In this video, we're going to go over the top freelance websites that I recommend.
So in the last video, we went over the getting started with freelancing, right.
We went overkeen on the foundations of how you can get started actually as a contractor, as a freelancer
and what your actual job would entail where you're essentially working with various clients on a one
to one basis.
Right.
And you're helping them either build out a website from scratch or maybe update an existing website.
Right.
Get a brand new website design.
And so you're essentially working as a company yourself.
Right.
But you're not really representing yourself as a company.
You're presenting yourself as a individual contractor.
Right.
So we're going to go over in this particular lesson here, the various sites that I recommend for you
to get started, some of the pros and cons of each and what I recommend you get started with right out
of the gate.
So let's go ahead and jump in here.
So the first site that I recommend here is Upworthy.
So dot com is probably the biggest and one of the top in the marketplace.
And so the great thing about freelancing on uptalk is that there is a screening process they have fixed
in hourly contracts and then they have many projects with various skills as far as the size of each
and the length.
And then they have an hourly contract protection, which is great because what this essentially does
is it protects you, the freelancer, as you know, let's say somebody hires you to do 10 hours of work,
but for whatever reason, the amount of work that they wanted you to get done or the quality or whatever
may be right wasn't up to par with what they were expecting, regardless of what the output was.
You're still getting paid for those 10 hours.
And so that's very important there because you're getting paid for the time you put in and not for the
actual output.
Right.
Because, you know, maybe you didn't have enough information or whatever that may be, but it's really
good for the freelancer and it helps protect you guys as far as the hours you put in.
And then the cons here is that it's challenging to get your first project.
The thing that you're going to have to realize with this and really just getting started in the beginning
as a whole is that you're going to need to have very low rates in the very beginning.
You're going to just need to bid on projects that are kind of very inexpensive, you know, work that
may be, you know, where down the road you would charge thousands for.
You may need to charge hundreds because, again, you don't have, you know, your background, you
don't have the experience.
And so you may need to take on some projects, you know, at a very low dollar amount just to get your
ratings up, get that experience up.
And then as you increase your experience and your ratings, you can also increase your hourly rate.
Right.
And so another con here is that there are a lot of competitors with low rates.
Right.
Depending on what area of the world you live in.
There's a lot of people all over the world that can charge, you know, less than you.
But again, keep in mind here that as you get more experience, you're going to be able to raise your
rates.
And oftentimes, you know, having the lowest cost doesn't equal obviously the best quality.
So you've got to make sure that you're positioning itself correctly.
And then you're able to understand that if somebody is maybe bidding or has a lower price than you,
it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be, you know, better.
Right.
So keep that in mind.
And then another con here is that the job score goes down automatically if you don't work on the platform
for a while.
So this is something just like out of your control.
If you're on up work and you're not active on there, you're not working on various jobs and you just
kind of stay stagnant for a while, then you unfortunately lose out on some of your score ranking there
because you're just not losing the platform, which just how the algorithm works.
So the second website here is freelancer dot com, I would say this is probably number two in the marketplace
here and then they have some of the pros here.
They have a screening process as well.
They have a process where you can get verified as a actual verified freelancer.
I think you go and you fill out some information, you submit some documents.
Right.
And it really gets you to have some sort of badge on there so that you can, you know, set yourself
apart from the rest of the competition out there that may not be, quote unquote, verified.
Right.
So they have fixed an hourly contracts as well, many projects with various scale, various sizes.
And then they have a preferred freelancer program as well, where I think this is where you need to
pay like a monthly or a one time fee.
I was not sure how this works because they had changed a couple of times.
But it's putting you essentially into a category where it's differentiating yourself from the competition
from like just being a, you know, regular freelancer.
And you get to have a lot of different perks and just being, you know, a standard freelancer on the
platform.
And then some of the cons here challenge you to get your first project right, because you don't have
any experience to show.
You don't have any reviews, even though, you know, you may have some experience as far as like the
portfolio projects on here.
And you can put those on your profile, which is great.
Right.
You want to have those, but you just won't have the reviews and whatnot from people.
And that's, you know, sometimes a big deal depending on who you're looking to tackle as far as the
kind of job.
And that's sometimes is a big deal, depending on what kind of job you're looking to tackle.
