How is Freelancer? (For Workers)

I don't mind paying $10 a month, but I've heard some horror stories about this site. Personally, I find their site extremely tacky, but I don't want to judge them on apperances alone. Also, it's hard to find real reviews online for these guys. some are obvious shills and others are just so negative that it's hard to be sure if they're real or if they're from negative rep firms or what. (Now that Elance/Odesk has them by the throat)

Anyway, what are your experiences? How does their escrow system work? Do you get value for money?

Thanks for any info.

Edit:

Haha, I log in and they're offering a free month trial. They must be scurrrrrred.

Still, let me know your thoughts about this site

i think is the best forum i find untile now .you can find anything about how make money how to blog how to have fans with other people in the field!!
am also in other forum but i like much this

good luck dear

I "work" there but it really suks.
Why ? well because you can't get any projects for the right amount of money because there are so many indians(no offence, i'm not making any rasial judgement) that work for peanuts and they get most of the projects.
When you finally get one, the website takes their cut when you accept the project and you'll find that the "employer" doesn't respond, doesn't want to create a milestone or the project gets cancelled, but you still pay fo it (the 3%/10% commision).

Even if they advertise that they get 10 mil projects/day (not really) most of the gets cancelled

I suggest Elance/Odesk

I am working on odesk currently and will suggest odesk or elance for gauranteed payout for hourly jobs. I think elance offer better paying projects. On odesk I find a lot of bids due to which clients are lowering their prices now. That is why i am shifting to managing websites now to generate income.

There is just too much Indian on that website,spam bid and doing anything for money

A golden rule for finding freelance work is to "STAY THE F*** AWAY FROM ANYONE AND ANY PLACE THAT WANTS YOU TO PAY FOR FINDING PROSPECTIVE JOBS". After all, you're the one who's looking to earn money and not to spend it.

oDesk and Elance are useful to an extent IMO, but you'll be underpaid for pretty much anything you do. It's still possible to make some decent money there, but it requires more effort than working a similar job irl (providing you could get it). If you seriously want to be a freelancer, I recommend finding an online place that is centered solely around the skills you can offer, i.e. if you translate, try to get in contact with some agency, or something like OneHourTranslation; if you do graphic design, or programming, find a site that offers jobs exclusively in that field.

Thanks for the info, all!

I am on oDesk nearly for 2 years, it really sucks because you can see people working with 0.3 dollar per hour.

@damagerix That is so not true. Yes, there are some but blaming it on everyone is not cool and it is racist as well.

Don't waste your time with freelance jobs on freelance websites, you will earn nothing.

I haven't heard good things about freelancer (from other writers). I think I created a profile a really long time ago. I got my start on rent-a-coder, and I think the sites are similar in terms of money. Plus rent-a-coder charged you the paypal fees, so it was totally not worth it. Those places are good if you have no portfolio.

Elance is better IMO. I don't spend too much on Elance and I do take jobs from the Indians because I keep my bids very targeted to my experience. I am usually one of the highest bidders too. Since I focus on writing and people are becoming more aware of ESL/Panda/Google issues, I usually get the job over an Indian or I lose to someone in the US or Canada. However, since I stay targeted, I don't make a lot of money there. I sold $550 of content over the weekend, but that was 1 new client and 1 repeat client. My level is really high from being so picky I think and most people give me return work. To make a living there, you'd have to bust out lots of bids and do content that wasn't your expertise. If you stick to only your target expertise, I think you could reasonable make at least $1000 there without too much effort.

But Elance is also a hassle in that I have $250 in the hopper from January where the client is busy, I'm busy, and he doesn't give me much direction other than "come up with titles." :-\ The ones who don't know what they want drag out the project, so you might sell $250 worth but you won't see the money for a month...in my case we're going on over a month. So sometimes even the simplest of jobs can drag out, but some customers are very aware of time and pay immediately too.

I think I will just put up my own personal site. Thanks all.

it is better to outsource your work to any top quality service provider in BHW rather than working there

I've never been able to get work there - and I have a great portfolio, references, and a BA from an Art School. Hopefully others have better luck but for me it is a waste of time.

There was a time when freelancer offered good stuff but today it is full of chaos. You can hardly find any work or quality writers there.

Freelancer is a HUGE piece of $^%@!

Not recommended FOR ANYTHING. As someone looking for work all of the employers are stuck up.

As an employer freelancer will squeeze you. You just never win. And they have an automatic payment setting that is annoying as f!!!!. One time I accidently clicked a button it charged me automatically 200!!!! freelancer sucks!

Atleast you are not a freelancer on fiverr where ppl try to get a magento site created fir 10 bucks