The gig market which is mostly pushed by freelance marketplaces is being pushed by a phenomenon known as Telecommuting. It is a phenomenon when technology and communication come together to improve the way of life of humans. 

Telecommuting ensures that independent professionals, contractors and freelancers offer their services with just their gadgets and the internet. Of course, it is incharge of freelancers getting accustomed to freelance marketplaces such as Upwork, fiverr, Toptal etc. 

We should inform you that we have some guide about building your way off freelance marketplace and remote work and hopefully you would be interested in them. 

Back to the discussion about telecommuting being the sound of this time and the revolution it is going through. Of course, these revolutionary actions are reactionary on remote work too. 

Hence, in this post, we are going to discuss everything around freelance marketplaces and how they can adapt to the remote work revolution. 

What are Freelance Marketplaces? 

Freelance marketplaces are platforms where Freelancers and digital creatives meet with clients for the exchange of a sustainable freelancing – income relationship. They are communities for freelancers to get gigs and clients to hire freelancers to fit their needs. 

These platforms are websites where freelancers can showcase their portfolios, certifications and proof of work on their profile. While getting access to different clients around the world. 

Aside from just the proof of work from the side of freelancers, freelancers don’t have to take any other special responsibility to get a job if they can hold on to marketplaces. The marketplace is going to be incharge of every other thing including marketing, finding jobs, payment security, project management and so on. 

Isn’t this beneficial to freelancers? Of course. However, there are also downsides with freelance marketplaces. We will talk about them in the long run. 

Gig Economy and Freelancing

The gig economy is the culture whereby freelancers, independent workers and professionals get into working on projects or contracts online. Yep, the gig economy is mostly characterised by telecommuting. 

In the gig economy, workers are able to set their rates, work hours, manage schedules and define their own projects unlike what we have in the traditional 9-5 labour market. 

It involves a lot of flexibility, cost reduction, time saving, autonomy and control over your work process and contract management. 

Is this something a freelance marketplace can offer? Saying a yes to this because I’ve been using freelance marketplaces for a while now and I know how the process runs through too, in as much as your flexibility gets the clients the optimum result and output. 

What is Expected in the Future of Remote Work.

The future of remote work is quite bright, looking at what we already have now and how the positive innovation of technology is still going to affect the eventual productivity of the freelance market. 

According to a survey ran during COVID-19, around businesses respondents around the issue of their workforce, 26.3% are looking to divert a significant attention to hiring remote workers, 61.9% are looking to include remote workers in their business, while 35.6%  are looking to introduce more remote workers to their business. 

Though the existence of the pandemic in 2019/2020 was one of the saddest occurrences of the new century, it still changed the dynamic of the work process. Expansion of the gig economy and the reduction in the reliance of people in the traditional labor work came into play. 

So, what do we have,  people now sort jobs on freelance marketplaces and social media. The existence of these two parastatals turned the protocols of getting jobs and improving the trend of remote work for the next few years to come. 

6 Types of Marketplaces for Freelancers.

Freelance marketplace have different sub-category just like how the job market of traditional labor work have different sub-category such as:

1. Online Service Marketplace

They are digital marketplaces where clients can hire freelancers with creative services such as writing, graphics design, social media marketing, video editing, website development and so on. Examples of this kind of marketplaces include Gighunt, Upwork, Fiverr, Guru, etc. 

2. On-demand Marketplace

These are the marketplaces where clients can hire freelancers directly for on-demand services. These are services that require immediate attention such as food delivery, ride-sharing, home cleaning etc. Examples of this kind of marketplace include DoorDash, Handy, Uber, Bolt etc. 

3. Professional Service Marketplace

The best thing about the gig market is the fact that they are places for independent workers in the professional Service parastatals. These are the set of people that offer services that are related to legal concerns, finances, health consulting, teaching and so on. Examples of this kind of marketplaces include  Toptal, Catalant, and HourlyNerd.

4. Local Service Marketplace 

As a freelancer, your work might only be in demand around your vicinity. Or you might only be willing to offer your services to locals for the meantime. There are freelance marketplaces where you can easily connect with local clients around you and get them to work with you. The kind of services regarded on the local Service Marketplace include Rover, TaskRabbit etc. 

5. Creative Service Marketplace

There are creative service marketplaces for creative individuals to connect with clients in need of their services. Some of which require physical or local show up for the jobs. These types of service included graphics design, photography, videography, video animation and so on. Examples include 99designs etc. 

6. Crowdwork Marketplaces 

These are marketplaces for crowdwork. Crowdwork refers to repetitive work that clients demand either from a single freelancer or multiple freelancers at once. So, crowdwork Marketplaces ensures the connection of freelancers and clients who demand lots of repetitive tasks on their business at once. Examples of them include Clickworker, Figure Eight, Mechanical Turk and so on. 

Conclusion

The freelancing ecosystem demands slots these days and the improved system keeps making the industry more advanced and beneficial to the average freelancer out there. There are now different kinds of marketplaces for any kinds of services you offer and you can easily connect with potential clients on these marketplaces. 

Nevertheless, we have got some updates about freelance marketplaces which you should probably be interested in. Our guide about the downside of freelance marketplace explains the exploitations on these virtual platforms and how they can be avoided by every freelancer.