Working On Freelancer

Freelancer.com is a leading freelance marketplace in the world. The website was founded in 2009 in Sydney, Australia with offices in other countries.

Read all the post on working in the Gig Economy here:

Freelancer is an online outsourcing platform which connects companies who want to get work done and freelancers looking for work.

Services offered by freelancers on this platform range from software and IT related services like web designing, content writing and proofreading, digital marketing and much more. Freelancer.com has a user base of more than 10 million registered users (including sellers and buyers).

How It Works

Similar to other outsourcing platforms, the major players include the clients/buyers, the freelancers/sellers, while the platform acts as the middleman. The services offered can be hour-based jobs, a one-time small task, or a large project.

The Freelancer platform is quite unique in the way things are done.

For instance, as a buyer (worker) on the platform, you have to bid for jobs/projects before you can get them. Another feature of this platform is the Milestone Payment system. This system refers to a payment process where freelancers are paid according to a schedule of goals set by the sellers, or payment after completion.

As a seller looking to get his/her work done, you are first required to sign up on the platform, and then post the work you want to be done.  After posting the work, you can either invite freelancers to start submitting their bids, or go through the list of relevant freelancers to make an offer.

In order, to be a seller (freelancer) on Freelancer.com, you need to sign up and set up your profile matching the description of the type of service that you offer. Then you can search for jobs in your niche, and then start placing bids. If you bid is accepted by the seller, you are then awarded the job.

How Freelancer.com Profits From It

For every completed job and payment done, Freelancer charges the buyer 10% of the payment. However, this can be reduced through their paid monthly membership with a minimum fee of $5.

 My Personal Experience On Freelancer.com

While working on Freelancer.com, I made a few observations:

• One observation I had was the fact that as a seller you can take your time to prepare a very nice and detailed bid, but still have it rejected. This did not happen in a single occasion, but a number of times, as there are quite a few professionals bidding for the same work.
• There are also many project requests from individuals that are outside of the professional arena, some individuals/companies of which you – definitely not want to be linked to!
• There were a few instances where payments for a completed project were reversed for no obvious reason.

Another downside about working on Freelancer.com is the fact that there are, a plethora of fees to be paid by both the employers and the Gigger.

A freelancer can be charged an “inactive” fee if their accounts are inactive for a time. Also, to get a better chance of being awarded jobs, you are encouraged to subscribe to their paid monthly membership subscription.

The most insightful observation I found was that this platform can be really frustrating for professional workers, as it is likely you will be underpaid for a quality job that you spent lots of your time on…

I am no longer using freelancer.com [just not one for bidding, I like companies to come directly to me with their projects ;)], but that does not mean you cannot become the next greatest Gigger on freelancer.com.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in. - Napoleon Bonaparte

I am stopping here for today. But, this series “My Experiment Of Working In The Gig Economy” is still far from over – as I continue with my next post, I will share my experience of working as an Independent HR Professional on Upwork.com.

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