A chicken that has just hatched from an egg sees a huge world in front of itself, full of the unknown. In the same way, a new, unexplored world with its laws and peculiarities opens up before freelance marketplace. Now, one needs to solve the most important question – where to look for a job? Where to find that customer who is ready to pour a handful of coins for your skills? Wherever you go with this question, you will be sent to the online freelance marketplace.

Why A Freelance Marketplace?

99% experienced freelancers started with the freelance marketplace and after a year or two of work acquired regular customers. For a beginner, it’s a very good place to start. And, here is why:

• You get your first online presence which is important according to freelancer guide for beginners. And for this, you do not need to create your own website. Here is all the functionality for you: write about yourself, attach a photo, show your skills, and fill in the work in the portfolio. If you take up the rating, you can achieve good results.

• There is really a lot of work, especially, for beginners. Yes, don’t expect big money right away. But, at the very start, you don’t have such skills for which you can be paid dearly. We speak as it is. And if you were so cool, you would have a customer base already. So, the question of finding customers should not stand yet. To start, to develop a portfolio, you will find many small tasks. Gradually, you can grow, and take on complex assignments.

• The freelance marketplace has a system of protection against fraudsters. You can’t even imagine how many people are ready to profit from the free work of another. Constantly someone is fooling someone: either they give the test task without payment or they simply use your work insolently without paying a dime. The exchange offers a simple system of protection against this.

Only when you’ve already found serious regular customers – you can work with them directly. Or when you already have a rating, some authority – you will work on a prepaid basis. In the meantime, no one will give advance payment to a beginner, and working on a post-payment basis, you are defenseless. Working through the freelance marketplace, you will be safe.

Freelance Exchanges

So, which freelance marketplace to choose for work? You may find the ones listed below useful. All of them are popular, have paid services, there are a lot of customers and safe transaction service. And all of them are suitable for a beginner.

Freelance Marketplace	Commission	Number of freelancers	Number of projects per year	Whom will suit
Upwork	5% -20%	About 15 million	10+ million	Web developers, mobile developers, designers, architects, desktop developers, system administrators, translators, virtual assistants, photographers, lawyers, etc.
TopTal	$500	About 1 million	100,000+	Web developers, mobile developers, designers, desktop developers, etc.
Freelancer	3% -10%	About 20 million	About 8 million	Web developers, mobile developers, designers, architects, desktop developers, system administrators, translators, virtual assistants, etc.
Guru	12%	1.5 million	2.4 million	Designers, web developers, mobile developers, desktop developers, etc.
99designs	from $300	More than one million	Less than a million	Designers, photographers, etc.

The largest and most popular freelance marketplaces, according to freelancer guide for beginners are Upwork and Freelancer.

Upwork

The interface of the website is quite simple. To start working on the exchange, it is enough to register (registration is free). There are 2 types of accounts – Basic (free, 60 connections per month) and Plus ($10 per month, 70 connections per month, the ability to purchase additional connections – 1 connection = $1). When applying for projects, a cover letter is written, where you need to show an understanding of the problem and knowledge of solutions for its implementation.

Freelancer

On the online freelance marketplace Upwork to find a job, you will have to deal with the need to inject funds into the exchange. First, you need to choose a membership plan, which costs from $1 to $60 per month. That is, if you come with empty pockets and don’t invest anything in this exchange, then you will not succeed. These membership plans set the number of applications per month, the number of external invoices, the ability to submit applications for highly paid work, the ability to customize the appearance of your profile, and so on. In order to have a sufficient number of applications per month and apply for good projects, you need a membership plan for at least $10 per month.