Virtually every popular business, marketing, or IT publication regularly features posts about remote work and the rise of freelancers in many companies.
More and more people are working remotely, if not full-time, then at least occasionally. Companies, in turn, are increasingly hiring freelancers or temporarily outsourcing to fill skills and competencies gaps that are not available to members of a permanent employee team.
In short, if you are attracted to the prospects of working remotely, now is the time to try yourself in this business in practice. And freelance exchanges will help you with this - special sites where you can find offers for remote work.
Almost all freelance exchanges that were created 5 years ago or more were focused exclusively on all CIS countries. But in the last three years, platforms have also begun to appear that are clearly positioned as platforms for performers from Ukraine. For example, an online service for ordering services. In this article, we'll take a look at both.
Freelancehunt.com
In the last three years, the popularity of this exchange among Ukrainian freelancers has been growing, and in July 2016, the turnover of the service amounted to almost 2 million hryvnias. You can take a look at this and some other statistics, according to official information from the administration, below:
The advantage of Freelancehunt is the relative simplicity of work - from registration to sending the first applications, the freelancer will take no more than half an hour, and even then, taking into account the time spent filling out the portfolio. You can find many active projects in various categories, such as Internet marketing and SEO promotion:
Every day, thousands of projects in the field of design, programming, word processing, SEO and marketing, mobile development and many others are opened on the site.
The site has cooperation through a secure transaction - the site guarantees both sides of the project the safety of their funds. For the duration of the task, the customer's money is reserved on the service, which eliminates fraud. The contractor receives all earned funds if he has fulfilled the conditions terms of reference and completed the work within the stipulated time. If the freelancer has not fulfilled his obligations, the customer will be refunded his money.
freelance.ua
A freelance exchange focused on customers and contractors from Ukraine, which is distinguished by a minimalistic interface and convenient division of orders into one-time projects, ongoing cooperation, and even office work offers.
Sorting projects by specialization allows you to manage the output of orders depending on the niche in which the specialist is looking for work. For example, if you check the item “Promotion (SEO, SMM)” in the side menu on the left, we will get a list of projects that belong to this category:
By a similar principle, the search for performers is also implemented, with the output of their rating, average cost of work and other useful information for the customer:
Taking into account the fact that we are talking about an exchange focused on Ukraine, the number of both orders and performers is quite large here. True, such a figure is most likely due to the fact that inactive projects are also shown in the search:
In addition, the customer can specify the date until which the search for a contractor for his project will be relevant, which simplifies the assessment by the freelancer himself.
weblancer.net
One of the very first sites of its kind, which began operating back in 2003. Well suited for beginners, as there are not so many projects available here, but they are characterized by moderate requirements for performers.
Freelance jobs and bookings are broken down into a relatively small number of categories, making it easy to find even if you're visiting the site for the first time.
The catalog of performers and the portfolio of works are divided into different sections, which allows you to make a choice both on the basis of certain criteria, and simply by visual assessment, for example, if you are looking for a web designer.
The customer can create his first project even without registration, data for account You will need to specify already at the last stage of filling out the form. If something is not clear, you can watch a video that shows step by step the process of placing an order without registration.
By the way, freelancers can take advantage of such an interesting opportunity as internal advertising on the pages of Weblancer.net, which helps in “pumping” their profile.
Exchange statistics at the time of writing:
As you can see, there are more than enough vacancies. But it should be taken into account that a lot depends on the specialization - almost half of all open orders belong to the "Web programming / sites" section.
freelance.ru
A large platform with many advanced options for both employers and freelancers. For example, the catalog of performers is worked out at a really high level - in addition to the usual reviews and portfolios of completed work, there are statuses that characterize the level of a specialist, an identifier of his presence online, the ability to leave comments on individual works and other interesting features:
A freelancer can actively promote himself using a whole range of internal advertising services, there is a division by account type, which determines the amount of available opportunities:
And the “secure transaction” service, although it requires payment of a 5% commission, guarantees both the contractor and the customer a refund if one of the parties to the transaction behaves in bad faith.
In addition to standard projects, there are vacancies that provide for long-term cooperation or remote work:
The employer can create a familiar project card, and in some cases use the store finished works. This is true for such niches as web design and printing, photography, architecture, texts, etc.
In general, Freelance.ru is one of the largest and most versatile freelance exchanges in the Russian and Ukrainian markets. But a beginner will definitely have to spend some time to understand all the available options.
