Elance , Odesk , Freelancer are recognized by freelancers as the top freelancing websites and by employers as the top outsourcing websites.
No matter which website you opt for, there is plenty of work for both; the freelancer as well as the employer on all of the websites mentioned here.
Although the basic purpose of all of these websites is to outsource work to the freelancer , there are many differences among these sites.
While some of these changes might only be on a technical level, you still need to take a few points into consideration before making the decision to make an account on either of the three accounts mentioned.
In order to select or prioritize your choice for freelancing you need to know what are the pros and cons of these websites. A comparison of these websites will help readers to identify what sort of freelancing services they would like to use. In this article, we have presented a comparison of these top 3 freelance websites. TOOLS Elance provides extensive tools such as private workrooms, messages, and file uploading systems.
Tracker for hourly work and so on Tools are limited. A work diary is used to track the work. Hey Bren, I had found this article a few weeks ago while browsing on web via my mobile. So I could not submit a comment at that time.
I could not believe that you posted here the exact proposal you submitted! Not many posts like this, because proposals are their trade secret.
You made my day, man. Looks like an article that would probably change my life. You show your proposal and way of how to win bid on elance openly and it will help lot of new freelancers. Good Work Bren. Many Thanks. Wow bren!! I have never got so much interest on any article except yours!!
I saw your article and became inspired. I am also a freelancer based on elance. I like to work Instagram job. I am trying to get a job for a long time but not getting.
Hey Ben — great article! Super helpful. I just have to ask, how do you see what other freelancers have bid on their proposals? Write an excellent proposal, bid high, sell yourself. You might even try changing your location information if possible to make a better first impression. In the end, you just need to experiment with different approaches and find something that works. Really great article Bren, I enjoyed reading yours. I was working before on edesk but it has become crap these days.
Your article inspired me to start on elnace. Hey Bren. Have just submitted my first ever proposal on Elance!
Congrats on your start and good luck! I asked a friend to link me to an online job and he copied me this link. Thanks to you. USD35 per accepted article plus 1c per page view. Excellent article, as noted by all of the previous commentators. Your approach appears straightforward and I will certainly be testing the waters on my own behalf. However, I am curious at what point in your proposal you present that you are willing to do part of the job for free?
Hi Whitney. It was in response to one of the article requirements listed in the job description. Also in the 3rd job I wrote an article for free. Your strategy is genius! Thanks for sharing your insights. I will definitely be trying out you approach! Are you an avid reader? Would you recommend using a logo as a profile picture or would you use a picture that is similar to yours that you have in your blog? I have other people that help me with my work so I would like to present myself as a company that produces written content.
Would you recommend that? Thanks for reading, Albert Sanchez. LOL, Looks like some Indian people are really pissed about their behaviour on marketplaces.
I am surprised that they are even defending their behaviour here. And on the new platform there is a more strict bid limit per month.
Plus upwork hides the bids if they think the freelancer is unskilled about the job. Things been better there. Thanks for being SO detailed on what you did and exactly how you did it, including the emails you sent prospective clients.
I am so excited to give this a go. I really want to make money as a freelance writer, optimally writing personal essays including my byline, but I also would love to consistently make money somehow.. Great article. I am from India. I agree that people from developed countries may not be able to compete with the rates that we would offer. But, even with such rates, we could still make a decent living. Here in India, cost of living is not very high.
The purpose of this comment is not to defend the rates that Indians offer. But I have observed some things in the blog which probably any Indian would. IIMB is the best institution in India. Its probably like how Harvard is to the Americans. Every Indian knows this. Now, considering that the clients were also from India, I am amazed that the lady with a degree from IIMB was not awarded the gig.
Great advice Bren, and it totally confirms my own experience. I was amazed at how quickly it can grow if you do it properly, now I can hardly keep up.
Many freelancers decry too much competition. How can one get through this? Hey mate was very insightful to read your blog! Im in the process of elancing and bloggin in an attempt to leave my current job as well and your thoughts have been very inspirational! No pain no gain right? I wish I had read your article when it first came out because it would have saved me a lot of time and made me a lot of money. My latest gig is writing 3 ghost stories.
A nice change from the standard travel, food, real estate, fitness and health niches. Also thanks for the airline tips. We just nailed some super cheap tickets on JetStar through Kayak down to Christchurch. Plus a great deal on a Buzza and whoa, thank you NZD exchange rate! Buy the points on sale from AA. For the purposes of this award Hawaii is considered part of North America!
