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Joshua Briley
Courses Plus Student 24,645 PointsFreelancing on UpWork
Hey guys, I was just checking out UpWork as an opportunity to start doing some freelance design and front end development work. Does anyone have any experience taking work on this platform? The going rates for work don't seem to be close to American standards, much of which is even far below minimum wage. Am I misunderstanding something?
3 Answers
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsI'm on both sides of this coin.
I'm open to freelance, but I also sometimes use UpWork to farm out some things we simply don't have time to get to, and I manage that.
Sure, you're not going to compete cost wise to somebody working for $3 an hour in India, and why would you want to? However, cost is relative to experience and design style. Just because you're not close in cost, doesn't mean you might not get the bid.
With that said, the competition is strong, and I've never tried to freelance on it, simply because I haven't decided yet that it is worth the time to make the bids.
Do you know anyone that knows anyone that needs your services? I think you'd be better off trying to find a local connection to someone to freelance from. Once you get one, provide incentives for your client to refer future clients, and grow it that way. That's how I'd try to do it.
By all means you can try UpWork, but don't get caught up spending 5 days of bidding to get a $200 job.
Joshua Briley
Courses Plus Student 24,645 PointsOK, thanks for the clarification. I'll be closing my UpWork account now. :-)
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsI hope I didn't convince you to close it. That wasn't my intention. My intention was to set realistic expectations, since I have a little bit of experience interacting with services like UpWork.
Some of the bids from freelancers on our account shows they've made $75,000+ through UpWork. No idea how long of a period that is over, but clearly there is some money there.
I just think to your local market has stronger possibilities for you, and not to get too tied in to UpWork being a magic freelance pill. Give it a shot, you don't have anything to lose by it.
Joshua Briley
Courses Plus Student 24,645 PointsHey Kevin, thanks for the continued dialogue on the subject. I have a great job doing design and front end development work. I also have a family, so my ability to engage my local market is pretty slim. I'm more looking for opportunities to try different things than to generate income. I would, however, work for someone else on the side if the exchange were equitable, according to local wages. I'm equally open to the idea of contributing to the open source community to build/design something interesting that can benefit certain community oriented niches. Does that make sense?