Launching out into the unknown and starting a side hustle for the first time is often an overwhelming and nerve-wracking experience. What if no one likes and pays for what you have to offer? What if you can’t supplement your salary (or eventually scale it to replace it altogether) after all? Because of course, a side hustle is not a side hustle without paying customers.
And if you can’t find any gig work, pretty soon you’ll find yourself with no business at all.
Factors To Consider When Selecting A Freelance Website
Thankfully, there is an array of online platforms that allow you to promote your services and make them accessible to a wider audience at local and global levels, making it easier for you to secure client work, contracts, and gigs.
But which one should you choose? Consider this checklist when evaluating a freelance website:
1. Features
Before selecting a freelance platform, carefully evaluate the pros and cons of each. Some have integrations that make it easier to automate your service offerings, such as communication with customers, scheduling meetings in your calendar, or processing client payments. Others do not provide this but simply serve as an interaction platform to acquire clients and to display reviews and testimonials of happy customers.
2. Fees
It’s also important to note that not all freelancing platforms are free; some charge for you to view the contact details of potential leads, while others may charge you a fee, taken as a percentage of your earnings. For instance, Upwork takes 10% of your freelancer earnings. But at the very least, these websites can be your launchpad so you can acquire initial visibility and obtain your first reviews for your services, and expand elsewhere (such as on your own website attracting clients from Google search).
3. Liability
The next factor you need to consider is that since you are a freelancer, you are not covered by the client, whether corporate or not, for any costs such as healthcare or insurance. In addition to taking this into consideration, you will need to monitor and record your income and business expenses, and file your business taxes.
4. Industry
Finally, some freelancing websites are better suited to some industries than others. For example, one platform may tend to favor consulting gigs, while another may work better for technical side hustles such as app and web development. A good example would be ServiceScape, which is more focused on freelance writing and editorial jobs.
Freelance Websites And Platforms
Check out this list of freelancing websites and see which ones work for your side hustle idea:
1. SimplyHired
SimplyHired is a job board that posts thousands of jobs including remote roles and freelance projects, with filters for the date posted, and minimum pay, to name a few. By simply typing “freelance” in the search box, it will generate a long list of freelance roles in your area, or remote, as the case may be.
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