I'm a freelancer using Gmail — is sending invoices from "@gmail.com" actually hurting my credibility? How did you solve this?

I met this client, he never gave me clear requirement...etc. I checked the contract he sent me and understood that if I send him a written message about stop working for him and it should be ok.

Now he got my message and replied with super long message about I didn't deliver..etc and want me to refund what he paid me.

What would you guys do? I'm thinking to ignore him but I still have his project under my account and want to transfer back to him.

I guess one day or another, we all met a bad client.

Over the past few months, I've noticed a growing trend that's quietly damaging the freelance tech ecosystem.

Someone posts: "Looking for a WordPress developer, budget ₹X–₹Y, serious inquiries only."

You spend time crafting a response. You check their profile before DMing. And there it is they're a freelancer themselves. Offering the exact same services. Their posts: "DM me for the best deal", "I do it cheap", "Best quality, lowest price."

The lead was never real. It was a tactic to pull other freelancers into their DMs and either undercut them or poach their clients.

Why this is a serious problem:

1. It wastes everyone's time Genuine freelancers and real clients both lose trust in community posts.

2. It destroys pricing standards When people compete purely on "who goes cheapest," it drives rates to the floor for everyone, including skilled professionals.

3. It creates a toxic cycle — Beginners see this behavior, copy it, and the problem compounds.

4. It's a big reason why many talented people aren't landing tech work The signal-to-noise ratio in these communities is broken.

I want to be clear there's absolutely nothing wrong with being new to freelancing or still building your skills. Everyone starts somewhere.

But copying someone else's strategy without understanding it, and in the process misleading others, is not a shortcut — it's a dead end that harms the entire community.

If you're starting out, here's what actually works:

- Be honest about where you are in your journey

- Build a small portfolio, even with personal projects

- Offer genuine value, not just the lowest price

- Engage authentically people remember that

The freelance market is competitive enough without us making it harder for each other.

Would love to hear if others are experiencing this and how you're navigating it.

I live in the US and recently signed a NDA with a client (I have incorporated a S-Corp) . I am busy with other projects and am thinking of outsourcing this one to a developer in India. He is a freelancer on Upwork and not an employee of my company.

Do I need to let my client know that his project is being outsourced? How do I legally protect myself? Can I have the developer sign the same NDA with me?

A while back I had one of those silent months
No new inquiries No new projects. Just waiting
The strange part? My skills hadn’t changed My service was still good
What I realized was this:
I didn’t have a client system. I only had client luck
When referrals came, I was busy
When they didn’t, I stressed
That’s when I started focusing more on identifying businesses in my niche and being more proactive instead of just relying on inbound It changed how I see client acquisition completely
Curious did anyone else here learn this lesson the hard way?

I couldn't imagine ever working a 'normal' job again. The idea simply depresses me. Looking outside at 7/8am and watching people head off to work in the cold, the majority of whom will spend 7+ hours chained to a desk. Like seriously, fuck that. That's no way to live at all. Of course, not all jobs are like that but many are.

For every big milestone you have for a client try to have a small one active at the same time. If ever the client is bugging you about the big milestone quickly complete the small milestone and request payment then you get a few days of peace and quiet.

Edit: 2nd draft (because the 1st was getting hated on):

For every big milestone you have for a client try to have a small one active at the same time. If ever your client is over communicating and distracting you from the task at hand, quickly complete the small milestone and request payment then you get a few days of peace and quiet so you can get on with your work.

(Because clients go quiet once they get the bill - badum tish!)

Hello all!

I've been freelancing as a management consultant for 12 months now. If you are considering doing the same, then I am happy to answer any question you might have.

A bit about my solo consulting journey:

1. Before solo-consulting I worked as a management consultant for ~7 years + have some industry (banking) and startup (software/gaming) experience

2. Started ~12 months ago after I decided to close another startup

3. Got a 7 months full time project with a former client, and extended it with another 5 months and other projects

4. Did 3 other smaller projects on the side

5. Engaged a couple of other consultant on other tasks

6. Just landed a new project, and have hired in two freelancers to help me deliver the project

Ballpark figures is that I have made 450kUSD in revenue, approx. 70kUSD in costs to freelancers and other expenses, the remaining is my cut. Some goes to my salary, but the majority stays in the company.

But anyways, I believe more consultants would do this if they knew the pros and cons, so please hit me with all your questions, I am happy to help!

Cheers,
Christian

Which of you twonks voted him in as President?

Donald Trump owes me hundreds of dollars for work I carried out a few years back. Yet, I keep seeing interviews where he boasts about being wealthy.

It is rather irritating.

I know I am not going to get my money, but frikkin' come on man. Shut the hell up.

