Choosing the career you desire.
What sort of freelancer will you be? What fits your lifestyle and income needs?
One of the great things about freelancing is the opportunity to shape your workload to fit your own goals.
Three styles of work to choose from:
- Repeat or long-term work. These are projects of a continuing nature that are usually billed hourly. They might pay less but they provide steady income over weeks or months. More like a traditional employer/employee relationship.
- Fixed price work. These are one-off projects that pay a fixed, one-time price for a single product. Payment is generally higher and no long-term relationship is sought.
- Mixed (both long-term and fixed-price). This is what seems best for me. One to three long-term projects and a few fixed-priced projects on the side.
They each have advantages:
The advantage of long-term assignments lies in their predictability. I earn less money overall, but I can count on a certain level of income (as much as you can count on anything as a freelancer). I get familiar with my clients, what they expect, and I am able to plan well because I know about how long the work will take.
Fixed-price projects give me an opportunity to bid higher on projects I am especially suited for or that I might really enjoy doing. I don’t depend on these to make my minimum weekly income goal. I do shop around looking for jobs to fill my calendar. I bid on many of these in the hope of getting a few, but I only want one or two a week.
The mixed strategy gives me the best of both worlds. I know I have a certain amount of work- bread and butter work- and I am still free to look for other, rarer, fixed-price jobs at higher rates. You are free to find the strategy that works best for you. Don’t let the marketplace direct you when you can shape it by actively seeking those jobs that match your needs.
Where do I shop for work?
oDesk is by far the best for long-term writing projects. I have also taken fixed-price work here. oDesk also has the advantage of no front end fees. I have never exceeded the twenty free bids a week. The accounting and money transfer arrangements are also first rate.
Elance is an older site. It only allows three free bids a month and is set up for fixed price jobs. The jobs have a higher pay scale than oDesk, but competition can be fierce. As a newer freelancer, I’ve only taken one project there. They do have an escrow system for payments which I like. Providers can require that Buyers escrow funds for a project which gives writers some security.
Guru is a popular site for fixed-price projects. Bidding is free for a select subset of jobs. Most require you become a ‘guru’ which means paying a fee. I am not familiar with their payment methods, but they do offer escrow as ’safe pay’. This site also is very competitive, lots of jobs, lots of writers and programmers.
Rent a Ghostwriter seems to be largely a entry site for scriptlance. They only post a couple of jobs weekly. All the rest of their listings are just links to scriptlance projects.
Scriptlance is a site that seems focused on programmers, although I have found writing projects offered there. I haven’t yet bid on anything. Bids are free and they take a 5% commission on funds earned. Their site is very hard to navigate, requiring a keyword search to find writing jobs.
GetaFreelancer has free accounts, but bids are restricted on some projects. They do have a nice feature at this site, they allow first time bidders (those that haven’t yet successfully bid on a project) and first time buyers to hook up. This makes it more likely that as a beginner there you will get something. They charge for other levels of provider- Gold Member costs $12 a month.
It’s up to you.
With the variety of opportunities on the net, it is quite possible to find the jobs that match your skills and time constraints while offering you reasonable compensation. So, shop around and sculpt the freelance career you want.
- Your Body is Changing–For the Worse
- Your Mental State, Your Career
- The Big Question: Is oDesk Economically Viable For Me?
- Toolbox of the Successful Freelancer
- Where You Are, Where You’re Going
I’m with you Bill, I like to mix regular work for a steady stream, with fixed price jobs which pay better but are less reliable.
In addition to oDesk I’ve used Scriptlance and Getafreelancer. I haven’t found work at Scriptlance myself, but have done okay for myself with oDesk and Getafreelancer. One thing I like is that their payment systems can be complementary if you use the Payoneer Mastercard since you can have both sites pay to the same card.
One thing I’d like to add is that when applying for fixed-price jobs, you want to wait and get the higher priced ones. Not the little jobs that eat your time and don’t pay anything.
Be choosy.