in 2019, freelancing has become more popular than ever. However, if you’re new in this area, it might be tricky finding work at first. In this article, you will find a list of the best 15 sites to find freelance jobs.
What is Freelancing
In general, freelancing can be defined as ‘working for yourself.’ You will be paid based on your finished project by a client. However, note that there are many freelancing schemes, such as:
Project-Based
This scheme requires you to finish a specific work before getting paid. For example, if you work as a freelance writer, you will get the invoice after your work is submitted and approved by your employer.
Time-Based
Getting paid by the hour is also a viable option for a freelancer. This scheme is commonly applied for a part-time interpreter, trainer, or consultant.
Aside from those schemes, the employers usually have their own system for a freelancer. Therefore, make sure that you understand the brief thoroughly before taking a job.
Starting Your Freelancing Career
Starting a freelancing career is not that difficult! Whether you already have a steady job or intend to do the freelance gig as your primary source of income, there are three things that you must do:
1. Building Your Portfolio
A strong portfolio is the best tool to attract potential employers. It has to be clear and concise. Do not be shy when showcasing your personality and past work. You can also add some creative flair in your portfolio to get more attention.
2. Gaining Experience to be a Specialist
Being a specialist in a particular writing style should be your objective. Stick to a niche and improve your reputation by acquiring more and more experience.
The employers often look for writers with specific niche experience. Besides, the rates for a specialist is also bigger than for other writers. For instance, an expert freelance copywriter can charge more than $100 per hour while the beginners only get from $1 to $20 at the same time.
3. Understanding Your Legal Stance
The law regarding freelancers – especially taxes – is different from one country to another. For example, a freelancer in the US must pay the self-employment taxes if his/her income exceeds $400 per year. While in the UK, you are not obligated to pay for the income tax unless your income exceeds £15700 per year.
The point is, knowing your legal stance is essential to keep yourself away from trouble.
Moreover, you must also be careful while negotiating with clients. If they require you to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before you start working on a project, always make sure that you read the document thoroughly.
Pros and Cons of Freelancing
Working as a freelancer has a lot of pros and cons. Before you start taking gigs, here are some things you should consider:
Pros:
- Controlled workload. You decide the amount of work you do every day.
- Better time management. You can take a rest anytime you want, or go for a holiday during the weekdays.
- More flexibility. You can work remotely from any place you like; Cafe, public library, or even your bedroom. You can also pick your own work schedule.
- No need to commute. Working from home can save you from those long-and-tiresome commutes every day.
- Education background is not important. Most freelance employers do not care about your educational background. As long as you have enough skills and experience, you have an excellent chance at succeeding as a freelancer.
Cons:
- All by yourself. Being a freelancer means that you have to be a lone wolf. Working alone can be very difficult sometimes, especially if you encounter a super tricky problem.
- You do not have special rights and a stable income. While working full-time for a company grants you the right to have maternity leave, paternity leave, and paid vacation, as a freelancer you will not earn anything unless you keep working. As a result, you will not have a stable income.
- Unpredictable working dynamic. Freelancing means that you will continuously jump from one employer to another. Some clients may be kind and understanding while some others are not.
- No company benefits. You will not get any benefits such as health benefits, annual bonuses, or company-sponsored retirement plans.
- You will always compete with others. Even when you already have such a good reputation and become a specialist in something, you need to keep competing with other freelancers to survive in the industry.
15 Best Sites for Freelance Jobs
As a freelancer, you have to look for jobs constantly. Fortunately, there are plenty of sites to help you find work. Here are our top picks:
1. Upwork
Upwork is one of the largest freelancing platforms. It uses a conventional scheme where you have to apply for a job to the employers.
There are thousands and thousands of freelance jobs available in Upwork. The job categories include creative design, software development, IT and networking, customer service, sales, marketing, document translation, and web development.
Freelancing through Upwork is easy. Your payment is also secure since the platform requires the clients to deposit their funds before you start working on the project.
However, Upwork will charge you per job. For a project worth below $500, they will take 20% of your income while the project worth >$500 to $10.000 will be cut by 10%.
Furthermore, for a massive project above $10.000 and beyond, they will take no less than 5%.
2. Freelancer
Freelancer is known as a popular site among self-employed workers. It has completed more than 12 million freelance projects to date.
The system is not much different from other popular freelancing platforms such as Upwork or Guru (where you need to bid for a project). However, this site allows the employer to choose to pay per project or hourly.
Unfortunately, you may want to apply for a premium membership since you can only submit no more than eight job applications per month using a free account. The premium membership plan will cost you up to $59.95 per month.
Moreover, Freelancer will charge you per project. The charge ranges from 10% to 20% of your income, depending on the scale of the project.
3. SolidGigs
SolidGigs is a popular talent staffing platform. It provides freelance jobs to contract writers, digital marketing copywriters, advertising specialists, SEO specialists, website builders, and many more.
However, there is no free membership option on SolidGigs. You need to pay $2 for a 30-day trial then $19 per month after it expires.
Luckily, being a member of SolidGigs has a lot of perks. Aside from providing a lot of freelance jobs, they also help develop your skills by giving hundreds of tutorials and lessons from experts.
4. Fiverr
Fiverr offers you a great opportunity to find freelance jobs for just $5 per month. It does not require you to bid to get clients (which can be quite bothersome). In addition, they also encourage employers to leave you a tip.
However, Fiverr will take a 20% cut off each project. The percentage is known as one of the highest among freelance platforms.
5. CloudPeeps
If you are looking for a free freelancing platform, CloudPeeps should be on your list. It has a “Hobby Plan” which is entirely free and provides a lot of useful features to find work.
