by Helium01

Created on: July 15, 2009   Last Updated: July 18, 2009

Get A Freelance Job? But where? With the recession taking away jobs for many and hours for those that are still "employed", the classic advice of making up the difference with a second job becomes all the more difficult. After all, if there was a "second" job available, wouldn't it already be someone else's "first" job?

Where then can you work part time and make some extra money? Freelancing seems like an instant first choice. Work for yourself! Ah, but where do you find customers? And if you do find customers, how can you be sure that your interview doesn't answer so many questions that they do not need your skills? If you do get the work, how do you guarantee that they pay you?

An excellent source of protection is to go through a freelancing website. This eliminates much of the hassle of trying to find customers, because the customers have already described the job and pricing they are looking for. Freelancing websites are also easily searchable by skills, location, and pay range, making it almost a shoppers market for workers.

The challenge is finding freelancing websites that are more than bulletin boards. The best freelancing websites are ones that collect payment through the website, and thus grant protection that payment clears without risking your own financial information. Another advantage of the best sites is that task requesters are almost always legitimate because of worker avenues to complain to the website to have bad apples removed. There are also options to complain when work is done and ensure you are paid for completed tasks.

Based upon these criteria, the sites with the most worker protection and selection are:

1. Amazon Mechanical Turk https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome has a wide range of online opportunities but is a low-paying site.

2. Elance.com has a wide range of listings, including editing, writing, programming and copy work and has a higher profile than most similar sites.

3. Odesk.com has a wide range of job listings, including graphic design, illustration, and animation jobs for hire, all on short contracts.

4. Guru.com has a wide range of listings with a heavy emphasis on programming and scripting.

All four of these sites also work well for freelancers because you do not pay for the privilege of using them to find work. They guarantee payment after jobs are completed in return for 6-10% of the fee, which comes out of what the employer pays, not what you pay. This is an additional protection for workers because those that try freelancing and are not successful have not had to pay out of pocket for the failure.

These are just some tips to get you started on your way to becoming a freelancer using online websites. If you have been laid off or are looking for a new career, why not give freelancing a try? If you have a marketable skill, or are a fast learner, there isn't any reason why you can't start to make real money online.

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