Freelance Writing Platforms: Should You Be On Them?
For many new freelance writers starting out, the biggest question that looms across their minds is ‘where do I find clients?’
Once I realised writing was not only something I enjoyed spending my time doing but something I could also make a side-income from, it was pretty much the only question that I spent my days pondering. I had managed to find one client who paid me a small amount for a weekly blog, and I’d had some essays and other pieces accepted to publications that weren’t paid but good bylines, so my next step was finding more writing work of the paid variety.
After a quick Google, freelance sites focusing on matching individuals within the gig economy with clients kept coming up and seemed like a logical next step. I had nothing to lose and decided to give a few of them a try to see what came out of it.
The Ones that Worked For Me
PPH was the very first platform I tried out, and it was a pretty positive experience.
I signed up, not really expecting much and after creating my profile started to look through the available listings. There’s a lot of listings on these sites and the first thing that struck me was the huge variety of job descriptions. Some were poorly written, barely understandable one or two sentences, offering measly $5-10 payouts for 1000 word count articles.
But amongst the rubbish, there were some that sounded much more viable. At the time I joined, circa 2013, I was working full time as an Employment Coach so I focused my applications on the adverts that aligned with my sector. I found people offering $50-$150 for resume reviews and write-ups, LinkedIn articles, and help writing cover letters for specific jobs they wanted to apply to. For me, it was easy work and the payout matched the effort required from me.
After about six months of this, I became ranked as a ‘Gold’ freelancer and I started getting a steady stream of job offers coming my way without having to constantly shift through the pages of not-so-great ads. I no longer use PPH, but I wouldn’t knock it for anyone else looking for a place to start. I think it worked great for me because I was super focused on the types of jobs I wanted to take on and confident about what I could deliver. I got great feedback and the platform never felt stressful.
Upwork
After PPH I moved onto Upwork. I’d started expanding some of my writing topics and wanted to write more blog content, as well as challenge myself with new writing tasks. I’d read that Upwork was taking over as ‘the’ platform to use and as it was (and still is) free to register and use, I decided to give it go.
Out of all the platforms I’ve engaged with, Upwork has been the best and it’s one I still use to find new clients. Similar to PPH, there are huge discrepancies between the quality of job listings, the pay offered, and the types of clients, but there are some really great opportunities.
I’ve found some genuinely high calibre clients, who pay me the rates I request. My recent successes include an editing gig for a private training provider, who pay me per hour for a set amount of hours each work, a ghost-writing gig for a high-profile CEO’s personal blog, and writing press releases for an LA-based publisher. All of these projects have been fun, easy, and interesting for me to write for. Again, over time I’ve received ‘badges’ on my profile making me a ‘top-ranked’ freelancer, which just means I get great feedback and reply promptly to clients. Once you secure this, it makes securing gigs through the platform so much easier.
Upwork does take a cut of the fees client pay you, and there are many who take their relationship ‘off-platform’. As someone who has done this on a couple of occasions, I honestly don’t recommend it. I’m still waiting for one client to pay me for work completed four months ago. It’s annoying to see a cut taken from your pay but nowhere near as annoying as chasing a lazy client for months on end.
The Ones that Didn’t Work For Me
The following are three platforms that I tried to engage with at some point, but just weren’t worth the hassle in the long run:
iWriter
These guys had a pretty lengthy and in-depth screening process to join, but once I got accepted, I immediately deleted my account.
The pay-outs for gigs were embarrassing, with iwriter taking a hefty cut of the final fee. A lot of the jobs offered would earn me less than $5 for a 500-word article, and less than $10 for longer pieces. There was zero flexibility to negotiate a fee with clients and no empowerment to the writer to improve their potential to earn.
Contena
Contena has a very strategic marketing campaign to attract potential writers. I received an email from a ‘talent specialist’ asking me if I’d be interested in joining. I replied I would. I then received an email asking me to complete a form for more information on my writing background. Before I even filled it in, I received an email telling me I’d been accepted and to read through some documentation. I was advised to email the specialist when I’d read through it all. I didn’t read through it. She emailed me two days later thanking me for reading through everything and letting me know I’d been selected to join.
The automated process makes sense when you look at the price tag Contena charges ($90 for ‘Gold’ or $199 for ‘Platinum’ a month). I never even saw what type of jobs or potential fees were available because it just seemed too spammy, impersonal and expensive.
Content.co
I was invited to join content.co by one of their client brokers. These individuals secure big writing projects with top-end clients and then match them to professional writers. I wrote a whitepaper for a pretty big client in the employment/recruitment space and the pay was great - but I wouldn’t use the platform again because of the immense pressure placed on me by the client broker.
These people take a fee on top of the writer earnings, so she was constantly emailing, calling and messaging me for updates and check-ins. She seemed to be making promises to the client about deliverables without consulting me first and this resulted in a very unpleasant relationship overall.
A few months after I completed the first project, she reached out to me with another good piece of work, but after only three days working with her again and experiencing the same behaviour (including late-night phone calls), I withdrew from the project.
The Bottom Line
There is some merit to using freelance platforms. In terms of honing my pitch, building my confidence, establishing a portfolio and learning more about what I will and won’t put up with in the freelance world - they’ve been amazing.
You do have to be prepared to put in the work and develop a reputation in order to reap the longterm benefits, but with the platforms that worked for me, it was - and still is - worth it. As my confidence grew as a freelancer, I started to get savvier about who and where I wanted to write for and how much I wanted to be paid. Now I pitch directly to the sites and publications I’m interested in, and whether I get accepted or not, starting out with freelance writing platforms definitely helped me bounce back from rejection and keep going. I wouldn’t recommend them as your only source of revenue as a writer, but if you want something to help you begin honing your ideas, they might just be the place to start.
