Go to the profile of Duncan
Duncan
Designer with an interest in marketing. http://duncanbrazzil.net

5 Advantages and Disadvantages of using Freelancer.com

Freelancing is not easy. Being between jobs is not easy. Finding clients is not easy. This is where Freelancer arrives on the scene to rescue you from your struggle of finding your own clients online or even locally in your city, by handing you a strong network to find those connections. Started by an Australian Entrepreneur Freelancer.com has risen to become one of the most popular, if not the most popular Freelance network in the world. Collectively, there are 19,000,000+ users and growing on Freelancer, a figure split between the employers who benefit from it as well as the global team of freelancers they employ.

Whether you’re questioning quitting your job to go full time freelance, or even considering it part time, I hope the highlights below of both the disadvantages and advantages will be of use to you. These are thoughts and observations I’ve acquired whilst using the platform over the past few months carrying out some small-medium sized design projects (I’ve by no means mastered this ‘freelance’ thing yet!). I hope that people may be able to relate, especially young people trying to make a cool business idea sustainable, or in other words, making it your full time job.

Freelancer Advantages

  1. Strong Chat System
    Facebook like chat that allows you to instantly be in touch with clients that award you their project. The chat system also has a notification sound that alarms you when someone has messaged, which is useful as you’re waiting to hear back from projects you’ve used your bids on for the day. Tip: Use the chat system to message clients you’ve worked for before to see if they need additional work following the first project you carried out for them.
  2. Strong Interface
    Easy to navigate interface. Also easy to setup profile page. Additionally, Freelancer seems to be continually catering to what their audience is calling for. On your home page sidebar, they have questions that provoke answers on how they can continually improve their platform. You can tell they’re answering effectively with their on going new features. They’ve also launched a blog that allows you to hangout and see what advice other freelancers are handing out. It seems they’re definitely strengthening the community lately.
  3. Qualifications + Reviews
    Freelancer allows you to take different tests that relate to your skill sets. Passing these are proven to give you a competitive advantage over your competitors in your field when using your bids. For just $5–10 you can take these tests to receive your qualifications (cool badges) to add next to your name. They’re also fun, challenge you, and worth the money spent if you are trying to improve your chances of being awarded work. Additionally, there is the option to leave reviews from both the employer’s side and you, the freelancer, for each project completed. You can give honest feedback that goes directly on the employers profile and vice versa. This review system gains value over time by increasing your own trustability and betters your chance of winning projects. Tip: After completing a project or right before, make sure to tell your employer to leave you a nice review!
  4. Payment Methods
    Payment is something that’s always brought up in the Freelance community. Most of the time we’re waiting on payments to come through, whether that be the payment systems we use or the clients that we work with who are just flat out slow in responding to a completed project. The payment methods on Freelancer are reliable with withdrawals taking about 1–2 days to process, which I’d say is alright. Even better if you are lining up projects to be completed around the same time. For direct deposit you will have to provide a valid ID. There’s also the Freelancer MasterCard which you can get too, making payment even faster.
  5. Preferred Freelancer Network
    After meeting Freelancers qualifications you are able to apply for this exclusive network giving you access to higher paying work. To this day I’ve not made it into the network but I’ve set a goal to make it in by the end of this year! Tip: Try to gain as much Freelancer XP as possible and respect the platform + your clients!

Freelancer Disadvantages

  1. Spam
    Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of spam on Freelancer that has flooded the streams I use. However, these spam projects are often easy to spot. Tip: Often times these posts come back to back. Report these projects straight away to avoid the flood.
  2. Inaccurate Budgets on Projects
    I’ve ran across a few of these lately. Also a friend of mine who just recently started on Freelancer said this was the only issue he found which would put him off using the platform. Scenario: X person posts project at $250–500 for a logo design. They award you the project without first sending you a message (it’s sort of a mandatory thing to talk the project over to agree on deadlines before awarding — this is where you should decline) and you accept. They then continue on in the chat to say their max budget for the project is 10% of the margin they originally advertised, now offering you only $25–50. But you’ve accepted the project. Bad move. Freelancer takes a cut of every project you receive — therefore if the project was $250 when they awarded you, you be will suffering because the amount Freelancer takes is a lot more than if the client had just originally posted their accurate budget of $25–50. Tip: Always have a quick chat with the person before they award you the project. If they state they have to pay lower than the margin advertised, let them know you will carry out work once they’ve created another project with the correct budget.
  3. Clients With Bad English
    You can run across these projects from time to time. These type of people sometimes manage to write a decent brief but when you get into conversation it can be hard to tell what specifics are needing carried out along with the work. Tips: Be careful about who you work with and try to feel them out/anticipate how the project will go within the chat before any work is agreed upon. Sometimes it can clear up and get better others it’s just not worth pursuing.
  4. Low Paying Work / High Expectations
    I‘d say avoid these projects at all costs. These are the type of projects advertised between $10–30 which might involve the creation of a website, app, logo. Whatever it may be, these projects are basically are too much work for too low of a payment. These are the types of projects I hate to see as a freelancer. These are the type of clients ruining the industry but will never go away. Tips: For the $10–30 range, look for projects that would compliment your strongest skill set so you can complete it as quickly as possible. Not saying to avoid the $10–30 at all costs (you can make a lot from this range if you select good projects with well written briefs), but if the project ends up surpassing your own hourly rate it’s not worth it. These type of low paying clients may even come back with changes too, so agreeing upon on how many changes you will make to the design before carrying out any work will work to your advantage long term.
  5. I really can’t think of a 5th of the top of my head so I will leave this blank. Ultimate point here is that I think the positives outweigh the negatives and that most of the disadvantages come from people breaking the rules of the platform.

Again, hope you considered some of these thoughts and tips! If they’ve helped let me know on Twitter or LinkedIn! Also here is my Website if anyone is interested in checking out some of my work. So long and happy freelancing freelancers!