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Freelancing websites are the most precious gifts internet has given us today. No matter if you are a graduate or not but if you have the right skills, the freelancing websites can be your full time career opportunities. During my graduation, back in 2007 I think ( I am sorry I don’t exactly remember) during a lecture of Web Marketing, one of my classmates asked:
Sir what are your other engagements and our teacher replied:
“I work on multiple freelancing websites.”
That was the very first moment, I heard about freelancing websites and the most famous term “freelancing”. So my feelings at that time were like Man! I’ve to do this. After that I officially started freelancing in 2011 after my graduation and in March 2014. Hence I’ve become a full-time freelancer and above all I really love to be in this field. Therefore I thought I should compile a list of world’s best freelancing websites you should join to start building up your online career. If you are having a hard time in finding a job, most noteworthy these freelancing websites can certainly be your life saver.
More importantly, I would say I have earned a passive income as my side hustle through freelancing websites but I must say I have learnt a lot in my freelancing career. You learn even more through freelancing websites because every employer or job seeker is using modern tools, unique apps and different infrastructure, That’s how you’ll interact with amazing technologies on daily basis and your resume will furnish like a charm. These freelancing websites are the most trusted platforms where your earned money will always be in safe hands with no gimmicks or scams. Though I didn’t go very deep but I tried to mention the key features of all the famous freelancing websites, their signing up procedures and supported payment methods.
With that being said, here is the list of the World’s Top Freelancing Websites you should join today to both learn and earn. Let’s start over…
1. Upwork
Upwork was first known as oDesk and later it was merged with Elance and became Elance-oDesk. But after a couple of months, it was rebranded and emerged as Upwork in the internet space. It’s a very popular freelancing platform growing consequently. I started my freelance journey when it was oDesk and from that day I fell in love with it.
As per Upwork’s statistics, 60 thousand jobs are posted every week, there are 5 million registered business clients hiring people daily. About 12 million freelancers and agencies are registered on Upwork making it one of the biggest freelancing websites in the world with an annual business worth of $1 billion USD.
i) Sign Up
Signing up on Upwork is pretty simple, you can click the Sign Up on Upwork button below. You’ll need to enter your name and your email address that you use often. More importantly remember to put your name that is written on your government issued ID card and bank account. Because you’ll need to get your profile verified later and Upwork demands such documents. Furthermore, you can edit your profile later too but its better to be smart to avoid any inconveniences in the future.
The following screen will be prompted with your locating country, set a strong password and click the Work as a Freelancer button since you are here to work as a freelancer.
Finally click on Create my Account and a confirmation email will be sent to the given email address, verify your email address and your account is ready.
ii) Build Up the Profile
Congratulations! Your account is ready and its time to build a great profile. Certainly your profile is the major asset that will attract the clients. It will increase your chances of getting hired even more. Therefore, here are some tips to build an eye catching profile on Upwork:
- First of all upload a professional profile picture, it would be great to have a smiling face, the picture should be very clear.
- Also enter the title that reflects your professional experience like DevOps Engineer, AWS Engineer or iOS Developer. Above all Certifications are highly important, therefore, if you have any kind of certification, write it with your title. The certifications like Cisco Certified Interwork Expert, Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate or Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect. Certifications boost the profile with a rocket speed.
- The professional summary should highlight all your skills you are very good at. Hence you can search for a great professional overview and career highlights in google similar to your domain and modify accordingly.
- Try to avoid I am seeking job in that field or looking for work etc. Such terms badly destroy your image and professionalism.
- Being a newbie, the hourly hour rate shouldn’t be high. Keep it lower in the beginning and increase it gradually when you start getting projects. Likewise I’ve seen a number of profiles with not much experience and demanding $20 or $25/hr, hence not securing any job.
- More importantly put your portfolios, experience in other firms, projects and websites. Like for example if you are a graphics designer or an application developer, upload the images of covers you designed, apps you built etc.
- Also write your education and major skills on the profile. Skills are very important as clients search freelancers through the required skills.
- Furthermore create Specialized Profiles, for example, if you are a great Java developer & ASP.Net developer at the same time, create 2 separate specialized profiles.
