GetAFreelancer: Final Verdict

April 19, 2009

Just over a year ago, I wrote about my initial experience using bidding site Get A Freelancer. At that time I spent about $13 to land a project worth around $750 and considered that fair enough. GAF got a bad press from many of my readers. With the exception of a few who had been lucky like me, most comments were similar to this one from James Chartrand:

GAF was bad back then. It’s still bad now. I think all writers should stay away from the place, because it’s a definite arena where 98% of the buyers don’t give a crap about quality work.

One Year On

So, a year later, am I still using GAF? Am I heck! By the end of last year, as recession started to bite, it seemed to me that potential clients used that as an excuse to offer projects that paid even less (if that’s even possible), while asking writers for even more. It just wasn’t worth it for me. I believe that writers should be paid fairly for their writing skills. Although I haven’t deleted my account, I’ve stopped subscribing to email updates and don’t plan to use the site again.

Who Should Use GAF?

I’m not writing Get A Freelancer off altogether. If you want to get paid to write and have absolutely no experience, sites like that can sometimes offer a way into the writing business. Just be careful not to take on so much work that you don’t have time to take advantage of better opportunities. Or spend the time writing articles for article marketing or your own blog — you might find that’s even more useful in the long run.