So I signed up for freelancer.com for an upgraded account and I am kinda wishing I hadn't upgraded now.. For one each bid I place responds with a request for a custom free sample. One sample I did submit but I have gotten about 3 more request for samples.. I'm worried these people will just steal these samples and not even hire me.. How do you feel about giving free samples? Any one have something positive to say about freelancer.com because I am seeing as a complete waste of time so far? This morning there was a posting from an employer looking for 50 cent 500 word articles.. I mean come on? Can anyone recommend a good site that can give good freelancer jobs? I'm thinking I should have gone with Odesk instead. Any help and advice would be wonderful.. Thanks so much.. Have a great day!
http://www.wahm.com/forum/wahms-who-write-46/ That board may be more up your alley. Many of them there submit to such sites on a regular basis that pays between $10-20.
I have heard about freelancer.com and have seen my colleagues get projects from clients who needed websites made from this portal. I do not know about their content writing services though. Hope this was useful.
If people ask me for samples, I post them on a parked site or blog before I send them to the requester. Set up a blog on free hosting - if you need a suggestion, send me a PM. Do a blog post to say these are samples of your work, anyone wants more, contact this email (use a liquid ID). Put your samples on the blog, running Adsense. That way, you have a chance to get something back.
I like the idea of posting these custom samples onto my website. It would prevent people from stealing them and claiming them as their own. Thanks for that!
I worked on Freelancer.com when I began freelance writing on the internet. It is a better place for hiring people than to look for work. Most of the project prices are way too low and it seems impossible to compete with people who are willing to work for $1 per article. Even while hiring, you are approached by people who know nothing about writing. Not the best place to be. Basically, a poor man's place. ODesk is way better. As for free samples, there are several such leechers out there and it is a common practice amongst Freelancer.com clients. My advice: consider providing a free sample only if the project is lucrative enough .. otherwise it will just leave you disillusioned most of the time. Personally, I think pre-written articles, blogs and eza articles are as good an indicator of the writing talent and in most of the cases it serves the purpose.
Build a site and a body of work. Tell anyone asking for a sample that those are your samples. Refer them to your site and any others hosting your content. Free samples are always a losing game - for the writer.
Just a friendly reminder to all of us, before we start working on a project, we have all the time in the world to ask questions and get accurate answers that will help us better understand our capabilities in reaching project completion in due time. For every issue that may arise, we can always communicate with our employer to compromise and look for better ways to finish the project on time. I simply believe that if we always have a clear communication with our employers, then we'll be able to give them excellent service, so they will be more than happy to pay us at the right moment. I've had my ups & downs with all freelancing sites available online, so far only one can keep up to my high standards and security of my funds, sorry for the rest but it's GAF!
I use a couple of articles as samples again and again, if people keep stealing them then none will have unique content.