- Finally get your profile fully verified that includes phone verification and identity verification to get an Identity Verified Badge on your profile and start applying to become a Top Rated Freelancer.
iii) Payment Methods
Hurray! it’s time to get the rewards of the hard work you did, indeed hard work pays off. If you are a newbie, remember it can take some time to get your first job on Upwork. Be patient and keep trying and stick with it no matter what. I am sure you’ll learn and earn.
After your wallet got fatter, Upwork supports the following methods to get the payments,:
- Direct to Local Bank
- Payoneer
- Wire Transfer(USD)
- Direct to U.S Bank
You can follow this link to add a payment method of your choice. I recommend direct to local bank as its fast, its cheap and the amount is remitted into your personal account within a business day. Happy Earnings!
2. Fiverr
Fiverr has got immense reputation and popularity in the freelance market in the last few years. It was included in the top 200 most visited websites in the world as per Alexa. If you are looking for content marketing, video, animation, copyrighting, web development, web designing, graphics, logo or UI/UX designing, Fiverr is your exact spot.
Honestly I am feeling very delighted to say that Pakistan secures the 2nd Place in the world for having the most number of freelancers on Fiverr after USA. There are sellers selling their services on Fiverr and earning thousands of dollars each month. Therefore if you are a skilled designer or developer, join Fiverr, create a fantastic Gig, deliver the work in time and get paid.
i) Sign Up
To become a seller on Fiverr, click on Become a Seller or you can click the below sign up button. Also Fiverr has the options to sign up using Facebook and Google Connect. In order to create an account, simply enter your email and click continue.
An email will be sent to the email address, click on Activate your Account to get the account activated.
ii) Create a Gig
Agig is the core asset you have on Fiverr, the more awesome it is, more buyers it will get. More importantly try to make it as professional as you can by writing your offers, pricing and delivery time.
Here are some tips to create the best Gig:
- If you are a newbie to Fiverr, you must be having a question in your mind, what is a Gig? Well every service or product on Fiverr is called a gig. After signing up, you need to create gigs to start getting orders. You get 7 gigs initially, max out all the available gigs with skills you’ve got.
- To get more orders as a beginner, you’ll have to lend your gig for a lower price. Let’s say if you get an order to create a logo for $5 and the actual price should be like $20, do it for $5. Its completely understood, but that’s the best way to get great reviews.
- Having great reviews and a 4.8 star rating will bring your gig up in Fiverr search engine. More popular gig means more orders resulting more money. Hence it’s time to increase the gig price now.
- Promote your personal branding, you are a brand yourself. Therefore always upload a professional portrait not any dummy picture or any sort of logo.
- Create a video for your gig, if you don’t have a high quality camera, no worries; make it with smartphone. A gig with a video will boost your sales.
- Most noteworthy Fiverr can certainly be your full time job, hence be very responsive. Provide great buyer satisfaction by providing services consequently before the deadlines.
- Therefore keep exploring other gigs, similarly see which services are hot and worth more. Never copy the content, keep your gigs original with a learning motive.
- Above all get the identity and phone verification, messages with codes are sent to the phone number provided to withdraw funds, its mandatory.
- There are 3 Seller Levels on Fiverr, Level 1 Seller, Level 2 Seller, Top Rated Seller. You can explore more about Fiverr level’s here.
- Finally there are plenty of other myths and tips but I’ve covered the most important ones, I hope you’ll become a Top Rated Seller on Fiverr.
iii) Payment Methods
Fiverr comes with 3 payment methods to withdraw funds:
- Paypal
- Bank Transfer
- Fiverr Revenue Card
- Direct Deposit for US citizens
Paypal does not work in most of the countries, Direct Deposit is available for US citizens and you can get the Fiverr Revenue card. But there is a huge volume of recommendations is to use Bank Transfer method as it’s supported by Payoneer. Payoneer is a gift and a blessing for freelancers, its supported world-wide. Most noteworthy I’ve found it amazing and every internet geek recommends it as the best payment choice. Happy Earnings!
3. 99Designs
99Designs is the best options for the designers to showcase their designing skills. Therefore, if you are a graphics designer, a logo designer, a web or an app designer, 99designs is the no. 1 website with a global community of professional designers. After every 2 seconds, a new design is created, there have been 97 million designs created & very soon it will cross the 100 Million mark.
