Your Experience on Freelancing Business ?

Hello Guys,
I want you to share your personal experience on Freelancing Websites and tell your story and achievements! and also good tips that might help other people! Few of the Freelancing companies i know are

1. Odesk
2. Elance
3. Freelancer
4. Fiverr

Cheers Everyone ++

 

Never used freelance websites mentioned above. I get my clients locally through SEO, word of mouth, and referrals.

I sell internet marketing services, mostly web design and SEO. I always upsell, whether it'd be my hosting reseller or maintenance. This way, you'll get recurring income.

This hardest part of the business is the constant struggle of getting new clients. When there is downtime, I work on affiliate marketing. Nevertheless I'm pretty happy with my business.

I start 5 years ago and over the last 3 years my income (5 figures) has been steady trending upwards. Don't give up on your business, be patient and persistent.

Cheers!

 

I have made money on ODesk and I am a top rated seller on Fiverr. However, they are just my side gigs; my main income comes from private clients. I am not going to knock any of the freelancing sites, as I am active on two of the ones you mentioned. However, I prefer to be in control of my money and not having to worry about a website having a glitch or a delay. Sites are good for rainy days but the main goal should be to secure private clients.

 

There are more freelance websites than those mentioned. Also, webmaster forums are a good place to get paid gigs.

 

I've been a content writer for a long time. I've used all the sites you mentioned with varying degrees of success. I recently started outsourcing some of my writing and it has been a frustrating, rocky ride. Yes, I've managed to find some great people to write for me. But for every great person I find, I encounter five who are questionable. So, I have both perspectives. I've been a writer on those sites, and I've also hired writers. Which perspective do you need an opinion on? They both have their ups and downs!

 

N

Nice to here you are top rated seller, whats your link on fiverr!

 

C

an you mention the forums which one please

 

Freelance sucks! You spend an incredible amount of time making a nominal income to launch the business, products, web sites, content that someone else intends to profit from. You could use your time to work on something that will make you a lot more money and be all yours.

Freelance in my opinion is only ideal to 1. fill boredom and 2. supplement your existing income.

The biggest misconception is thinking you are working for yourself. Every assignment you take on has a new boss who is often inexperienced and has unrealistic demands and deadlines.

Personally I'd rather work a 9 to 5 in corporate america with health benefits than to chase the unpredicted dollar in freelance.

 

I tried to be a freelancer but not so much I earned. There are too many people doing it. But couple of times I bought links from freelancers and that's the great way. Because that's only one way to have links what exactly I wanted. I can pay only when some freelancer will make link building what I wanted to do but I have no time for this.
If you try to buy links on ebay or similar places, then you can't find there that what exactly you need.
But you can compose a structure of links, how many, what anchors, how many anchors, what kind of sites etc and freelancer will do exactly that what you want

 

Elance is the best! Though, I'm not using any of these sites any more, I still have an account on Elance where I have perfect 5.0 rating with over 100 delivered orders.

Why Elance is better than any other freelance website?

You get more money for the same work! Simple as that. That's the key in freelance world. If you know how much your time is worth, why spending it on Odesk where you will be paid significantly less than on Elance? It simply doesn't make sense.
Though, I need to admit that competition on Elance is bigger than on Odesk. There are freelancers who are masters in what they do and beating with them to get a job is pretty tough. But it's worth it!