Top 10 Channels to Freelance Online

Today, more and more people are leaving the traditional workplace to freelance online. The flexibility it affords people makes it an attractive option to earn a living.

You can pick projects that are most appealing to you or are better suited to your skills. Moreover, you can also have the freedom to choose when and where to do your work.

As a freelancer, it’s important to find the right market where you can sell your skills and services. Today, we’ll be looking at the top 10 channels to freelance online. Let’s get started!

What is a Freelancing Channel

The most crucial thing when you freelance online is securing clients and projects. Looking for work as a freelancer can be an exhausting experience especially if you’re just starting. The good news is there are channels that are dedicated to helping independent contractors like you to find work.

Online freelance websites and marketplaces have been popping up over the past few years to cater to the needs of both freelancers and businesses. Through these platforms, independent professionals can create profiles, share their portfolio, contact potential clients, and build a viable freelancing career.

These websites help people who are new to the idea of working freelance online. They can help you find your first clients easily and help you refine your portfolio and build a reputation as a service provider. The channels also teach you how to communicate well with clients, do great work, and deliver projects on time.

However, freelance marketplaces are not without some downsides. There are platforms that require freelancers to pay a certain amount to secure projects. In addition, some marketplaces are highly saturated which means you’ll have to compete with hundreds of freelancers for certain projects.

What to Look for in Freelancing Channels

While there are hundreds of channels you can register to when you freelance online, not all sites are created equal. There are certain things you need to consider before choosing and signing up for a freelancer marketplace.

A Fair Pricing Model

As an independent contractor, you should be able to price your services in a manner that reflects your skill level and the number of hours you will dedicate to the project. When signing up to a platform, check the pricing model they have for services like yours.

There are sites that decide a fixed rate for services. They often target clients who are looking or the cheapest possible cost to get their projects done.

This is unfair to freelancers and can often undermine your skills. Cheap marketplaces like these forces freelancers to sell themselves short and to take on more projects than they can handle just to make ends meet. Steer clear of sites like these.

Relatively Low Competition

Popular platforms make it more difficult for freelancers to actually land clients. The more freelancers there are, the more competition there is for certain postings. You wouldn’t want to waste time getting caught up in a bidding war for projects.

Check how many freelancers are in a platform to gauge your chances of securing work and clients.

Platform Fees

Some freelance sites charge a platform fee when you use their channel to offer your services. Some ask for registration fees while others charge a certain percentage for every project you secure. There are also platforms that require you to purchase tokens to qualify for certain projects. Be sure to check a platform’s terms of service to know more about their fees.

The Right Number of Listings for Your Skills

When you freelance online, you need to find a marketplace that has enough listings related to the skills and services you offer. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting time waiting for opportunities to come. Most platforms these days offer a wide array of services but not all skills are represented well. If your skills are more specialized, you’re better off registering to marketplaces dedicated to the services you offer.

The Best Channels If You Freelance Online

Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by the number of users and projects. They connect over 41,184,258 clients and freelancers globally from over 247 countries, regions and territories. Through this marketplace, business owners can hire freelancers to do work in areas such as software development, writing, data entry and design. There are also opportunities for engineering, the sciences, sales and marketing, accounting and legal services.

It features a safe and secure milestone payment system that protects all users of the site. It also allows for easy progress monitoring. Freelancers can connect easily with their clients through a live chat service.

Envato Studio

Envato Studio is a freelance marketplace for custom creative and technical services. From small tasks to large projects, services include logo design, WordPress theme installation, content writing, video production, app development and more. It is a community of hand-picked designers, developers and digital talent that supports over 7,000,000 digital creatives all over the world.

The platform features a highly intuitive system that’s anchored on collaboration. Clients are able to provide feedback in real-time so freelancers can improve their productivity.

It also makes project hunting easier by letting you upload portfolios into the system. People who are looking for your services can quickly find your profile and enlist your services.

PeoplePerHour

PeoplePerHour started in 2007 with the vision of connecting clients to freelancers and empowering people to live their work dream. They have been assisting small businesses around to world in finding affordable talent to work on small tasks or on specific projects. It is built on the idea that companies need to be flexible and efficient when it comes to solving their needs.

This platform offers financial protection for freelancers. You can get paid on time every time since it requires clients to make down payments before you even start working on a project.

It also features a regional recruitment system. If you want to look for work nearby, PeoplePerHour is the best channel for you.

Toptal

Toptal is an exclusive network of top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. As a network, they have a very rigorous screening process to identify the best. This means ff the thousands of applications Toptal sees each month, typically fewer than 3% are accepted.

