How to Freelance Now? | Hacker News Reader

How to Freelance Now?

18 pointsAlexadar20 comments

I’m a senior ML/Dev with top accounts on freelance platforms. I cannot land a gig because automated platforms have flooded clients’ attention, despite being able to for years. Clients complain as well that they cannot find a workforce because of the AI slop shield. Imagine, you post a job on Upwork and bots get you on LinkedIn in a few minutes. What do you guys do? How do you search for gigs now?

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For me the best way to get new customers is: referrals and transparency. Ask your current customers for referrals. Moreover I can deliver faster and cheaper than many bigger companies. Especially while leveraging my work by AI in a transparent and honest way so I am very competitive.

I think in general my best gigs always came from personal connections, so basically just word of mouth. People you know personally know you are good and what to expect. On platforms it's hard in my experience to build trust with someone. Having this personal connection, also often tends to lead to longer-term clients in one way or the other.

I am not sure dev but here are my thoughts about your situation. First, I want to encourage you. AI modified Human Resources acquisitions substantially for the least. Have you tried engaging directly with prospects on business social medias? Have you attended any events so far? Do you use fishbowl? It’s an app designed by KPMG (I might be wrong but in mémorial that’s their creation) for connecting professionals from various fields. Since I am not all knowing, I encourage other professionals to guide you too.

Wow, I was actually thinking of trying freelance on these platforms. After seeing your experience, I don't feel motivated. I 've heard people getting gigs through X by reaching out to people, through networking. I've not tried this myself but I know few who even make reels on tiktok and clients reached out to them.

Personally I'm not much of a content creator but I've been on X enough to see it's potential. The only challenge is to be consistent there. I'm thinking of getting back there and make a flow to network because I want to work on freelance projects as I'm not interested in a full time job.

I don't have a proper job right now and I'm getting older.

I've been studying AI on my own but it's still very difficult.

I really respect developers and I'm amazed by what they can do.

use console AI coders with some free/base subscriptions, as your teachers+practitioners - its amazing how they answer questions now and speedup learning.

Thank you. I will look into it.

Do you have any places you would recommend?

Sorry for the late reply.

I tried freelancing a few months ago and I gave up after visiting a few platforms. The adverts on one of these platforms almost always listed the remuneration in Indian rupees and the amount of money offered was hilariously small for European standards. The asks were also ridiculous as well, some clients wanted what was essentially months of work and offered an equivalent of less than half a day of pay where I live and I don't even live in west Europe.

[For Hire] Same-day CapCut ×3 vertical clips — $40 prepaid Wise→TR. Deliver inside the hour after payment + files. Reply with links + done criteria. Seller in Turkey.

I’ve had similar experiences with freelance platforms, and as a client, I can confirm what you’re saying. I felt like I was being flooded from all sides, which made the whole experience less enjoyable and made it harder to trust the process. IMHO, the old freelance marketplace model is broken.

Thats unfortunate. And how to fix it - not a trivial one.

Exactly. I don’t think there’s an easy fix. Maybe we just need less noise, not more automation.

But when you run into a problem, sometimes the best thing to do is build the solution yourself. A lot of indie products started exactly this way.

At this point, networking might be more valuable than any freelance platform. A personal recommendation is much harder for a bot to compete with.

True. But does it still stands true when AI could generate them (and the old trick to give a friend phone number for a given recommendation) ?

imo the rules have shifted. You now need to be in the same country and speak the local language or have a massive personal brand to stand a chance. So long, time-zone remote work / freelancing.

You apply for regular jobs and negotiate part-time hourly or daily rates. Stay away from freelance platforms, maybe just for finding leads, then contact them directly.

I run an agency and hire through upwork quite a bit, so I see the other side too. I think upwork already limits how many jobs people can apply to, but I still see tons of brand new accounts, so people clearly found ways around it.

One thing that really stood out to us during the hiring proccess on upwork is candidates who sent a short Loom with their face, walking through the challenge and how they'd solve it. Much easier to tell who actually understands the work. Might be worth trying from the freelancer side.

Can someone explain why this comment was dead?

Loom videos sound like a decent, cost-effective way for candidates to stand out.

Your mileage may vary. Not all clients are interested in watching videos, they just want to read something that shows a freelancer can do the job. Basically, freelancers should do what works for them.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Upwork/comments/1vpgu72/asking_as_a...

> I think upwork already limits how many jobs people can apply to

They don't, as long as you have connects to spend.

> One thing that really stood out to us during the hiring proccess on upwork is candidates who sent a short Loom with their face, walking through the challenge and how they'd solve it.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Upwork/comments/1vpgu72/asking_as_a...

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