1) Fraud
Over time, of course, you gain experience, and your intuition can tell you which of the knocking clients is not going to pay for the work. But it is quite difficult for beginners to identify a fraudster. I will dwell on this topic in more detail later, since it is worthy of a separate post. For now, I have only one piece of advice: even if you do not consider yourself a very experienced specialist, demand payment in advance. 30, 50, 70, or 100% – it’s up to you. But you should receive some percentage in advance. Prepayment, firstly, will prove the client’s serious attitude to cooperation, and secondly, this money will be additional insurance for you in case the client “forgets” to pay the rest of the amount upon completion of the work. This also happens. However, you can fight this: send an encrypted work, a screenshot, etc., and after payment, send a normal version. But more on this later, another time.
2) The focus of exchanges on commerce
I would even say hyper-focus (if such a word exists, of course). In particular, the well-known portal free-lance.ru is increasingly cutting off oxygen to free members and forcing them to buy the “PRO” status. At the same time, the very meaning of “PRO” is leveled. On this resource, “PRO” has long meant not “professional”, but “PROpaid account”. Recently, many changes have occurred on this exchange, which have forced many freelancers to look for earnings elsewhere. This has not affected my work so much. I left my page there and will not delete it for now. I receive orders from there. But all orders go to personal messages, and I do not even look at the projects on the main page.
3) The focus of exchanges is on the interests of clients without taking into account the interests of freelancers. There is nothing to comment on here. Everything is clear anyway. Freelancers are mostly not very rich people, and it is somehow more pleasant to focus on clients
3) Supply exceeds demand
This, of course, does not happen in all specializations, but in many. This is where another problem arises: low prices and dumping. In principle, this is not a problem of the exchange, but rather a problem of the freelancers themselves. Partly, it exists “thanks” to the fact that students and even high school students who have financial support from their parents and just need extra money for all sorts of little things, like freelancing. Partly, the low self-esteem of many, even quite experienced performers, and the desire to get an order “at any cost” are to blame.
4) Another problem related to the previous one is the quality of work of many freelancers.
The intentions of the customer are clear: he wants to find a contractor for his order as cheaply as possible. But judge for yourself: will a student do the work as well as an experienced specialist? No, of course not, a specialist will do it at a completely different level. Not all customers take this point into account, and then they write and complain about the low quality of work. But these are already the problems of the customers themselves, who do not always remember the saying about free cheese. It’s a pity that this is reflected in their opinion of all freelancers, although here, in general, freelancers are not to blame.
Foreign exchanges, in principle, have all the same problems, but, in my opinion, as a Russian freelancer, they are not so pronounced there (although I regularly read angry messages from foreign colleagues who are dissatisfied with the policies of Proz Translatorscafe and other similar portals). And the exchanges themselves are more “tailored” to the interests of freelancers, rather than customers, which is undoubtedly pleasing. My foreign colleagues simply have nothing to compare the portals they are familiar with.
I think the list of disadvantages is not exhaustive. Despite all this, I believe that such portals can help beginner freelancers build their careers and earn the trust and respect of colleagues and clients (provided they do excellent work, of course).
