6 lesser known but reliable platforms to make a living from freelancing

In the last 10 or so years we’ve seen a boom in freelance industry. Professionals from all over the world started to diversify their income sources, getting more flexible, independent and more satisfied of their work. If a 9 to 5 job is not your thing, why not start freelancing? According to recent studies, more than 30% of U.S. workers (almost 54 million people) are freelancing and 50% of those would not quit their activity for a traditional job.

Technology is for sure one of the key factors in making the freelance job easier and more accessible. Major freelance platforms like Elance, Upwork, Freelancer, Guru, 99designs, Designhill and others offer millions of jobs/projects for web professionals interested in earning money online. However, getting a freelance job is not easy: most of the times you have to go through a sophisticated process of review, bidding, communication and much more. But, once you got there and proved your value, you simply do your work, take your money and enjoy the life.

You can always opt for traditional freelance platforms, but if you’re looking for quality over quantity you might want to have a look at these authentic, lesser known, yet reputable services for freelance jobs. We personally worked with some of these services and in some cases included our own feedback. So, here we go:

1. Codeable

If you’re an experienced WordPress developer than this service is definitely for you. It was created with love in Denmark by Tomaž Zaman, Per Esbensen and their team. Codeable is providing jobs related exclusively to WordPress (theme customizations, plugins, maintenance, tweaks, WooCommerce and much more). Currently, more than 200 handpicked developers from US and Europe deliver a wide variety of tasks (98.6% are rated with 5/5 stars). The bad news is: only 2% of all developers who apply are accepted. To get into their team you have to pass a personal interview and show an exceptional portfolio/work experience, but in the end it’s worth it. BTW: we applied around 2 months ago and still waiting for the review. The guys from Codeable said that they are working on a new review system which will facilitate the whole process. Hope to hear from them soon.

2. Crew

Crew is an invite only community comprised of top freelance designers and developers. It provides diverse projects related to websites, apps, UI/UX, branding, etc. Crew is surprisingly easy to use for both clients and freelancers and offers a great user experience. If you want to apply as a developer/designer at Crew you have to sign up, complete your profile, provide some work samples and at least 3 references. After that, you’ll have to wait until they review your profile. Now, there are more than 256 professionals who deliver high-quality jobs and the average budget for a project is $10k. BTW: Crew was co-founded by Stephanie Liverani who is also the co-founder of Unsplash. You can read more about the story of Crew in this engaging interview.

3. WordPress jobs

A simple and efficient job board managed by WordPress. Here you’ll find plenty of WordPress projects divided by categories: design, development, migration, performance, plugin development, theme customization and other. Applying for a job is simple: just access the project you are interested in, find out more details (company name, location, budget, etc.) and write and email to the owner of this listing (email address is provided). BTW: we posted a job in the past and got plenty of offers (more than 80) by different agencies and freelancers.

4. WP Curve

Another service related to WordPress jobs. They provide 39 experienced developers for unlimited small jobs. The clients can order a single job or get a monthly subscription with an unlimited number of jobs. According to their latest income report, in August 2015 they were generating more than $74k revenue per month and 4246 completed projects. So, it could be a great opportunity to join their team. You can do it here. BTW: their marketing strategy is quite simple: they publish awesome content on their blog, are actively involved in different events and podcasts and finally – they take care of their customers.

5. Envato Studio

If you know about Themeforest you probably heard of Envato Studio. Both are run by Envato – a popular and in the same time controversial Australian platform for diverse creative goods, launched by Collis Ta’eed. The freelance service marketplace was started in 2013 and was initially called Microlancer. After 1 year it was renamed as Envato Studio and since then it’s offering plenty of projects/jobs for different categories like eCommerce & CMS development, WordPress, websites & programming, logo design & branding, online marketing, video & animation and more. BTW: You can use your exiting Envato account to join this marketplace and start selling your services.

6. PeoplePerHour

This freelance platform has been in this market for a while. However, compared to other major services it has a lower number of freelancers (around 80k) and jobs, which makes it a good spot for new job opportunities. If you want to sell your service you have to complete your profile and include relevant data (name, contact details, hourly rate, portfolio, etc.). Once your application is approved, you can browse freelance jobs and send your proposals or post your own services (called hourlies). BTW:  we recently joined this platform and found it a little bit hard to use and complex. Hope to get used to it and get the most of it.

This is it, please tell us if you’re currently doing some freelance jobs and what are your thoughts. Do you like your activity, schedule, way of life? Would be happy to hear your experiences. Cover image credit: peopleperhour.