people per hour any good?

kal25

Hi guys sorry to bother you and apologise if there is already a thread regarding this but looked and couldn't see one.
Anyway, I was wondering if any of you use this site? it looks quite good but seems a bit confusing on how it all works?
I was looking at this site as I'm a single mum and student going back to finish my business studies course in sept
This site looks like it could be good as it would mean me being able to work from home around hours that I have.
It mentions things like a monthly fee which seems a bit confusing...I don't want to join and pay if i don't get jobs....also not sure how the invoice thing works.
If anyone could be of help would be hugeley appreciated TIA

smileylondongal

I'm so glad someone posted this, I'm interested in the above too!

Mistral001

I have tried a similar site called elance.com

The big problem with these sites is that you are competing in a global market place. that means competing with people in low-pay economies like India.

Generally you need to have a good speciality to make anything over £5 per hour. People who are voice-over artists and translators seem to do well. Anything where good English is required seems to do well as the people in poorer countries generally cannot compete with that.

A lot of it is a bit dodgey, though. For example many people make money by doing essays for students who want to cheat in their degree courses for example. Also full of people moonlighting on the side without their company knowing about it.

Greenst

Mistral001 wrote: »

I have tried a similar site called elance.com

The big problem with these sites is that you are competing in a global market place. that means competing with people in low-pay economies like India.

Generally you need to have a good speciality to make anything over £5 per hour. People who are voice-over artists and translators seem to do well. Anything where good English is required seems to do well as the people in poorer countries generally cannot compete with that.

I have looked at this too the area I am in is over subscribed unfortunately and as above if you are competing with India or China you can hardly be competitive. I looked at people who had gained work this way and they had hardly made anything at all, you need to look at the fees and what others have made, their totals to date, to see if it's worth while.

kal25

thanks guys not looking to make salary out of it...just thght I could maybe get extra money as am totally bored now no college course to get on with until sept. But some of the jobs looked regular...but again its whether if I sign up I'm goning to be charged money I can't afford to pay out without getting any back in?

MoneySavingUser

you can try gumtree - it is free to advertise on there

KiKi

You can register with PPH without paying a monthly fee. I do. It's essentially a site where you bid for the jobs advertised.

Unfortunately, you're competing against people from Asia (in particular) who are happy to work for silly rates. I always look at the writing category, but I almost never find any work that's worth doing, and the ones I bid for, I'm undercut by others who are prepared to work for peanuts. I don't overcharge, but I'm not going to do 3 hours' work for £15, either, especially when I then have to pay a percentage to PPH.

I did get one interview through it, by someone who used the site to 'fish' for consultants (then contacted me by other means). Nothing came of it, though.

The time it takes to find jobs, write a bid for each one, do the work, deal with incompetent employers who are advertising and don't understand how it all works hasn't been worth it at all, for me. And all the generic jobs (requiring very few skills) are HUGELY over-bid for. Data entry and admin jobs I've noticed have 200 people bidding.

I wouldn't bother unless you have the luxury of time to deal with it all.
KiKi

edinburgher

I'd agree with KiKi - I've looked at the site before and unless you have some interesting business-specific skills, it's probably more faff than it's worth.

That said, quite a few of the jobs I've looked at recently have actively been seeking freelancers based in the UK, so think there is work out there for the right people at reasonable rates.

somethingcorporate

I got in there quite early and managed to do a fair bit of consulting at reasonable rates and got some repeat business. After about 6 months it got flooded by the Indians etc happy to work for <£5ph many that are all well/equivalently qualified. This evidently drove down the prices and it became uncompetitive for lots of UK-based people. If you are happy to work for fun and a few quid an hour then it is a good way to earn a few extra pennies but long gone are the days (in most areas) where you can make a good hourly rate.

Good place to get some work done cheaply though!

p.s. there were quite a few non-payers in the early days with only some token measures to protect yourself against this. I am not sure if PPH have done anything recently to make it more favourable for the freelancers but it was always a concern that you would be engaged to do 10hours+ work at £20 per hour and only end up with less than half this.

KiKi

somethingcorporate wrote: »

p.s. there were quite a few non-payers in the early days with only some token measures to protect yourself against this. I am not sure if PPH have done anything recently to make it more favourable for the freelancers but it was always a concern that you would be engaged to do 10hours+ work at £20 per hour and only end up with less than half this.

You now have to state how much of your charges you want in escrow upfront. I always state 100%, so the only issue around non-payment will come if they can prove you didn't do the work, or what you bid for.

KiKi

InsideInsurance

Have only used these types of sites for providing programming services rather than business but they are in principle the same.

The challenge other than price is also getting feedback as it is similar to eBay and other such sites where if you have no feedback you cant get jobs and without jobs you cannot get feedback.

One final thing is the fact that it takes a lot of time to look through all the jobs, find the ones that are appropriate for you, write up a pitch and then answer any queries etc. My experience is that of all the bids I put in less than 20% was awarded to anyone and of that 20% you obviously are only getting a relatively small percentage.

My former company did a few jobs at next to free prices to build feedback and after that won a few mid sized projects. After factoring in the sales time it didn't workout worthwhile