Always Evaluate Long Term Relationships With Freelance Clients

When it comes to long term relationships with freelance clients, I am always of the opinion that one should continuously  evaluate that relationship and not take it for granted.

And this evaluation needs to take place, not only from the point of view of ensuring the sustenance of that freelance relationship, it also needs to take into consideration the possibility of severing such relationships, as and when the need arises.

Yes, you read that correct.

After all, there are opportune times when many freelance clients simply take freelance contractors for granted and look to "milk them" as much as they can. Essentially, they have a notion that since they have managed to find a freelance contractor who is willing to work on their terms, at their (very low) pay scales, they might as well extract as much work out of that contractor as possible.

Any freelance clients reading this should realize that when it comes to freelance contractors, while quite a few maybe outright dumb, not all are so. After a while, they can easily see through the exploitation tactic of freelance clients in question and accordingly look to move on or severe all ties that client.

While in most cases, this parting of ways may take place on very amicable terms, I have myself had situations where while there was no unpleasantness as such, I however chose to simply stop responding to the client in question. I agree that this is certainly not the most desirable strategy to follow but somehow under the given circumstances, that seemed like the best - maybe the only way ahead in terms of giving up on that client.

No doubt, this is something I would strongly advise you against - yes, you can very well learn from my mistakes.

Moreover, under no circumstances am I saying that you completely give up on any long term relationships with freelance clients. I myself have had some of the most fruitful freelance associations, both monetary and otherwise, with clients whom I worked with long term.

So don't get me wrong; I am not saying that you do not work long term with freelance clients. I am simply saying that you must evaluate the relevance as well as the importance of long term relationships with freelance clients, at all times. Bear in mind that while most such long term freelance relationships may prove really very beneficial, there are instances where such relationships do not prove beneficial. On the contrary, they end up proving detrimental since they keep you away from working with other clients who may well have yielded higher and better quality monetary rewards for you.

These are all thoughts which I summed up in a video on my freelancing specific YouTube channel, which you can also see below:

Therefore in conclusion all I would say is that do not get mesmerized by the fact that you have freelance clients whom you have built long term relationships with. Instead, always look at the value which these clients are offering you. Ask yourself:

1. Are these clients paying me well, commensurate to my qualification, my experience, and indeed my expectations?

2. Are they friendly and courteous?

3. Do they pay promptly or do you have to chase them for payments which arrive with excruciating delay?

Responses to these questions will give you a very good idea in terms of the viability of working with freelance clients on a long term basis. Wherever you notice a questionable association, I would advise you to forgo that relationship for another one that may well prove far more conducive.

Is Freelancer.com A Scam?

The more I read about Freelancer.com from various freelancers as well as project owners, greater the impression which I get with regard to the site being nothing but a sham and a scam.

Freelancer.com - Scam or Legit?

But is that really true? Have you ever worked on or worked through Freelancer.com, as a freelancer and project owner respectively?

If so, how has your experience been?

If I talk about myself, I have not worked on the site (as a freelancer or a contractor) for a very long time, in fact from the time it got rechristened as Freelancer.com, from its previous avatar of GetAFreelancer.com.

And if you ask me, the experience on GetAFreelancer.com, at least till the time I worked on it, was fairly good. Not once did I get a feeling that the whole site is nothing but a scam.

Over time though, I drifted onto Elance which is where I do bulk of my content writing projects today, for clients from around the world.

Pay on Elance is definitely many notches above what it used to be on GetAFreelancer.com to the extent that I can easily state with confidence, one CAN actually make a decent living, working full time on Elance, even as an individual freelancer. I specifically say individual because there are MANY businesses or small companies which are working aggressively on Elance and actually making as much or more money than what many other comparable businesses in the "real world" make.

As an instance, take a look at the No. 1 Elance contractor, across all project categories - SynapseIndia, a New Delhi, India based offshore custom development solutions provider which in the last 12 months alone has earned in excess of 2 Million Dollars and over its lifetime presence on Elance, has made more than 10 Million Dollars.

Clearly, these are very large sums of money in the context of a freelance platform and they clearly showcase the potential that a site like Elance holds for the entire freelance community.

Vis-a-vis that, I would very highly doubt if there is even a single freelance business on Freelancer.com that has earned a Million Dollars or above, forget about individual freelancers. On Elance I can assure you that there are many businesses which have, including some in the extremely competitive and not-so-well-paying 'Writing and Translation' category such as Words You Want.

It is against such a backdrop that the whole Freelancer.com saga comes across to me as such a BIG surprise.

These are thoughts which I had put together in a video on my freelancing specific YouTube channel, which can also be seen below:

After all, while on one hand, if you look up the Freelancer.com Wikipedia page, you will get an impression that all is hunky dory with this business and is clearly a frontrunner for being one of the biggest players in this space, especially after having acquired other businesses such as LimeExchange, Scriptlance, and vWorker, among others.

The Founder of Freelancer.com as it exists today, is an individual named Matt Barrie. Again, things seem more or alright with this person, at least as some really rudimentary Google searching reveals.

Matt Barrie, Freelancer.com Founder -
A Savvy Tech Entrepreneur  OR A Scam Artist?

But ironically, the same Wikipedia page which lists out numerous awards won by Freelancer.com also lists out plentiful scams originating from the company...scroll down the page and you will see those links for yourself.

I have myself provided you with some links here, here, here and here.

So my question is, have you worked, or are still working on or through Freelancer.com, in any capacity? If so, how is your experience going?

Like I mentioned, after having begun the entire saga of bidding on online freelance sites, on GetAFreelancer.com, I graduated to Elance.com and there has really been no looking back on my part.

For me, the biggest impediment with regard to all other sites barring Elance.com is that they do not charge freelancers to place proposals (individually, for each proposal) unlike the way Elance does.

