Finding Work as a Freelancer

S

Sean Lee-Amies

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It tends to be that most of my work is achieved through referrals from previous clients. Whilst that's great, and usually ends up with new contacts that are keen to work with you, some times this source can dry up and leave you scratching your head, looking for more work at the last minute.
So where do you go to find new projects? I've found countless sites that post up full time or part time jobs, but very few that cater for remote, freelance jobs. I've found two that do and both work pretty well, although one is currently in the process of re-launching their site and have stopped accepting new project posts.
http://www.authenticjobs.com
https://www.workfu.com - relaunching
Have you guys got any other good sources of freelance projects?
 
Thanks for those Sean. I can't say I know any good sites for finding work but I'd steer clear of PeoplePerHour. Many jobs on there want hours worth of work for a tenner or something daft.
 
Yeah there are so many rubbish job sites out there where you're competing against people with very little understanding of the service they're supposedly providing, for clients with even less of an understanding about your service....
The number of good freelance project boards seem to be a little on the thin side at the moment, unfortunately. Hopefully more will pop up soon!
 
There's the envato ones but I've never used either:
microlancer
Just gone to get the FreelanceSwitch one but it seems to have merged with the above. :(
 
Just checked out this microlancer website. Seriously? THIS IS WHY I LOSE CLIENTS!

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Wow, such high quality. Just gotta think that they're doing us a favour, taking away all the cheap skate clients who don't value good design!
 
Freelancer can be good for getting some dev work done on the cheap but transversely you couldn't make a living in this country for that sort of money.
 
Tony Hardy said:
I hate job sites/job boards. I don't think they work. Just thousands of people looking for the best price, not the best job. Shite.
Yeah, there are some out there which have been specifically set up to not be those type of sites.
 
I used to wonder the same thing but never came across any decent sites for freelance project work. If you are available to do onsite work for other agencies/ marketing companies etc then it's worth regularly checking design week, view creatives, the drum. If you don't want agency work then the most success I've had finding new opportunities tends to be from business forums, networking, good old fashioned direct mailing and hunting out tender opportunities that are open to freelancers/ small companies.
 
I think you're probably right. Not getting any luck with these other sites and to be honest that you have to spend half an hour or so setting up a new profile every time is quite annoying. It's impossible to 'connect' with a potential client if you're doing everything by online application process. Not that I could really be bothered, but it would be interesting if they allowed you to send videos when applying for the projects.
 
Social Media is also a great way to find jobs as a freelancer.

Dribbble, Twitter and LinkedIn are all great options for finding work. Try them - you'll see!
 
Social Media is also a great way to find jobs as a freelancer.
This is something that is often bandied around as a fact but is it really?. Don't get me wrong social media is a useful tool but its far from a gold mine of potential clients and can be a real time drainer. I don't know how you'd find work via Dribbble, to me the site always has been just a designers circle jerk but I may be wrong.
 
After months of using LinkedIn, I'm either doing it all wrong or it's not as great as people make out. I've also used the other platforms, admittedly less vigorously, but in my experience it's not just a case of giving them a try and magically being presented with tons of work and new clients.

LinkedIn has in fact been a tremendous waste of time, if we are just looking at how much work it provides. There are of course other benefits that you will likely never discover. You never know if a client you once got checked out all your social accounts and were encouraged to contact you for that reason. Well you should ask them but, still. I think there are so many people using social media these days that it's not enough to just be on it. You need to have something special to offer people, something to keep them coming back and you need to be using it every day, even if its only for 10 minutes.

I am currently getting a lot of work in (hence why I haven't been around lately!) no thanks to social media (I believe) so I am putting that all on hold right now. Local business seems to be the way forward for me at the moment, but when things calm down a bit, I will be updating my brand and re-launching with a renewed interest in social media.
 
Linked In is a mess currently, they've made loads of changes which really don't help users and I now find myself visiting the site, not knowing quite what I'm there for and leaving.

Spent a reasonable amount of time setting up a company profile page a while back and now the main profile pages (Products and Services) have been discontinued. If you've recently tried to access your or someone else's 'activity feed' to take a look back over your/ their recent updates you'll also find this feature has also been removed. All you get is the basic static profile page, removing tools that encourage site engagement seems absolutely crazy to me.

This video made me laugh a lot and just about sums it up 'networking in some vague way towards a business deal on something maybe'. :lol:

http://youtu.be/C82sJXfAJeE
 
Word of mouth is probably the best option. I tend to just use SEO. But the main site i have got are from Social Media, mainly Facebook. There are loads of freelancer site but generally they are very poor job wise. Oh and dont get me started on PPH. I did have an idea for a freelance job site but it looked to be beyond my skill set.
 
I've just posted a question up, sorta about this, with regards to getting more work. So this post is really helpful.

I tried using People per hour and to be honest its rubbish. I've put proposals in for around 20 jobs and they just go to the people with the cheapest price.
 
Sean Lee-Amies said:
I am currently getting a lot of work in (hence why I haven't been around lately!) no thanks to social media (I believe) so I am putting that all on hold right now. Local business seems to be the way forward for me at the moment, but when things calm down a bit, I will be updating my brand and re-launching with a renewed interest in social media.
To go all-in-Levi-style: I think this might be the reason to why you're not doing so well on the social media platforms. The switching on and off won't work, as you said.

Some 80% of my work (is not very much compared to all guys, as i'm not full time freelancer) is from social media. Mainly twitter and facebook. I'll get my site form filled out enough to keep me busy after 5. In any case, one of the most satisfying things to do is to reject jobs that don't look fun or are not going to be worth the money :D
 
Alex Gilmore said:
To go all-in-Levi-style:
Bit soft wasn't it :p

I suppose I better come up with a dance now too.... Levi-style.... has a nice ring to it but I can't go for the riding horse style like Psy so better think of something new...
 
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