FL.ru
Direct competitor of the previous service from our list. If we take the scale of the CIS, these two freelance exchanges directly compete for the status of the largest player in this market. According to official information from the creators of FL.ru, the service has already registered more than a million performers who provide services in the most different areas– from law to web development.
The work feed is updated almost in real time, and the secure transaction service provides additional payment guarantees, which allows you to avoid most of the problems that are typical for freelancing.
PRO-accounts with extended functionality are available for both customers and performers. Given their relatively low cost, you can return the money spent almost from the first completed project:
The best performers and popular services can be found on the main page of the project. This is especially useful for professionals who have experience and skills in different areas, such as graphic design, layout and programming, or knowledge of the English language:
Thus, you can not spread yourself on promoting your services in several areas at once, but concentrate your efforts on the most profitable niches.
FL.ru leaves a good impression, but it is worth noting that the same statement will be true in relation to this site as to the previous exchange from our list - you will need to spend some time to figure out what's what and how everything works.
Kabanchik.ua
This is not quite a freelance exchange in its classical sense. Before us is a full-fledged marketplace for ordering services of almost any kind, most of which are related to a certain job online.
Here you can easily find a person who will take care of cleaning your apartment, as well as a translator of texts or a designer to create a website layout. The collaboration algorithm is quite simple:
- The customer leaves a task with a description of the necessary nuances.
- Contractors leave their applications, one of which is confirmed by the customer.
- The selected worker performs the task.
- The customer accepts it and puts his assessment.
The artist profile looks simple and concise:
There is a separate section for "digital" workers:
And the division by city, which simplifies the search for an artist. Need help with a move or pizza delivery from your favorite cafe? No problem:
In general, if you are ready to take on any job, just to earn more money, “Boar” will be exactly the platform that you should pay attention to in the first place.
The high popularity of the service is evidenced, first of all, by the monthly turnover of more than three million hryvnias, as it became known from an interview with its creators to the online publication Ain.ua.
No less eloquent confirmation of the excellent development prospects of Kabanchik.ua was the purchase by its owners of Prom.ua - the deal became known in February 2015.
kwork.ru
The creators of this exchange use the bright slogan “Freelance of the new generation”, and, I must say, it is quite justified. The approach on which the work of this service is based is rather unusual - it is based on the principle of a fixed cost for all services. Regardless of the subject and nature of the work, its cost for the customer is exactly 500 rubles.
On the one hand, this may seem disadvantageous, because some services are much more expensive. But Kwork is focused specifically on one-time jobs, and if you work quickly, you can earn those same 500 rubles in just half an hour. In addition, such a convenient thing as additional options is implemented here:
That is, by analogy with an online store, you can make additional sales due to customers satisfied with your services. For example, in Kwork, on the topic of writing an article, as an additional service, offer its optimization for keywords and publication.
When the customer chooses a service and replenishes the balance, the order is immediately sent to the seller, from whose side the deadline is specified in advance. Then, when the task is completed and confirmed by the seller, the contractor automatically receives payment.
Choose your clients carefully
Unlike office work, freelancing has its own specifics. Working remotely, instead of one permanent employer, you will deal with dozens of customers. Moreover, not every one of them will have a positive experience of cooperation.
The word freelance means "free spear" and in the Middle Ages meant a knight who was ready to fight for hire on any belligerent side. In the twentieth century, this word (freelancing or freelancing) began to mean regular professional performance an employee of certain jobs without enrolling in the staff of any company and without creating his own company. And in the 21st century, with the development of the Internet, freelancing received two main types:
- « distant work» using the Internet (distance jobs, remote jobs, online jobs);
- physical, offline performing irregular tasks - finding which (and for customers - finding outsourced performers) also in the vast majority of cases now takes place on the Web.
By definition, remote freelancing, from the point of view of legislation, is not related to labor law- but is work on the basis of a civil law contract (“customer” / “executor”) or on the basis of an oral agreement, which can include all kinds of electronic correspondence and registration on the site.
In this regard, on social protection statutory inherent in "regular" workers, as well as any other state protection of their labor rights freelancer cannot apply. He will be protected by law only if he concluded a full-fledged contract with the seal of the customer and the signature of his authorized representative. True, in this case, the terms of the contract may contain the possibility of attributing violations to the freelancer himself, which, according to the texts of other contracts, quite legitimately gives the customer the right not to fulfill obligations to the contractor - so you need to be careful even with a completely “decorative noble” conclusion of contracts.