The best deal is to stretch it all the way to Greece. We like to avoid British Airways because they add fees to your reward ticket. The rules change from time to time but as of our most recent trip using this trick 2 months ago you also get a free stop on your first North American stop on the return leg. Hey Gary thanks for the informative comment.
Sounds like a sweet find! Thank you so much for this advice. Hello, Bran. Great artical. I am a Chartered Accountant From Pakistan. As you discuss above that it is tough for non English Speaker to work as freelance writer. I just want an advice from you that how can i utilize my Accounting skills to be Successful freelancer.
Amazing advice Bren. As a blogger, I just happened to stumble upon freelancing opportunities that aligned well with my blogging experience. I can relate to much of what you stated, especially not fully knowing what to do in the beginning as a freelance writer but always providing my best work. This is great advice that I will return to often.
You are such an inspiration. Thanks for your post! Good article. So so hard to get that first job. This is an excellent article and so helpful. My brain was spinning round and round, trying to decide which site to sign up to, and how to get going, considering there are thousands of freelancers and thousands of jobs that pay a decent rate to a pittance.
Thanks very much. But, can not get any project till. Your proposal is good looking. Next time someone says that it is impossible to make money on Upwork, I will just send them the link to your article.
I have started in a very similar way to you, by putting a lot of effort into my proposals, and currently I am winning about every fourth of my bids and getting very good feedback most of the time my rating is 4. It is strange but a lot of jobs will remain listed even after someone is hired on them. Create a good search filter and bid on new jobs as quickly as possible but take your time on writing a good proposal.
If the client is still online when you place your bid then you have a great chance to get a message right after bidding.
A very practical and maybe boring question: How do you do your taxes from UpWork work? You can claim expenses. Just came across your article today.
It was truly informative and I did get plenty of tips. I hope implementing them can overcome the prejudices of job posters. As an Indian writer, fluent in English, I find it frustrating to be filtered out only on the basis of my location. In your experience do prospective clients look at skill tests on UpWork?
I am looking at ways to overcome this issue. Hi Bren, Thank you so much for your article, I just bumped into it. Thank you. I saw somebody say you are advertising. BIG NO! This article gives only room for hard work. I second you on the fact that some of us are good at jobs, others are yet to get there. Learning and improving on ones skills is very important. You say the truth and yet take no credit for it. Do you know someone would be selling your advise, yet you give it us for free, and I love i, we love it.
The fact that you stress the need for effort and commitment is very encouraging to me. Thanks a Lot Brendan,i was really disappointed from Upwork I did not get the single job from there i lost the my confidence but reading your article, i am so exited to apply the jobs with more efforts. Hi Bren been wanting to sign up on upwork as a freelance writer,thing is reading your story has taken my ambition to do so overboard, thanks alot for the info.
I have heard so many bad things about Upwork. I wonder if it has changed much, since Elance. I was also wondering, what are your thoughts on Danny Margulies course for Upwork?
I am reading this nearly 3 years after you wrote it, but the ideas you present here still stand on their own. I guess I have been living under a rock as I am just now setting up an Upwork account now. My plan is to jump in with both feet just like you did and go above-and-beyond to get those first few clients to take a chance on me. Thanks for all of the solid advice here. This article changed my perception, i read each advice again and again and started rolling, its been a good start, the thing i have trouble the most is having clients rating me badly.
Hey Bren! Loved this article. You share facts without trying to sell a dream. You stayed determined and motivated and this is what it is all about. I would like to keep in touch to share my experience! You sound awfully racist by assuming that people from India or the Philippines are not proficient in English. It might interest you to know that there have been many non-native speakers who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature while writing in English.
For fixed price gigs, money is released to the freelancer on completion of the milestone or project after a security period of around 5 days. Upwork needs this time to process and clear the payments, and resolve any disputes, before funds are released. As a client you get to define milestones in fixed price jobs. Payment is released to the freelancer only after you have received and approved the work.
Freelancers are assured payment for hours clearly worked on the project using the Upwork Desktop App. On fixed rate projects the client deposits a milestone payment into escrow before work begins.
For many freelancers this system works better than running after a client to clear an invoice after completing a project. There have been cases where freelancers have finished a job but the client has refused payment on some pretext — like unsatisfactory quality. Finding and hiring good talent on any freelance platform is a time consuming job. It is no different for Upwork. Companies and entrepreneurs, looking for freelancers on Upwork, usually complain that good talent is hard to come by, there are too many mediocre applicants and you also need to keep a look out for scamsters.
