Doing freelance work to make extra money.

[Kieran]

Recently I signed up to a freelance site in Australia because I thought I would be able to make some extra money on the side but upon signing up I found that there were a lot of Freelancers from Asia and Eastern Europe who were undercutting me at every turn.

Has anyone else had a similar experience as this or know's of any good freelance sites to get work on as a native English speaker?

[Andrew]

I think that'll be tough because like you said, others will be undercutting you from developing countries.

My advice: If you're a great english-speaking writer, don't go for those low-end jobs. Setup a serious article/copy writing business and charge what you're worth. You won't get the cheap jobs, but do you really want them anyways? Setup your own website, post classified ads as a high quality writer and find long terms clients that will give you the prices you deserve.

[surf619]

Another place you might try is TextBroker.com. Payment to writers is based on how good you are. There are different ratings for different levels of writing. They are a pretty reputable website and are used by many different businesses. It is a good place to buy articles too.

[antonino]

If you have the talent, you have to market it well. Create networks in the business. I agree you should not go for low-end jobs. You have the talent. Who knows, you might be one of those who will outsource to developing countries someday. Good luck!

[Sergio Toro]

You can try to find freelancercareers com. To my mind this is worthy site for skillful freelancers. Probably somebody will add to this topic more useful resources.

[sallyphelps]

You can also find clients as a freelance virtual assistant. VAs are in-demand nowadays.

[Scrambled]

I started making money online freelancing writing services and stuff like that. I didn't treat it as an income though. I basically only did it so I could save up money to purchase domains, hosting, and certain SEO services like backlinking and what not.

[evancho123]

yes there are many sites which offer freelance work.. some of them are legitimate while others are fakers

[MAKAIO]

Competition is a fact of life and it's sure getting more competitive by the minute. I too have noticed on sites like oDesk a lot of competition from contractors from Southeast Asia mainly. I personally don't see them as undercutting me because a lot of this has to do with employers/companies wanting cheap labor for things like data entry, etc. If you're a native English speaker/ writer you won't really have to worry much since many companies out there are looking for quality writing.

[Marya]

Virtual assistants are sure in great demand but these jobs command such a poorly hourly rate. Who works for 80 cents an hour? I had a look at both odesk and elance and can really see the stiff competition. Some people appear very desperate and are even willing to work for nothing. I saw this guy applying for a job and his hourly rate was $0?

Freelance is great, especially if you have skills that are high in demand like programmers. A friend of mine is a programmer and he makes great iPhone apps, which make him a nice income.