From the point of view of taxation, in cases of official documentary registration of the work performed by him, it is most effective for a freelancer to remain an individual (in this case, the customer, employer pays income tax for him to the state). Or you can register for free as an FLP on a simplified system of taxation and reporting (but then the latter should be submitted to the freelancer himself).
However, on this moment, the lower the cost of work, the more likely it is that freelance work is ordered and paid for outside the legal workflow and cash flows of the customer, even when concluding contracts with signatures - they, for example, can be drawn up in the form of an agreement or receipt of two individuals (an employee of the customer company and a freelancer -performer).
In any case, lawyers strongly advise freelancers, if possible, to find out the name of the client company. And, if we are talking about a Ukrainian company, check information about them on the portal of the former State Register (in the future - the register of the Ministry of Justice) or a similar register in other countries. Suspicious in this case may be such moments: the date of registration of the company a few days or weeks before attempts to hire freelancers, the registration of a long number of companies at this address, a suspicious registration address (type of urban object) for a given profile of the customer's activity.
Types of cheating freelancers
What in recent times was called the rough jargon "scam" - was and remains, most often, attempts to deceive novice freelancers. The most active and widespread in the 1990s-2000s were cheating schemes for free workers, the markers of which were the following facts in the proposals of customers:
- The customer asks the contractor transfer money first for training or for materials necessary for work; sometimes in the form of sending an SMS message (expensive, about which there may not be warnings) - almost certainly the customer disappears after that;
- Surprisingly offered simple mechanical work like sorting letters or photos, mailing letters, typing or collecting pens. And in real life, the handles are completely made by a conveyor (it’s worth the trouble to find a video of the supposedly “manual” process offered to you). No need for mass typing has long "existed in nature." Letters and photos are sorted and sent out by secretaries or other employees with broader responsibilities. And even illegal spamming activities are already highly automated by "bots";
- An activity is proposed that does not make economic sense, but is based on some supposedly mistakes, blunders various complex systems (“magic wallets” that return more than they are supposed to, and the like);
- Offered pyramidal a scheme associated with the involvement of the largest possible number of acquaintances and friends of the performer in the activity (and often - again, economically meaningless);
- Performers are being recruited without specifying the profile, industry in the announcement the activity to be performed and/or the requirements for the performer;
- Quite a normal small remote job is offered, but in extra urgent mode, literally within a few hours- the freelancer loses his vigilance because of the haste and sends the finished result of the work without controlling to whom he does it; then usually does not receive payment for the work. How it is “treated”: in such urgent cases, calmly demand an advance payment by transfer to the card - for the customer it is more or less safe, since the bank card account serves as an identification way to find the contractor in case of something;
- Offered to earn clicks on ads on Internet portals - click bots will allegedly be generously paid by agencies that receive money for clicks from those interested in increasing this type of traffic. It is possible for a lone freelancer to make money in this way - but a measly penny, since the main web advertising systems will calculate massive clicks from one computer quite quickly. As a result, without a “live” prepayment, it may turn out that your payment for clicks, if it goes to an electronic wallet, cannot be cashed out quickly due to too small an amount.
There are a lot of such schemes - and, in principle, a domestic freelancer in the case of remote work, alas, by default should initially suspect any potential customer of dishonesty, be tense and ready for losses. And only after carefully making sure that the scheme of work and its payment is transparent, you can agree to the task.
The performers of offline works who are in personal contact with the customer, of course, are somewhat calmer - but it is also necessary to actively look for dirty tricks or demand an advance payment.
Where to look for freelance work
As in search permanent job, Freelancers can find jobs in two ways:
- search for customer ads;
- the offer by performers of information about their qualifications (CV, portfolio) - which is sought by customers.
Naturally, the first method usually gives a faster effect - but it would be strategically wrong to omit the second method. Before we talk about specialized sites for freelancers, we note that to inform potential customers about themselves, performers should not hesitate to actively use:
- social media(especially designed specifically for business contacts LinkedIn network) - both your personal accounts and groups in which you are registered or which you yourself created. If you don’t want to mix personal with work, just create a separate group (community) in all social networks about yourself as a performer of certain tasks, fill it with portfolio content, invite potential customers to it;
- blog platforms and forum accounts - if your activity has a visual or textual component, feel free to publish posts on personal blogs with the visible fruits of your labors (you can put a single meta tag on them so that a potential customer can easily “weed out” your portfolio from other blog posts). Note that in addition to the well-known livejournal.com, there are “professional” blogs on portals for freelancers and on sites for specialists in your profession - for the purpose of self-promotion, they should not be neglected either;
- platforms free ads (olx.ua and any others), sites of newspapers of free ads that have survived to this day (aviso.ua and the like) - all of them contain sections about work, including one-time.
