10 Places to Find Freelance Work Online
If you’re new to freelancing, the pressure of obtaining your first batch of projects will weigh in on you, and there’s no shame in it. Every tenured freelancer experienced it when they just started doing freelance work. Freelancing is drastically different from traditional jobs. You have to earn income with initiative and self-motivation. According to 70% of freelancers surveyed by And Co, they handle 2 to 4 projects at a time, and that’s enough for them to obtain a steady income. For a newbie like you, you should start with that routine.
10 Places to Find Freelance Work Online
But the question now is where to find freelance gigs? Well, we can help you with that. In this blog, we’ll introduce you to ten places where you can find freelancing opportunities online.
FlexJobs
FlexJobs is among the most popular freelance websites in the gig economy. High-paying jobs from trusted clients are abundant in FlexJobs, which means it could be a good place for you to start. Plus, one of FlexJobs’s policy is to assess the credibility of employers’ job postings before they feature them on the site. That said, you can be confident that every freelance gig available in FlexJobs is reliable and not a scam.
In FlexJobs, you can find any kind of freelance job you want, depending on your niche. You might even come across gigs from well-known companies looking for freelancers with your talent and skillset.
Freelancer.com
Next up, we have a freelance platform with a straightforward name but offers a wide array of opportunities. Freelancer.com originated in Australia and has headquarters in Buenos Aires, Jakarta, London, Manila, and Vancouver. As of 2019, Freeelancer.com garnered 29 million users.
Getting started in Freelancer.com is quick and easy. All you have to do is upload or input your freelance profile and portfolio. And afterward, you can begin applying for freelance jobs in no time. However, due to heavy competition with other freelancers, getting high-paying gigs can be difficult. But sooner or later, you’ll improve your chances of getting high-paying gigs as you gain experience.
Behance
If your niche is specifically graphic designing, then Behance is an ideal place for you. By posting your profile and your sample works on Behance, clients will be tracking you if you can showcase the best of your creative skills. If that happens, your email address could receive multiple messages from clients offering contracts.
Moreover, the owner of Behance is Adobe. With that in mind, there’s no questioning this site’s reliability and legitimacy. Behance could be your pathway to start pursuing your creative passion while making a decent livelihood out of it.
99Designs
Another platform for freelance graphic designers and artists is 99Designs. This website is also based in Australia and has a headquarter in Oakland, California. Just like Behance, 99Designs offers freelancers vast choices of gigs from thousands of clients.
In 99Designs, you have to display quality productivity to get more work as possible. Compared to Behance, 99Designs is more popular and has more registered freelancers, which means you’ll have competition in bidding for available gigs. But don’t let that bother you, competition is normal in the freelance economy. After all, as mentioned moments ago, 99Designs offers vast choices. So if you don’t get that particular gig, there are plenty of other options.
Coworks
Relatively, Coworks is a new freelance platform. Even though it isn’t as popular as the likes of FlexJobs and 99Designs, there are enough clients posting jobs in Coworks. There are clients searching for photographers, writers, designers, virtual assistants, and many more. In that case, you’ll have a place in Coworks whatever abilities you have.
Most of the job opportunities in Coworks aren’t really gigs that can earn you more money than usual. However, it’s an ideal platform for new freelancers like you who are looking to build slowly but surely.
Fiverr
Fiverr is yet another widely popular platform that offers diverse freelance gigs. This giant freelance website originated in Jerusalem and was launched on February 1, 2010. Today, Fiverr has millions of freelancers and clients.
The unique thing about Fiverr is that it enables both freelancers and clients to post listings. Freelancers can post that they’re available for hire, and clients can also post their job offers. For example, a freelancer might say “will design for websites,” and a client might say “looking for a web designer.” In that way, freelancers can match with ideal clients easily and vice versa. So, you should definitely consider Fiverr if you want to find projects that match your skills perfectly.
WriterAccess
If your niche is writing, you should give WriterAccess a try. WriterAccess is a platform where clients look for freelancers who can write blogs, articles, and other forms of literature.
Clients in WriterAccess search for writers based on their specific writing prowess. For example, if a client is searching for someone who can ghostwrite for a book, he or she will specifically look for book ghostwriters. So, if you’re adept in multiple genres of writing, make sure to emphasize it to maximize your opportunities in WriterAccess.
iFreelance
In iFreelance, you need to be a member to get gigs, and you need to pay $7 per month for the membership. Paying $7 monthly might seem to be a hindrance from your goal to increase your income, but hear us out first.
Once you become a member of iFreelance, multiple job opportunities will come to way on a regular basis. By the end of each month, the $7 you spent becomes profitable due to the number of projects you did within a month. iFreelance members get 100% of their earnings from clients. The website itself won’t take even a single penny from clients’ payments.
iFreelance is ideal if you want to be a dynamic and full-time freelancer. However, if freelancing will be your sideline job, then paying $7 for an iFreelance membership wouldn’t be practical. But, if you decide to go full-time, becoming a member of iFreelance would be an excellent way to start.
Craigslist
Aside from being an online selling platform, Craigslist is also a well-established platform for finding jobs. As a matter of fact, Craigslist has “Gigs” and “Jobs” sections where employers post their job openings. You can also filter the search box according to your city or region to find gigs within your area. Probably in a few minutes or hours after you submit an application, a client or employer will contact you and discuss terms about the task or project at hand.
You don’t have to do much to get freelance gigs in Craigslist. All you need to do is search for a job and submit your application. It’s that simple.
Social Media
Lastly, we have social media in general. Remember that one of the tips for freelance workers is to establish an online reputation. In doing so, you can attract the attention of a significant portion of the freelance market. Social media is an ideal platform to establish your online reputation and attract clients and referrals. As a new freelancer, you should create pages on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Keep in mind that a certain percentage of your target clients are on social media. If your social media pages reach them, they’ll certainly follow you and hire you eventually. Social media is a free platform to boost the promotion of your freelance service. So, take advantage of it.
Most of the time, achieving career stability and financial security in freelancing is a matter of knowing the right places to find opportunities. Hopefully, you’ll use the online platforms we’ve discussed with you here as among your tools for success. All of them are easily accessible in just a few clicks.