Freelancer Dot Com The Site For Freelancers: Review

Freelancer.com is a freelancing site where writers bid on projects posted by clients. This site is similar to Elance but different in the way it operates and different in the user interface. Freelancer Dot Com, is one of many sites that enables the online freelance worker to make money on the internet. There are thousands of positions posted each day in hundreds of categories. The following is my review of the site based on my personal experience as a member.

I am not an affiliate member of Freelancer.com and in no way am I seeking members for freelancer.com to make money or earn rewards. This hub is my honest review of the site, it's functions and ability to make you money.

The first impression you get of this site is that it's crowded and busy. The home page, especially your personal home page is jumbled and cluttered with too many items. For me it's like a junk yard or an untidy storage compartment.

Using the site

I find the user interface not easy to navigate. The items are not clear. Take for instance when bidding on a project, the instructions for attaching a sample file isn't very visible. It was after a client emailed me to request a sample of my work that I searched and found where to attach the file.

I went back to bid on another project and it was after submitting the original bid that I realized I had to create a message in order to upload a file. It doesn't allow more than one files per message. This is very inconvenient as we sometimes have more than one samples. With the other freelancer site that I use, I can easily attach as many files to my original bid as I like along with any amount of URLs.

Projects costs

I find that the site seems a bit expensive to use. Five dollars is immediately deducted from your account each time you accept an awarded project, then you must pay a dollar to withdraw your funds. You pay another dollar to place your bid at the top and another to Highlight your bid. There are no free exams so if you want to show some credentials you must pay another five dollars.

I do find that clients pay more than the average on other sites and it seems that the minimum a client can place a job for is $30. So here I find that it might be worth joining the site. But I warn you to be careful; before you know it you will have no funds to collect. I have had no problems with payments so far and clients pay promptly.

I also find that you cannot withdraw less than $30 from your account which is ridiculous. If you have to pay to withdraw then you should be allowed to withdraw any amount you choose. So here I was awarded my first job of $30 minus the $5 project fee, ready to withdraw my $25 and was told that I needed to have at leas $30 in my account to withdraw. So now I had to wait on another project to be awarded to me to be able to withdraw any money.

If you are new at freelancing and want somewhere to start, and you are patient enough to wait for a bid to come through then you can certainly try it out. It seems that the clients wait until the time expires to award the positions. It also appears that each client is given two weeks for their work to be bid on.

The site is free to join but expensive to maintain. My suggestion is waiting until your money reaches a reasonable amount before withdrawing or you will end up paying more. The site isn't that easy to figure out so spend a few minutes each time navigating so you know where things are.

Place as many bids as possible to increase your chances of being selected. Milestones aren't very popular here with clients even though the site encourages it. Most clients do not fund their account prior to selecting you so it's a chance you have to take.

My other suggestion is not to wait on your client to rate your work. I f you want a good review from the client, then give them and excellent review first. I find it works both at Freelancer.com and Elance. Rate the client as soon as you complete your job. Most clients will be so grateful and flattered by the excellent review that they in return will give you an excellent review.

If I was to rate this site, I would rate 3 out of 5 stars.