- a resume with offers of one-time jobs (especially remote IT jobs) is also appropriate to place on “standard” employee/employer search portals(rabota.ua and many others);
- Personal site- if you have one.
In addition, having embarked on the path of freelancing, do not be too lazy to create, store and replenish email list all your "good" customers, in no case do not lose their contacts after payment for the work. After all, from time to time it is appropriate to make a mailing list with an offer of your services to the largest possible number of potential consumers.
The most effective way to find customers is to use freelance portals, through which the majority of freelance performers and customers who want to get a one-time outsourcing task to find each other find each other. More often than not, today's portals have both free economy features and paid premium features to promote yourself as a task executor. For Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in this capacity, it is worth noting, first of all, powerful, well-structured multidisciplinary portals:
- fl.ru (former free-lance.ru);
- freelancehunt.com (mainly IT, design, articles);
- freelancerbay.com (mainly IT, design, marketing);
- globalfreelance.ua (academic problems in exact and humanitarian disciplines).
Finally, we note that in addition to these "omnivorous" portals, there are specialized freelance exchanges for designers, photographers, programmers, copywriters and other workers - as well as web aggregators that collect freelance ads from several exchanges at once. One of the most complete current catalogs of such portals was created and updated on his website kadrof.ru by Sergey Antropov, the author of the book “I am a freelancer”, which is very useful in this context. And you can see dozens of links to online freelance exchanges collected by this tireless promoter.
9 myths about freelancing
Myth 1. Freelancing = free time all the time
Reality. Of course, it is technically easier for a freelancer to brush aside work, spend his weekdays on computer games or drinking, than for a novice hired worker. But only here, if you don't work, you don't make money. The main thing is not to forget that the concept of “working” for a freelancer includes spending half of the time and effort on finding a job, on compiling a portfolio and other forms of self-promotion and self-PR, on negotiations, correspondence and meetings with customers, on regular test unpaid or low-paid tasks.
That is why most freelancers who have become wealthy along the way, at first for many years, worked much more than 40 hours a week - that is, significantly more than the norm for employees hired by companies.
Freelancing for a beginner who wants to feed himself entirely with one freelancing is a more time-consuming way than traditional hired labor in a company.
Myth 2. Freelancing = no more bosses, no more hierarchical stress
Reality. Do you know who you, as a freelancer, will account for all those customers who will give you money for your work? All these people are your new bosses, nothing else.
Instead of one or two bosses, a freelancer gets dozens of them; and all of these are immediate supervisors, and all of them have every nuance of your work in their field of vision directly. All these temporary bosses will communicate with you in different ways - so don't "get used to it", don't "get used to it", don't learn the flaws and oddities. All of them can approach, say, an “ok” button in a distant nested service on a site that you didn’t even think about designing in different ways. All of them will one day send 14 e-mails to your dumping offer at the same time - with a note in each that they are waiting for a response only until the evening.
A business owner can be his own boss. But a freelancer who has no other income remains an employee. Moreover, not ordinary, but similar to a puppet, to which a thousand threads are tied in advance (customers for the entire subsequent history of freelance careers). They just pull these threads not at the same time, but for each one in turn. And a freelancer is such a puppet, which is terribly bad if it is not pulled, while in companies it is often the other way around.
However, many freelancers are “pulled” by customers just at the same time. And how sorry it will be for you to miss the order and lose the trust of the client, if you are physically unable to complete several orders at the same time, and you still have not matured to hire subordinates, open and expand a normal business.
Myth 3. Freelancing = no more red tape and corporate bureaucracy
Reality. For a few dollars, you might be able to work without a contract. But if we are talking about orders that really feed a person, the entire administrativia will lie with the freelancer: reading, and even drafting contracts, registration, taxes, accompanying documents.
Plus, again, your self-promotion, building your personal brand, as we have already hinted, will regularly require a lot of documentary and partly bureaucratic work: compose different types portfolio and resume, find where to send them, send them out, enter into correspondence.
