Avoid Upwork and Fiverr

Sites like Upwork are designed to manipulate freelancers

When you type “freelance jobs” into Google, the top results are always from sites like Upwork, Freelancer.com, and Fiverr.

These are some of the most manipulative marketplaces for freelancers that you should avoid at all costs. These sites are also the reason why many freelancers fail to succeed.

Sites like Upwork are designed to manipulate freelancers into applying for more jobs and also fail more. So that they can sell you their premium currency that allows you to bypass the limit to apply for more jobs.

Upwork also forces freelancers to not only pay a 20% platform fee from every job you complete but also take a cut from your earning withdrawals.

To make matters worse, they also don’t allow any communication with your clients outside the platform. If you get caught, the site can sue you for up to $50,000.

I previously wrote several articles showing why Upwork is bad for freelancers and why you shouldn’t use sites like Fiverr to find freelance jobs. 

Getting a competitive advantage on these marketplaces is almost impossible as you are always competing against thousands of other freelancers for a single job. And no matter how skilled you are, it will always go to the person who outbid you with the lowest price.

If you’re thinking about starting freelancing, the single best advice I can give you is to avoid these big freelance marketplaces.

There are many great freelance websites out there with less competition and landing a job on those sites is much easier than any major freelance platform. You can find some of those sites here and also here.

Hope you found this helpful.

See you next week!

-Roshan

PS: Looking to start freelancing? Then be sure to check out my free start guide. And also my book, Freelance Like A Pro. It includes 21 lessons to help you start freelancing even while working a day job.