curious, anyone freelancing their jobs?

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i was reading about working at home and came across some info about sites that allow you to freelance your job skills. basically you are bidding on how much it money to do the job at a set price or at a cost/hour you be willing to get it done for.

i've been basically doing data entry/processing for the past 9 years. if you count the 3.5 years as a bank teller entering deposits/withdrawals and researching account info that brings me up to 14 years. i have the computer skills and knowledge to do most administrative jobs i've seen listed on the 3 sites i was looking into but i wanted to get others' opinions about how they've worked for them. those of you that have seen some of my posts probably know i like doing a lot of researching online, i thrive on it practically. i like to say i have an eye for detail and pride myself on accuracy. I may not be the fastest but i definitely want to make sure that what i am doing is done right (so i don't have to worry about it during an audit)! i have the computer skills to use spreadsheets and databases since that was my main focus in college. i do need to get up to speed when it comes to any social sites since i have been balking at the idea of Facebook or Linkedin because i just don't feel they are all that secure when you give them A LOT of private info that should stay that way.

the three sites i was looking at are elance, freelancer and odesk. anyone use these sites or ever done freelancing services before or use something else?

i have to find something to keep me going here because i feel my skills are deteriorating as i type! and unemployment really is a downer when you keep filling out online applications that make you feel like they are filtering you out because a former employer let you go for something that really wasn't much of your control and the supervisor didn't seem to grasp. (i had to teach this supervisor to understand my job and she still didn't get it. my replacement did when i taught her!) Gov't rules and regs change and that slowed me down from my billing numbers i was once pulling out each year. that, and i've been the only person in my position since i started in 2004. increased paperwork increases time demand for having to verify accuracy and entry of billing. i had been promised for 4 years that i would have an assistant to do this position but they hired and moved them every time i had them trained

pardon me for my rant/whining while i'm seeking info.

 

[catjac1975]

Clark Howard is a radio talk show financial advisor. He uncovers scams of all sorts. Go to his website and see what he thinks of these companies. I know he is not a fan of work-at-home schemes. If they want any money from YOU to start-it is a scam. My daughter has 3 young children and is an interior designer. She was lured away from another job with a big raise and 4 days a week woking from home cutting 3 hours commute out of her day. Perhaps a temp agency can get your foot in the door of a company. Temp agencies are used by companies to weed out poor workers and can lead to you finding a good place to work. With your skills you just need to find the right place. So many people work from home today. It is great for work productivity-good luck with your search.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

actually, i've already been hit up by a few of those companies once i started using Monster.com. they've all spam mailed me and 1 tried calling me to be an insurance sales person. my spam filter picks up when email comes though to multiple people and it is not in my mailing list of acceptable places/people. thank goodness for the internet today to help research things too!

also, a former friend of a friend happen to call me a few weeks ago about joining him and some friends to sit down and listen to a woman from a company called ACN. he kept saying it's not like Amway but when i kept asking for more info and the company's name he kept sidestepping it and saying i didn't have to buy anything. figured once i got the name out of him i would research it. they claim to want people to work for them that have an open mind. but when i looked it up they want sales people to sell services and a video phone that doesn't seem to work for most people that have bought them. it's multi level marketing and i am not a sales person and told him outright i don't do well with sales. i wasn't too impressed when i found reviews of it and some people claiming to be from the company that were very unprofessional towards those giving poor reviews.

i think i needed to explain how the freelance job search thing is supposed to work per those 3 sites. you are not paying anything to these companies and are not buying any books or products to do the job. you are telling the 'clients' that have listed a job how much you are willing to be paid to do the job, either as a flat rate for the job or as a cost per hour. you become the 'contractor' and work for the client. this is why i wanted to find out if anyone has heard of these companies or know of anyone that has done 'jobs' through them.

i will look into Clark Howard's show and see if there is anything he mentions about them.

 

[nittygrittydirtdigger]

I have been working at/from home since the end of 2000. I do data collection, editing, merchandising and mystery shopping. I used to manage a big convenience store and drove 2 hours commute time a day. Do the math; 10 hours a week of commuting x 50 weeks a year=500 hours. 500 hours/40 = the equivalent of over 12 40-hour weeks of commuting! When I quit the c-ctore, I did a lot of ebay selling, but as time went by I got more involved in the merchandising and mystery shopping. That led to the data collection work and eventually the editing work.