But like I mentioned previously, if you're just starting out, you don't have any experience.
I would go after the low hanging fruit, the low ticket type of jobs where you can, you know, just
get some experience and get some reviews.
Right.
And then there's a lot of competitors with low rates.
But we went over this.
Right?
Just because somebody has a lower rate doesn't mean that it's going to be obviously better.
And, you know, a lot of companies out there and clients are actually looking for higher prices because
they want higher quality work.
Right.
Because for some clients.
Right.
A lower price may automatically trigger to them that, hey, low quality.
So keep that in mind.
Right.
Just because somebody has a lower price than you doesn't necessarily mean that their quality is going
to be there.
Right.
So keep that in mind and then must constantly be on top of new jobs as well.
So you've got to be constantly looking for new work on the platform, you know, as are updated.
But overall, a great platform as well.
And then finally here, freelancing on fiber.
This is also a great platform as well, because you can, you know, easily get started here.
Very simple to get started.
They have fixed gig and project contracts.
They have fiber pro for top talent.
This is something new that they just rolled out, I think a couple of years ago.
I think it was where you go through the screening process, you submit some of your work, and then
they actually put you into a special category, a special kind of platform on their website that shows
all of the, you know, five or top talent fiber pro.
And you get a charge typically a lot more and you get, you know, higher tier type of work coming your
way because you pass a screening process and you're like the top, top elite type of freelancers.
But it's something that if you're just starting out, obviously you want to work and strive towards.
But the platform here, fiber is just great.
It's just a great way for you to get started to build out portfolio testimonials.
Right, because the projects are very, very low cost.
So the cons here and this one here can be a con or a pro depending on how you look at it.
Right.
So projects start at five dollars.
This is great because you can immediately get somebody, you know, some feedback as far as then you
can immediately be able to get somebody a website or something.
You can immediately start getting work by somebody who's maybe looking for a landing page or some sort
of web design work or whatever that may be for very low cost so that you can get, you know, a lot
of experience, a lot of testimonials right out of the gate.
But then also, obviously, the con here is that, you know, it's five dollars, right?
And so people could be surprised.
A lot of times people ask for a lot for five dollars.
That's why the projects like how the five year, you know, it starts out with projects starting at
five dollars.
So I would say, you know, twenty dollars.
Thirty dollars, if you're just starting out, you know, isn't too bad for building a website, especially
if you already have like a template.
Right.
So keep that in mind.
A lot of times when you're working on these freelance websites, you're not going to need to be creating
anything from scratch.
A lot of times you can be using WordPress and you can be using just templates.
Where you could just change around different things because you're not only learning in this course
HTML, right, that you've gone through and you've learned, you know, success, Jake, query all these
different things to be able to build a website from scratch.
But you're also learning how to use WordPress, right, with the bonus lecture and section in this course.
So I understand that it may seem like there's a lot of work that goes into building these websites,
but it really isn't.
OK, so that's one thing to keep in mind here.
And then orders can be placed without any communication.
Now, this is a, you know, somewhat of a red flag here, depending on how, again, you look at this,
because what can happen is that you can go out there and have a particular job and have it, whether
it's a gig and somebody, let's say, you know, one hundred dollars for you to build the website.
Somebody goes on there, they buy and they check out.
And then now you're on the hook for this website to deliver to them right within a certain time frame.
Now, if for whatever reason, they're expecting 10 times what they're what they paid for or what their
budget is or whatever that may be, or you just can't do the project if the actual project gets cancelled,
there's actually a negative type of strike you get on your account.
So if for whatever reason you have to cancel the order, that's actually a negative on your end.
So keep that in mind right when you're setting your projects and whatnot.
And then the projects are also set on a per project basis.
So oftentimes it's hard to do negotiations, you know, back and forth with people because you have
your set prices.
Right.
And so you can also have, hey, contact me or each individual project, which increases the length
of time I for myself, I love forever because I can just go in there.
I know what I want.
Somebody has it as a gig and I can just go in there and buy it without having to go back and forth.
Right.
So ultimately, all three of these are great platforms to get started on.
They all have their pros and cons, but they're great for just getting started with freelancing.
So that's going to be here for this one.
And we'll see you on the next one.