Conquer the gig economy: The best sites for freelancers

By 2020, it is predicted that 40 per cent of the workforcewill be comprised of freelancers. This is reflective of the modern push to agig economy as businesses attempt to reduce the cost of physical offices andtake advantage of an increasingly global world. The nature of work isultra-flexible; a writer in Australia can produce and upload an article to anAmerican news site with the click of a button.

As the practice has become more common, so too have thenumber of platforms that facilitate a relationship between freelancers andtheir clients. If you are interested in building your portfolio with by doingsome work of your own, here are four of the best websites to get you started.

Upwork

Upwork allows you to sign up as either a freelancer or abusiness seeking creatives, developers, writers and accountants for specifictasks. There is a catch though; the first $500 earned includes a 20 per centcut for the site, however this rate drops with the more money you are earning.

Freelancer

The most popular marketplace of its kind, Freelancerconnects more than 25,000 users from nearly 250 countries, with offices inLondon, Vancouver, Sydney, Buenos Ares, Jakarta and Manila. Freelancers rangefrom writers, graphic designers and software developers to accountants,engineers and legal professionals.

Fiverr

Fiverr’s marketplace includes a wide variety of industries,including graphics and design, digital marketing, writing and translation,video and animation, and programming and tech. Gigs are purchased every fiveseconds and can fall anywhere between $5 and $10,000.

Guru

Known as Gurus, the site’s 1.5 million registered freelancershave completed over a million jobs and earned in excess of $200 million. Guruscreate a profile and search for projects they wish to take on, and are only remuneratedwhen the client approves their work.

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