There are hundreds of opportunities open each day for freelancers. Many of the websites that require a freelancer to bid for a project can become quite competitive. Some of the buyer expectations are high when it comes to quality, but in the same breath, they want it for the lowest dollar.
So, how much should you get paid as a freelancer?
Your expertise can often effect how you decide how much you should earn per hour or for certain projects. As you work on more projects, you know how much time is involved and can develop a good bidding price for future projects.
It is important to give an honest bid. Everyone needs shelter and food, or has a family to provide for. It is understandable that you will want to bid an amount that is fair in your opinion in order to be able to survive. However, some of the buyers can be familiar with how much time a project will take and even though they are looking for the talent, they are looking for the best deal in the end – monetary-wise included. In fact, a lot of jobs posted at freelance websites are created by project managers.
The Ugly Side
But as a lot of freelancers know, it sometimes can feel insulting when a buyer states in their project that they will only pay so much money when the work is nearly twice or three times more. Too often, especially for web and graphic designers, it can be a very ugly experience.
As I had mentioned about project managers early – they will want to make as much money as possible while your cut is merely a portion of what they will bring in. It is a pretty clever method of getting paid as a “middle man” or “middle woman” and not surprising that they will tack their business links onto a site you designed regardless if you agreed to a non-disclosure agreement or not.
Make sure to clarify whether you can claim the project or not. If they want an NDA, then charge more for it. While a project manager may not think it is fair, they are getting to freely put their link on a site they never designed and will be reaping the rewards of some good SEO link juice as long as their client’s site stays open.
Are Freelancer sites effective?
Yes, and sometimes no. A lot of times if you are a freelancer that has great work, but your bid is higher, you might be overlooked. The freelance websites are a great place to find some work, but honestly, a lot of web and graphic designers approach businesses and pitch their services in person or by email or through social networking.
Why? Because this is where a freelancer can build honest relationships.
A lot of times the freelancer websites are good for people starting to build their portfolio. While the price is cheaper, at least for a time there is work and for the future, something to add for future clients to look in on.
Not getting the work and money you deserve?
If you are not getting paid your worth, then you need to find a new way to market your services. Becoming successfully paid freelancer is not an overnight success story in the making. It takes years to do. In the end you are the one that will control when you work and how much you will get paid. As much as it would be great to lay down solid amounts for a freelancer to go by in this article, it would not be much help. There are so many designers with different expertise levels that putting a definite price would be like an A student breaking the learning curve in a classroom of average students.
What are factors that a freelancer should consider when charging clients or bidding at freelance web sites?
And one of the things freelancers need to take note is that, many clients tend to take advantage of a freelancer because there is no official business entity to represent this contractor. Many freelancers operate in this mode, doing away with the business formality and reporting procedures usually appended to corporate companies. It is advisable for freelancers to, at least, engage a low cost lawyer to help them create/analyze the contract before signing on the dotted lines. My own experiences say it doesn't cost a lot, perhaps just $100+ to $250. All these can be factored into the final charging price.
A freelancer can also do due-diligence on the prospective client. This is much simpler if you happened to know the previous freelancer servicing them. Other corporate suppliers/contractors will also be helpful. This helps a freelancer to assess if a prospect is habitual in late payments or such. As a freelancer, I much rather spend my time excelling in the task than spend all day trying to chase a payment.
I don't use such sites. The only consideration for such sites – usually – is pricing. I value my work and myself, I have no intention to go into a price war with others.
People need to understand the basic piece of earning money which is value. The higher the actual and perceived value the higher the price.
When starting to work as a freelancer it is definitely a good idea to bid on projects in freelance job portals. Even though each bidding will not be successful, you can still connect with webmasters who may consider you for future projects.
Social networking is definitely one effort that freelancers focus on these days, if they want to connect with people who might need their services. Building up relationships online is one way of building up trust and credibility and will go a long way in bringing in the clients to get well paid.
Thanks for the post, Nile. Really appreciate it.
