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New Premium Freelancer Marketplace

by WSPcpa
8 replies
This is not a plug - this is just to get a sense of what you all are thinking and what you would like to see!

I am building a freelance marketplace which will feature SEO, SMM, Email, and content marketing. I see 3 major differences from the typical platforms (upwork, freelancer.com) that are necessary and will benefit everyone. I want to start with warrior forum to get some feedback and see what it is you actually want - maybe I'm crazy and these wouldn't be useful.

1) Accept the top 10% of applicants that apply - based primarily on their work history, work product quality, white hat/ethical methods, and communication.
2) Provide independent feedback as we will be monitoring the project and reviewing the work product.
3) Minimum hourly rate of $15 or 19/hour

Why these 3?

1) There is a lot of "crap" in the freelance marketplaces especially at the lower rates, with people offering white hat SEO and SMM services but then blast your site onto blog posts of spammy, unrelated sites - or tweets and facebook posts with crappy grammar. We screen this out and only take those who will give you sustainable growth.
2) The ratings on freelance marketplaces are inflated. Many people (in general) give either 5 stars or no stars because they may be afraid of ruining someone's earning potential. We would provide actual feedback ratings based on the work product so the ratings are more accurate, as well as provide actual feedback to the freelancer to
3) We want to find the right mix of value in price with quality of product. For this rate you're guaranteed to get what you're asking for and have comfort that you won't get detrimental effects (google penalties or bad PR).

In addition, the platform will offer a dashboard to see in a graph over time: backlinks, keyword rankings, social shares, and key pieces of information internet markers want.

TL;DR
Freelancers: Earn more
Employers: Guaranteed quality

Thoughts?
#freelancer #marketplace #premium
  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    for the minimum rate I would just go locally and pay that. The reason we hire virtual assistants from places like the Philippines is we can get great work for $5.00 per hour or less. And this does not reflect on the quality of work, it is just that those low hourly rates are actually good money to them.

    How will you handle the vetting of prospective freelancers. Anyone can pass an interview with flying colors then change their colors in an instant.

    With your star rating. How will you change human behavior. Like you said people will usually give no stars or 5 stars, how can you change that. If you make the review process to "complicated" people will just not leave a review.

    Just some thoughts

    al
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    "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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    • Profile picture of the author WSPcpa
      The issue with the low rates, IMO, is that there can be a lack of quality - especially around SEO SMM. For data processing - probably not as much.


      The vetting of freelancers will be based on their history of work which we will review - and try to automate as much as possible but it would be no doubt manually reviewing the quality and reviewing for what is most relevant in each service line.


      The star ratings provided by the employers will likely be similar to what has been done elsewhere - however WE will also be reviewing the product and leaving independent ratings - so that even within our group of pre-screened candidates the cream rises to the crop. Employers will be able to view both employer ratings and the ratings our company gives the freelancers.


      Good questions and thoughts - keep them coming!
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  • Profile picture of the author BradVert2013
    I think this is a great idea! A lot of freelance workers devalue the work they do by charging peanuts. $2 for a 500 word article (for example) is insulting. I've had more than a few clients come to me because they paid someone, who barely speaks English, $2 for a few articles, then wonder why they come out so crappy.

    There is a pretty substantial market for people who are willing to pay for quality and good service.
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  • Profile picture of the author superowid
    codeable.io did it in the wordpress niche, but their price is not cheap. Somehow, freelancer site like this is kind like trending right now. Maybe some market really realize that to get professional result, they really need to pay professional fee through professional marketplace like codeable.io.
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  • Profile picture of the author WSPcpa
    You're right - there is a growing trend of freelance sites focusing on premium talent. I think the internet marketing is an area which could certainly use this.

    While I'm gathering research, would someone feel more comfortable if the talent pool was screened and allowed only the top 10% - OR did a good job a screening the applicants and specified how the applicants were screened (and not list a %).


    Would the fact that the projects are monitored by us and the quality of the work product checked be a selling point? For example if an SEOer is putting spammy links all over terrible places and using terrible grammer - we would stop the project and the give the freelancer a bad "star" rating. I think this provides another dimension of the rating system - are there any thoughts about this?
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  • Profile picture of the author TheWrightWords
    I only know writing, so keep that in mind

    If you want top 10% and truly want to attract good, experienced writers, you're looking at .10 per word as a minimum for basic copy (not sales copy, which would be more expensive).
    I do not think you will attract real talent at any lesser rate. WriterAccess has a good model -- their Level 6 is really just premium talent and rates start at .10. I pick up filler work there at that level because it is fast, easy and the sales work has been done. My private rate starts at .20 per word; I am willing to work for less because so much of the prospecting is done, I just log in and pick up whatever looks appealing when I have time.
    FYI, they charge customers up front, I believe $2,500 is the minimum deposit for an enterprise level account, but they do offer lower priced plans with less frills for basic level customers.

    Just looking at it from a freelancer's POV, there are plenty of places that market themselves as exclusive, but end up offering something like $15 per 500 words and expect real writers to jump all over it. I think you can get a good, native speaker for that price, but not a premium freelancer.

    If you do truly go premium, then trust me, good writers will find you
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    Need top quality niche content to keep readers coming back for more? I'll provide 100% original, magazine quality content so you can focus on what you do best!
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    • Profile picture of the author WSPcpa
      Thank you for this - I'm glad to get a price point for content. To put it into perspective, lets say a standard blog post of 600 words, earning $60 - Generally how many hours would this take? For a premium post I know there will be more than just sitting down and cranking out words, so I want to get an idea.
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      • Profile picture of the author BradVert2013
        Originally Posted by WSPcpa View Post

        Thank you for this - I'm glad to get a price point for content. To put it into perspective, lets say a standard blog post of 600 words, earning $60 - Generally how many hours would this take? For a premium post I know there will be more than just sitting down and cranking out words, so I want to get an idea.
        I can write a 500-word post in about an hour, maybe less. This is just an average though because I might need to research some topics more before I actually start writing. But for a run-of-the-mill blog post, 600-words will take roughly one hour.
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