If you’re reading this, you’ve probably decided to start freelancing to gain some extra cash, to become a better writer, or to develop your portfolio.
You’ve probably also done some initial research, like how much to charge, or which websites to try, but you still need some guidance on how to get started.
Freelancing can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. In this post, we’ll cover a few websites that will either help with your writing workflow and finding more business.
Websites to Help You Find Freelance Work
The following websites act as job bulletin boards, where clients can post listings for a particular service or brand, such as copywriting for a marketing company, or proofreading for a law firm.
1. Upwork
Upwork is one of the most popular freelance marketplaces on the internet. Formerly known as Elance-oDesk, Upwork has amassed twelve million freelancers and five million clients.
The website allows freelancers to filter by service or industry, to be paid hourly or by project, and to work short-term to long-term contracts.
The website also has some useful tools to track invoices, an in-app messenger to contact clients, and a time tracker to log your hours. This is probably the number one website to check for work as a freelancer due to its popularity and variety.
2. Textbroker
Besides Upwork, try looking for writing opportunities on Textbroker.
Textbroker recruits a diverse range of clients, from Yoast to eBay, and screens writers based on their quality. This means the gigs are usually higher-quality, and since clients pay a percentage to Textbroker first, writers get paid immediately.
Keep in mind, Textbroker asks for a short piece of writing prior to joining, and bases your writing quality on your submission.
Textbroker is only for freelancers based in the United States.
3. Freelancer
Freelancer offers a wide range of jobs for web and app developers, graphic designers, internet marketers, and writers.
Choose between a set price or an hourly rate, filter by skill and cost requirements, small jobs or large jobs. Freelancer allows you flexibility in finding the right job.
Like Upwork, Freelancer offers a variety of project management, communication, and payment tools to streamline the client-freelancer interactions.
4. Contently
Contently is another website to find some high quality freelance clients, such as Google, GE, Marriott, and TD Ameritrade.
Contently has over 100,000 freelancers that work in journalism, graphic design, videography, and photography.
One of Contently’s biggest features is Docalytics™, which can give you some digital analytics into how your content performs, which content generates actions, and which elements on-page engage audiences.
5. PeoplePerHour
Finally, PeoplePerHour is a freelance marketplace based on hourly rates. You can browse through Hourlies, or jobs organized by hour and by rate.
PeoplePerHour also let you filter by country, and by the number of days you can complete the job. The tasks can range from logo design to accounting consulting to software coding.
PeoplePerHour is a great option if you’re looking to be paid based on the amount of time you put into the work you’re asked to do, such as programming or long documentation writing.
Websites to Help You Organize Your Freelance Work
Now that we’ve covered websites to help you find work, the following websites will help you stay organized. These are a few tools you can use to keep track of your work, stay on task, or complete projects more efficiently.
6. Bonsai
As a freelancer it can be difficult to keep track of multiple clients, invoices, and contracts. That’s where Bonsai comes in.
Bonsai acts as your centralized dashboard for freelancers, offering free invoicing, auto reminders, online payments, and detailed reporting all in one place.
You can also create contracts to send to your client to help protect your work, or track time for each task if you’re paid hourly.
7. Google Docs
For blogs, press releases, or other written projects, Google Docs is the way to go.
Not only does Google Docs have a clean and sleek interface and the same functionality you’d expect from Microsoft Word or Apple Pages, but everything is hosted in Google’s cloud. That means you can access documents whether you’re on your phone, on your laptop, or at a friend’s desktop.
You also don’t have to worry about hitting “Save” anymore, since it does that automatically.
Google Docs also has a really useful feature for team-written documents: real-time collaborative editing. You can make changes to a Google Doc with someone else as they type. This can save countless back-and-forth emails between the team.
8. Trello
Trello is a project management website and app that uses boards and cards for organizing certain tasks or ideas.
Here’s how Trello works: each board is a collection of different lists, or columns arranged side by side. Each list can hold multiple cards that contain checklists, images, file attachments, comments, labels and due dates.
This Kanban setup makes Trello easily customizable for any situation: simple to-do lists, programming projects, vacation planning, or more.
For freelancers, Trello is a simple and efficient way of organizing your writing workflow, using a card for each blog or project and lists for different progress statuses (In-Progress, Completed, and more). It’s easy to use, and helps if you need a visual way to track progress.
9. Skype
You’ve probably heard of Skype, the free video chat and messaging client.
Unless you’ve been freelancing for a while, you probably don’t know that it’s the default IM app that clients request freelancers to use.
Why? It’s not totally clear. But sometimes freelancers or the clients that meet on the content mill sites take their future contracts through Skype, as it is more ubiquitous and contracts can be negotiated more freely. Make sure you have it downloaded before finding more work.
These websites are just a few suggestions to help make your freelancing more efficient and effective. In reality, there are thousands of freelancing websites and tools, and there are more being each year.
Figuring out which tools work best for your workflow will give you an edge against other freelancers, help you find better work, and help you find more clients faster.
Know of some other freelancing tools and websites?
Post your own suggestions in the comments!
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