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I tried for months to find a job in freelance site. I ended up doing someone's home work for symbolic price ($50 or something like that), got 5 stars and that's

I tried for months to find a job in freelance site. I ended up doing someone's home work for symbolic price ($50 or something like that), got 5 stars and that's about it. Any work with reasonable pay (few thousands of dollars for few weeks) was overflooded with offers (like 200+ offers). I wrote my offer, tried to customize it, few times I even made some small demo to show off my interest but to no success. In the end I gave up. So my opinion: if you desperately need some money, freelancing websites are not a good option. It's more about luck and determination. I guess if I would kept applying, with time I'd find more projects, more reputation and so on, but that's not quick money. Might be my country (KZ). I would expect people from US or EU having better implicit reputation. Also it was around 10 years ago, may be things changed.

nfriedly 4y ago
That's a fair point. I am in the US, and I'm sure that was part of what helped me get the jobs that I did get. Most of my clients were from the US, a couple were even from the same city I was in. It sounds like the OP is also in the US, so they will have that same advantage.
ricardobayes 4y ago
I'd encourage you to still apply for anything that's fresh, regardless of how many applicants are there. I've been in a hiring position from these sites and 99% of the proposals are fake/canned. The thing is you need to have demonstrable track record to get going on these sites. I'd say it takes about 5-10 of those "small and crappy" jobs so people can see you're for real and serious.