Daniel Mattia
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read

I’m fairly new to using LocalSolo but I really appreciate you taking the time to so honestly and openly reach out to freelancers on the site.

I’m highly against sites that act or are content mills, like Upwork et. al. In fact, I was recently banned from Upwork when Upwork’s team stumbled upon my Twitter and took a tweet out of context, accusing me of violating their TOS by taking a client off of their platform. (Reference: the tweet had nothing to do with any of that. I simply said I had “transitioned off of Upwork,” not that I had transitioned any clients off of it.) Had my entire business been based on Upwork, I would have been devastated. So I’m wary of any sort of platform like that because I treat my freelancing as a business, wherein I control how I run my operations, marketing, contracts, etc.

What was most appealing to me about LocalSolo, and why I initially signed up, is that LocalSolo basically provides a vehicle through which freelancers can find clients, and vice versa, without any absurd overhead or draconian TOS. In this way, LocalSolo has the potential to reduce or eliminate the necessity to search out and pitch clients or wait for clients to find us through inbound marketing methods.

While I really like LocalSolo, the biggest negative for me is the lack of work I qualify for as a freelancer who had to choose my location as “worldwide” because my city (Providence, RI) isn’t on the list — nor do I think Providence would generate much of an interest, anyway. Of course, your explanation that employers have begun drying up makes sense for why I only have three results for writing as a “worldwide” freelancer.

I’m also largely against taking a cut of earnings, as I’m then incentivized to search for clients off the platform, or forced to charge them more to make up the difference. Nor am I too comfortable with working to shift clients onto LocalSolo, especially considering some struggle with even figuring out PayPal or how to pay an invoice.

I think a great idea of garnering revenue for the site would be to either reduce or eliminate the cost for employers to post a listing, but to institute a “Premium Listing” feature that gives their listings higher priority. You could also implement a “Premium Freelancer” feature that would give someone like me the opportunity to pay to have my application highlighted or my profile given more attention over that of a non-premium member.

That’s my two cents, at any rate. I really like the uniqueness of LocalSolo so I’d love to see it continue to be a valuable platform.

    Daniel Mattia

    Written by

    Freelance Content Writer. Storyteller. Cat dad. Gamer. Nerd. Lover of words.