Should freelance marketplaces take a percentage of freelancer earnings?
Isaiah Trotter
7 replies
I'm building a marketplace that's designed to guarantee work for freelancers. Inevitably, I'm trying to figure out how I'll monetize the whole system.
My personal ideology is causing me to lean heavily towards a particular answer to this question. But I won't say because I don't want to prime your answer (:
Should freelance marketplaces take a percentage of freelancer earnings?
Replies
Rich Watson@richw
well there isn't a lot of ways to generate revenue if you don't, besides from advertising. taking a percentage of their earnings would be just how every other platform (fiverr, upwork) does it- so nothing unique there.
you want something that gives incentive for them to choose yours over the competition. not taking a percentage would do this, instead you can charge it to the consumer. but this isn't the norm.
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@richw Thanks Rich. And yeah I know Braintrust charges the client. I think Toptal also does the same thing.
I read (part of) a book called Implementing Value Pricing, and I've come away convinced that there's always ways to create value for someone. So I'm thinking there are plenty of undiscovered ways to add value that would generate revenue for freelancers.
@adamriha What do you think that fee would be? $100? $500? $1000? More?
The only thing I have against a large annual fee is that these freelancers are already struggling with creating consistent work and income. I want to provide as little friction as possible to them make money today so they have enough for groceries this week.
@isaiah_trotter I'd say about $500 is reasonable, but my estimate is worthless without knowing the details of the project.
Perhaps it would be interesting to introduce also a freemium plan just for the type of freelancers you mention and new freelancers.
@adamriha Haha, yeah it's a little unfair of me to ask that question.
I'd love to hit a benchmark where freelancers are able to profit $1000/week. According to the research a good amount of freelancers "make" more than regular employment, but I have a strong suspicion that they have end up having less spending power.
Freemium plans are definitely really popular. I'm toying with the idea that maybe freelancers just tip the platform based off of each project they complete. If you want to donate 10%. Great. You want to tip nothing? Also fine.
I'm thinking that building a strong community is going to prove more valuable in the long run than milking them for every bit of profit. Is not a thriving community part of the reason why Adobe bought Figma for $20B?
It's an interesting topic and one that we are currently exploring at Dexta. For us it's really about creating value for buyers and sellers. If we can do that then the we believe people are willing to pay. It's really about fair exchange for us. We work in a the creative production space, so freelancers like camera operators, boom operators and photographers. There has been so much onus on freelance remote work, I would love to hear opinions on freelance close work - where freelancers are required on site or in an office for short term work.