Are Freelance websites My Only Work From Home Website Option?
No, you can also sign up for job boards. Apart from the work from home websites, you can also sign up for job boards. These job boards offer you the opportunity to communicate directly with your client, unlike most freelance websites that do not allow you to commune directly with your client. You also don’t get to pay for any service charge as the client pays directly to your account or through any other means that both of you agreed on. However, job boards give little or no room for newbie freelancers as their job listings are mainly for experts with years of experience. So, may not be the best option for a newbie freelancer that wants to grow.
Pros and Cons of Work From Home Websites
Working with these work from home websites gives you an edge in your chosen field as lots of companies have taken to these websites to get their workforce well staffed, especially after the pandemic that pushed so many workers to work from home. The following are the pros of work from home websites;
- They help freelancers to get jobs easily as they have lots of employers already waiting even before they sign up
- These websites help you to build a strong online presence in your niche, it is the best way to gain lots of expertise while earning, within a short time.
- Working with these websites will help you build a strong work ethic as you would not want to get any negative reviews from your clients. it is one of the best ways to learn how to stick to time as you have to meet deadlines without compromising quality.
- Another thing that you gain from working with these websites is how to communicate effectively with clients. you get to make every communication with clients or potential clients count.
- Their mode of payment is very transparent, there is no hidden charge as all their service charges are made known to you before you get your first payment
Being a freelancer can be scary at times, especially when you are just starting your career, you are going to meet lots of experienced professionals at the top, who may look more like professional bullies than competitors on many work from home websites. But, if you make the right choices in the freelance market, it will not be long before you scale up the ladder too. This is why I have come up with this long list of the 50 best work from home websites for you to choose from, to hasten your journey to the top.
Although these are the best work from home websites, I do not advise any freelancer to sign up for all of them because you have to carefully choose the ones that will be perfect for you. If you can successfully choose the best website for your career, then you are already a step up the success ladder. To help you make the right choice of websites, I have put together, the things to consider before choosing any work from home website.
Things to Consider Before Choosing Work From Home Websites
#1 The Population of your competition
I know how attractive those popular work from home websites sound but there are lots of people on those platforms that have built a track record for themselves. Signing up for these websites will automatically put you in a competition with them, which may make you feel like you are up against giants in your field. To avoid this, you might want to sign up for the less popular websites that will allow you to reach your targeted clients without much competition. Websites like Fiverr and Upwork are saturated with lots of experienced experts with lots of good reviews to speak for them, so if you choose them, then get ready for tough competition.
#2 Service Charge
These work from home websites are booming because their owners are making money from them, they get their share of every payment that your clients make. They usually have a fixed percentage that they deduct from your pay as their service charge, some websites collect as high as 20%, while others collect less. Before choosing any of these work from home websites, ensure that you look up their rates, to avoid feeling robbed whenever their service charge is deducted.
#3 Pricing
As a newbie freelancer, you might want to reduce your price, to attract clients that may be on a budget and build a possible professional relationship with them over time. But unfortunately, some of these work from home websites have fixed prices for all their job listing, which means that you charge the same price as the professionals on the websites. If you hope to stand out with your pricing, then you have to avoid such websites because even when you have gained lots of expertise, you will not still be able to increase your price.
#4 Job Listing
Another thing that you have to look out for before choosing a work from home website is the type of job available there. Some websites are known for some jobs, so do well to understand the type of jobs that you are likely going to find on each website and ensure that they are the type of jobs that require your skills before signing up, it will save you the stress of looking for the right jobs in the wrong places.
#5 Payment Portal
Some payment portals do not send payments to some countries, and pay portals like PayPal do not accept bank accounts from some African and Asian countries, so signing up on this platform can get pretty stressful when you want to withdraw your money. So, going through the mode of payment on each website will ensure that you don’t end up working for money that you do not have access to. On the other hand, you can look for an account that your chosen website can pay into, which could be the account of a loved one in diaspora, who would transfer it to your local account.
