GetAFreelancer and Low Paying Jobs
I have received many great jobs from GetAFreelancer in the past, and hope to continue this for years to come. But as of late, it appears that more and more low paying jobs are being posted. While these do not bother me, because I will simply ignore them, there are others who may fall prey. After all, this happens to even the best of us.
I have been meaning to write about this problem, and a recent job posting on GetAFreelancer pushed me into doing it today.
Check out this job at http://www.getafreelancer.com/projects/156007.html. I think that the title pretty much says it all: Full Time Work – Max $2 Per Hr. Is this a joke? Does somebody really think that they can find somebody to work full-time for $2 per hour? That works out to a whopping $4,160/year based on a 2,080 hour work year. Even in the poorest countries in the world, this is an absolute insult.
If you do not have the chance to read the post, they are looking for a bidder that feels that $50 to $60 a week is an acceptable income. The job title is quite extensive as they are looking for a person who can handle CSS, customer service, link building, content writing, and more. In other words, they want a highly skilled, full-time worker that will work for peanuts.
When I first saw this post I figured that nobody in their right mind would place a bid. But guess what? After one day on GetAFreelancer, there have been 29 bids with an average bid price of $46.
Do yourself a favor, and get paid what you are worth. Working full-time on your own website or blog will go much further than taking a job like this.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Chris, I read in one of your posts that you recommended Getafreelancer.com because you could bid for free. But after creating an account I was faced with the same problems i have seen accross all freelance and contract bidding sites: They are overrun with workers from other countries who are desperate to make even $6 a week and although the quality of writing is often significantly lower there are so many low bids that it makes it almost impossible for a good english writer in the US or UK to place a high bid.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:41 am
[...] have made several posts in the past regarding GetAFreelancer, how to win jobs, and other miscellaneous details concerning this service. But even then, some freelance writers feel that this site is not worth [...]
December 17th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
I created an account and started bidding on GAF after coming across your blog. But like Magnus points out, it’s hard to bid against those who are fine working for $5/hr - and the buyers don’t seem to care.
I gave it a shot, but think I’ll go back to writing for businesses - where the I make a lot (I mean a LOT) more.
Great blog, you got here.
December 26th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
GetAFreelancer should really be called GetAHinduCoder. Even if you bid the same extremely low bid as everyone else the buyers will still choose the Indian, instead of someone in the western world. Not only that the little punk had the nerve to PM me asking if I’d reduce me bid from $30 to $10 as thats all the cash he had !
Its all bazare if you ask me, I haven’t won one contract yet. Its so full of dodgy work (domain parking site for example) and massively underpaid projects (clone a php site for under $100).
Can someone please, please, please make a freelance site with indians, russians and other 3rd world income contries banned ? Some of us would like to make enough money to pay our bills.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I won a rare project with these guys. It paid $750.00. My client put $250.00 up front with GetAFreelancer. I left it there until I finished the book. They took $75.00 out of the $250.00 leaving $175.00. So they got their full commission…
Fortunately for me, the client paid the balance in a check directly to me.
I say fortunately as GAF has blocked my account…No reason, they’ve been paid but guess what?
I can’t reach them…I can’t sign in and that means I can’t find out what’s going on…
And they are looking like flakes, theives or ???
I’d like to get my $175.00
Any ideas…
April 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Vern - Unfortunately, it seems as if trying to contact customer service is the only thing you can continue to do. They have responded to me in the past, so I know they exist. Just keep it up!
April 18th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Getafreelancer has world class talents especially from India ,but the only drawback is the competition levels.
I feel if several providers cooperate together that would reduce competition and more sharing of work load.
Probably someone comes out of such idea.
July 4th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I could have commented on any of your posts, but finally chose this one because it hit close to home as I diligently work to reenter the freelance writing/edit field.
Thanks for sharing so much solid, specific info and advice. You are an asset to the online writing community.
As someone who has worked with and encouraged young writers for a long time, you’ve also piqued my curiosity. Were you active as a writer in your youth? If yes, then I’d love any opportunity to do a brief interview with you.