Nov 22 2008
Getting freelance work online
If you need to increase your earnings in a hurry (perhaps due to debt), or you have lost your job and need to find another source of income, you could try bidding for freelance jobs online.
A number of websites have sprung up that allow freelancers and employers to interact. Typically, the employer posts a job, and freelancers bid for the job. However competition is fierce, with many people from the developing world bidding, so pay rates can be driven down. However, there are some niches where particular and specific skills are required that are not widely available, and the payrates are better.
Here’s a selection of freelance sites people my wish to try:
Guru.com Basic registration is free (though they will try to sell you their premier package). All sorts of jobs are available from copywriting to programming, legal work, accounting etc. Freelancers submit quotes for jobs they want to do. If they are accepted, payment is made via Guru’s safepay escrow. Once your work is submitted and approved as acceptable by the employer, the money is released to you by Paypal or bank transfer.
ClicknWork is a freelance website where work is assigned to freelancer (instead of you having to bid for jobs). They are picky about who they accept on their books - you may be assigned a test first. Work varies from copywriting to market research.
Rentacoder This is for software experts only. You register free, bid for jobs, and Rentacoder charge a fee for brokering the deal.
GetAFreelancer You register with them free, and get to make 15 free bids a month. Work on offer is extremely varied - copywriting, proof-reading, programming and so on. However it is very very competitive. The Employers rate the freelancers on the work they’ve done and naturally those with good ratings get the jobs.
I hope people have found the above information useful
I’m a freelance writer on a professional level and I would recommend Rentacoder highly. It is not just for software experts as I don’t have the first clue about software, but there are always writing jobs on offer.
I always work through them because the money is escrowed in advance so you are guaranteedto get paid if you keep to the deadline. The fees are minimal and there is no joining fee.
Guru is pointless unless you pay for membership because most buyers want people that have put their money where their mouth is so work is limited if you won’t pay to join.
http://freelancewriterjournal.blogspot.com
thnks for the tips ,
This was a very informational post. It’s nice to know these jobs are out there.
http://youthmystique.today.com
I’m starting to get a nice part-time income going with freelancing and I have never bid on a job in my life. Sites like elance sent me out cleaning earlier in the year because I could earn a lot more cleaning toilets than being paid a 1c/word!
Now I do OK writing but its because of contacts I’ve made online - mainly thru hubpages - and I work for people who want quuality not cheap!
http://travelover30s.today.com