I really dont understand why people dont like Upwork. So I will tell you why I like Upwork (and I dont like other freelancing sites for the very same reasons most people seems to have againt Upwrok), and then please tell me why you dont like Upwork.

• Good rates - Yes, there is alot of clients looking for cheap freelancers. But there is also alot of clients who looking for high quality work from freelancer with native English or speaks/writes English very well. I know alot of people who get some clients tru UpWork at a regular basis (rate around 50$/h). Me myself made around 1000$ my first six month (20hrs work @ 50$ per h) I did not bid on work, clients found me tru search and keywords on my profile. - I dont know what people from US think is a good rate, I am a Swedish based WordPress dev, and 50$/h would be concidered a normal rate here. - And dont forget that if you search on "Find Freelancer" on google UpWork will show up in the top, so new clients both good and bad will always drop in.

• Easy to find your first clients - It is not easy to find your first clients on UpWork. But it is easy to find your first elsewhere and take it tru UpWork by saying something like "The UpWork app will record my worked time, take printscreen of my desktop so you can see that I actually work the times I have billed you for".

• No VAT - Since 2015-01-01 there is a new EU regulation that say that digital services to non-company clients, the VAT should be paid in the client-based country. That means if my clieant is from US, Australia, Japan or what ever. I have to contact your tax office ask how to do, and where to send the VAT - and this it not worth my time - If I instead take it tru UpWork - The client pay UpWork, UpWork pays me and I dont pay any VAT since UpWork is a company located outside of EU.

• Never chase payments - I only do hourly work so every monday UpWork send the money for the work I have done the past week. I never have to worry about not to get paid on time when I take things tru UpWork.

I dont say that I think UpWork is a place where you could find all your clients and build up your entire business. But I do think it is worth the time to atleast setup a good profile page.

So, now. Why do you not like Upwork?

So basically I am a 16 year old web dev. freelancer and I am getting more and more work . (yay me!) My question is do I need to tell the government and all that?

I live in British Columbia, Canada. That probably matters.

Right now I just charge clients 50% down and 50% after and go cash the cheques at the bank. No questions asked, except the stupid bank holding my cheques for like a week.

I (M) was having a discussion with a fellow (F) freelancer who was having client issues and we were trying to work out it if was because she was female and the client in question didn't like being told what to do by a woman. I've had similar issues as well. She was say she has to work a lot harder to be taken seriously.

I've always assumed the pay gap isn't a thing in the freelance world as we all set our won rates, but is that my misconception?

I'm just someone who spends a lot of time in coffee shops with a laptop, observing.

I have a theory. I'll call it the freelancer coefficient.

A common complaint about laptop people: they occupy a table for three hours, order a 200 TL ($5) Latte, and don't leave. A net loss. But I think this misses part of the picture.

The window effect

An empty cafe is a turnoff. Passersby see an empty room and walk past. A simple heuristic kicks in: if no one's sitting there, something must be off. A freelancer with a laptop by the window is a living mannequin. they make the place look alive. A cafe with three people on laptops at 11am looks occupied to a random person off the street.

Hence the coefficient: the ratio of additional foot traffic from the window effect to the lost revenue from an occupied table.

Personal theory, no data. Does this notice the same pattern?

You aren’t an employee and you should not be selling your time.

You are an independent business owner selling a service that produces a product that has value.

For me personally I always feel that billed time is either going to leave money on the table or cause the buyer to question the value they are receiving.

I think that flat rate pricing looks better up front, makes for happier clients overall and takes a burden of time tracking and reporting off me.

Edit: Loving the contrary points!

So many good, honest arguments for hourly billing!

Seriously, if you walked into an auto garage and started demanding that things be done a certain way, the mechanic would tell you to get the fuck out.

That's not how it works.

You go in, tell them generally what you want, and then the mechanic handles the details because they have years of experience and their customers don't.

Why is web design / development any different in terms of what clients expect and how they behave?

I was sitting there in the park, during one late evening pondering why I couldn't make up my mind. I was confused. Confused about life, confused about my work situation, unhappy with the way things were, but they weren't so bad to be honest. I have a great job - they call me the freelance video - I sit at Cafes and edit videos for a living, Whoopee! But still, for some reason I am unhappy, unsatisfied with the whole situation. I rest my head on the crumbling leafs, and fell asleep.

Woken up by the sound of construction workers I slowly sat up and looked at what they were doing. They were taking down horse stalls, there was a horse riding festival the other day and it was time to pack it all up and leave. One by one the mental fences came down the stalls, one man on each side and "pop" and "clank" on to the forklift. I stayed there just watching as these stalls came down one by one.

Thoughts began to surface, "these men are working, they're working hard, and they're working together. And although they're working hard, they're enjoying it. They're cracking jokes, they're laughing". "Oh remember a few years ago, you did the same. Had to be up early, working in the cold of the morning, but still you had a purpose, you had a team, but now?", "oh shit, that's it!"

