Freelance opportunity sites?

Hi,

I'm currently trying to establish some new connections for freelance work. I wondered if anyone has come across any 'Reliable' freelance opportunity boards? Other then rip off sites such as PPH and similar sites.

They may not exist, but just thought I would ask.
 
I tend not to use sites for work (a strong word of mouth network is one of the best sources of work). This forum is good for finding work occasionally but the trouble you face with any online source of work is stiff, often worldwide competition. This is why it's imperative you have a local network. The vast majority of my work now comes from existing clients and contacts of theirs. I very rarely market or seek out work online because of this.
 
Thanks for reply Paul, sounds like you have it sorted, wish I was in the same the position! I have a few good contacts, but need more! Thought if certain companies were actively seeking freelancers, it might be easier to establish a relationship with them?
 
Hi interesting question OP, I am also looking for and taking freelance opportunity's. I don't know PPH but for some reason had it in the same bracket as fiver so maybe you could clear that up for me? If it is the same as Freelancer, Upwork and Guru then my limited experience ("in rip off sites") is no good to you as these are the three sites Im currently using for work.
 
Hi DDDave,

I have little knowledge with the three companies you mention, I would be really interested in hearing about your experience if you fancy a chat some time.

So People Per Hour is a market place where people / companies post their brief's with next to no information, and then expect you to bid for the work at stupidly low prices. If you are lucky enough to win work, PPH then take around 40% of your earnings for the pleasure. I might be being a little harsh here, but I can not see how anyone makes a living out of PPH as you spend all your time bidding on work for minimum wage.
 
Hi DDDave,

I have little knowledge with the three companies you mention, I would be really interested in hearing about your experience if you fancy a chat some time.

So People Per Hour is a market place where people / companies post their brief's with next to no information, and then expect you to bid for the work at stupidly low prices. If you are lucky enough to win work, PPH then take around 40% of your earnings for the pleasure. I might be being a little harsh here, but I can not see how anyone makes a living out of PPH as you spend all your time bidding on work for minimum wage.

That's basically my experience of it, though I last used it around 5 years ago and I believe their business model has changed somewhat since them. You spend time putting together an estimate based on the vague details, accounting for your skill level, past experience and time you expect to spend on it. Let's say you put an estimate of £600 for the work, which even then is probably pretty low for most of the work requested on the site. Chances are the 'client' will go for the lowball offers of £150, or even request that you "send over some ideas" to see if you're a right fit for them.

Personally I steer clear of these sites since the majority of the work is cheap quality which attracts cheap clients. You're much better off signing up with some legitimate recruitment agencies if you want leads.
 
Hi DDDave,

I have little knowledge with the three companies you mention, I would be really interested in hearing about your experience if you fancy a chat some time.

So People Per Hour is a market place where people / companies post their brief's with next to no information, and then expect you to bid for the work at stupidly low prices. If you are lucky enough to win work, PPH then take around 40% of your earnings for the pleasure. I might be being a little harsh here, but I can not see how anyone makes a living out of PPH as you spend all your time bidding on work for minimum wage.

Hi Grant, 40% seems really high and I cant see that being right to be honest. I think freelancer is at 10% which is already on the high side. Yes they are running the same as you mention where you bid off a brief or next to no brief. I tend to just copy paste the clients that dont give much detail and personalize my proposal to the ones that do. Im still in the early stages of it and I heard in a few different places that it picks up after 3 months and this will be my 3rd month starting January, I have great reviews and a decent portfolio on at least 2 of the 3 sites. I dont have the option for local work like Paul mentioned earlier where I live so working online is my only choice, my plan is to build a client base and website and stop the daily bidding but leave my profiles online.

That's basically my experience of it, though I last used it around 5 years ago and I believe their business model has changed somewhat since them. You spend time putting together an estimate based on the vague details, accounting for your skill level, past experience and time you expect to spend on it. Let's say you put an estimate of £600 for the work, which even then is probably pretty low for most of the work requested on the site. Chances are the 'client' will go for the lowball offers of £150, or even request that you "send over some ideas" to see if you're a right fit for them.

Personally I steer clear of these sites since the majority of the work is cheap quality which attracts cheap clients. You're much better off signing up with some legitimate recruitment agencies if you want leads.

