Freelanced.com
Is This Your Business?Author: Jenna Vasquez
Top Ranked Companies
The Good
- Appeal to younger users
- Low membership fee
The Bad
- Amount of applicants
- Casual nature
- Lack of payment services
- Few guarantees
Because the majority of the services of this site can be used for free, it has the potential to be overrun with good and bad applicants alike. This will increase the amount of applications submitted for each job. This could quickly become overwhelming to employers, who don't want to comb through hundreds or thousands of applications to find the needles within the haystack. Furthermore, this could be frustrating for highly qualified users, who may never be found because they'll be buried within a deep pool of applicants. Because employers don't pay any kind of fee to post a job, the site could also be flooded with worthless job postings. While the site does reserve the right to remove any postings or other information that they deem inappropriate, it is unclear if, how, and how often this type of regulation takes place. Because of some of the issues described above, it's possible that high quality employers and big name companies may look elsewhere for freelancers. The site seems a bit too casual for a very serious, very professional business to first look for freelancers. This may also turn away some freelancers. While casual freelancers will likely flock to this site, it may deter more serious users who fear they are simply joining a mash-up between Facebook and LinkedIn that's full of unprofessional job seekers. Some users may dislike the lack of payment services by the site. While it's certainly a benefit that they don't charge a service fee or take a percentage of your pay, there's an inherent inconvenience that the site is not a one-stop destination for both finding employment and processing payments. A final con is the lack of guarantees. While buying a membership guarantees you certain privileges (such as being higher on lists viewed by potential employers) there is no guarantee that your application will be viewed or that you will receive a job-both of which are guarantees offered by some other freelancing platforms. That being said, the membership fees aren't nearly as high as the sites that do have guarantees.
The Bottom Line
Freelanced.com will certainly appeal to more casual users due to its social networking format, intuitive website, and free services. Furthermore, it provides additional benefits to more serious users attempting to beef up their chances of obtaining employment by offering paid memberships. The more casual format may influence the types of employers who post there. Overall, there's no harm in trying out a free membership and networking with other users, but very serious, more professional freelancers may want to look elsewhere.
