If you’ve ever considered remote work, you’ve probably heard of Fiverr. And if you’ve heard of Fiverr, you probably know it is infamous for low-paying gigs. Whether that’s true or not is more complicated than you might think, but in this post, we’ll take a look at sites like Fiverr to help you earn more.
Remote work is great. It enables you to work in the comfort of your own home (or anywhere, for that matter), set your own schedule, and avoid lengthy commutes.
The problem is that a lot of people want those benefits. Not only that but when you look for remote work, you are often competing with freelancers in foreign countries that have much lower standards of living.
All this means remote work can become a race to the bottom.
But it doesn’t have to be. If you learn how to find remote work in the right places, you can have all the benefits of remote work without having to work for pennies.
Why Remote Work?
Times are changing. There are a number of reasons work-from-home jobs more sense than it did in the past, but the biggest reasons are probably the advent of the internet coupled with the inexpensiveness of hardware.
In other words, most people don’t need an employer to be able to afford a $300 laptop and a $50/month internet connection (YMMV).
In addition, many people like being more flexible and don’t mind a fluid schedule. The reality is that that the hours of 9-5 are arbitrary; as long as you get your work done, it doesn’t really matter when you get it done.
When you consider this plus all the other good things about remote work, it really starts to make sense. Alas, let’s look at some of the best sites like Fiverr.
After all, if you’re competing against everyone in the world, it can become a race to the lowest rate. And we don’t want that!
1. Remote.co
Remote.co is one of my favorite jobs for finding freelance work. And let’s say you specifically want to see freelance work. You can do that by clicking remote jobs, then clicking the +, and clicking on freelance:
Remote.co is one of my favorite sites like Fiverr. It doesn’t just have one category of job, nor is it overly heavy on tech jobs like some remote job boards are.
If you browse remote jobs, you’ll find a wide range of remote work that will meet almost any freelancer’s needs:
I’m not sure what else you could possibly want. I guess if you’re a freelance painter, this won’t help you much. But for the vast majority, there’s a job category here that type of freelance work you do.
2. Remoteok.io
In fact, you’ll notice that in the snippet above, taken from Remoteok.io’s homepage, that “non-tech” is a separate category. This implies that the site focuses mostly on tech with a few non-tech jobs thrown in.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Tech is a great place to be nowadays and there’s no reason to think that tech won’t be strong decades into the future.
So, if tech is your cup of tea (or should I say Java?) check out Remoteok.io.
3. Upwork
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Upwork given that this site is usually the first alternative people think about when it comes to Fiverr alternatives.
In a lot of ways, Upwork is similar to many other remote work sites. It lets you browse a swath of job postings that match the preferences you’ve indicated.
However, that gets to what sets Upwork apart: you create a profile on the site where you specify you skills as well as the type of work you are seeking.
In addition, Upwork has a more stringent application process than it used to. For example, I couldn’t get approved to join the site when I simply had my freelance writing skills on my portfolio.
If you want to learn how to beef up your freelance writing portfolio, Holly Johnson’s Earn More Writing course is a great resource.
It wasn’t until I added the web design skills I have no that I was able to get approved. So, the fact that not everyone is automatically approved could give you a one-up on the competition – provided that you have specialized skills.
4. Indeed
I know that, personally, I don’t immediately think of Indeed being an amazing place to find remote work. Especially not contract work.
But if your mind goes to the same place as mine, I’ve got news for you: Indeed has this type of work as well.
With a bit of finagling, I was able to browse listings for jobs that are both freelance and remote:
The reason finagling was necessary is because Indeed will plug in your detected geolocation by default (assuming it has location access). In order to find remote jobs, though, I had to delete my location from the “where” box (as you can see above).
Then, I hit search again. Once I did that, I had a new “remote” option in my left sidebar:
I found this a little strange and thought maybe I just missed it the first time around, so I tried searching again with my actual location. Sure enough, though, I didn’t see the “remote” option in the left pane, so you do have to delete your physical location from the search for this to work.
If you want to try this yourself, you can type “freelance” in the “what” box and “remote” in the “where” box (see first snippet above).
5. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is another site I typically would associated with full-time work – “career” work, if you will. That may or may not be true, but what’s definitely true is that you can find plenty of freelance work on LinkedIn, too.
How it Works
The way you search for freelance jobs is pretty simple, actually. After logging in, just click on the Jobs icon at the top to go to the job search page.
Once you get there, just search “freelance” + (your desired job). I personally do freelance writing, so you can see plenty of examples of what this looks like in the snippet below.
If you click in the search location box, you’ll see Remote as an option.
By the way…there’s another way to find remote work on LinkedIn.
It’s a little more murky than just searching jobs, though. Remember, LinkedIn is more than just a job board – it’s also a networking site.
That means that if you know a company you’d like to work for, you can search that company and find people who work there. If you find someone with a relevant job title (editor, if you’re a freelance writer), you can message those people and ask them if they are hiring.
Of course, this won’t always work out, but all it takes is one yes, right? It’s worth a try.
6. Google
You may know that Google is getting more and more capable these days. While it wouldn’t necessarily be my first choice, Google can work like Fiverr if you simply Google “freelance jobs”:
If you click 100+ more jobs, you’ll be taken to a full page of job listings complete with plenty of filters to help you find the freelance job that fits your requirements.
7. Freelancer
Although I did decide to include this site on my list, it’s no accident that Freelancer.com is at the bottom.
It’s not that there is inherently anything bad about Freelancer, but the issue that I’ve had with it is that the jobs on this site seem to be pretty low-paying, too.
However, I figured I would still include it because, to its credit, this site has a ton of job postings. It also has a cool feature, Updates, which shows you a real-time feed of new jobs:
When you see the time stamps on these, you start to get a sense of job how often new jobs are posted at Freelancer. Yes, new jobs are constantly being posted, which is the reason you may want to at least have a look.
Sites Like Fiverr: Conclusion
Freelancing remotely isn’t always an easy gig. People think it’s an incredibly cushy lifestyle, but it can have its bumps at times.
From demanding clients to low rates, things aren’t always easy. And since you are sometimes competing with literally the entire planet sometimes with remote work, low rates may seem like an inevitability.
But they don’t have to be. If you know the right places to look, and how to search those places, there’s no reason to think you can’t find plenty of high-paying freelance work.
All it takes is a little creativity, and you’ll be working for dollars, not pennies.
