Top 5 Best Freelance Sites to Outsource your Tasks or Services
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Ways to Oursource your Skills
Having an online freelance job can be fun as you get to do things you like to do; for example you like writing, then there are numerous ways to make money online by writing articles, ebooks, web-contents, and blogs for others through variuos freelance sites. Just select a freelance site that is well suited to your preferences and need. If you are a programmer, you can outsource your skills by doing programming or web designing works; and if you are a well-experienced sales and marketing professional, you can also make money online by formulating marketing and business plans for other people or companies who need the skills you have. Among the most popular opportunities are writing jobs for those who love to write any forms of literatures like articles, research papers, blogs and web contents.
There are several ways to outsource your skills; just to name a few, they are the following:
1. Bid for jobs at Freelance Sites – A freelance site is a great place where project providers and service providers meet. Project providers or people who want to outsource their tasks will post job vacancies at freelance sites stating their requirements and qualification for the specific project. On the other hand, service providers or people who want to outsource thier services will bid for the projects; and the project provider shall choose among those who bid for the project he posted on the freelance site. This is the most popular way of getting an online job as there are many freelance sites available for you to bid for projects.
2. Advertise your services at forums – another great way of securing an online freelance job is by joining forums where there are a lot of internet marketers who are seeking to outsource some tasks. This usually works by advertising your services at your signature link which appears every time you make a post; hence, the more posts you make; the more your services are advertised. You can also create your own thread in the forum that talks about your services. The best forums to get an online job are Warrior Forum, Sitepoint and Digital Point. One good thing about forums is that payments are directly sent to your PayPal account without any deduction unlike freelance sites which usually deduct around 4 to 8%; and there is also a processing time for withdrawal from your freelance site account to your Paypal account.
3. Create a Website or blog about your services and advertise them – you can also get an online freelance job by creating your own business website or blog which contain relevant information about your services, qualifications, and rates. Once your site is set-up, you can advertise your site through paid advertising and pay-per-click ads such as Google.
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Top 5 Outsourcing Sites
Bidding for jobs at freelance sites is the common method of securing an online freelance job. The following are my top 5 best freelance sites to outsource your tasks and services and become successful with your online career:
1. ELANCE
Elance is great freelance site to start your online career, with a lot of opportunities to bid for quality projects at a higher rate. It is free to join and your basic free membership comes with 3 free connects or bid counts per month that allows you to bid for projects under one category only. Each job posted at Elance have their corresponding connect/s required to bid depending on the quality of the project. Usually, projects below $500 budget requires only 1 connect. $500-$1000 project budget requires 2-3 connects; and projects with more than $1000 budget requires more than 3 connects. You may upgrade your membership in order to acquire more connects and increase your job categories to apply. One good thing about Elance is that it offers more than a hundred skills test for free to improve your profile.
2010 update: Good news, starting this year 2010, Elance increased the number of Free Connects from 3 each month to 10 free connects per month. This means that you can now apply to more jobs; as well as apply for high paying jobs as a free member.
Happy bidding and good luck.
2. ODESK
Odesk is another good freelance site to find freelance works with a lot of projects to bid. However, in order to start bidding for projects, you need to pass the oDesk readiness test; the said test is free to take. For those who failed, you can take the test again for free after one month. Once you are a certified oDesk ready, you can start bidding for projects. Your free basic membership comes with an allocation of 5 bids per month. However, you can also increase your allowable bids up to a maximum of 20 bids per month by passing more skills test. Each skill test passed increases your allowable bids by 5 more per month. Hence, you need to pass at least 4 skills tests in order to maximize your allowable bids of 20 per month. All skills tests are free. At oDesk, payments can either be based on hourly rate or per project rate; and transactions can be secured with escrow.
3. VWORKER (formerly Rent-A-Coder)
Vworker is another excellent freelance site for both project providers and service providers. Projects posted in this site are great for both writers, programmers and coders. Bidding is still required; hence, it is important to create excellent profile if you are looking for work. For project providers, there are plenty of competent workers in this place; giving you flexibility on your choices on the ideal outsourcer to work on your projects.
4. FREELANCER
Freelancer is a great way to start your online career. This freelance site is FREE to Join and you can have 15 bids per month. Unlike other sites that reserve high-paying projects to premium members, most projects are available to basic subscribers. The only challenge you will encounter here is that, many members bid for most projects, you need to be competent and unique in your bid profile or cover letter in order to win the bid. One downside of Freelancer is that there are too many bidders, and this usually results to lower your service rates.
Have you ever heard of Lime Exchange? Previously this freelance site was featured in this hub as one of the top 5 freelance sites to outsource your tasks and services. Late last December 2010, it was acquired by Freelancer.com; and many members of Lime Exchange were migrated to this freelance site; making it even more bigger to give you utmost flexibility on your selections of projects and workers.
March 2011 update:
Just some words of precaution about Freelancer. I just encountered account suspension problem after being with the site for some time already. Their main reason is to verify my account by sending them some of my credentials like passport and driver's license which I did but with no reply from them. In fact, I already sent my credentials 3 times already with no reply. I emailed their customer support and still there is no reply todate. I have some amount from my account which I cannot withdraw due to the suspension. I already made withdrawals in the past.
Conversation with other freelancers revealed that some of them encountered the same experience. Hence, be careful freelance workers. Your hard-earned money might just be lost with this freelance site suspending accounts for no reasons at all and their customer service is poor or non-existent at all.
Considering the huge numbers of members, I am still posting this freelance site in as one of the top in terms of numbers of members; but definitely not in terms of reliable and good service.