If you’re a developer, designer, finance expert, project manager, product manager, or if you offer specialized services, TopTal is for you. Its system ensures compatibility with work environments so you can adapt easily to the collaboration and project management tools that clients use.

Moreover, freelancers are given a trial period to learn the ropes of a project. This way, you can determine whether or not you can sustain working on any project you get on the platform.

It is also an excellent platform if you need to find a project quickly. The platform is committed to connecting clients and freelancers within the course of three weeks.

FreeUp

FreeUp helps thousands of businesses from all over the world hire top talent for their business projects. The marketplace has its own internal team that recruits, interviews, and vets hundreds of US and international freelancers each week for their skills, communication, and attitude. Then only the top 1% of applicants are allowed in.

You can offer over 85 different skill sets including eCommerce, Amazon, sales and marketing, web design and development, content creation, advertising, admin support, accounting, cryptocurrency, and translation. The best part about it is you can set an hourly or fixed rate for your services.

Guru.com

Guru.com strives to be the premier platform where professionals go to connect, collaborate, and get work done. It’s a great platform to join if you freelance online. You can search for projects that match the skills and services profile. Furthermore, you can stand out from the competition by using their Premium Quotes feature.

You can also work the way you want by choosing from their four payment terms and create an agreement that works for you.

Guru has five membership plans that range from free to %49.95 per month. If you are just starting out as a Freelancer, you can choose either Basic or Basic+ Membership. However, if you plan to find freelance work online regularly or manage a team of Freelancers as a business, you should opt for a Professional, Business, or Executive Membership depending on the scale of your operations.

DesignCrowd

DesignCrowd is a freelancer marketplace for designers. Its mission is to help businesses find the best design in the world, faster, and at a price that fits their budget. They also aim to give designers the chance to earn money for their creative skills. It is an online creative marketplace that helps start-ups, businesses and entrepreneurs connect with a global network of designers. Perfect for custom graphic, logo, web and print design.

If you freelance online as a designer, you can submit your designs on the platform and make your work known to prospective buyers.

The system requires designers to submit a design brief to make sure all submissions are aligned with clients’ respective plans. This is also a great way to keep you on track with client specifications.

What’s more, design professionals are assured that they will get paid on time. DesignCrowd supports a wide variety of payment methods. Payments can also be made in different currencies. Signing up is also free so you can start looking for projects as soon as you’re registered.

Nexxt

Nexxt was born out of nearly 20 years of experience in the hiring space and a crystal-clear vision for where recruitment is headed. It aims to be a central hub for freelance talent where skilled professionals in search of long-term and short-term projects can find a suitable project.

Simply sign up for the service and provide them with your professional details and you can start your project search. You can easily search for clients and projects that are tailored to your qualifications. You can also use your own logos and branding materials and provide contact information so you can get hired faster.

Gigster

Gigster provides software development on demand and is the easiest way to access elite teams of developers, designers, and product managers. Within minutes, users can get a fixed price quote and a team of top-tier talent.

It augments a high-quality network of engineers, product managers, and designers with useful automation that streamlines the process of developing software and yields higher efficiency and reliability.

Writer Access

WriterAccess is a marketplace to contract writing services directly from expert writers, all screened, rated and US-based. They also have translators in 21 languages. All content is created to your specification and verified for originality by Copyscape.

Writers who are accepted receive an initial star rating of 3, 4 or 5, or 6, which is determined by the strength of their profiles, writing samples, and initial application and test score. A writer’s level can improve (or decline) as assignments are completed and rated “exceed” expectations by customers.

Clients can place orders with writers using a pay-per-word order (using the rates preset by WriterAccess that vary by star level) or pay-per-order order form. Once an order is reserved, Writers are required to fulfill the order requirements to the specifications on the order form. Once an order is submitted, the client can either approve the content or request revisions.

They also offer multimedia resources such as visual, audio, and audiovisual content that helps creatives and marketers. These can be downloaded for free.

Final Words

Freelancing channels offer a lot of benefits, particularly for rookie freelancers. As a newbie, you can learn a lot about freelancing by joining these sites. You will be able to acquire new skills like establishing an ideal profile, writing proposals, communicating well with clients, and delivering outputs on time.

Since these channels are also primarily designed to help you land clients, they’re also an excellent platform for you to market your skills and services to the right people.

However, when you freelance online, you’ll come across upsides and downsides to marketplaces like the ones we’ve mentioned above. But understanding how these platforms work makes a big difference as you move forward in your career.

If you’re looking for more ways to understand freelancing platforms and the freelance economy in general, look no further than the FreeUp blog. Here, you can check back weekly for new ways to improve your freelancing career.