Working as a freelancer

I get my clients inside and outside of job marketplace: like Upwork and Fiverr. You can also get on social media site : facebook groups, twitter and more.

I'm a WordPress Developer and Web Designer from the Philippines who provide services to small business and individuals.

I was freelancer for a few year (11) mostly in east EU and UK.

My advices:

• Have a very good contract what covers every aspect of your work
• Have contact for lawyer
• Have contact for accountant
• Try to remain mentally fresh
• Learn yourself
• Learn to manage your time and keep the important no-work-time and quality-times

[tl;dr]
I used local developer rings, forums and connections to get work because all the hyped sites (upwork/toptal/odesk...) was so polluted with fake to low "people", that was ridiculous in that time. Also, most of the company who seek help on these platforms willing to pay only minimal or nothing because they just want the job done, not well done (nobody care of quality).
So I went for local companies, contacted them and actually get and did several job from discuss possibilities and needs to complete fullstack development.

There are so many pitfall what is already covered by others in the previous comments I will not really write them down again. But one thing is quite important, what I learned from US and UK based jobs: "Always cover your a**". Even tho' it is a harsh sayin', there is experience behind it. The easiest meaning: you have to prepare yourself not just the good times but for the bad ones also.
Write contract always, avoid anyone who not willing to sign it or want lighter version. Try to really defend every aspect of your job, your gig even if they seems quite obvious or "shouldn't be a problem at all" or "this never will occure".
In 95% you will never will use the extra terms and section in your contract. But the remaining 5% always could cause high risk and huge reputation or money loss.

Especially in east EU, the ownership over a product is quite important and should be explicit to avoid unseen behaviours. Here is a real use-case, what happened with me in 2008. I worked on a PHP based project, it was small, but my customer wanted more and more changes. I did it all, but in that time I did not owned the place where I worked, it was uploaded directly to the customer product server. When I finished the job, the customer refused to pay, because the "product" was online, and he refused the fact, I worked on it. Even if I had the agreement contract with that customer. But my contract was short and missed key points over ownership of the code. (The story end was I removed all the files and changes what I ever done and sent them a letter by lawyer to push them to not use anything if they have it until they do not pay me out)

But I learned the lesson, so I started to extend my contract. From a one page contract I ended up with a 14 pages long contract frame.
[/tl;dr]

I am not a freelancer but I wanna become at someday.. So thanks in advance Florin for asking this question.. Mainly everything has pros and cons.. So I heard from experience people these two points..

1) you need to show discipline if you wanna become freelancer because you can easily mess up project because you have freedom

2) If you have a discipline I think this is the best way to earn.

A general question to the freelancing via platforms: do the platforms have a third party liability insurance that is active when I take a job or is all the risk on me? If so, who of you has such an insurance and who is/was working on full risk?

I worked a lot for toptal in the past and the experience was amazing. You'll have great clients to work with and your network can grow quickly.

There are a lot of other companies like toptal: gigster, scalablepath, xteam, etc.. They all have a screening process and you usually can start the screening process anytime you like.

If you are looking for freelance jobs, taking a look at these is definitely worth it.

Actually I have never tried freelancing but it's my new year resolution

I tried freelancing as a side gig while continuing to work full-time stocking shelves at the local grocery store for minimum wage (it's the only solid gig in town and moving is not an option, everything else is under-the-table side gigs for maybe one week out of the year total and pay $2/hr or less). I managed to earn $100 over the course of 4 years through freelancing. I can't say I recommend it, especially if you live in rural USA.

Platform: The only one available to me for those four years - word of mouth.

Still, I suppose it's better than going for a traditional job coding, seeing as there are no coding jobs in my area, and I haven't been able to land any remote work over the last decade.

Location, location, location ...

The hardest part is self-discipline. You have to control yourself. I've been a procrastinator my whole life. I always wait for the last minute to start freaking out (yes, I freak out before I actually do my job lol).

Things have been changing once I try to digitize my work. Before I only use notepads and phone reminder. But lately I've been introduced to some of the productivity apps and the result is wonderful.

I onboard my client on a project management software called Quire. I don't have to use emails to update them with every change. They can just log in and see the progress.

Being a freelance has its up and down, but to me, it's one of the most rewarding job :)

I am on Fiverr, got a gig a few weeks ago and the client was so impressed he gave me a 2-month contract to work on their codebase that meant I had to create an Upwork account as his company uses it.

Mostly Python-related tasks.

Not sure if it's OK to promote your gigs here but here goes nothing: fiverr.com/s2/8ffb9f099b

I've been freelancing for a little over 7 years now - I've never had a full-time programming job. For the first few years, I had other various part-time jobs (cafes, delivery, things like that), but after a while I got some traction and was able to turn it into a "career".

Since then, I have been fortunate enough to have all of my work come as referrals from clients and friends.

Some benefits have been:

• I have been able to learn a lot in terms of programming. With each project, I try to incorporate something new - so everything gets to be a learning experience. I have found that this is a big motivator for me, and is probably what has driven me the most.
• I can (at this point) be a little picky about who I work with. I'm currently looking for full-time work, but I have the privilege of being able to say no to companies or positions I'm not excited about.

Some pitfalls, in my experience, have been:

• Learning how to work with others - both clients and collaborators - has been just as much (if not more) of a learning curve as learning how to code. It's all about trust, open communication about what all parties need and want, and setting very clear goals and expectations. In other words, you also need to be a skilled project manager.
• As a solo developer, there's a ceiling on the type of work you can do, unless you're getting contract positions on teams. My work has grown from building "websites" to "web apps" and MVPs - and I'm finding that, with these larger projects, I'm playing Product Manager much more than I am developer. A lot of the times, clients don't really know what they want (when it comes to specifics). If they're new to this kind of work, their inclination is to hire a developer - those are the people that build these things, right? - while they probably need a product manager & designer.
• It's also difficult to get experience working with teams, which is a big gap when looking for full-time work.
• Working from home is isolating.
• Money stuff can be stressful AF. Debt, clients paying late or not at all, setting aside money for taxes, not having income at regular intervals - this is all very difficult, and if you want to thrive, getting organized about this is key (and a good amount of work).

Some things that are both a benefit and a pitfall:

• You can work from anywhere!
• You can easily end up working from everywhere. (Schedule serious breaks ahead of time, and commit to not working during these breaks)
• You are your own boss!
• You have to be your own boss. (Remember to be a good one)

Some tips:

• When setting your rates, remember that:
  1. you are going to be paying additional taxes as a freelancer
  2. Your client is not paying any of your taxes, insurance, and so on. They're hiring a contractor because they don't want the overhead and risk of having someone on payroll. This overhead and the risk is all on your shoulders. Set your rates accordingly.
• Do not allow clients to contact you by text/phone, unless it's a real emergency. Set working hours and serious boundaries.

I've been thinking about writing a series of blog posts on a lot of the above... this thread is a good nudge for me - thank you for starting it!