5. SCRIPTLANCE
ScriptLance is a haven for programmers and web designers. Jobs posted on this freelance site usually involve programming jobs and web design; although there are also some few writing jobs posted here. Scriptlance is free to join and one good thing about Scritplance is that there is no limit to your number of bids as long as you are qualified. The downside for Scriptlance is that there is a 30-days holding period (from first deposit to your account) before your money can be withdrawn from your Scriptlance account to your bank account. After that, it takes another 5 to 10 days to process your withdrawal.
Once you have signed-up for a free account with the aforementioned freelance sites, the first thing you need to do is to create a very impressive user profile and take skills tests to reinforce your qualification and start bidding for projects. The moment you have completed a project in a particular freelance site, be sure to ask for a positive review from your project providers to improve your profile and increase your chances of winning more projects.
In order to increase your chances of winning bids, join as many freelance sites as you can, and apply to many projects you are qualified. Use all your free bids in each freelance site and make sure to make an impressive profile and cover letter.
Happy Bidding
Other Freelance Sites
Freelance Sites to Outsource your Tasks and Services
- www.guru.com
- http://jobs.freelanceswitch.com
- www.directfreelance.com
- www.freelancejobopenings.com
- www.vois.com
- www.serebraconnect.com
- www.sologig.com
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CommentsLoading...
Thanks for sharing this info post. Nice list.
Certainly informative and lots of books to provide more information
what about rentacoder? you did not add it. rentacoder.com is the top most outsource platform.
Very informative and of great interest to me.
You can also try some job aggregators like http://www.freelance-jobs-now.com for a great variety of freelance projects.
Happy bidding and good luck!
Nice list. Its a great supplement for people outsourcing wherever in the world. Me included.
I like this list. Yeah, with the current skillset of a lot of people in different countries this sure helps.
Comprehensive list of resources. Thank you.
Its really helping. But I still doubt about the payment part. If anyone can let me know how it is safe to get payment from other party.
You gave some great resources. I have tried Elance in the past, with good success. Unfortunately, the competition is so heavy in my area of interest, but definitely worth the effort.
One of the safest payment methods is PayPal. I have been using this service from the start and I am well satisfied with it.
Beware of limeexchage. if you get in an dispute with the provider. they will make really hard for you to get your money back. even if the provider is wrong. they will go on and on with telling you to get a middle person to work with both parties. you have to send numerous complains that they keep asking you to send . it’s a waste of time. and in the end they send you an email saying that you never reply so they release the funds for the provider of the service.
so BEWARE of limeexchangel.com They are SCAM.
Stay away from them.
also they seem to be the same group as limewire, Lime Wire LLC,The Lime Group, Lime Group LLC.
so why they open so many companies in different names. it make you wonder.
plus lime wire is known for getting pirate softwares.
Thanks for the tips on GetaFreelancer. I think I'll try them out. I want to outsource a few things, but of course I'm checking things out first since I don't want to get ripped off.
Now days I use to earn a lot with 3G’s. They are nothing but
This 3 master’s are great at there way.
Getafreelancer will show you specific small and number of jobs.
Greatlance.com works are more secured and worthwhile to bid. They value your time.
Guru is for big players with big projects.
Some great advice here and tips I am now following - this is a hub I am bookmarking. Cheers!
Great information here. Have applied at guru and odesk, still have not received a job. I've been too picky.
Thanks for visiting my hub Fgual and Cheeky Girl. Good luck in your applications to these freelance sites. Dont forget to create an excellent profile to improve your chances of success.
This is good that people can get the home loans and this opens completely new opportunities.
Very nice. Thanks for sharing
I work for Odesk and I'm happy seeing it on number two..Thank you for the ideas. I have already subscribed to the RSS for updates. :)
Its good to know this hub helps
Yes, it's a very good information for freelancers. Thanks!
Nice post dude, keep it up.
Really this post is quite informative and very useful..
Good collection
Great resources!! I have had the most success in the past with vWorker (rentacoder) and I have a found a new network www.ataskfreelancer.com that seems to be promising. I have signed up and already placed bids, those looking for a fresh start from the other networks that seem to becoming the same (to me anyways) might want to check this new site out. Thanks again for the great resources, awesome hub :)
Working as a freelancer is so much better than being employed.
I do all my work from home on http://www.iAmAnArtist.com as they seem to have the fairest payment.
As a flash programmer you can also earn money by developing flash games and publishing those on various networks.
Ya.I agree with you on the point that you told about freelancer.com.Last year,I created an account and I post some projects.But after a few month later,they suspend my account and ask for government issued paper with my photo.They also seize my some money which were at my freelancer account.At last,I understood that I have lost my money.
another issue with freelancer is that,they have an option to suggest a suggestion and they call the best suggestion of a month will win $100.I sent them a few suggestions.A few days I saw they freelancer team has made changes on their system as per my suggestion.But I did not get any mail from them.At last,I contact they what about my suggestion.At last,they gave me only $20 to my account and told me that I could not be withdraw that money from freelancer.
what is this.A pure SCAM.I hate freelancer for their DISHONESTY.
Thanks for sharing your experience with Freelancer, free backlinks; and its sad to know what happened on your end.Your comments help.
I also recommend elance as the first outsourcing site.
I think odesk is should be on No1 spot. They offer free memberships and job getting there also so easy. About elance they charge per month membership which is not a good.
You can also try http://www.elanceweb.com
Thanks for sharing the valuable information. Odesk is too reliable.
Check it out the new site http://www.witmart.com. A friend of mine got a few jobs there. It seems not very competitive and good for new freelancers to win good pay jobs there.
MAXHOMEBITS 2 years ago
Thanks for the list, some great resources here. When you do outsource its important to do your research to bid effectively. If you don't prepare yourself you will end up paying to much. I find its good practice to offer a bonus on completion, as long as the job is satisfactory.