When freelancers are first starting out, many often look for an easy way to land clients. After all, every freelancer needs clients in order to stay in business. But the best freelance websites for beginners aren’t job bidding sites like Fiverr or Upwork. They’re your own online portfolio.
How Job Bidding Sites Work
First things first, let’s make sure we’re on the same page in terms of how freelance job bidding website work.
What Job Bidding Sites are Like for Clients
- Describes the project/work they need done.
- Adds their budget.
- Posts the job on the job bidding website.
- Waits for freelancers to bid on the project.
- Chooses the freelancer they want to work with out of (typically) numerous options.
What Job Bidding Sites Are Like for Freelancers
- Determine your price for a project. Knowing you’re competing with other freelancers, it becomes easy to undercut your rates.
- Submit a project proposal, making the case as to why you’re the best fit for the job.
- Wait to see if the client decides to move forward with you … or not.
- If they’re chosen, deliver the project.
Why Job Bidding Sites Aren’t the Best Freelance Website for Beginners
As you may be able to tell, job bidding sites are great for the client—they get to pick their freelancer, often being able to choose the best possible work for the lowest possible price.
For freelancers, though, you’re essentially putting all the control in the hands of this potential client. For most of us, that’s exactly the opposite reason of why we went freelance.
Beyond lowering your rates, the process turns you into a freelance producer versus a true partner to your clients. You’re often on your client’s timeline versus being able to work out a timeline that works for both of you. Plus, you often skip key parts of the project process like having a kickoff call to make sure the client is a good fit for you in the first place!
In the long-run, job bidding sites do not make it easier for you to build your freelance career. They make it easier to land clients who don’t value the work you do.
As freelancers, we get to choose who we work with. But that’s often hard to tell on a job bidding site when all you see is the deliverable. You need to be able to talk to your clients and see if you’re a good fit for one another.
Often, a simple discovery call can alert you to red flags, such as a client being disorganized or not truly having an idea of what they need to fulfill a particular business goal. This sets freelancers up for failure from the get-go, even if you’re delivering exactly what the client asked for.
Listen to more on the Freelance Success Framework Limited Podcast Series >>
Your Online Portfolio the Best Freelance Website
Your online portfolio allows you to showcase your freelance work. It provides to clients that you can do what it is you say you can do. And it provides a great destination to send clients from your pitches.
You may search the “best freelance websites for beginners” and find a ton of sites that promise to connect you with clients. But the website you need to invest in for long-term freelance success is your own.
How to Use Your Site to Wow Prospective Freelance Clients
When you use your online portfolio to attract clients, the project process looks completely different from the process on job bidding sites.
For you, it looks like this:
- You send a value-based pitch to a prospective client. You include a link to your freelance portfolio within the pitch. ( Your email signature is a fine place for this, though you can call it out more directly if you wish.)
- When your client responds, you set up a discovery call to see if it’s a good fit.
- If both you and the client want to move forward, you send a scope of work with your price and the rough timeline for the project.
- Once the scope, price, and timeline are agreed to you, you kickoff the project with the client to make sure you have all the information you need to make the project a success.
Now, as Freelance Success Framework students know, there are more nuances within that process. But for the most part that’s what the project process looks like.
Acting as a Freelance Partner
Do you see the difference?
In this scenario, you are taking control of the situation. You are doing more than just producing work. You are demonstrating your value as a partner for your freelance clients. You both work together to nail down the specific project and the timeline that works for you both—not just the client.
It’s not uncommon to hop on a discovery call with a prospective client and realize that the project they think would be most helpful for their business isn’t actually what the immediate need is. As a valued partner, you can listen to their challenge and recommend the best solution for it, versus simply taking on whatever project they want to throw your way.
Your Turn! What do you think are the best freelance websites for beginners? How do you use your portfolio to attract more clients? Tell us in the comments below!
Last Updated on July 1, 2023.
