Dealing with Money
Different Freelance website have different ways for you to be paid and most of them give you flexibility to decide what's most
appropriate. You could split your work into two or more phases (or 'benchmarks') and ask for a % of the amount at each
phase e.g. 30% deposit before work begins, a further 40% on completion of a draft and a final 30% when the work is finished in full.
Where possible try to use escrow to receive payments. Employers can set aside a specific amount of money into an escrow account that you
share. Both users can then view the payment in the escrow account, but only the employer can complete the payment, from the escrow account
to the Freelancer. The programmer is the only person (other than website staff) who can cancel this escrow payment. This gives each party
half of the control over the money in the escrow account and should greatly reduce the chances of you not being paid. Using Escrow is
usually free.
Building A Good Reputation
Most Freelancer websites have a rating system so that employers can rate you based on how you've handled the project. Ratings are
usually concerned with speed, quality of work, communication skills etc. It is very important that you do your best to build up your
reputation on these sites. To begin with it might be worth bidding low amounts for projects to get your ratings high otherwise some
employers won't give you the opportunity to work for them.
Avoiding Trouble With Your Employer
Do your best to avoid problems when working for other people. Be aware that employers can be unreliable, unreasonable and may try to
avoid paying you in extreme circumstances.
Many Freelancer sites have feedback about employers too so try to work with employers who have a proven reputation for treating their employers
well.
If you are going to provide samples make certain that you watermark images, provide only a few paragraphs of articles etc.
Most freelance sites have procedures to follow in case of dispute. Often they have message boards which are used to keep a permanent record
of communications between yourself and your employer. Make sure that important information such as changes to the project requirements,
delays in payments, complaints etc. are recorded here as you may be able to use it as evidence if the dispute gets out of hand.
Do not let your employer make changes to the project requirements when you have begun. Nothing is more frustrating for a Freelancer that
to suddenly receive emails such as "oh, by the way, can you add this to my website, i forgot to mention it before". Avoid this by asking
many questions as the work begins and by being firm if the employers requests are unreasonable. Often a compromise can be agreed upon and
you may find yourself getting paid a bit more for the employers lack of clear planning.
Communicate - Sometimes projects do overrun, or something unexpected comes up. The best thing to do about this is to be honest.
Most people are reasonable and understand when problems occur. You may choose to offer the employer a discount or some additional free work
if you are feeling especially guilty but it's often not required.
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