And all this is not once every five years when changing jobs - but monthly, weekly, regularly and inevitably. Wouldn't it be nice to hire someone to handle all those self-marketing files, websites, and emails for you? If you already feel like it, admit that you have stopped dreaming of being a freelancer, but nevertheless you have matured to the desire to establish a small stationary business with your own staff, at least with one secretary.
Myth 4. Freelancing is the best way out for a non-contact, uncommunicative person who wants to be a “lone wolf” in life
Reality. Clients want to communicate with freelancers. And freelancers have more of this communication than many employees hired by companies.
There is no life in which a freelancer sits in a fortress of loneliness and silently swallows the streams of work flowing to him all the time. Such a life, we repeat, in some positions is just in big companies, but not among freelancers.
Myth 5. A freelancer can work from home even in underwear: I will save on business clothes
Reality. The only reason the home-working loner in movies, books, and comics often finds himself in his underwear is because he's often so busy with work that he doesn't have time to get dressed and do the dishes in the morning, or even himself.
But seriously, the very first meeting with the customer makes the freelancer approach his own dress code more strictly than if it were an employee’s regular working day. big company. And such meetings will be frequent.
In addition, for many people, an important component of the dream of becoming a freelancer (this time we will mention a really positive, not mythical factor) is the possibility of remote work using the Internet with temporary residence in other countries with beautiful nature and architecture. But does it really make sense to travel far and rent housing in such a place in order to sit in it or walk in an unpretentious form? On the contrary, most likely beautiful place you will dress especially beautifully every morning - so that you can sit down with special pleasure to work with a laptop on the terrace above the sea, mountains or in the park of a medieval town. Will there be savings on business style clothes? Is not a fact.
Myth 6. Freelancing is ideal for people who quickly get bored with any job.
Reality. If it’s difficult for you to keep the desire to work in companies, you don’t have the strength to cope with the feelings of “tired, oh, this melancholy again” - then it will be even more difficult for you to cope with exactly the same feelings in freelancing. And these feelings will appear there too: they comprehend all people.
For people who are very prone to longing, external discipline - in the form of superiors or, conversely, in the form of responsibility for own business and its staff - serve as an "angel behind your shoulder", whose gaze you feel and cannot completely relax.
If there is no look over the shoulder, then in a freelance life with weak willpower there is a much greater chance of degrading than in a foreign company or in own business.
Myth 7. Favorite business + freelancing = not a job, but a pleasure that brings money
Reality. About representatives of many professions, children think the same way - about football players or actresses, for example - that instead of work, they "receive sheer pleasure, and even a lot of money." Adults, on the other hand, know what exhausting long-term training, far from playing pleasure, takes all the childhood and youth of a professional football player or acrobat.
It's the same with any other job. Few things bring pleasure, repeating themselves for the thousandth time. Few favorite things, put on a daily basis, come easily, without "sweat". Freelancing, not freelancing - does not play a role - the pleasure from work will be regularly replaced by the opposite attitude towards it. There is no other life.
Myth 8. All you need to make money is a website.
Reality. There are too many new freelancers who think their site is going to be a money-printing machine - like "this blog" or "this service". Like, collect reprints on the site, copy the service interfaces - and keep your pocket wider!
In fact, you can only monetize the site that people find, consider unique and interesting. And in order for it not to become outdated, a freelancer needs to work on content and a lot of software and design aspects, and at the same time comprehend all the technical innovations and gadgets - daily, stubbornly, selflessly. And for a loner who wants to feed on just one site, there will be a huge, non-falling shaft of work.
Myth 9. Freelancer takes all the income from the order
Reality. Freelancers buy from their earnings (and for their time, which, according to the proverb, is also calculable in money) absolutely everything for their workplace. And absolutely everything for your social background. And in many companies, employees are spared this.
For example, freelance programmers are forced to buy and comprehend a lot of new technology and software in order not to miss the adaptation of the code they create to the realities of the Web and applications. And these new items, as you all know, appear about a month. So without a plan for purchasing updates, you can quickly become “obsolete” and lose even past loyal customers.
That is, a freelancer needs to pre-paint a more or less accurate plan for such expenses. And where is the business plan written, isn’t it time to think about your own business instead of hiring a freelancer?
Summary
Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that working for yourself is worse than working for someone else. The decision to work for yourself can be the most correct and amazing choice of your life - on a par with the choice of faith and spouse.