– Wes –
My recent post The Psychology of Graphic Design
I have found better clients through social networking than on the freelancer websites. I still do bid from time to time when it I feel like it. Only once in a while I find a great project manager I can work with that can pay well and allows me the creative freedom to develop a site for their clients. Mostly those project managers are for projects that are PSD to WordPress conversions, which are nice because I get to work with some quality graphics and also do what I love – coding…lol
Freelancers really has a lot of opportunity since a certain professional has the privileged to manage their time on their own also they are not slave to 8 hour job. I think the fee to be paid to freelancers depends on the experiences and expertise in their field. Although the latter should also consider the competition when it comes to fee
A freelancer can also do due-diligence on the prospective client. This is much simpler if you happened to know the previous freelancer servicing them. Other corporate suppliers/contractors will also be helpful.
i agree with you ..freelancing is a best way to generate money… and its a lit bit tricky too. i worked as a freelancer previously and experienced all such faces….
i found a way to earn money by investing…
The ideas you’ve shared here are fantastic and no doubt so great and it may really improve the variety of individuals visiting your website.
Freelancers in my experience have been very inexpensive. I agree with getting paid what you’re worth. You can pay 1 guy $100 and another $500 to do the same thing, but chances are the guy who you are paying $500 is going to do a much better job. Unfortunately most folks go the less expensive route first.
It’s actually a great and helpful piece of information. I am happy that you shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
There are a lot of freelancers today and some of them don’t know what their rates are…I think they have to read this post…Thanks anyway!
I believe that many freelancers are exploited. I think clients need to be fair and pay the right fee for services rendered. In this way, we are all assured of better quality service and work.
I agree with your post. You can earn money as freelancer but there are few disadvantages as well working as freelancer.This is good start up for business but you can’t depend whole sole on freelancing site ? what do you suggest regarding this ?
Working as a freelancer is a good online business but you should know how to bid fairly. Also, you should make enough research on it.
As you right. Many people are bidding for projects for very lowest value (most are Indians and Philippines) as a result we don’t even a get chance to bid a good project.
True the amount of learnings one can have as a freelancer is immense,but the thing is that you dont get paid fairly for your efforts.Still thanks for such nice article.
There are quite a few ways you can make money online. If freelancing doesn’t work, one could consider using his or her strengths and hobbies to make a living online. Nice article.
Thanks for this really nice post! I really like it!
This is an informative post Nile, thank you.
I am going to share my experience with free lancers as an employer. The fist time I posted an Ad searching for writers, in a famous freelance web site, the bids were from 80 to 480. I was surprised. What made the difference, was the experience, the portfolio and the reviews from previous employers. So as an employer, that’s why I trust more freelance websites to hire a freelancer.
I write online as a freelancer and have a few gigs on Fiverr for administrative assistant-type work doing mail merges, etc. Those are skills I have and tasks I can complete from home.
I really love being a freelancer.. Thanks for sharing this tips! I will keep this in mind..
I am astounded at the range in price that a freelance work can be out on the net. You are absolutely right in that many good freelancers are being taken advantage of. It’s all in how they value their own work and what their ow customer base will bare. So much work is being done overseas now, that American freelancers are outbid much of the time. That’s to the advantage of the newbie blogger who’s looking for cheap graphics IF they can find quality graphics. You really do have to do your homework. Your post outlined everything we need to watch out for.
There are hundreds of opportunities open each day for freelancers. Many of the websites that require a freelancer to bid for a project can become quite competitive.
As a freelancer myself I faced a choice when I started, grovel or develop a market for myself. I choose to develop a market. I looked around and found some customers who where not being served by existing freelance markets (you have to think outside the box ). I offered them my services at 35% of the going rate and have not looked back since then.
Lots of opportunities there in this blogging world also if we choose it as a profession and I found it very useful me………….
Only once in a while I find a great project manager I can work with that can pay well and allows me the creative freedom to develop a site for their clients. Mostly those project managers are for projects that are PSD to WordPress conversions………http://usajobsnew.com/
you are right. we can get help from Facebook, and beautiful welcome page is very important. but its to hart to create a attractive welcome page. can there are any tool to make this work easy!! 😉
Thanks For Sharing It 🙂
Very nice blog……I still do bid from time to time when it I feel like it. Only once in a while I find a great project manager I can work with that can pay well and allows me the creative freedom to develop a site for their clients.
Writers rarely get paid what they’re worth. If you’re freelancing yourself as a blog writer for instance, you may feel that your writing is good enough to be paid $500 per every 10 articles, especially if they take research, but the person paying you may want you to write 10 articles for $100. I’m just not working that hard for that kind of money; people get what they pay for.
And to live at least pretty well or comfortable, at that rate you’d have to commit yourself to writing 20 articles a day; I’ve done it here and there but not all that often, especially not all quality.
