The Truth about the Best Freelance Sites

Have you ever joined a freelancer site hoping to find something worth your while only to find that you were hopelessly misled? I have been there and it is because of such misleading content that I have decided to publish an article that focuses more on the finer details of the freelancing websites, the content that you are only privy to after signing up. Being a person with a background in Public Relations, I can understand how important the element of exaggeration is to advertising but do some of these sites take it too far? The wary among us will always do extensive research on the site of their choosing before joining, there are numerous blogs and websites that feature reviews of the best freelancing sites whilst offering "detailed descriptions" of what exactly to expect when you join the featured sites. Unbeknownst to a lot of new freelancers most of these review blogs and websites do not actually give detailed description of their subjects but rather descriptive overviews heavily borrowed from the homepages of the freelancing websites.

Here, I am going to take you through some of the best Freelance websites, breaking everything down into the sites' respective advantages and disadvantages.

FREELANCER

If you're talking big, Freelancer is as big as it gets, with over 21 million registered users and 10 million jobs posted, you can be sure Freelancer is the real deal. So what does it take to join Freelancer? Not much, all you need is a computer, functioning internet connection and a skill you want to offer the world. Freelancer's sign up process is not complicated; just make sure you have yourself a PayPal account to make the process even smoother.
On Freelancer, you have to bid for jobs- a client posts a job with minor details of what it entails and then freelancers can bid on the jobs. Bidding on Freelancer involves two simple steps.

1. Pricing - The client would have already set his/her budget range, it is now up to the freelancer to set a price based on the range. In this step, the freelancer is also required to tell the client the amount of days it would take him/her to finish the job. New freelancers should tread carefully here, do not set working hours that you cannot keep up with.

2. The Proposal - This will be a brief set of words explaining to the client why you are the best candidate for the job. Be brief but convincing. In this section, I would recommend using the principles of Public Relations rather than Advertising, do not overestimate yourself, know your worth and be upfront about it, in an attractive manner of course.

Pros

• Offers Free Membership.
• Has a large pool of available jobs, over 10 million to be specific. Freelancer can also boast of a very wide category for jobs, you can be sure to find what you're looking for from the categories listed and on the rare occasion that you don't; they have an "Other" category where you can find the less than conventional job postings. There truly is something for everyone.
• Friendly to internationals - By internationals I am referring to people living outside the US, Canada and Europe. A big problem for most international freelancers is gaining access to legitimate freelancing jobs and sites, Freelancer solves this problem for most of them, people from all around the world are allowed to join.
• Has a mobile app - This comes in handy especially because clients who are interested in the services you have to offer will message you directly. The mobile app allows you to keep track of this and newly posted jobs with utmost convenience.

Cons

• Although it offers free membership, to better your chances of getting anything concrete in Freelancer, you have to upgrade to Premium membership. This is because as a free member you only have access to 8 bids each month, now with 21 million registered users, majority of whom are freelancers and 10 million jobs posted, 8 bids is the equivalent of lighting a candle in the wind. Premium membership costs $29.95 per month for 300 bids. You can try it for free for 14 days before they start billing your credit card
• Spam/Fake jobs - These are present by the boatloads on Freelancer, mostly found on non-technical jobs such as Data Entry. Freelancers, however can steer clear of these jobs given how obvious they sometimes are. Spammy jobs will contain generic titles such as "Need Data Entry Entry Job Done" often accompanied with no description or a description that is a copy of the title. Second thing to look out for is the client budget, these spammers will often attach incredibly high prices on the simplest of jobs, they especially like $300 for simple data entry work. If you find yourself approached by such clients, have a look at their profile before accepting any jobs, legitimate clients will always have a verified payment method and a number of reviews and ratings from fellow freelancers, fake clients will have no such thing.
• Getting a your first job on Freelancer can be quite the task especially because you will have to compete against other freelancers, some of whom will be very experienced with proven track records. Much to the disadvantage of new freelancers, serious clients have a preference for the experienced ones. Patience is a virtue at Freelancer.
• Bidding – I am sure nobody in the Freelancing world likes this aspect of it. Bidding gives an opportunity to rogue clients to stifle, mostly newbies, by setting unfair budgets knowing new freelancers desperate for jobs will accept whatever they have to offer, no matter how disproportional the workload is to the pay.
• Certification – In Freelancer, if you’re hoping to get serious jobs and avoid the spammers you’re going to have to take an English (US) certification test; however, this will cost you $5.

