Freelancing Jobs for Beginners: The 9 Best Sites in 2019

So you’ve decided to enter the exciting world of freelancing and you are now looking to score some freelancing jobs for beginners. No worries, I’ve got you covered! In this article, I’ll show you exactly how and where you can find your first job. And there are a lot of jobs, so let’s get to it!

First things first: learn to believe in yourself

Are you done working for a boss? Done with the 9-5? Done with spending an hour in traffic, just to get to a depressing office? I mean, who isn’t? I’ve been working as a freelancer for more than four years now. And every day I’m still thankful for deciding to fly solo.

But I know, it’s super scary in the beginning. Maybe you don’t have a whole lot of experience yet. Maybe you’re not sure what your niche is. You worry about money, security, getting clients, being good enough, etc. That’s normal. Every freelancer goes through that. You have the power in your own hands, though. Learn how to believe in yourself and you can make anything happen.

Secondly, find out what you like and what you can offer

There is a huge variety of online freelancing jobs for beginners available. As long as there is commerce and internet, there will be work. Companies need websites. Websites need content. Content needs engagement. Like writing? You can think of blogging, copywriting, email marketing writing or even simply commenting on posts or reviews (yes, people get paid for that).

You can use and improve your writing skills but there are plenty of other jobs that you can do remotely. How about graphic design, photography, programming, virtual assistance, web design or accountancy? You can even make money with data entry.

Thirdly, put in time and energy

Although there are loads of freelancing jobs for beginners (even for people with no experience at all), you have to invest sufficient time and energy in your new career. Nothing will happen otherwise. You might need to start with low-paying jobs or even unpaid jobs. It’s all about building up experience, portfolio, network, and rating.

On the other hand, if you deliver quality work, then don’t sell yourself short. Know what you’re worth, track your time with RemoteOne and don’t be afraid to ask a reasonable fee for it. There are plenty of clients who look for quality work and are willing to pay for it.

Find a platform with freelancing jobs for beginners

1. Upwork

One of the most popular and biggest freelancing websites is Upwork. This is also the platform that I used to start my freelance writing career. A great thing about Upwork is that it’s free to sign up. You don’t need to pay any monthly fees so it is perfect for beginner freelancers and remote workers to give it a try.

Upwork offers jobs in writing, software development, engineering, translation, legal, IT & networking, design, data science, sales & marketing, customer service, and admin support.

Once you’ve finished setting up your profile and you’ve chosen which categories you’re interested in, Upwork invites you to a quick Skype call to verify your identity. After that, you can apply to jobs and clients can send you an invite. There are entry-level, intermediate, and expert jobs.

When you have delivered a job, you get the opportunity to provide feedback for your client and vice versa. Note that your client’s feedback impacts your JSS (Job Success Score). Try to not leave a contract idle for too long or close a contract yourself. This brings down your JSS.

Fee: Upwork is free to sign up. But (and this is a huge but), they charge 20% commission on completed jobs. This goes down to 10% after the first $500.01 and 5% after $10,000. But if you make $1000 a month and have several clients, this adds up to $200 a month. This is way higher than the monthly fees of some other platforms.

2. Fiverr

Another great site to find freelancing jobs for beginners is Fiverr. Although every job starts at $5 (hence the name), you can set up tiers above that. This platform is a good start to gain experience, build up a portfolio and make some money online. Fiverr offers a variety of freelance jobs, such as writing, graphic design, digital marketing, advertising, and programming.

Fee: like Upwork, Fiverr is free to sign up but they also charge 20% commission on completed projects.

3. Freelancer

I’ve used Freelancer once, thinking it was free. It isn’t. You only have 8 free applications and after that, you pay a membership fee. Freelancer is widely used and offers a variety of job listings for beginners, intermediates, and experts. Although the majority of jobs is short term, they have long term jobs as well.

Fee: I had to dig a bit to find out their pricing plans. There are 5 different ones:

• Intro – $0.99/month
• Basic – $4.95/month
• Plus – $9.95/month
• Professional – starts at $29.95/month (with a free 30-day trial)
• Premier – $59.95/month

Note that if you choose one of their cheaper plans, you’ll pay more in fees per project and receive fewer bids per month than with their higher priced plans.

4. People Per Hour

People Per Hour is a UK based service and is used by more than 1 million people. It has a huge community of freelancers and businesses from all over the world. People Per Hour offers jobs in writing, web development, designing and more. You can either bid on a job, get an invite from a client or post ‘hourlies’. Hourlies is a set of services that you offer for a fixed fee. Kind of like Fiverr but for a higher price. People Per Hour is a UK based service and is used by more than 1 million people. It has a huge community of freelancers and businesses from all over the world. People Per Hour offers jobs in writing, web development, designing and more. You can either bid on a job, get an invite from a client or post ‘hourlies’. Hourlies is a set of services that you offer for a fixed fee. Kind of like Fiverr but for a higher price.

People Per Hour offers jobs in writing, social media, video/photography, translation, marketing & SEO, development, design, and admin.

Fee: like Upwork, signing up with People Per Hour is free but they do charge a commission fee over completed projects. Up to £500 is 20%, from £501 to £4500 is 7.5%, and over £4500 is 3.5%.

Note that if you’re being paid in dollars, you need to pay a standard exchange rate.

5. Flexjobs

Flexjobs has 55 different career categories, either part-time or full-time. Beginner freelancers go for the jobs at entry level. Once you have gained some experience, you can go for the ones at executive level.

Flexjobs hand-screens and curates all of their jobs so you know you can trust them. This is a paid service but well worth it. If you’re not happy with them, you’ll get a refund within 30 days.

Fee: you can get a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription. Access to their full service starts at $14.95 per month.

6. Guru

On Guru, you can find tons of freelancing jobs for beginners and experts in all sorts of categories. They have jobs for programmers, developers, designers, artists, writers, translators, sales & marketing professionals, admins & secretaries, engineers, architects, business & finance professionals, and lawyers.

Guru provides daily job matches to make it easier to find a job.

Fee: it’s free to sign up with Guru. Depending on your membership level, you need to pay a transaction fee between 4.95%-8.95% per completed project.

7. Freelance Writing Jobs

Formerly known as Freelance Writing Gigs, Freelance Writing Jobs is a job board that offers lots of interesting writing jobs. You can browse through different categories or search for a specific location. As with any other job board, it’s still important to do a bit of research on the client that wants to hire you. Check the website of the business offering the job. To apply for a job, the site either directs you to the website of the client or gives you an email address to send your application to.

Fee: there’s no fee, it’s a job board!

8. Constant Content

Another good place to find online writing jobs and make money while you build up your portfolio is Constant Content. When you sign in, you have to do a quick quiz and submit a 100-250 writing example. After that, you can start picking articles.

Fee: signing up with Constant Content is free but Constant Content gets 35% of any article you sell. You can, however, determine your own price and most articles cost around $0.10 per word.

9. Tutor.com

If you are great at math, science, English or a foreign language, you can work as an online tutor! Do you live in the US or Canada? Then Tutor.com is the perfect place to find freelance jobs for beginners who want to work as a tutor.

Fee: there’s no fee, you get paid a set hourly rate.

Congrats, you are a freelancer!

These platforms make it easy for you to land your first online freelancing gig. Remember that it takes time and dedication to develop your freelancing career. But I promise you, you will get there. Once you get this ball rolling, you’ll have clients finding you through your own network and you won’t even need these platforms anymore!