The Best Freelancer Site of 2020

 Right off the top of your head, what’s the biggest bother freelancers face.

i.                     Too much to do for too little money and in too little time.

ii.                   Freelancer sites skimming quite a lot off the top of the too little money.

If you’re in Nigeria, like I am, you know that the top choice for a creative is freelancing, or day job + freelancing. Why? Because Nigerians are not known for their high reward system for creatives. After all, it’s just writing¸ or just design, or just a website. It’s typical of agencies in Nigeria to pay creatives quite a little because we make it look so easy. Completely our faults.

I have been a freelancer since college, using social media for advertising, negotiating and whatnot, but we all know how that goes. People have no trouble owing you for months or asking you to “do it for exposure.” In February 2020, I signed up to use freelancer sites, just two actually. The two are actually popular, and I was happy to be paid fairly for the work I was doing. I eventually uninstalled the app for the second site because nobody who does good work has time to bid for every job. The first site, however, was a good deal and I really appreciate the creative jobs that have come my way through that site.

However, that site has a lot of disadvantages that didn’t bother me until I found a better option. Here are some of them;

-          The site is overcrowded, and that means that competition is quite stiff. So, buyers pay next to nothing for their work because there’s always someone who will do it for less.

-          To get on the site, freelancers have to pass an English test, but the whole world doesn’t speak English. Because of this, talented people from non-English speaking countries can’t get in, and those of us who speak good English are stuck with many buyers asking “you can speak French?” “English not my language, you speak Portuguese?”

Everyone deserves the opportunity to work with someone who understands them, and freelancers from countries that have not been colonized deserve the opportunity to sell their skills to those who can understand them.

-          The site takes 20% off everything you earn, including tips. When I discovered this, my reaction was “What in the third world???” Because of this, in your early weeks as a freelancer on this site, you would have to do a lot of work for $5, and then when you’ve delivered the work and the client has happily accepted, you get $4. Of course, when you withdraw, the payment site is going to take their own cut too. you pile up your money for 1 month, and when you’re ready to withdraw, an entire 20% stays back for the big chiefs. It’s heartbreaking. It’s lot like the Nigerian government, but that’s not what this article is about.

-          The site has this thing where if you don’t respond to messages on time, they take points off and make you look like a lousy freelancer. So, for those of us in the GMT time zone, this makes you feel like you have to be up through the night to respond to messages or die. I woke up once to see I had lost points and my profile was red. I’d decided to take a little time off. So, don’t even think about falling sick or worse, going into a comma. You’d be kicked out before you can return.

I’ve said too much about this site. The point is that the freelancing site was great, it provides loads of opportunities for a lot of freelancers to make some money, but there’s a lot that is wrong with it.

Now, let’s talk about the number one freelancer site. Drumroll, please. The award for best site for freelancers goes to URRGENT. Urrgent.com was just created in 2020, but it’s a perfect example that first doesn’t mean best. When I got on this site, I just thought, this is IT mehn!

Urrgent is a special startup, I kid you not. The CEO must have been a freelancer before starting the company, because seeing the site, you would know that the creator knows freelancers. Not freelancing, freelancers. Let me get to the main points.

• -        Now, this is the most important point for urrgent, and probably all you need to see to sign up. Urrgent charges you nothing for doing your work. Nothing. You keep what you earn. Did you think that was a joke? Nah bro! YOU KEEP WHATEVER YOU EARN.
• -          Urrgent is open to anyone with talent who is ready to work. Can’t speak English? Indicate in your profile that you can’t, and your audience would still find you. Of course, you can read this so you understand English. You don’t need to pass a test written by someone who studied elementary English in the united states to design websites.
• -          Here’s a personal favorite. You can accept or reject an order. With some other freelancing site, you go to sleep, wake up and find out that you have 8 hours to complete an order. With urrgent, you can say, “You look mean, pass.” I love that feature! Never used it, but still love it!
• -          Ok. Another personal favorite. You can set up our gigs to be paid however is most convenient. You can give it a fixed rate, an hourly rate, a weekly rate, even a monthly rate, so you can offer just about any service through urrgent. You can even accept BOOKINGS on urrgent! Whaaaaaaaat?!!
• -          Another thing, the urrgent vacation mode doesn’t set you back and turn your page into old news.
• -          Finally, the dashboard. I think that’s my favorite. Everything is right there. You want to check your sales? Click! You want to check on your gigs? Click! Messages? Click! Notifications? Click! Gotta change settings? Cliiick!

I’ve said a lot. The fact is, urrgent is the most convenient site for freelancers and people who want work done fast. It’s convenient because it puts the freelancer fast. I may be biased because I’m a freelancer, but I feel that freelancers go through a lot of stress, and so if there’s a site that reduces the stress somehow, that’s the one for me.

One of my favorite things about Urrgent is how quickly it evolves to serve the users better. If you know me, then you know I’m all about evolution for the sake of value, for individuals and for businesses. Urrgent didn’t have an app last month, but now it does, you can find it on playstore. Even though I feel the site is at its best right now and I cannot think of a single improvement, I’m sure it would have been upgraded again before the end of the year. Plus, isn’t the name just genius? I saw it and I thought, “Finally, a name that makes sense.”

If you’re a freelancer, work from home with clients all over the world; if you’re a business owner, here’s your chance to increase creativity in your team by getting freelancers from everywhere in the world.

Sign up here in 5 minutes or less, and let me know what you think. You can send me an email here [email protected] or check me out on urrgent.

Go freelancers!