There are a lot of freelancers available online or in your local community. However, no matter how many there are, it can be difficult to choose the right one. The problem I see a lot in freelance project bidding sites are people unwilling to properly invest in their projects. They have ridiculous expectations. Here are a few innappropriate expectations:
1. Expecting a web designer to take time to do a website or a theme for their website for $30.
2. Expecting 50 comments a day for 30 days (1500 comments) for less than $250.
3. Expecting 1000s of followers in a month for merely pennies per hour
…and much more.
Sometimes it is enough to make freelancers sick. Money pays the bills, and I know even in other countries, accepting such a rate is just as degrading. The problem is – it shows when someone hires a bad freelancer. One who is willing to do any of the above and put countless hours in, is not only insane, but obviously doing shortcuts. This is why we also have comment spam too. People are just copying and pasting, rather than honestly commenting on the person’s blog. Often they have nothing to do with the site.
So, if you want to hire a freelancer the right way, you need to take in account several things:
– It WILL take time
– Do not assume online services also mean minimum wage. (Think: “if it were me, how much would I honestly charge?”)
– Like a tattoo, if you choose the cheap dirty place, you might walk away with either an ugly tattoo or a tattoo and a nasty infection. In this case, you might walk away with sub par work.
There are freelancers out there that charge a lot of money. However, there are many that are willing to work with a client’s budget as long as it is within reasonable standards. It is best to be realistic and if you are going to invest in your website whether for personal reason or if it is for your business, then you need to save until you have a decent amount.
Have you ever considered hiring a freelancer? What are your own expectations?
Ahh… It's always nice to see someone talk about this aspect of freelancing; I'm trying to break into the trade myself (from a 3D point of view) and a lot of the job postings you see are unrealistic at best.
I think you're dead on about the quality of the work though, there comes a point where it's almost moot (when you're paying over a certain amount) and more isn't necessarily better but if you only pay the bottom rate that's likely the quality you'll get. Great post, thanks for spreading the message!
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The direct consequence of unfair cheap rate is defame the freelancing world. If they, at first don't realize and hire the wrong person for the sake of huge saving, afterward blame the freelancers.
The plight of starting freelancers is even worse. Since they need to get some work are ready to bid at any rate. I met a friend the other day who bid for the rates like you mentioned. But he asked a testimonial for him. I told "you bought an expensive testimonial".
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I have hired one once. It was really cheap but she certainly did a good job. 🙂
There are some…and if she did a good job, she should be charging more. When I was a beginner, I did not charge nearly enough and I ended up not charging what I was worth for the time spent.
However, I am glad your freelance experience was good. There ARE exceptions in any case.