The Best Freelancing Websites on the ‘Net Today

June 14, 8:23 PMChicago Work-at-Home Parents ExaminerKristi Carter

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Just about everyone is talking about our current Global Recession and how it is affecting jobs left and right. Although this very well may be the case, the outlook for freelancers looks very good folks. In fact, as more companies lay off full time workers, even more will hire freelancers. And, the best way to get these projects is to seek them out with freelancing websites. You see, freelance sites act as a middleman and they are a cost-effective and convenient way to link qualified professionals with clients looking for help. In this article, we’ll discuss the best freelancing websites on the ‘net today and how to get your share of the freelancing pie. Are you ready? Let’s begin.

Elance www.elance.com: Elance is my absolute favorite website. This website offers job opportunities for web designers, writers, administrative support, sales, legal professionals and more. To get started, freelancers must register for an account. This will allow the freelancer to market his or her field of expertise. To try it out, you get 3 bids a month for free. However, other paid memberships range from $19.95 for 40 bids/connects to $39.95 for 60 bids/connects. In addition, you can buy additional bids in increments of $10.00. In addition to the membership fees, Elance charges providers a service fee depending on your earnings. This service fee ranges between 4% to 6% of the total job value, plus payment processing fees of 2.75%.

Although you can search for free, you will only be able to bid on 3 projects a month for the free account and have to upgrade to a bigger account to bid on more projects. Once you are hired, you’ll be required to submit status reports, the finished product, and collect your payment.

oDesk www.odesk.com: My second favorite site is oDesk. This is an online freelancing site that gives both buyers and providers opportunity to hire or get hired. After you sign up for an account, freelancers need to pass first the oDesk Readiness exam before they can bid on projects. To increase the amount of jobs they can bid on, they must take and pass free exams depending on their expertise. These tests serve to build credibility and increase your chances of getting hired. Like Elance, you have categories for software and web development, writing, marketing, administrative and support, etc.

One really cool feature of oDesk is that jobs that are paid per hour are guaranteed because progress is monitored using the oDesk Team software. This ensures that you get paid for completing projects in a timely manner and helps appease clients because they can carefully monitor your work. The service fee is paid by the buyer and is always a flat 10% of the total payment due to the worker.

Guru www.guru.com: Another site worth mentioning is Guru. Like other freelancing website, this site offers a myriad of opportunities for freelancers. To get started, you simply need to register for an account and fill out necessary information for your profile. Once you are done with the account, you can then search and bid for projects, complete the project and get paid.

One cool feature of Guru is that their employers and freelancers can use their Dispute Resolution and escrow services to ensure that both clients and workers are protected. Freelancers pay Guru.com a 5% or 10% project fee. This fee is based on a project's payment value and is deducted from the Freelancer's payment for the project.

Get a Freelancer www.getafreelancer.com: Another great site is get a Freelancer also known as GAF. Like its competitors, it boasts numerous categories for projects. GAF’s main goal is to help both sellers and buyers achieve their own goals. Freelancers just have to sign up for an account, browse for a project, and get paid.

You can also upgrade your free account to Gold member option. The advantage of this is that there will be no commissions to pay for projects won, higher ranking and you can get exclusive projects to bid on. For projects GAF deducts $5 or 10%,whatever is higher.

Rentacoder www.rentacoder.com: This website caters specifically to computer programming experts. However, you can occasional find marketing and writing jobs there too. At this site, a buyer who would like to have a custom software application or writing project can post in this site and it will be viewed by thousands of programmers, writers and virtual assistances. The buyer reviews them all and then selects their preferred one. The cool thing about this site is that freelancers can browse and apply for different projects posted.

As you can tell, the list for freelancing websites goes on and on and there are many great opportunities for freelancers. Simply take a look at the above sites or find other ones and get to bidding. In no time at all, you will have your first, tenth, hundredth project completed.