I feel that is a very good policy to follow since it restricts the sheer number of proposals which are placed on these job sites. Otherwise, on sites like oDesk and Freelancer.com in particular, I have noted jobs that pay really very poorly getting a phenomenal number of bids. As an instance, you might have a job on oDesk or Freelancer.com which seeks out 10, 500 word articles for $10 viz. a $ an article and yet there could well be as many as 50 freelancers bidding on that job!!

Really, all this seems just so crazy and funny to me!

I mean my raison d'etre of being on Elance or working freelance this way is ONLY & ONLY to make money, not to kill time!!

But the rates at which these jokers work, I really get a feeling that they have motives other than to make a living or even to make some decent money, up their sleeves!

So my assertion to freelancers as well as project owners working (or have worked) on Freelancer.com to please share your experiences.

Let's hear some real stories so that we are reassured about the authenticity (or otherwise) of both Freelancer.com as well as the scam allegations which are made so often against the site.

In case these allegations are true, Freelancer.com should ideally be reported to the ACCC or Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (since Freelancer.com is Sydney, Australia based) which can take necessary action and ideally close the site and its entire business altogether.

But if these allegations are baseless, then action should contrarily be taken against all those parties who have made those allegations in the first place, which I wouldn't be surprised, if they turn out to be competitors of the site.

As far as my own assertions with regard to very poor pay on the site, accompanied by numerous charges and fees at practically every stage (even in those GetAFreelancer.com days, though clearly not as much as the ones that complainants have cited for Freelancer.com), I stand by them and they will remain sacrosanct.

But whether Freelancer.com is a scam outright or not...let's just have that very clearly established please.

What Do Clients On Freelance Sites Need Those Articles for?

This is a question which is often on the minds of a lot of freelancers in the 'Writing & Translation' category, on freelance sites like Elance, oDesk, Freelancer, etc. wherein they really wonder as to what exactly those articles are really needed for...that too by the droves?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization

One of the major reasons for which articles are needed is because they help with SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Essentially, when these articles have relevant keywords intuitively blended into them, they allow websites to rank better on search engines for the given search terms.

So for instance, if I have a website on RC radio controlled vehicles, I might want to have articles on my website as well as my blog in which I will include search terms such as "RC Airplane" or "RC Boat" and so on, which will help my website to rank better and appear in the first few search results when users search using those same (or similar) search terms.

So SEO undoubtedly plays a major part - or a major reason for which articles are sought on these freelance sites.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing has in turn proven to be a major reason for which articles are sought on these freelance sites. Typically, the SEO aspect remains sacrosanct with regard to these articles but at the same time, the emphasis on quality in this case is even higher.

After all, the endeavor with affiliate marketing goes beyond pleasing web spiders to convincing human readers to actually BUY products and services they are affiliates for. This is an end objective which is achieved with far greater success when there is high quality content backing the claims or assertions made on affiliate sites.

So affiliate marketing, combined with SEO endeavors, forms an integral part of the entire scheme of things as  far as article writing jobs on freelance sites is concerned.

Article Directories

Writing for article directories like EzineArticles or ArticlesBase also forms an integral part of article writing assignments on freelance sites. 

Once again, I would repeat that while the platform in this case is different, viz. an Article Directory, the end objective remains similar as already mentioned above, viz. SEO (largely). This in turn is achieved (especially) with the help of the back link(s) which these directories offer, within the Resource box, at the end of each article.

But besides SEO alone, these article directories - EzineArticles in particular, have an additional objective of establishing credibility. After all, when readers see a lot of articles published by you within a niche or set of niches, they perceive you as an expert of sorts within that niche.

So remember that articles published on these directories have a major 'credibility' aspect attached to them as well.

Having wondered about these aspects myself - in my initial days of freelancing, when I would churn out articles by the gazillions, applying little thought to WHAT those articles were really meant for, I gathered all my thoughts together in the video below, also featured on my freelancing specific YouTube channel. An amalgamation of all the experience and learning that I have had over the years, in article writing in particular, this video will give you a very good perspective in terms of the uses to which articles sought on freelance sites are typically deployed.

Google Panda Update, in the context of the above

Talking about article writing and the various uses to which these articles are put, it is pertinent that I touch upon Google Panda updates and their relevance to the entire article writing realm. Essentially, what has happened is that article directories like EzineArticles, Articlesbase as well as many others have significantly lost a lot of their value, post the Google Panda update.

Further, poor quality articles which do not read well, have copied content (an Internet SIN!), are structured poorly or simply do not offer value to readers ultimately rank poorly on search engines. 

Therefore, the emphasis very clearly has to be on creating TOP QUALITY content which not only draws in visitors but actually KEEPS THEM ENGAGED as well as provides REAL VALUE to them.

This would be as true for articles meant for article directories as would be for other platforms, including own website content, content for affiliate marketing (especially) and so on.

The Overlapping Nature of the Enlisted Purposes to which Articles are Deployed

Remember that a lot of the end objectives of article writing, as enlisted above, do tend to overlap. For instance, when you create articles for affiliate marketing, SEO still has to be a primary objective. The same is true for just about any other platform; even if you are looking to establish your credentials or credibility, you do want people to actually find your content with ease and would therefore want to invest on SEO.

Articles for Miscellaneous Other Purposes

Article writing assignments on freelance sites can ultimately be meant for other end objectives as well. Ones that I can think of are being printed in digital publications like online or electronic magazines (where the SEO value of your article could possibly be minimal and emphasis would almost entirely be on VERY high quality content), sales pages (maybe series of articles put together), articles made from audio/video transcripts and so on.

Have I missed any other purpose for which articles (specifically) are put to use, with regard to article writing assignments on freelance sites? Please feel free to drop in your comments below!