Freelancer
Freelancer connects freelancers with clients to undertake projects of all types, disciplines and values.
What is Freelancer?
Freelancer is a platform where freelancers can advertise their skills and bid for projects posted by clients.
Who is Freelancer suitable for?
The platform says it offers a broad range of work, but on closer examination, it seems to be mostly geared towards creative digital design and tech development services.
The Pros
- There’s a large amount of detail available for both freelancers and clients regarding work that’s been completed via Freelancer to help establish trust.
- Projects are listed with expected project fees, but you can also submit your proposed rate, to give an indication of what you believe the correct value of the project to be.
The Cons
- Individuals can still bid for work, even if they’re not able to fulfil the brief, which means that legitimate bids may be deprioritised due to sheer volume of inappropriate bids.
- There are various paid services to increase the visibility of your activity on the platform. The use of these aren’t made obvious so your activity may be lost within ‘boosted’ activity from others.
What’s it like for applicants?
Signing up is quick (you can link to your social accounts to expedite the process) and you can immediately start submitting bids to projects.
The system relies upon skills tags to filter your view of available projects, to quality control bids and to show you in relevant searches by buyers. So make sure to spend some time ensuring you choose the right skills tags.
You’re able to sign up to ‘Plus Membership’ at £8.95 per month which enables enhanced features such as AI Bidding, 100 bids per month, ability to list 80 skills on your profile and grow an Employer Following. You can make use of the 1-month free trial to see if these provide sufficient value.
You are also able to purchase a Verified account for £96.00 which includes an interview process to verify your credentials. Having the blue tick opens access to higher-paid projects and improves client trust in you when making hiring decisions. One thing to note is that you’re not guaranteed to achieve verification.
A freelancer can be approached directly or can bid on projects or enter contests to win work. All payments are handled via the Freelancer site, with introduction and ongoing fees being deducted before you can withdraw funds.
Trustpilot Score:
- 4.5
What people are saying:
- The customer support team are excellent at resolving issues from both freelancers and buyers.
How to apply for roles with Freelancer
You can sign up to join Freelancer here. Remember to make the best use of your allocated skill tags to be considered applicable for the right type of work.
Your profile here on The Portfolio Collective (TPC) is also a great way to be found for new opportunities – both here on TPC and via Google searches, where it is likely to be visible. So make sure you are appearing in relevant searches by having a complete and differentiated TPC profile. For some tips on how to build a strong TPC profile, check out our article.
If you have additional insights on this platform, please email [email protected]