Also include details like results expected in the form of deliverables and deadlines. You can also give Upwork Pro a chance. It is a new, paid service from Upwork. The company says it helps busy hiring managers find, engage and hire the right freelancers from a group of handpicked, pre-vetted professionals. Under the Pro version, freelancers go through a series of tests and interviews to qualify on technical skill as well as behavioural aspects that evaluates communication skills, teamwork and professionalism to determine if they are fit for a role.
As a client, when you sign up for Pro, you get an account manager who works with you to understand the requirements of your job including specific technical expertise, budget, etc. The manager then posts the job in your Upwork account, screens Pro freelancers and creates a shortlist for you.
These shortlisted applicants submit proposals to you. You can then sort through this selective list of freelancers, interview them and finally hire the best candidate. Upwork Enterprise gives large businesses direct access to freelance talent on Upwork plus the ability to source and engage freelancers from their own private talent clouds. The latest version of Enterprise also allows businesses to customize their on boarding processes with steps and checkpoints that could include skill tests and background checks.
Want to know how to hire a great developer on Upwork? Check out our detailed post here. While we all know that when applying for a job, you need to write a top-notch proposal that attracts a client, there are a few tricks that could seal the deal for you on this platform:.
As the client you have found the best freelancer; and as an independent worker you have found a well-paying, interesting job. Despite all precautions sometimes disputes arise. Some common sources of dispute on Upwork include if a freelancer has billed you for more hours than necessary to complete the task or has submitted subpar quality of work. In such cases, the client has time till the end of the review period usually a week to talk to the freelancer and resolve the issue or file the dispute.
For hourly jobs, disputes must be based on hours billed, not the quality of the work. For fixed price jobs, rules say that only freelancers can file disputes for the release of the escrowed funds. However, that does not mean you cannot talk to your freelancer about a refund. Moreover, there have been cases where clients did dispute fixed price jobs and got a refund on the total payment. This is proof of the time spent on a job.
Also for fixed hour work, negotiate on milestone based payments to ensure that you get part payment for completing certain parts of the project. Go into a dispute only if absolutely necessary. Often, Upwork will turn over disputes to arbitration which entails a costly fee. With the rise of freelancer economy, many companies are finding it profitable to hire through online platforms. The talent pool of freelancers and remote workers on these platforms is bigger and also gives you a wider geographic reach.
Moreover, you save on the additional costs associated with hiring an on-site worker like office space, work stations, insurance, etc. Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff on remote working and productivity to your email inbox. We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. This comment section creates so many doubts and concerns for me.
I am an experienced professional in learning and development, curriculum design and have even dabbled for years in the content writing niche.
I recently joining UpWork and its alternatives thanks to Covid putting an end to 15 years of being a successful training manager.
Been struggling to get a response to any of my proposals despite bidding way less than I should. It worries me to see so many clients having been scammed by the same people who are probably lowball bidding on the jobs I am trying to get. Makes you lose all hope. Fraudulent claims regarding the level of expertise, experience, and education are frequently made by freelancers and supported by Upwork. I would highly recommend it.
Rj: It goes both ways. As a Freelancer on Upwork so to leave , there is no proof as to who clients are. We have to verify using governmental ID on Upwork. I have no idea who clients are — they are not verified. Many invitations seem to ask you for free work. Their job was done entirely by those 20 candidates. And I searched on many Thai translator freelancer accounts, many of them seem like fake accounts.
Their language translation looks like a none Thai native did it. And those talent specialists, some of them are very rude. They are also stealing your privacy from your google search.
Try searching for something opt-out of your daily work. You will receive the invitations on the next following days by the talent specialist team. I wish the Upwork management team should seriously take this into their account and get it to fix asap. Another strange issue is that once I was trying to edit the setting menu and received the pop-up notification that you have multiple accounts…blah blah.
I was shocked!!! I only have one account as a freelancer. I also feel something strange. I think this is an internal fraud issue that conducts by a group of staff on Upwork. They might hide your account, and someone might create another fake account get all your uploading of works upon the fake one.
They suppose to have a video call for identity verification every year, but I received any re-verification process since last year. I rejoined Upwork after begin away for 3 years and things have changed: too many scams and scammers!! Stay away from upwork. My account was suspended for no reason. I was told to reply and everything would be fine and we can discuss things. After sending that email, 3 days go by and my account gets permanently suspended.
I had been working fine for 4 months, was verified and was top rated. Over a hundred comments. The ones I have read are more like nightmares.
People must be really vexed. I was suspended for no apparent reason, I could not get the money in my account. Stay away from Upwork. I used a graphic designer on this site and thought that the work was amazing, until I discovered it infringed on copyright. He stole the design from someone else.