Just remember that not only freelancers work for themselves, but also business owners: founders of projects with a calculated plan, mission and, of course, with a small creative team. Calculate: maybe such a choice in your case will be personally more attractive and even more pleasant than freelancing.
Experienced professionals and employers often find customers or contractors based on recommendations. Whereas freelance for beginners is most easily implemented through online exchanges.
The largest exchanges for remote work
The leading freelancing sites on the Internet mostly cover the categories of tasks for software development, creation and promotion of web resources, and generation of user-generated content. Among them:
- pchel.net- best free freelance site with a simple user-friendly interface. Freelancers and employers can use all the features of the freelance exchange without having to purchase additional services. Bee.net contains an impressive database of freelancers - the exchange was created in 2007 under the name Freelancerbay. In 2018, the site was completely redesigned. New sections have been added: job search in the office and ratings of IT companies. Developers continue to develop the freelance exchange and regularly add new functionality to Pchel.net.
- weblancer.net is the largest freelance site in Russia of international level. The service has been operating since 2003 and offers a search for orders and specialists in 13 categories. For performers, it provides an opportunity to receive orders free of charge within two months from the date of registration. Next you need to purchase tariff plan(service package), the cost of which depends on the selected category. Three formats of cooperation are available: projects (one-time task), vacancies (permanent cooperation), competitions (the opportunity to present your work on a competitive basis). All settlements on the exchange are carried out through the Webmoney payment system.
- Freelance.Ru– the exchange was created on the basis of Intelligent Internet Technologies LLC. Provides cooperation in 23 categories in three formats - projects, freelance jobs and competitions. Free use for freelancers is possible with a limit of up to 3 applications per day. For full-fledged work, it offers three types of tariff plan. For the customer, the services are completely free. Collaborates with various payment systems.
- FL.ru- was founded by V. Voropaev and A. Mazhirin in 2005. It covers 20 areas of work for performers from 211 countries. Provides three formats of cooperation: services (offered by performers), competitions and vacancies.
Freelance projects of narrow specialization
Competing with projects that have already occupied a significant market share, many services found it necessary to narrow or, on the contrary, expand the list of areas of activity. This allowed the emergence of highly specialized services for copywriters (Advego, Etxt.ru, Textsale), photographers (Wedlife.ru, Photovideozayavka.rf), lawyers (Pravoved.ru, 9111.ru). The most attractive web services for beginners today are:
- PROFI.RU- was established in 2006 and covered more than 500 types of services, most of which are provided in person (instructors, cosmetologists, doctors, builders, artists).
- Freelance is a relatively young freelance exchange created in 2012. The site offers 10 categories for cooperation, but the main share of tasks is focused on IT specialists (web developers, programmers). For all users, project services are provided on a prepaid subscription basis. Internal settlements are made in their own currency - loans (equivalent to the ruble).
- 1Clancer.ru- a resource for remote search for programmers and 1C specialists. Offers to find partners for the implementation of one-time projects and ongoing cooperation.
- devhuman.com- a web resource that allows you to assemble a team to implement a startup. Represents six main categories of tasks for creating and promoting websites.
Freelance sites in Ukraine
Initially, the main flow of freelancers and customers from Ukraine worked exclusively on Russian exchanges. However, in recent years, the trend has been reversed. This is due to the emergence and development of convenient sites with suitable conditions cooperation for representatives of both countries. Among the best Ukrainian stock exchanges:
- Freelancehunt.com is the leading freelance site in Ukraine. Was founded in 2005. Offers cooperation in 11 areas and two main formats: projects and competitions. Using the service is absolutely free. Allows you to unite in teams, set the cost in hryvnias or rubles.
- freelance.ua The site started its work in 2009. Offers 21 categories of orders with prices set in hryvnias, dollars and euros. To get unlimited access to submitting applications, the performer needs to pay for a professional account.
- Kabanchik.ua– a service for ordering services in various areas (courier delivery, solving household problems and performing repairs, caring for animals, tutoring). The project began its work in 2012 and today covers the entire territory of Ukraine, as well as many cities in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
- Free-lance.ua is a service for searching remote vacancies and employees via the Internet. Offers 27 categories of services in the format of projects, competitions and permanent vacancies.
When working on freelance exchanges, remember that this is an opportunity to try your hand both as a task executor and as a customer for your startup or company. You can form teams, communicate with colleagues and learn from experience, going to perfect new level realization of one's own potential.
Most of the popular and well-known publications, the topics of which are business development, marketing or IT technologies, you can find offers from employers to become an employee of an out-of-state company. And the number of such remote employees is growing.
