Freelance job sites - any use? Thread poster: Tiffany Hardy
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I wonder if any of you can share your experiences with sites such as guru.com, freelancer.com, odesk, etc. Any success stories? I know that many freelance sites are a waste of time and money unless you're willing to work for $10/hour and fork out money to prove yourself through exams, but are there any exceptions?
I'm finding that proz is great for community and finding agency work, but I'm wondering if there are other sites that businesses are more likely to use to find freelance ... See more I wonder if any of you can share your experiences with sites such as guru.com, freelancer.com, odesk, etc. Any success stories? I know that many freelance sites are a waste of time and money unless you're willing to work for $10/hour and fork out money to prove yourself through exams, but are there any exceptions?
I'm finding that proz is great for community and finding agency work, but I'm wondering if there are other sites that businesses are more likely to use to find freelance translation professionals. I realize this shouldn't be the only approach to finding direct clients, but I'm wondering if it could be one good strategy among others.
Thanks in advance. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Yes, some of them are there | Feb 13, 2015 |
As far as my experience freelancer.com is totally a waste of time and money. Likewise there are several other websites apart from proz.com but when you bid at each site, it requires time and money both and then even spending money if you aren't able to win any projects then you feel bad about it. I feel that to whichever website we follow, we just need to quote point-to-point explaining the experience details and some samples for that particular domain to which you are applying. The quote should... See more As far as my experience freelancer.com is totally a waste of time and money. Likewise there are several other websites apart from proz.com but when you bid at each site, it requires time and money both and then even spending money if you aren't able to win any projects then you feel bad about it. I feel that to whichever website we follow, we just need to quote point-to-point explaining the experience details and some samples for that particular domain to which you are applying. The quote should be eye catchy to the outsourcer/company. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The problem is time | Feb 13, 2015 |
It takes time to take care of your ProZ profile. To have up to date information there. To make it clear and appealing to your potential customers.
If you go "sideways" and start dealing with updates of your profile on a number of sites, I think it will turn into a full time job, I am afraid.
For me ProZ works (actually am getting customers who contact me directly through ProZ). I created account on the "other major competitor's" website, but then deleted it as I realis... See more It takes time to take care of your ProZ profile. To have up to date information there. To make it clear and appealing to your potential customers.
If you go "sideways" and start dealing with updates of your profile on a number of sites, I think it will turn into a full time job, I am afraid.
For me ProZ works (actually am getting customers who contact me directly through ProZ). I created account on the "other major competitor's" website, but then deleted it as I realised it would be too much a work to keep my profile updated, to participate in forums, etc.).
You might also want to consider additional cost, and return on it (after all, you can only work that many hours a day).
I am against "site hopping". Sticking to one main platform has been working for me so far. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Diana Obermeyer 
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
Member (2013)
German to English
+ ...
| I used them a lot at the start... | Feb 13, 2015 |
... and they worked well for me, until I was consistently placed amongst the top 3 translators for my language pair.
I found many good clients who simply didn't know where else to look, primarily young start-up companies. Now I absolutely love working with start-ups, because you can feel their enthusiasm through your communication and I do get a little boost of that.
The average rate on these platforms is maybe a third of the average rate published here. And they are filled w... See more ... and they worked well for me, until I was consistently placed amongst the top 3 translators for my language pair.
I found many good clients who simply didn't know where else to look, primarily young start-up companies. Now I absolutely love working with start-ups, because you can feel their enthusiasm through your communication and I do get a little boost of that.
The average rate on these platforms is maybe a third of the average rate published here. And they are filled with bottom feeder agencies posing as individuals, both pretending to be a direct client and pretending to be a translator.
As I said, bottom feeder agencies pose as both translator and client, often holding multiple accounts under various names.
The direct clients put up a job and say you have 20 "translators" bidding for the job. Maybe 15 of them are just various profiles from 2 or 3 agencies. So if you get a good amount of the better paid jobs, they notice and take action.