A waste of time and money. They protect scamming freelancers I would never use again after my experience. Apparently, some freelancers have found a way to fake good feedback and jobs and nothing has been done about it. Absolutely appalling company! Stay away from Upwork as a freelancer. I have been working there for years.
Despite from high fees and poor support team and lots of checking and paying about 20 days later and …. Their new rating system is disaster. We have 5 start or 4. How come? Such a poor new rating system. Please be very careful when you post your jobs and want to keep private, I posted my job as private job and attached requirements document with it and in few hours got a message from a freelancer that he just interviewed with my partner and I was surprised because I have no partner when I asked him what is talking about he shared a job posting in germany which was copy of my post including my requirements document this was shocking as I wanted the project to be closed with only few invited one and here someone had all the information and had posted it as open post showing it is their post.
Its been a day I have tried upwork help desk , facebook every source available trying to get that post deleted as my information is now in public domain but all I got is standard answer our team is working on issue give us time. Please be aware that your information could be compromised and end up on web if you use the platform. I just signed up for Upwork a few days ago, looking for a freelancer to help with some mid-level tech project.
This site seems overpriced and all over the place. I hope there is an alternative service out there. We do have an article about Upwork alternatives. I used to be a happy Upworker and have been putting up with their high service fee as I believed that they were a reliable platform — until couple days ago! I am really surprised by the way they treat loyalty users.
Their customer service team is horrible — rude and no knowledge of what the progressive correction steps mean. If you are thinking about getting an Upwork account, after knowing their poor attitude, why even bother? Upwork is a very bad platform — the hiring team has no idea how to hire and waste people time — you will be better off networking on yourself and getting good paying projects — do not waste your time.
The experience with upwork was a totally waste of time for me. I never got hired, even never get a reply for my applications. I am an IT professional and I could get a job relatively easily if I wanted to change.
Which is hardly mentioned, you had only limited credits for applications and after applications your credits are running low. You need to pay for them. Pay when you want to be paid. UpWork is the worst website you for finding a freelancers, not the people but the company itself.
I was a client on Upwork. Hired a freelancer who turned out to be a fraud! It caused a security red flag on my website. When I showed them proof of that, free-lancer admitted to giving me a FREE certificate to expire in 90 days. Elance was way better. They had some ethics. Upwork has only one model i. Own enterprise model. Lesser wages to freelancers and commissions on both sides.
Upwork really sucks. Enter at your own risk. We used Upwork for 56 jobs outsourced. In the past, we would refer them to others as the best freelancer resource. A few years ago, the candidates found were always higher quality than other sites. They generally have done several jobs for low amounts of money to get a 5 star rating. The top talent recommended ones ,most of the time, have had several complaints against them, that Upwork has hidden because of many of the honest, good talent have left.
Read other reviews about how many scammers still work there. If you do not do this , they limit who you can invite unless you do the upgrade. So either You have to buy the upgrade, or you are limited to inviting 3 people which is useless. You as the client have a very difficult time finding your own company rating and what the con artists review about you.
The Upwork developers that scam people can manipulate the rating system to read — no review left. Therefore whatever dispute you had and you try to warn others- it goes unpublished and allows the developer to victimize more business owners. DO NOT trust what you read. Upwork stopped testing skill level of candidates, Changed the vetting process and basically could care less while they make money off you.
Anyone can say they have experience. Read others reviews of nightmare broken websites. They may be friendly on the phone, but never actually work to resolve issues.
Continual bugs in the platform that never seem to get fixed and new software releases that obviously have not gone through any QA or beta testing process. Stay away! They claim that you are liable if you pay without the reviewing the work, yet they allow freelancers to ask for deposit before starting work.
They basically stole my money. I complained to upload and disputed with my bank. In the end, my upwork account was suspended and the freelancer is still working on upwork waiting to scam someone else. I have never seen that Upwork user service rules or what ever they call it until I had my dispute, then they sent it to me.
There is absolutely no protection. On top of that, the freelancer started threatening me for no reason. Yet Upwork is ok with this, unbelievable. This needs to be reported to the proper authorities like the Attorney General. Elance was a great site and very honest. Contact the Attorney general and the SEC! Make Upwork be an Honest Site. Very bad service. Upwork is sham. Something stinks about this company claiming they are not making any money. They are skewing their numbers and allowing inactive profiles to remain so they can claim they are the biggest freelancers website in the world.