And yet, on occasion I’ve been paid nicely per article, and wished I could figure out how to do it on a regular basis. Services are never quite valued well unfortunately.
I agree with you Nile when you said that a successful freelancer is not an overnight success story. It takes years. Freelancers must build their reputations and this is not an easy task. Working with a good team/project manager also helps. Thanks for the article.
In the past (and in the future I am sure), I needed to hire someone to write me some articles for the blogs I own.
I, myself, have been writing for some years.
I know what research means. I have felt the fear to express my self in fields that I don’t know, in niches that I am alien to etc.
I was asking for 4 articles and was willing to give $200 in 2009.
I assure you propositions were filling up my email inbox. I didn’t want to lower the price. Instead I tried to find quality and I did.
The fact is that some people think that article writing (a major freelance task) is something easy. They believe, you turn on your pc, read an article or two and then bingo, article ready.
We all know it is not true for those in search of quality.
Thank you!
This is really very Interesting Post. but I have one question may be this is not related to your this post.
Well I am not a Pro freelancer but i want to become freelancer. Well I have Joined the freelancer.com and makes many bids on PHP , html , css , javascripts , Dataentry Project with minimum and average bids. but I don’t get any.
So would you plz advice me how I can get any project from Freelancer.
thanks in advance 🙂
can anyone recommend some freelancer writers i could hire? i need someone to write me some content for my site.
With the advent of the possibility of earning on the Internet, a host of special exchanges to search for remote operation. Work at home – it is always convenient and popular form of freelancing. I think on this more and more people are choosing exactly this kind of income.
as i can see on the freelancer website, freelancer writer usually paid between $2-4/article. article that contains 500 words and original.
The worst thing I have experienced so far is not being paid for my design– Well, you can’t win ’em all!
I have seen lot of it. Once i was asked to finish the project for very low price, which actually costs higher. Since I was a starting my freelancing carrier, i had to accept it. One solution is to place our bids ourselves to avoid problems.
I have seen lot of it. Once i was asked to finish the project for very low price, which actually costs higher. Since I was a starting my freelancing carrier, i had to accept it. One solution is to place our bids ourselves to avoid problems.
Agree with you, but I think that a personal freelance website is necessary to get highly paid projects.
hello nile
blogging world also if we choose it as a profession and I found it very useful me………….
Nile,
As a freelancer, it can be a veritable jungle out there. I just spent a lot of time on the phone with a new prospective client. We agreed on what work I would do and they price and the payment schedule. So I put together a simple contract and emailed it to him. He emails me back and says that he contract looks fine but just put in a membership site and that I need to build his social media sites for FB, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube in addition to what was in the contract. There had never been any mention of a membership site or of social media sites being built. Once, I refused to build the membership site as part of the new site I was gonna build him, the deal was off.
The point is to 1. always have a contract, and 2. if you don’t look out for yourself, no one else will.
If it definitely important to:
1. Have a formal proposal.
This has everything that the project includes and any legal jargon that needs to be said. From there, a negotiation needs to be made. If they cannot accept the formal proposal, then they can go elsewhere. That is my policy. My own formal proposals can be between 4 to 6 pages long, depending on how much work has to be put. I usually have an initial formal proposal and then if it needs to be clarified… a 2nd.
2. Contracts are great. Once the formal proposal is accepted, it should be referred to in the official contract.
It is unfortunate to hear that the client was wanting you to do a lot of freebie work without telling you everything he needed up front. Some clients do that and sometimes, even after a verbal or formal agreement, they do take advantage of trying to screw you over.
I am a learning freelancer, which means i charge less to attract more clients when i learn while i earn.
Well, I am not really a pro freelancer but sometimes I do small things in the form of freelancing and it helps me to earn some bucks online!
As I am love to work as a freelancers because it saves my time & money so far.
As a freelancers this post is very useful to me and for the other freelancers.
I wll higly recommend this to all freelancers.
Thanks for the great stuff.
I love to work on freelancer.com but its very hard to get the work.Because of hard competition.Thank you very much for this post.Really it took my heart.keep it up 🙂
How much is the intermediate SEO, would love to freelance and just want to know it first before I get spam 😀
Freelancer.com is awesome, but there is a very tough competition, which makes it very hard to get some work there, but I still love it.
Thanks for sharing !
I love to work on freelancer.com but its very hard to get the work because of the competition.