99designs is also very popular for creating 3D designs and thousands of 3D designs have been created. Freelancers from 192 countries work here making it the biggest designers community, enjoying the opportunities of both learning and earning. There are multiple categories available to browse the designs, among logo, web & app, business, advertising, photography and clothing are the most prominent.
i) Sign Up
If you are a passionate designer and want to get your creativity & designing skills enhanced, if you’d love to be a member of the global community of professional designers, hover your mouse over the signup button below to have your freelance designer career ignited.
Select I’m a designer since you are looking for opportunities to design, write a professional display name and register. Finally a confirmation email will be sent to confirm. That’s it, you are now registered as a designer.
ii) Build Up the Profile
There are 3 levels on 99designs, Entry Level, Mid Level and Top Level. The level appears as a badge under the name on your profile, I’ve linked the levels so you can explore more about each. There is a certain criteria set for the designers & you’ve to fulfill those requirements to get at the top. Trust me its all about respect, loyalty, hard work, professionalism and obviously the largest prizes.
I’ve compiled some ideas and tips that can help you become a platinum designer:
- So you are in entry level right, first of all complete the profile, upload a professional photo, add a little bio that should reflect your designing passion. Make sure to complete the ID verification, a verified profile always wins the client’s trust.
- If you have any design samples, do upload them under portfolio section. That’s why I always recommend completing profile as writing an online resume. In short don’t over-write and don’t ignore the little pieces of your work.
- Be a champ and a furious master on any of the famous graphics designing tools like Adobe Photoshop, Wacom Bamboo, Pixlr, DeviantART, Adobe Creative Suite, Canva and the list goes on.
- Creativity is a God gifted talent. If you visit abroad, visit any historical place, going to an art gallery or a library or in a theater, hence plenty of ideas can be gathered. Take photos, create sketches and redesign.
- Also join designer forums and communities, most of the people are afraid of the fact that if I share a design, my ideas may get copied. Its completely understood that designs are very personal considered as your sole property but remember feedback will polish you. If you still have that fear, do not share the complete output rather share the rough sketches to get suggestions.
- Furthermore set your design principles, color schemes, fonts & their sizes, background alignment & vectors & keep the designs simple.
- Finally there are thousands of great courses available on online learning platforms like Udemy, Coursera, Canva & Skillshare. Udemy have sales on its courses quite often and great courses are available for a very reasonable price. If you are a network marketer or if you have a plan to persue Affiliate Marketing, I’d strongly recommend reading these FREE books. Above all I’d strongly recommend to take out a course related to the tool you like the most and get your hands dirty like a painter.
iii) Payment Methods
In order to withdraw your earnings, 99designs provide 2 payout options:
- Payoneer
- PayPal
The minimum amount that can be withdrawn is $25 & as I recommended Payoneer above because you’ll be able to get your amount in the local currency directly into your bank account. Just click Request a Payout button on the Earnings page under your account to withdraw funds. Happy Earnings!
4. Freelancer
Freelancer.com with a very powerful domain name is a great platform for freelancers. The website is old in the freelance business and now as per their stats, there are over 38 million users worldwide with over 16 million jobs posted. The Freelancer.com users network is spread in approximately 240 countries with most of the freelancers based in USA, UK, India, Pakistan, Indonesia & Philippines.
There are over 1350 different categories, app development, logo & graphics designing, copywriting, internet marketing and software development are prominent.
i) Sign Up
You have to 2 choices to sign up on Freelancer either via facebook or with email. You can click the button below to sign up:
Choose a username, you won’t be able to change it ever and then click on I want to work arrow. Finally verify the email address to complete the signup procedure.
ii) Build Up the Profile
Congratulations on signing up, its time to build a dashing profile but first of all let put up some skills into the profile. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are posted on Freelancer in their respective categories.
It is very very important to add the skills, why? For example if an employer is looking to hire a node.js developer, he’ll browse the development category. If the same skill is added into the profile, the search engine will immediately show up your profile. It’ll make higher chances to lend a job on this website. Its easy for the clients too who are looking to hire. As many as 20 skills can be added, if you find them relevant, add them all.