How Many Work from Home Websites Should You Sign Up for?
For ease of operation, you should sign up for only a few of these work from home websites. I know that more websites may seem like more opportunities to get hired online, but when you sign up for so many websites at the same time, you may not be able to concentrate on building a strong profile on any of the websites. So, it is better to sign up for a few of these websites that you can conveniently work hard to build a strong competitive presence. Take your time to build your portfolio to attract more clients on a few websites. Building portfolios across too many work from home websites can be quite tasking.
However, the Cons of Working With These Work From Home Websites are;
- The popular ones present lots of competition, you have to be a good fighter to remain there for long without giving up. You may feel frustrated as you keep seeing the reviews on your competitors’ profiles getting higher while you are still struggling to get your first gig. It might get worse on websites like Upwork where you have to send out proposals alongside other freelancers with good reviews.
- Your account may get banned if you violate any of their policy, even if you have managed to build a name for yourself. So, sometimes, you might need to remind yourself of their policies before you go beyond your boundaries.
- Some of these work from home websites charge high service rates, and there is nothing you can do about it except quit using them. But this may be hard, especially if you have built such a nice career on the platform.
- Lastly, you stand a high risk of coming in contact with clients that are far from being honest. These types of clients will make your work more than you are supposed to and pay you less at the end of the day, especially if you are a newbie freelancer.
When you have decided on the best work from home websites to sign up for, just go through these lists and click on your choice to sign up.
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Landing.jobs – https://landing.jobs
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Solidgigs – https://solidgigs.com
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Upwork – https://www.upwork.com
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Lemon.io – https://lemon.io
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Fiverr – https://www.fiverr.com
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Servicescape – https://www.servicescape.com
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Flexjobs – https://www.flexjobs.com
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Freelancers – https://www.freelancers.com
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People Per Hour – https://peopleperhour.com
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Guru – https://www.guru.com
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iFreelance – https://www.ifreelance.com
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Hubstaff Talent – https://hubstafftalent.com
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SimplyHired – https://www.simplyhired.com
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Freelance Writing Jobs – https://freelancewritingjobs.com
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Problogger – https://www.problogger.com
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Constant Content – https://constantcontent.com
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Blogging pro – https://bloggingpro.com
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Journalism Jobs – https://journalismjobs.com
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Freelancer Writers Den – https://freelancewriterden.com
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Working In Content – https://workingincontent.com
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Content Writing Jobs – contentwritingjobs.com
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Great Content – https://greatcontent.com
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Codeable – https://www.codeable.com
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Outsourcely – https://www.outsourcely.com
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WPHired – https://www.wphired.com
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Gigster – https://www.gigster.com
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Workana – https://www.workana.com
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Dice – https://www.dice.com
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Upstack – https://www.upstack.com
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Stack Overflow – https://stackoverflow.com
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JustRemote – https://justremote.co
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We Work Remotely – https://weworkremotely.com
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Dynamite Jobs – https://dynamitejobs.com
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Remotive – https://www.remotive.com
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Angel List – https://www.angellist.com
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Skip the Drive – https://skipthedrive.com
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Working Nomad – https://workingnomad.com
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Jobspresso – https://www.jobspresso.com
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Remote OK – https://remoteok.com
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Virtual Vocation – https://virtualvocation.com
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The Muse – https://them use.com
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Toptal – https://www.toptal.com
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Workew – https://www.workew.com
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Power to Fly – https://powertofly.com
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RubyNow – https://www.rubynow.com
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Dribble – https://www.dribble.com
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NODESK – https://www.nodesk.com
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Hitmarker – https://www.hitmarker.com
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Craigslist – https://www.craigslist.com
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Authentication Jobs – https://authenticjobs.com
Final thought
Whichever work from home website that you choose to sign up for, ensure that you keep the website’s rules and regulations, work hard, deliver quality work on time and never stop believing in yourself. See you at the top.