FIVERR

You will erroneously find Fiverr in most “Freelance without bidding” blogs. Fiverr is a site that allows its freelancers to advertise their skills, referred to as Gigs. Freelancers create Gigs and advertise them on the site clearly stating the price of their Gig to potential clients who are also registered on Fiverr. Gig titles go like; I will create a logo design for $10

Pros

• Free membership
• Have a minimum pay of $5 for every Gig - this ensures new freelancers, especially, are protected against rogue clients looking to underpay them for work done.
• Enables the freelancer to advertise his own gig on social media and blogs through the “Promote your Gig” button which allows freelancers to send links to potential clients, generate custom offers to be advertised wherever they prefer (outside Fiverr) and by offering 50 business cards to new freelancers for free.
• Has a mobile app.

Cons

• It will take a new freelancer quite some time to finally land a job here. The jobs are not as many as they are on most established freelancing sites
• In order to get any client you will have to create a Gig, one thing Fiverr understates is the amount of time it takes to create a gig. It takes about 5 less than simple steps to create a gig, be very careful when you get to the Payment Package step, it can be very confusing for some. You will also need an image ready in order to create a gig; this image must be relative tour Gig because it will serve as an advertising banner for you.
• Fiverr is not upfront about this but it is definitely a thing that happens. Bidding, while they tend to make Fiverr more about you, the seller, doing it up on your own, more often than not you will have to compete with other sellers before you become established enough to only have to create a gig and clients come flocking in.
• Low pay – New freelancer jobs at Fiverr average at about $5-10, this would not be a problem if it weren’t largely disproportional to the amount of work you have to do to get it, for instance, “I need someone to look for the emails and phone contacts of 1000 professional RnB DJs based in London for $7”
• Features – Again you have to pay in order to be "seen" on Fiverr.

IWRITER

iWriter is a website that provides freelance writing jobs. What sets iWriter apart from the rest; however is that upgrades here are based on the writer's reviews and ratings from clients. 30 reviews and a 4/5 rating qualify you to be bumped up to Premium status and 30 reviews and a 4.6/5 rating qualify to be an Elite writer. If you do not have enough time to accumulate reviews and ratings but are confident in your skills as a writer then iWriter allows you to apply for A fast track program that will get you the chance to be bumped up to your desired category in just a day. This fast track program charges a one-time application fee of $147.
Membership at iWriter is divided into four categories; Standard, Premium, Elite and Elite Plus.

Pros

• It is free to join iWriter.
• The website is relatively easy to maneuver.
• Jobs are always available to every writer category even Standard writers - This is mostly as a result of job categorization by iWriter where they have specific jobs for all four categories and thus new writers get a chance to build a rapport for themselves without having to face tough competition from established writers.
• Upgrades are reliant on the number of reviews and rating acquired by the writer - this is especially awesome for the "earn with no investment" folk

Cons

• Low pay – if you’re just starting out as a new writer here, jobs available to you will come attached with low income. The higher you go up the category the higher the pay.
• Upgrades – iWriter must have had the best of intentions when they decided to have their writers determine how they were going to scale up the category but this noble act is being misused by some rogue clients. Such clients are dedicated to making life for new writers hard, armed with the power of negative reviews and ratings these clients have new writers at their mercy.

Payments Made to Writers Per Word Count

This article is meant to give you a transparent view on what it is like to work for some of the best freelance sites out there. Take your time weigh the pros against the cons. Remember folks, different people have different experiences.