I agree Paul there are a lot of people looking for cheap work and you have to offer cheap work to start with just to build some reputation but some clients have started coming to me now just from usually seeing something in my portfolio. I have screenshots of projects I have done to send clients but I wont do any work without taking a deposit or starting a contract on there. The hourly situation on Upwork is awesome right now, they have a time tracker that takes screen shots of you working and the client can even see things progressing.
 
I use PPH on and off to get little jobs done. The fee they take is something like 4% or 5% from the buyer and then the same from the seller. So, I accept a proposal of £100 and have to pay around £105. The guy I employed to do the work gets £95 of his original price. At that level its not too bad but it's not great when you scale things up.

With PPH I find it best to go hunting for the top 2 or 3 users with the skillset you need to employ, rather than posting an ad and then sifting through the BS proposals you get. They list the top rated few so it's not too difficult but you will pay the real world's going rate.
 
The hourly situation on Upwork is awesome right now, they have a time tracker that takes screen shots of you working and the client can even see things progressing.
Yeah that's just NEVER going to happen on my computers, what happens if it doesn't shut down when working on another project... there's the potential for massive data breaches. Not to mention the potential to capture log in details, emails etc if you time it wrong.

I've not exactly got anything to hide about me, I'm far too boring, but my god the privacy of my client work is important and I could potentially get huge fines from breach of nda's by just having something like that on my computer.

Then there's the fact that hourly screenshots could literally show the screen at the same point 1 hour later.... sometimes it looks like nothing happens during that time on long animation renders because it could render the same scene x times to fit the animation lol
 

My God, that sounds awful!

My idea of remote working HELL! :(

Yeah I can understand how that sounds awful but I found it very relaxing after doing badly briefed(learning the hard way) price work before which obviously leads to changes. I think the time-tracker system encourages clients to employ a freelancer as it gives them more confidence and they most likely only sift through the screens if you send them a whooping bill

Yeah that's just NEVER going to happen on my computers, what happens if it doesn't shut down when working on another project... there's the potential for massive data breaches. Not to mention the potential to capture log in details, emails etc if you time it wrong.

You sound like you are way overreacting here I was very conscious of having it on and passwords normally show as ******* onscreen. You can still also bill extra hours still for sketching, researching or whatever. I remember when I used to be scared of my webcam when I was sitting there naked :p.

I was just giving my experience and I did state it is very limited and I hope somebody who is doing well on these sites chips in. Like bigdave mentioned the best clients often dont post their projects they message you direct.
 
You sound like you are way overreacting here I was very conscious of having it on and passwords normally show as ******* onscreen. You can still also bill extra hours still for sketching, researching or whatever. I remember when I used to be scared of my webcam when I was sitting there naked :p.
You clearly don't work with nda's.....
I'm not overreacting, anything on my computer which can grab screenshots of what's happening at timed intervals and upload to an external server can be a databreach which can in turn cause me to be fined/sued by my clients for loss of sensitive/private information. It is one step away from a keylogger. Not all passwords are put in via *******, and you never mentioned about emails, IM chats.

I don't have a webcam either on my work pc's and I'd pick not to have them on my other devices if I had a choice.
 
Didn't think of it capturing things that weren't connected with the project you're working on uh as e-mails or other projects or even when you take a few min to take a peek at that favourite, 'speciality' web-site. o_O
 
You clearly don't work with nda's.....


This was one of the first things that came to mind, or something simple like switching between your design client and your emails to response to a query from another client, only to have the app upload a screenshot of a private conversation.

Is there anything in place to prevent something like that happening or does it just take a screenshot of your entire screen at a certain (or random) interval?
 
So if there are not really any good websites for generating good honest leads, is there such a thing as a creative agent? I've searched google and unless I am searching for the wrong terms, there does not really appear to be any. But I am sure they exist? I know they will take there cut, but the pay off might be more work then I can handle.

Does anyone have experience of working with creative agents?
 
Why not approach some Print/Design agencies with your portfolio and you can ask them if they have any overflow that you can work freelance for them.
 
I tend not to use sites for work (a strong word of mouth network is one of the best sources of work). This forum is good for finding work occasion
ally but the trouble you face with any online source of work is stiff, often worldwide competition. This is why it's imperative you have a local network. The vast majority of my work now comes from existing clients and contacts of theirs. I very rarely market or seek out work online because of this.

Good points!
 
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