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Job Sites for Freelance Designers?

creativehotlist ...

I've used it several times to find local, short-term talent as well as to fill permanent, full-time positions.
 
If you're starting out, Elance.com and Guru.com are both decent. I am a freelance writer and belong to both membership-based services that work much like eBay.

Companies or individuals looking for a freelancer will post jobs for free. Service Providers who subscribe can bid on posted jobs. For example, someone might post a job saying they need a brochure designed. You'd write "I'll do it for $xxx."

The buyer can then look at your profile and credentials and see if they like your work. Once you complete the project, the buyer can rate your service and quality of work.

As you build feedback, it's easier to get more work.

In addition to the subscription fee, both Elance and Guru take a cut of each project. It's 8.75% on Elance (Guru's varies based on how the buyer pays).

Both sites facilitate payment to you through wire transfers or by cutting you a check.

One caveat, though. In terms of graphic design, Elance features a lot of service providers from India. These folks are often willing to work for a lot less. So if you wanted to charge $200 for a small tri-fold brochure design, there are countless people overseas who are willing to do the same job for $30.

As a writer, it's not really an issue for me because the overseas “writers” usually can't string together a basic sentence.

Also, on Elance, you can see what your competition is bidding. On Guru.com, everything is hidden.

I tend to do more business on Elance but that's only because I was able to quickly build a perfect rating and earn lots of jobs. Once people see that you've done great work and are a pleasure to work with, you'll have no problem getting work.

Also, I've done a few repeat projects on Elance, which, on two occasions, has lead to a long-term business relationship with the client outside of the site.
 
ClassicBean said:
If you're starting out, Elance.com and Guru.com are both decent. I am a freelance writer and belong to both membership-based services that work much like eBay.

Companies or individuals looking for a freelancer will post jobs for free. Service Providers who subscribe can bid on posted jobs. For example, someone might post a job saying they need a brochure designed. You'd write "I'll do it for $xxx."

The buyer can then look at your profile and credentials and see if they like your work. Once you complete the project, the buyer can rate your service and quality of work.

As you build feedback, it's easier to get more work.

In addition to the subscription fee, both Elance and Guru take a cut of each project. It's 8.75% on Elance (Guru's varies based on how the buyer pays).

Both sites facilitate payment to you through wire transfers or by cutting you a check.

One caveat, though. In terms of graphic design, Elance features a lot of service providers from India. These folks are often willing to work for a lot less. So if you wanted to charge $200 for a small tri-fold brochure design, there are countless people overseas who are willing to do the same job for $30.

As a writer, it's not really an issue for me because the overseas “writers” usually can't string together a basic sentence.

Also, on Elance, you can see what your competition is bidding. On Guru.com, everything is hidden.

I tend to do more business on Elance but that's only because I was able to quickly build a perfect rating and earn lots of jobs. Once people see that you've done great work and are a pleasure to work with, you'll have no problem getting work.

Also, I've done a few repeat projects on Elance, which, on two occasions, has lead to a long-term business relationship with the client outside of the site.
Click to expand...


Hey ClassicBean, that's great info you posted - much appreciated. I was actually really curious about these sites where you register and bid etc.

My concern with them is what you had somewhat eluded to in your post, in that there are guys or companies on there from India and the likes that will work for as low as $6/hr (no joke). Do you find that these freelancers from India and the likes that charge these ridiculously low rates actually land projects? Their english appears to be very limited and broken in their profiles and comments. I am just curious as to what your observations have been being somewhat established on these sites because from what I can gather the majority of projects are coming from English speaking countries such as US, Can, UK, etc. I think this would cause somewhat of a communication barrier when discussing details, design criteria/direction, etc.

Also, the other drawback, is that there seems to be literally hundreds or even thousands of service providers registered and bidding on the projects with a only a handful at the top that seem to have a monopoly hold on the majority of projects wins. As you mentioned, the more experience you have or higher rating on the site, the more business you are likely to get, but in your opinion, is it realistically possibly for someone who has just registered to land jobs and build a rep with a rating etc.? It just seems to be incredibly dominated by a dozen or so companies/individuals. Just wondering what your experience is like and if you find that some clients are willing to take a "chance" on a fairly new bidder. Also, did it seem as heavily dominated as it is now when you first signed up?

Again, further insight would be appreciated. Thanks for the info.
 
bluetooth said:
Hey ClassicBean, that's great info you posted - much appreciated. I was actually really curious about these sites where you register and bid etc. .....

....Again, further insight would be appreciated. Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

Hey Bluetooth,

I joined Elance about three years ago as a writer. However, at one point, I did have a graphic design profile and simply chose to work with a local designer on the chance that I was to obtain work through the site.

Keep in mind that Elance and Guru are the two biggest sites and tend to attract real companies looking for freelancers. There are a handful of other sites that offer the same type of service - even some that don't take a membership fee - but you'll find a lot of overseas people dramatically undercutting you. The fact that Elance and Guru charge a membership fee helps ensure that only serious providers are on the site.

A lot of the providers from India do in fact speak English very well - at least well enough to communicate with potential clients. However, they are unable to write brochure content, ads, press releases, etc. so that works in my favor. While you do see a lot of overseas people bidding on writing projects, their grammar and spelling are so poor that they just don't get work. Or if they do, it's to write 50 articles, 500 words each, for $1 an article for a service provider who just doesn't care about quality.

Yes, there are a handful of companies that seem to control the Elance marketplace. They have been there since the beginning and have earned an obscene amount of quality feedback.

However, there are a lot of buyers out there who don't want to work with what appears to be a major company. These top providers might appear to either be professional outsourcers or simply just too big to deal with. A lot of buyers want to deal with a freelancer on a one-on-one basis.

Also, a lot of buyers don’t necessarily want to work with people overseas. Many are afraid of the time difference and the perceived communication barrier so that can work in your favor.

There are also lots of buyers on Elance who use the site quite frequently to find freelance writers or freelance designers. You can see how many projects a buyer has posted and awarded. So if a buyer has posted 15 projects but awarded none of them, they are either messing around or they simply have a lot of work that needs to be done (you’ll be able to tell the good from the bad based on their project description).

To test the waters, I started out with a 3-month membership. I created a profile and uploaded a portfolio. At the time, I was a copywriter at an ad agency and decided to test out Elance to make some extra cash. I had several pretty decent print ads to showcase as well as some brochure content I crafted for a major automobile manufacturer.

I got my first job within the first month. The job fell under Sales and Marketing (I had originally subscribed to that category because I thought there would be a lot of advertising concept development or writing needed). My first project was for a print ad. Because I didn't have any feedback, I had to underbid. I decided to bid $99 for headline development AND design - a ridiculously low price. I have some fairly basic design experience and a decent eye so I decided to actually try to do it all myself. It especially worked out because the client wanted something fairly basic and B&W. If he hated the design, I had a stand-by designer to help me out. But at $99 (minus the commission) I wanted to keep everything for myself.

So, the key is to bid low for the first few jobs to gain feedback. Make sure you have some decent samples to showcase.

Once I built a solid rating, I changed the way I did business. At the beginning, I would ask for payment upon completion of a project. Today, I always get 50% up front. I have never been screwed out of money on the site. But now that people see that I have a great rating, they are apt to take me seriously and accept my standard business terms.

I hope this insight helps. Feel free to PM me with any other questions or if you need help signing up should you choose to do so.

You might want to consider Guru as well. I haven’t had as much luck with that site but I think that’s mainly because I don’t bid on as many projects as I should.
 
Well, that's some really great info...thanks again for that. I will likely take you up on the offer of a PM at some point. :cool:
 
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