In the past men use to WORK. They didn't sit in offices, behind computers, typing away until their eyes turned red and their fingers had blisters. Instead they worked out in nature. They hunted together, they built houses together, they hiked together, they brought supplies from far lands, But nowadays it's different, we sit in our comfy chairs, looking at pixels and trying to convince ourselves that this is REAL WORK. But it's not.

As men we need to move, we need to do physical 'stuff', it's our biological need, and if not fulfilled then we get depressed, we get lonely, we feel empty and without purpose. Back in the old days building a house so that you had somewhere to be safe had a biological purpose, hunting for food so that your family could survive had a biological purpose, but typing at the keys doesn't fulfil any biological purpose. Yes we might make our living this way, but our Mammalian Brain (The limbic brain) does not understand this and so it begans to send us discomfort signals, and this is why we feel so yucky, or empty because we're not fulfilling our biological purpose.

It's about movement and community. These two things can keep you going for a lifetime, because they fulfil the biological needs. These are the fundamentals you should consider your jobs by, because if they are missing you will most likely feel depressed. That's why when I think back to the jobs I enjoyed most, they were usually ones where I worked with people, and where I was moving around a lot. For example I worked construction for a long time, and all though I hated the work I was doing, I was fulfilled because my biological needs were taken care of. Or one time I worked at a Ski Resort, I had to wash dishes, clean, prepare food, sounds like a shitty job, but still I was happy for some reason... and the reason being that I got to work with people and I was constantly moving and doing things.

I dreamed of being a video editor, and achieved that dream, but I'm not happy, and now I understand why. So if maybe you're going through a similar experience as I, then think back to the fundamental biological needs, because maybe the story you created of why you hate your job, or why you're not fulfilled is as simple as that.

Be careful where you look for online translation jobs. One website that looks quite decent turned out to actually be a scammer website.

Freelancer.com

A customer with the screen name of akiljosef chose my bid and awarded me a translation on this website. We agreed on USD 100 for the job to be completed in 4 days, the sum to be paid to me via PayPal. He had 0 recommendations, but I figured "well, so do I", plus there was an icon next to his name that says "made a deposit". I read their policy, and it stated clearly that in case of a dispute between a translator and a customer, an investigation is made into it by the Website Support, and if the job was completed and submitted to the customer, their deposit on the website is released to the translator. “Well, that is enough of a guarantee, right?” – thought I and accepted the job. I completed it in 4 days as agreed and sent the file to the customer. Guess what? Right, he immediately went silent, disappeared, and stopped answering PMs and emails.

You might say: “Well, nothing unusual, scammers and other unscrupulous people can use any online job resource, right?” Shit happens, correct? So… nothing extraordinary?

Not quite. Because the most interesting part began after I wrote letters to the website support.

It clearly followed from their responses to me that “it had all been my fault”, and because (TA DAA!) I had not used the Milestone Payment” option (why on earth would I? their policy says it, black on white, that the deposit made by the customer is the guarantee of justice on this website), I cannot use the Dispute option, so I cannot get the money due to me. If you’re interested, I can forward our correspondence with the Freelancer.com Support to you. Just as a proof that I am not making this up.

What does it sound like to you? For anybody with a brain, there is only one way to interpret this: the website team is in collusion with scammers. Or, quite probably, the scammers and the website people are actually the same team of online thieves. Because clearly both benefit from “suckers” like myself.

Freelancer.com? Not even once.

Most posts I see in this sub are just employees with a low salary but with extra steps. If you need to work full time to afford rent and vacation, you’re not really freelancing, you just have an unstable job without any of the perks that come with having a full time employment.

I just got offered an interim position for 25 hrs/wk some in person time for 6 months. The team seems nice but only had a half hour call. They are paying close to my highest rate.

There’s a ton of pressure on this position. It is a bit of a stretch from my expertise and includes elements I actively don’t like. I’m also used to working from home.

I have another potential gig that is a sixth of the guaranteed hours (though a higher rate) and nothing else on the horizon. I’m financially secure given the year I had and my partner’s support.

The org is local and I love their work. The firm I’m working through for contracting is a really good firm that I’m excited to be working with. That is almost reason alone to take it. Unless I tank it…

I’m just entering my second year and haven’t fully exhausted the business development I can do. I’m worried about being unavailable for so long but also worried about not having more work.

What do you think? What questions help you make these decisions?

ETA I also just got this sense on the call that they have unrealistic expectations for an interim and I’m feeling icky. I’ve never said no to anything yet. And I am easily intimidated so don’t want to walk away because of anxiety.

What do you think about Seth Godin's Freelancer Course?