Upwork was a total waste of time. It might not be Upwork itself, but the quality of vendors. I posted my profile and sent a few proposals. One offer came in at am on a Sunday morning and was withdrawn at am the same morning from an inexperienced vendor who did not understand time zones. A bit cheap, but I had some free time. Next issue. Many vendors do not understand that you need a native speaker for the target language when you are hiring for English to Chinese or English to Japanese.
My native language is English, but I kept getting offers to translate English to a foreign language. Finally, as stated earlier, vendors do not understand time zones. I clearly marked my profile with my time zone but consistently got negative feedback for not replying at 3 am to vendors with completely unrealistic expectations. There are other services that have a much better grasp at language pairs, but worldwide sourcing has made a once well-paying profession into a commodity where jobs go to the lowest bidder, and only if you reply within a minute.
Unfortunately, Upwork is contributing to a race to the bottom. Not for me. I agree T G. I was away from Upwork for about 3 years. I recently rejoined and I am completely horrified at the nonsense, unsolicited jobs I am contacted about and scams and scammers that are unbelievably prolific. I am now looking to leave. All my proposals were legitimate with proper research and not spammed text etc.
I apologize in advance for the length of this comment, but if you are a freelancer or representing an agency or even a client you should definitely read this before joining Upwork.
At first, I tried to create an agency account using my main company email. After I finished the initial setup, I realized that their system was forcing me to create a freelancer account and all account URLs were redirected to this screen.
Due to my misunderstanding, I believed that I created a freelancer-profile account by mistake. Unable to communicate their support, I probably made the mistake to cancel my account, in order to create a new account from scratch. After reading more carefully their help pages, I realized that creating a freelancer profile was a prerequisite for the agency profile. So, after knowing what I had to do, I tried to create a new account with the same email…this was not possible, my email was blocked.
Again, access to their support was not available, so I used an alternative company email and I finally managed to create the second account and set up all the information. My profile featured a legal company based in Bulgaria, a WordPress-specific overview and skill set, 8 years of WordPress themes and plugins authoring experience 12 total in web development , a portfolio containing lead web development work on 6 commercial WordPress themes, several high-profile client projects, all my work history and I also took my first WordPress test with a 4.
Without intention to brag about my skills, I consider myself an expert on my field and this was far from obvious in my Upwork profile. So yeah — living the dream and all that…. I have been able to successfully explain the value of the service a client would get working with me in a proposal and I can back this up with hundreds of testimonials on Elance.
I am ready to double my income in the coming months with even more innovative strategies that might not include Elance in my future, but its been a fantastic platform for my business. But having said that, this is a normal process for every designer to go through before they have finally reached a top bracket and learn valuable lessons the hard way. Here is where Elance, oDesk and the like can bring benefit to your freelance business:.
For a new freelancer, these benefits are really attractive. To do so would take me into the realm of the freelancer advice I push back so strongly against.
Instead, I want to argue my point in a different way… giving you the big picture reasoning behind choosing to and advising other growing freelancers to cut freelancer exchanges out of my growth strategy entirely. My philosophy on freelancing is that ultimately, great clients should come to you. I strongly advocate developing a vision for a dream client. This is impossible to achieve on freelancer exchanges, the platforms are configured to encourage a mass market environment.
To work diligently and develop a collaborative solution with this end goal in mind. This is more difficult on freelancer platforms, as the prospective client tends to be prodded into developing quite a rigid brief.
Moreover, the bidding process is heavily focused on quoting a price, up front or as early as possible. This leaves little room deep discussions around vision and the ultimate client goals. This means that relationships cannot be taken outside of the system, for fear of losing the project commission.
Of course, these rules are often circumvented but the platform is policed vigorously with these guiding principles and the deterrent of a closed account can make life uncomfortable when aiming to speak freely, providing external links for review, recommending dialogue over email or looping a client into your project management system.
An important element, when developing a long-term, commercially viable partnership is an informal start to the relationship. I advocate developing a website which speaks to a prospective client worldview and maps out the beneficial outcome before offering a no-brainer opportunity to start an informal, non-sales relationship.
This might take the shape of a short book, cheat sheet or sample service that the prospect would engage with prior to making full contact. One of the game changers at Tone the agency I now head up, built from freelancer roots has been our decision to develop highly impactful proposal and pitch materials.
So for most, settling for a simple text based proposal often becomes the status quo, reducing the ability to show flair in your approach and separate yourself from others. A project is outlined, a bid is placed, a project is complete, job done.
This goes against my general recommendations, which are to put in the work early in a relationship to build trust, develop a longer-term plan and work together collaboratively long-term.
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