When you are ready to earn more, you can upgrade your plan to “Standard” for $9 per month or “Plus” for $29 per month.
Unfortunately, CloudPeeps service is very limited since their online payment system, Stripe, is only available in 25 countries.
6. Indeed
Indeed allows you to browse loads of freelance jobs anywhere in the world. All you have to do is type in your desired position and the name of a city or country. The site will then show all available jobs in that area.
Indeed is useful for both freelance and full-time job hunters. However, since the site only compiles the job lists from other sources, you can expect to be redirected to some other search sites before finding the source page.
7. Guru
Guru is a superb collaboration platform for employers and freelancers. It has good ratings and feedback systems for the job seekers and clients to benefit both parties.
The overall working scheme in Guru is similar to other freelancer platforms. You need to make a bid and get a client’s approval before you start working. Interestingly, this platform gives freelancers a lot of payment options. You can choose to get paid per milestone, per task, or per hour.
Furthermore, Guru also provides a messaging service to keep you in touch with clients. However, the chat can only be started once you get hired. It means you cannot contact the potential client to persuade them to hire you.
8. Contena
Contena is an excellent platform to make money writing. It connects you with a lot of potential employers from many parts of the world.
The site acts as a “moderator” to your gig. In case you have a misunderstanding or disagreement with the client, they will help you to solve it.
Furthermore, by joining Contena, you will also get access to the Contena Academy, a training program to help you kickstart your career as a freelancer. It contains lessons, tutorials, and downloadable learning modules.
However, becoming a Contena member is not free. You need to pay $100 per month to get all the benefits.
9. Journalism Jobs
This site is the Trivago for job seekers; it will help you find tons of freelance work across the US and Europe for free.
You just need to type in a job title (writer, designer, etc.), choose one of the available locations, then hit search. JournalismJobs will then list all available freelance jobs for you.
10. Paid to Blog
If you are interested in becoming a freelance blogger, Paid to Blog is the website you would want to visit. It offers a private course with a lot of great blogging guides and resources.
The get the full benefit, you need to invest $49. Luckily, you just need to pay once to join all of the available courses.
11. Contently
Contently provides huge access to original content created by freelancers, researchers, and journalists. It is a great option to start looking for freelance jobs with excellent pay rates.
The website is well-known for its simple layout and easy setup. You can create a compelling portfolio within one or two hours. Furthermore, you can also participate in their webinar to hone your content creating skills.
12. 99Designs
99Designs allows you to sell your creative work like logos, themes, advertising designs, and much more. You can sell finished products or make collaboration with certain clients to produce a design according to their brief.
What makes it interesting is, you can participate in a ‘contest’ posted by a client that is looking for a specific design. The prize money is often voluptuous, so make sure that you are doing your best to win it.
13. Behance
Behance is a creative network that showcases a lot of digital products such as typography, graphic design, and web design. This platform is created by Adobe.
The membership fee is only $9.99 per month. It will allow you to exhibit all your creative work online. The site does not limit the number of projects you can create. Therefore, you can take multiple projects from many different clients at once.
14. Dribble
This Australian-based freelance platform will help you collaborate with hundreds of entrepreneurs across the globe. You can sell UI/UX designs, web themes, logos, and many other visual designs. It’s a great place to look for freelance jobs.
You can also showcase your work to attract employers. It works great as an online portfolio for students and amateurs.
15. Coroflot
This website is an online marketplace for creative freelance jobs. It offers a lot of freelances and full-time opportunities for digital designers, UI/UX creators, 3D modelers, and animation artists.
Coroflot is available for free. You can apply for the job without the need to leave the site. Moreover, it also presents comprehensive data about designer salaries from many parts of the world. The data will help you set the pricing right.
Conclusion
To sum it up, there are 15 amazing freelance sites to start looking for a gig, namely:
- Upwork – one of the biggest freelancing websites that offers a lot of freelance job categories with secure payments.
- Freelancer – it offers a great free membership option that allows you to take up to 8 freelance jobs per month.
- SolidGigs – although the platform has no free membership plan, it has hundreds of tutorials and lessons from experts to help your career development.
- Fiverr – cheap membership plan, only $5 per month. It also actively looks for clients for you, so you do not need to compete in a bidding war to get a project.
- CloudPeeps – the website provides a free membership plan with a lot of useful features.
- Indeed – easy to use and benefits both freelancers and full-time job seekers.
- Guru – has a great rating system and messaging service. It also offers various payment methods.
- Contena – the website has an online learning platform to teach you a lot of skills. It also offers to resolve any issue or misunderstanding between you and your clients.
- Journalism Jobs – a search engine for freelance jobs. Very straightforward and free of charge!
- Paid to Blog – it provides a private course with a lot of great blogging tips and tricks. You only need to pay once to get all the benefits.
- Contently – this platform provides a lot of remote jobs. It also has a feature to create a compelling portfolio in an instant.
- 99Designs – one of the best places to sell your designs and creative work. It has many design contests with a lucrative money prize.
- Behance – super cheap membership fee for only $9.99 per month. It also gives you unlimited project quota.
- Dribbble – a great place to sell your web designs or UI/UX concepts. The site also makes a compelling portfolio for students and amateurs.
- Coroflot – this site allows you to find thousands of freelance and full-time jobs. It also gives a complete guide to set your pricing right.
Considering how convenient all of the options above are, there is no reason to not consider freelancing as your source of income or side hustle.
After all, even if you already have a stable job, doing some freelance gigs can benefit you greatly.