Here are some more compiled hacks to start your career as a freelancer on Freelancer.
- To be honest, in my experience while applying to jobs or projects, if you understand the requirements, ask questions. That’s how the client will get back to you to answer them. From here talk passionately with a Do it Attitude to win the project.
- Hey! I will work on this project, please check my profile or check my resume, these are highly unprofessional & neglected bids. These are just canned responses which show your lack of interest in the project.
- Therefore give your best shot while bidding for a certain project, quickly plan a price estimate, keep it lower and over deliver it. Give the employer a WOW Experience 🙂
- Procrastination in every matter either its communication or the submission deadline affects the profile badly. Being newbie, you have to be highly responsive so bid on those projects that align your timezone with the employer.
- While bidding on a project, check the project and employer details. About the Employer on the right hand shows every detail including the country, his reviews and verification.
- Furthermore avoid over-bidding, do not bid on irrelevant projects, stick to your domain. Like for example if you are a Python developer, upload the projects you did before in your portfolio section. Share the code samples, tell the employer you have the certifications in case.
- Finally bidding is like skills auction, whoever has the best rating, reviews, price, portfolio, best samples and demanded skills WINS.
iii) Payment Methods
Funds can be withdrawn using any of the following available methods:
- Paypal
- Skrill
- Freelancer Debit Card
- Wire Transfer
- Express Withdrawl
On the right hand side, click on the drop down arrow to see the Finances & Account management sections. Under Finances, you can find the Withdraw Funds option to withdraw the earnings. Minimum earnings you can withdraw using Paypal is $30 & $500 using the wire transfer. Happy Earnings!
5. PeoplePerHour
It’s a global platform with a lot of features available for freelancers to work and earn in a better way. There are over 1.5 million registered freelancers on PeoplePerHour with over 100 million earnings in GBP. Either you are a seller or a buyer, PPH provides Money Protection Guarantee, your amount is in safe hands. Here are the stats of PPH as per their website till date:
i) Sign Up
.You can sign up using facebook connect or with your personal email address. Select the account type as Freelancer to get started. Click below to sign up:
The sign up process is complete, just get your email verified to begin the freelance work & building up the profile.
ii) Build Up the Profile
Ialways take it as the most challenging part because its your profile that will lend jobs quicker & bring up endorsements. Highly endorsed profile with excellent reviews and a 5 star rating will rise it like a shining star. Here are some hacks that can help you to become a successful freelancer on PPH:
- First of all complete your profile with all aspects that include cover, portrait, education, experience and a brief but comprehensive description about yourself and who you are. Sorry for being harsh but incomplete profile is considered as a pile of trash.
- Freelance career highly rely on trust and 100% commitment, if you are not committed to your work, you are badly affecting your profile and the platform too. So take only those projects that you are 100% sure about.
- Browse PeoplePerHour like Facebook, it’s my own opinion, you can disagree with that. But why do I say so because we just waste our precious time scrolling & scrolling & scrolling ending up with zero money. If we browse actively, search for the matching projects, stalking the top rated Hourlies & thinking how can I make my profile better will make you successful.
- Carefully read the project description, most of the time, the buyers put some (you can say) hidden words and ask the freelancers to write in their proposal. The buyers try to make sure a freelancer should read his whole project description thoroughly. But what happens, freelancer[not talking about all but most of them] does not read at all & copy paste the crafted proposal. The end result is your application is thrown into the bin.
- Its one of the toughest challenges a freelancer has to face to land his/her first job, completely new profile, no reviews and no ratings but you have to be confident, very active with a high morale, I am sure you’ll get your first project within 3 days.
- Its absolutely necessary to share the Github, Linkedin & Stackoverflow profile links with the clients (if you have any) while submitting the proposals, the chances of getting hired will be stronger.
- Finally don’t forget to read the tips to become CERT-ified here.
iii) Payment Methods
Following are the supported methods to withdraw funds from PeoplePerHour:
- Payoneer Account
- PayPal Account
- ACH Bank Account (USA only)
- Bank Account
Click on the icon at the top right bar, it should be your profile picture, go to settings and payments. Click on the Add New Account button to add a payment method of your choice or simply click this link. Happy Earnings!