More and more people are choosing to work remotely every day. They may not do this work all the time, but do it from time to time. Companies more and more often consider options for attracting freelancers to perform certain work, or they invite employees who are not part of the company’s staff in cases where the competence of the staff is not always enough or the volume of work performed is very large.
In short, if you are one of those who do not mind trying their hand at such work, then it is worth starting to act. Since now is exactly the time when there are huge opportunities for the implementation of such an undertaking, and the demand for such specialists is very high. The Internet offers special sites - freelance exchanges, where anyone can find suitable job offers for him at a distance.
Freelance exchanges, which are more than five years old, were created with a focus on the countries of the post-Soviet space. But sites with a younger age (about three years) are already working preferentially for the Ukrainian market. Today we will talk about both of them.
This exchange is becoming more and more popular among freelancers living in Ukraine. Already in the middle of summer 2016, the turnover of this exchange approached the amount of two million hryvnias. The service officially provides for the use of those who wish to use all kinds of information, which you can find below:
Using the site is quite simple and this is one of its advantages. It will take a freelancer no more than thirty minutes to register on the service, fill out a portfolio and send the first applications. The exchange has a large number of different proposals for cooperation, for example, in the category of SEO promotion or Internet marketing:
Every day, new projects appear on the exchange in various fields: web design, marketing, SEO, programming, rewriting and copywriting, mobile development, and a number of others.
The service ensures the security of the transaction for both parties. The customer's funds will be reserved on the service for the duration of the project to avoid fraud. If the performer delivers the work on time and fulfills all the TOR correctly, then he receives the reserved funds. Otherwise, the customer will receive their money back.
This service focuses on the residents of Ukraine. The design of the site is made in a minimalist style, nothing superfluous, but at the same time everything is convenient and understandable. All job offers on the service are divided into categories - one-time orders, long-term cooperation and even job offers in the company's office.
There is also a sorting of projects by specializations. This makes it possible for a specialist who is looking for a job to see only the vacancies he needs. If in the menu located on the left side of the screen, put a tick in the desired item, the service will display all the projects available at the time of the request on the site that belong to this category.
The search for performers was created in a similar way. You can immediately view their rating, average cost payment for which the freelancer is ready to consider your offers, and other information that will be useful to the employer:
Taking into account that this exchange is almost completely focused on Ukraine, the number of registered users on the service is considerable. But it is worth noting that such a large number of projects is partly due to the fact that already completed projects are also displayed in the search:
Another convenient point is that the customer has the opportunity to indicate the end date of the relevance of his offer. For performers, this greatly simplifies the search for orders.
This service began its work in 2003. It is a fairly good option for those who are just trying their hand at remote work, since there are not as many offers here as on other sites, but the requirements for performers are not as strict.
It simplifies the search for vacancies that all available offers from customers are divided into categories, the number of which is small.
The portfolio of works and the list of performers are divided into different sections. This makes it possible to evaluate performers both according to specific requirements, and simply by evaluating visually, for example, if you need a web design specialist.
The service allows customers to create their first projects without registering on the site. All the necessary information to create an account will need to be specified only at the last stage of filling out the registration form. If you still have questions, the service will help here too, offering you to watch a video that details and shows how to place an order without registering.
By the way, this service offers freelancers one more interesting opportunity: "pump" your profile with the help of internal advertising on the pages of the site.
There is also a statistical summary at the moment:
You can see for yourself: there are plenty of vacancies. But it should be borne in mind that a lot also depends on specialization. To date, almost fifty percent of all available orders are placed in the "Web programming / sites" section.
A very large service that has many relevant and necessary options that will be useful to both customers and contractors. An example is the catalog of freelancers, which, in addition to a portfolio of completed projects and reviews, also has statuses that are an excellent indicator of the professionalism of a single specialist. Here you can also write comments on individual proposals or projects, there is a function of an indicator of the presence of a specialist on the site at a given time, and a number of original "chips".
The site has a service that guarantees the security of the transaction. This service costs five percent of the transaction amount, but is a guarantee that if one of the parties is dishonest, the other will either receive payment (executor) or receive their money back (customer).
The customer has the opportunity to create a regular project card, and if desired, he can resort to the offers of the store of ready-made works. This option is relevant for certain niches, for example, printing, architecture, web design, photography, writing texts, etc.
