Hey folks,
I’ve been exploring the world of freelancing specially freelancing in germany lately, and I’m curious about your experiences with platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and ** contest site removed ** Have you found success using these platforms to earn money online? Any tips for someone just starting out?
Without knowledge of your career experience, skills and expertise, it is tricky to even attempt to start any comments.
The forum software automatically flagged your post for approval and removed the mention of the contest site. As you can probably tell, the forum opposes working for free in the hopes that clients will choose your work and pay you. Besides, those sites cater to bad clients, and many of the freelancers are amateurs, hobbyists, and sweatshop workers who churn out junk.
For the more legitimate sites that require portfolio reviews, bidding, and signed contracts with each client guaranteeing payment before work begins, the primary problem isn’t the service—it’s the poor-quality clients, the piecework nature of the jobs, and the not-so-great fees the clients are willing to pay. In the past, I picked up a few jobs on Upwork, and several turned into good long-term clients after I quit Upwork.
I’ve just been checking Upwork out again after several years away from it… oof. I did a few jobs on there in 2017 and it was a pain then, it seems even more of a minefield now.
“Minefield” is an apt description.
The last time I checked Upwork, 99% of the listings were from amateur clients looking for cheap help with their personal projects.
In the absence of other work, it’s probably worth checking Upwork since there are occasionally legitimate clients with legitimate projects that need legitimate designers who charge legitimate fees. However, my impression is that they’re increasingly further and fewer between than they were several years ago.
Yeah, I’m increasingly starting to think they’re not worth the time investment and I’d be better off cold-emailing a bunch of companies.