Let’s face it. Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in a day to get everything accomplished. This especially holds true when you are working a full-time job and trying to live the fun life of an entrepreneur in the free time that you do have. Even as you learn to scale your efforts, it usually isn’t enough. That’s when our list of the best marketplaces to find freelancers comes in handy.

What To Expect In Freelance Marketplaces

You can find a freelancer who can help you with almost any task so long as it can be done digitally. Generally, most freelance marketplaces have individuals who can help you with the following:

• Social media– posting to your accounts, gaining followers, managing your social media ads, etc.
• SEO– building backlinks (usually poor quality IMO), keyword research, SEO analysis, etc.
• Graphic design– developing logos, designing infographics, PowerPoint presentations, etc.
• Website development– developing WordPress websites, plugins, fixing website issues, etc.
• Programming– helping fix site issues, custom developing applications, etc.
• Writing– writing articles, guest posting, copy writing, etc.

This is only a short list and there are literally 100s of other tasks you can find someone to help you with in these marketplaces for freelancers.

Top Marketplaces to Find Freelancers

Each marketplace is similar, but yet slightly different. Now we are going off our personal experience when using each marketplace so keep that in mind.

People Per Hour

The website that aims to put quality over price

People Per Hour is a UK based website that is known for attempting to focus on quality, over ever reducing project budgets.
One defining difference of this offering comes in the form of ‘Hourlies’, which are pre-packed and priced services that freelancers provide, which are only limited by the imagination of the workforce. To this end hourlies include everything from “making 50 calls for your business for £30” to “performing advanced usability testing on your website for £40”.

These hourlies are available for almost every type of service, including Design, Video, Web Development and Sales and Marketing to name but a few. There’s also a solid escrow system that protects freelancers and buyers alike. It allows People Per Hour to hold the funds until both parties agree the work has been completed in a satisfactory manner.

Freelancers are, however, graded by the website to illustrate to potential buyers how much experience and client satisfaction they’ve built up. This system is known as CERT, and it awards freelancers with numbers from 1 to 5, with top freelancers being awarded with the ‘TOP’ CERT. This system, it has to be said, is not without controversy, with many arguing that the algorithm behind it is temperamental, and that new freelancers can today find it difficult to begin building their level in what is now an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Strengths

Flexibility, relatively well paid jobs and an effective Escrow system.

Weaknesses

People Per Hour’s CERT system.

Upwork

A platform that aims to offer unparalleled ease of use

Upwork is the freelancing platform that has recently merged with Odesk (the latter of which was consistently considered one of freelancers most revered marketplaces). It is seriously easy to use and has a great reputation for protecting both buyer and seller alike (notably this is also one of the best platforms for weeding out scam buyers and fraudulent freelancers).
One issue however is that there has been a recent emergence of unskilled freelancers that are downgrading the experience for all; this is despite the site having seriously demanding verification requirements. These workers have been found to consistently deliver shitty work, all while driving down project prices so that the real professionals suffer the ever dwindling pay packets.

Strengths

Ease of use and verification demands.

Weaknesses

A recent emergence of unskilled freelancers.

Fiverr

The marketplace where clients demand much, and where rates can be seriously disappointing

Fiverr is the marketplace built upon the premise of selling freelancer services for five dollars (or £3.28 in Sterling), and that’s before the platform takes it cut of your earnings (which is a pretty staggering 20%).

These services are created as s ‘Gig’ by the freelancer, following the format of… ‘I will… design a logo/provide a voiceover/write an article… for $5’. Freelancers are able to offer Gig Extras, such as super-fast delivery within a day, for which they can charge a premium. These then outline the first couple of strengths for Fiverr in the bag: that of flexibility as well as the ability to bulk out services to boost a freelancer’s bottom line in the beginning. However here’s the crux of the matter: freelancers can put their rates up, but this is only after the selling of $300 worth of Gigs, before then it’s strictly $5 a pop services.

Fiverr is built on a solid backend that makes working with buyers a complete breeze; it’s also home to a payment system whereby payment is held between buyer and seller in an escrow system. Lastly Fiverr has a massive number of buying users, and with a simplistic app style interface the client traffic is significant for freelancers willing to join.

Strengths

Gig flexibility, high volume traffic and an easy to use interface and working system

Weaknesses

Low pay until a decent profile has been built up

Freelancer.com

The largest freelancing market place in the world

Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelance market place, covering all professional services ranging from web development onto design work and finishing with data entry. In total there are in excess of 14 million users, with over 7 million projects having being completed. This highlights the first issue with this site: freelancers drastically outnumber the work available. What’s more freelancers consistently denote the ever dwindling rates that clients are willing to pay, which is unsurprising given that the freelance workforce here spans every country and continent, with particularly large portions coming from regions where reasonable living standards cost far less than within more developed areas.

There’s also a widely reported issue with the way in which Freelancer.com structures their charges. Freelancers are required to pay a $3 or 3% charge of the won project’s total budget up front, and if they wish to submit more than 8 proposals for jobs per month then they’ll need to upgrade to a paid account.

Strengths

Range of projects

Weaknesses

Rates of pay, requirement to pay for accepted job proposals and saturation of the marketplace

The decision of which marketplace you wish to use for work or to find freelancers to help you accomplish more in a days time is up you. We just hope this post helps put it into context for those willing to make the leap!