I don't have any typical benefits, but I set my own hours most of the time, and I am free to refuse any work I don't want to do. Without the great insurance and 401k from my husband's job, I'd have to rethink the lack of benefits.

I make about as much money as I did back in 2000. If I had to, I could pay the mortgage, utilities and groceries on my own. (It would be a big belt-tightening experience, but my husband has problems with his back, so it's always nice to know I could carry the load if he became incapacitated.)

I love the variety of work that I do. If anyone is interested, I would be glad to pass along the names of a few LEGIT companies that have mystery shopping work. The pay on those is by-the-job, and it often takes over 6 weeks to get paid, but I often get reimbursed for a restaurant meal, oil change, $20 worth of groceries, etc.

And of course, with the set-my-own-schedule, I can get outside and garden on nice days!

BIG FAT DISCLAIMER! NEVER pay to mystery shop! In 12 years of mystery shopping, I have yet to hear of a legit mystery shopping company that asks for payment to get work.

 

[catjac1975]

You can e-mail Clark Howard and they may research it for you.He has a lot of power to get to people who may not return your calls. Those sales things only work for those who can sell ice to Eskimos-it's a gift. But nittygritty's experience can help guide you. He is a true consumer advocate.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

yeah, i'm really not a good sales person unless it is something i enjoy or like promoting/talking plants, stuff for animals and anything that has to deal with nature sciences or herbal medicine.

the atmosphere where i worked just went sour the last 2 years. bosses that were wonderful and kept the attitudes positive while still being open all left or were let go because the company was trying to save themselves money. the company split in 2 around that time too. it didn't help that the past couple years i've been so worried about my dh being in and out of jobs that i was worried that if i left my job for something new that i'd have to start all over again and wait for benefits to kick in. now he's been with a company since last May that has benefits and it's my turn to do the job hunting. i'm just a dedicated drone for not getting out of there sooner. i enjoyed feeling like my job helped those schools get money back for their SPED transportation services.

i did look more into those three sites i mentioned and it seems that scammers are prone to using it on both ends. 'clients' posting jobs they wanted filled and asking for samples but not bothering to pay for the work being done. or 'contractors' taking advantage of the hourly payed positions and producing poor results and kept charging the 'client' that may have been a newbie to the sites process of closing out a job when done. and it seems that they don't filter the scam jobs from the legit jobs. it also seems that many people from other countries will drastically undercut you if you put in to do a job at a set price or rate/hour. so if the job is a cost per hour they could undercut you by billing for $1/hour. i did notice you could filter out a lot of the scam jobs from some of the poor writing or lack of writing in ads. but honestly, if i was a 'client' looking for someone to do a job i don't think i would go with the lowest bidder without seeing some of their work or work ethics. i think i'll avoid using these sites for now.

i did look into a site called Taskarmy. so far i have not seen anything bad posted online about this. probably because they manually go through those that want to freelance their services through this site. they also don't do the bidding/offer thing, the prices are fixed for certain services and it looks like those services that are at cost/hour the lowest i've seen anyone accepting is $6/hr from another country.

i did find that Amazon has an interesting part of their website called Amazon Mechanical Turk which has little tasks that they call 'human intelligence tasks'. some of it was surveys on things like health or studies from universities. some stuff was data research or entry. i did find one that was data entry of craft fairs/festivals in the US that might be of interest. some paid tiny amounts for each 'HIT' done, some others paid pretty well. i guess it all depends on how many you can get done in a set time with them.

 

[vfem]

First, working from home rocks! Having the ability to take care of your business without someone riding your rear end is awesome. Of course you are totally responsible for your time management, but if you are good at that, you're good to go!

I used to do freelance work for IT stuff (IT college major who hates computers now), I believe the website was FreeLancer.com I used. I'm sure I'm still signed up for it. The pay was always pretty good, you pick and choose what you want, and if you're in a rush for a few bucks you can always grab a little job that would take you a day of work to get some extra cash for groceries or stuff. I have to say I used to enjoy doing it, but now I'm back to hourly work... and I'm pretty happy with the steady income so have to reason to go back to it.

Go for it!