelancers and hundreds of projects posted every hour.
While Upwork gets a bad rap for being a melting pot of clients looking for “cheap” services, there are strategies that you can implement to position yourself as an expert and charge premium fees. In fact, some of their highest-rated developers charge as much as $60/hour.
Pros
- Thousands of jobs are posted every day.
- You can set your price.
- They offer payment protection for both fixed-hours and hourly projects to ensure that freelancers get paid for their work.
Cons
- High commission fee deducted by Upwork.
- The competition is extremely stiff.
- You have to buy bids ($.15-$.9/proposal) to send proposals to clients.
- It’s currently extremely hard for new profiles to get approved.
99Designs is a freelancing platform with a unique way of doing things. First off, it specializes in design projects, so you won’t find bookkeeping or digital marketing projects in here. What can you design? Anything from a logo to a website.
Second, clients looking for freelancers can either search for one or hold a design contest. The latter is a good choice for clients who want to see several designs as fast as possible.
The design contests are a good way to get experience in understanding client briefs and translating them into a design.
Pros
- Newbies can get great experience by participating in design contests.
- They have a community forum where you can ask questions and learn from more experienced designers.
Cons
- Some contests do not guarantee payments for winners.
- Some designers get their designs from stock vectors and graphics.
- There are some user complaints about the quality and speed of tech support.
Dribbble is a platform where clients can look for web designers whether for a full-time position or a once-off project. It built a reputation as a place to find professional designers, so it’s one of the popular destinations for clients whenever they need a designer.
Pros
- You’ll get a chance to work with companies like Google, Dropbox, Slack, Shopify, and Facebook.
- They have a regularly updated blog, a collection of design inspirations, a list of top designers, and even local meetups of designers on Dribble.
Cons
- You’ll have to pay to be able to message clients looking for freelance designers. The job board is completely free.
Guru is a platform that’s designed to help companies find and hire expert freelancers from around the world. Its flexible and cost-effective platform lets people hire freelancers on anything from programming and development to writing and translation, design and arts, sales and marketing, and much more.
Used by more than 3 million people, the website verifies freelancers and publishes their feedback scores and all time transaction data to help hiring staff identify time-tested professionals from around the world. For freelancers, Guru is more flexible than most when it comes to issuing payments, offering four options: fixed price, hourly, task-based or recurring.
Pros
- They offer SafePay payment protection and your choice of preferred payment method for financial peace of mind.
Cons
- Guru deducts 5% to 9% payment you got after successfully completing a task.
It is world's largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by numbers.Whatever your needs, there will be a freelancer to get it done: from web design, mobile app development, virtual assistants, product manufacturing, and graphic design (and a whole lot more).
Pros
- With Freelancer.com, employers can scout from millions of freelancers worldwide.
- Setting Milestones and Secure Payment
- Variety of jobs available – freelancers go to this site to find new available jobs. The platform has an easy job search system wherein you can filter your search according to date of posting, budget, duration of project, type of job and more.
Cons
- Poor customer service – although Freelancer offers customer service round-the-clock, it doesn’t mean they’re doing it exceptionally well.
- Many low-paying jobs. While you can find so many jobs on the site, you’ll find more low-paying jobs. But as you gain more experience, it is still possible to snag high-paying projects and clients from the site.