What are people's opinions of bidding sites such as Fiverr or Upwork in relation to how they fit into the design industry?
I'm trying to see if there's an overall immediate trend either way without deeper probing into reasons why, so short conclusive responses are encouraged. Can elaborate but don't feel like you have to.
Replies9
- @Michelangelo Torres Generally, the people behind these sites aren’t the most... qualified. It’s one of the natures of exploitative start-ups (which is how most of these platforms begin) that they’re made up of disparate money-grabbers rather than sincere collectives trying to build something they care about. They tend to have a big opinion of their own product without actually knowing how to relate or communicate to users – from whom they’re taking large fees, and without whom they’d be out of a job. My own experience, both in research and practice, is that they will have some form of algorithm thy flags certain things. Like other pseudo-AI, flags are often inappropriate. Lacking any nuance or ability to speak with users, they employ a zero-tolerance policy that is enforced by the same people who run the platform itself. The result is a lot of false flags and VERY aggressive people enforcing them. I’m yet to meet someone who works on one of these platforms (in a permanent role) who isn’t unspeakably difficult to speak to and generally incredibly unpleasant. And that’s me, Bitchius Maximus, saying that... so... yeah. If I never have to speak to someone who runs a bidding platform, I’ll be happy.
- @Anna Negrini 'Nice' to read that Upwork continues to suspend accounts randomly. I would be very curious to know who takes those decisions
- @Geoffrey Bunting article says it all. The thing is you can't even use them to better your portfolio as often what's required is just follow the client's wishes, even if they have bad ideas and want bad design.Often stellar reviews mean cheap price and being available 24/7 for infinite revisions.The only experience I had is with someone who asked me if I could make it free (it was a paid job) because he had a lot of well paid work coming in my way (sure).My Upwork account was suspended too because "I wasn't winning any bid"...It might work for other sectors (like PA or admin stuff) where you are asked to complete very precise tasks, even if I'm still amazed when I read someone earned hundreds of thousands $ with them.
- @Geoffrey Bunting brilliant well written article!
- Fiverr is truly the worst there can be when it comes to creative professions. I personally find it unacceptable that there are people who sell their services for £ 5 and this is encouraged. I myself have an account on that platform but I apply the same rates that I apply outside the platform and of course I have never taken jobs.I have been on Upwork for a couple of years and have also taken some jobs, then suddenly my account was suspended because according to them I was taking clients off the platform, which is not true as I have amply demonstrated but those dull ones have not wanted to hear reasons, so basically I have only negative things to say about both platforms.
- All are full off non professionals, either client side or freelance site. no worth of effort and sometime client respond is non professionali use fiverr, upwork,freelancer, guru etc but what i found is upwork still have better reputation then other. (but majorly for client not for freelancer)Or maybe Linkedin can be considerable. still work goes.fingure crossed.
- sure I have heard on here to avoid and reading the comment below explains why. It's like Uber eats for creatives
- @Geoffrey Bunting I literally just finished reading your Medium article before I wrote out this question so I'm humbled that you’ve responded. Thanks for your thoughts and in depth analysis, super insightful.
- They don’t. They’re exploitative and unethical platforms. All bidding sites treat their practitioners desperately poorly and should be avoided. They are doing incredible damage to the prospects of young creatives and clients as they create clients with no sense of quality and no concept of professional budgets. They’re a plague.I wrote about Fiverr, and it’s move from just a shitty platform to unethical, at UX Collective a while back that collates their bullshit – the same stuff that relates to platforms like Upwork, Reedsy, 99Designs, et al:https://uxdesign.cc/fiverr-its-bad-guys-it-s-bad-6b3ed2d78400?gi=e54fd7e383e9
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