Freelance.ru is one of those freelance exchanges that have a large number of necessary features. A beginner will not be able to master all the functionality of the service the first time, but having figured it out, he will be able to have many opportunities. The exchange is designed for the Ukrainian and Russian markets.
5. FL
Another very large freelance exchange. If we talk about similar services covering the territory of the post-Soviet space, then this service, like Freelance.ru, is fighting among themselves for superiority. FL.ru cites its statistics, which indicate a very impressive number of users registered on the service - there are more than a million performers alone. They are ready to provide services in completely different areas, from legal issues to the creation of websites.
Offers for vacancies and projects appear on the exchange almost in real time. This service, like all the previous ones, provides the opportunity to make transactions safely for both parties, which is very important when working in this format.
Both parties (both employers and freelancers) have the option to pay for PRO accounts, which provide great functionality. Their price is not too high, and it becomes possible to return the funds spent after the first completed order:
On the main page of the exchange, you can get acquainted with the best performers and view the most requested services. This placement of information is most relevant for freelancers who have specialization, knowledge, skills and experience in various fields of activity, for example, knowledge of several foreign languages, programming, layout, web-design:
This makes it possible not to chase several hares at the same time in the hope that you will be more lucky in catching them than others, but still decide on the most favorable direction for yourself and move in it.
The impression of the site FL.ru remains pleasant. But in this case, as in the previous one, it is worth noting that a beginner will still have to spend some time to deal with all the nuances of this exchange.
This site is not only a freelance exchange in its usual sense. He is universal platform, where you can place or find almost any service, from cleaning your apartment to creating websites. Collaborating with this site is easy and simple:
- the customer places a task on the website, where he describes in detail all his wishes and nuances;
- everyone who wants to complete this task can leave their applications;
- the customer confirms one application, after which the lucky person can begin to complete the task;
- upon completion of the work, the customer must accept it and rate it.
The artist profile contains all necessary information, but not overloaded with unnecessary elements:
The site also has a separate section for those who are looking for or offering work in the virtual space:
Kabanchik.ua also has a geographic division, so it becomes easier to find a performer in your city. Are you moving and need help? Or just need pizza delivery? No problem - everything is quick and easy:
In general, we can say about the site that it will be ideal for those who are not afraid of work and want to earn money. It is worth paying attention to both employers and performers in the first place.
The fact that the service is very popular can be judged by some statistics: the monthly turnover of this marketplace is more than three million hryvnias. This information was shared by the creators of the site with one online publication.
Another very eloquent confirmation of the success of "Kabanchik.ua" was the purchase by its owners of another well-known trading platform– Prom.ua This deal was announced at the end of winter 2015.
The motto of this exchange is “Freelance of the new generation”. The creators of this service have taken a very creative approach to the basic principle of their site: they have set one fixed price for all services offered on the site. The subject and nature of the work does not matter - the customer will still pay only five hundred rubles for it.
To some, this will not seem like such a profitable option, since certain services can cost much more. But this service is designed, in fact, for a one-time provision of services, therefore, if you do not pull the cat by the tail, then you can earn the indicated amount very quickly (literally in thirty minutes). It is worth noting that the service also has additional options:
This service is somewhat similar to an online store, where you can make sales at the expense of those customers who were satisfied with the services you provided them. In practice, it may look, for example, like this: you write an article (basic service for 500 rubles), and then offer to optimize it taking into account the keywords and publish it on the desired resource ( Additional services for a fee).
The scheme of work is simple: the customer selects a service and makes a deposit, after which the order is transferred to the seller, who indicates the date of delivery of the work. After completing the work and confirming this by the seller, the contractor receives his hard-earned money.
Choose Your Clients Carefully
Freelancing has its own specifics, and it should be taken into account. Working out of the office, a freelancer will always deal with different people and a large number of customers instead of a single employer. It happens that cooperation does not add up, and it is not always possible to call it positive.
You should not grab any job offer, even if you have very problematic finances. Learn to filter orders, give yourself the opportunity to think before deciding on cooperation, even if freelancing is just an addition to your main occupation. It is with this approach that you will be able to get less negative experience, avoid possible problems, but also get more positive feedback about your work from customers. And this, in turn, will help you earn a positive reputation and increase your rating.
A personal brand in this format of work is one of the most important conditions. Speak and talk about your skills, knowledge, skills and experience. Do you want to generate leads? Then go public. Don't consider your lack of experience a huge problem, as it's only a matter of time.