In order to keep your profile active, you MUST respond to all direct job offer. So what happened to me was that I would receive a large number of fake job offers. Often, the same job was offered 5 times or more. Each time, I would have to log in, navigate through the site, and simply reject the offer. Doesn't sound like a lot. But imagine this in bulk, everyday. It got out of hand that much that I put a stopwatch on my desk and timed the extent of it for 2 weeks. It averaged 3 hours a day. This is before genuine offers from real clients. When communication is direct, and an agency working at a third of your price level or less hassles you with 10 fake job offers a day, you would simply block them, wouldn't you? On these platforms, you can't do that. You have to respond. Otherwise, your response rate falls below a certain threshold and your account becomes inactive.
The clients that I did find there were very much young companies who I really enjoyed working with, so I was hesitant to let those platforms go. Thus, I tried hiring an assistant for a month to answer requests for me. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to convey to my assistant how to determine if an offer was genuine. So I discontinued the platforms altogether.
So - there is good work on there. It only accounts for a small percentage, but it exists. I think it's a great opportunity when starting out, or for people who really just want to do the odd little job. But the time investment involved in sorting the wheat from the chaff is prohibitive and entirely unsustainable.
[Edited at 2015-02-13 08:53 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Richard Foulkes (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
German to English
+ ...
| If you're looking for direct clients... | Feb 13, 2015 |
In my experience, if you specialise, it makes more sense to actively market yourself within the community of your specialist field rather than spending countless hours trying to move yourself up the rankings on one of dozens of crowdsourcing sites where you are one of tens of thousands of translators in your combination in the hope that a direct client will stumble across you. These sites are set up to allow clients to compare you against everybody else in your language combination, not least on... See more In my experience, if you specialise, it makes more sense to actively market yourself within the community of your specialist field rather than spending countless hours trying to move yourself up the rankings on one of dozens of crowdsourcing sites where you are one of tens of thousands of translators in your combination in the hope that a direct client will stumble across you. These sites are set up to allow clients to compare you against everybody else in your language combination, not least on price. I know you know this, Tiffany, I'm just ranting!
I registered on those sites years ago and never heard a peep so I won't be wasting any more time on them.
[Edited at 2015-02-13 12:55 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 09:38
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| Where are your clients likely to be? | Feb 13, 2015 |
Direct clients may possibly pop up on general freelancer sites, but how likely is it that they will have any idea of the true cost of a professional translation? Even if they go there expecting it to cost a lot, are they going to pay your sensible rate if 50 school-age, retired, unemployed, bored, desperate or (insert other categories of non-professional) people offer to do the work for substantially less? If they receive quotes from €0.01 to €0.20 they might choose the one for €0.10, but ... See more Direct clients may possibly pop up on general freelancer sites, but how likely is it that they will have any idea of the true cost of a professional translation? Even if they go there expecting it to cost a lot, are they going to pay your sensible rate if 50 school-age, retired, unemployed, bored, desperate or (insert other categories of non-professional) people offer to do the work for substantially less? If they receive quotes from €0.01 to €0.20 they might choose the one for €0.10, but if most are in the €0.01-0.05 bracket then they're unlikely to fork out €0.10. Most of the clients on those general sites are translation agencies, and their clients are mostly bigger translation agencies, and their clients... In other words, quote at the low end of low or you won't have a hope.
Merab Dekano wrote:
I created account on the "other major competitor's" website, but then deleted it as I realised it would be too much a work to keep my profile updated, to participate in forums, etc.).
Yes, there are a couple of other sites dedicated to translation work that are probably no worse and no better than this one. But, and it's a big but, simply registering on this or a similar site won't get you a worthwhile amount of work. First of all you have to pay for membership, otherwise you can't even quote for most jobs until too late. And the best way of getting quality clients on all of them is to encourage those clients to contact you. For that, you need superb visibility on the site, so you'll do better to devote your time, money and energy to just one. I'm a registered user of a couple of others and I see a lot of the same jobs posted there, i.e. by the same potential clients. Why spend twice as much money and time to get access to the same clients? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tiffany Hardy
Spain
Local time: 10:38
Spanish to English
TOPIC STARTER | Thanks everyone | Feb 17, 2015 |
I appreciate your insight and experiences. It confirms what I suspected...that my efforts will be better rewarded elsewhere.
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