Should you use freelance platforms like Fiver, Freelancer, etc?

If you’re starting out as a freelance 3D artist, you may be tempted to use websites like Fiver or Freelancer to search for jobs. Is that a good idea?

If at all possible, I would avoid it. First of all - I mean, if the contempt for the freelancers is baked into the name (Fiver, as in you'll only have to pay 5 bucks) you know you’re in for a rough time.

I actually had an idea years ago, for a joke website called Fourer, where clients could type a brief for a job, and it would give you a random (pre-made) crappy drawing. It was a bit too much work for such a silly joke, so I never made that website (it would have been obviously not at the expense of the ‘clients’, but to make people laugh), something obviously satirical like The Onion.

However if you think about it, services that make AI-generated images now are basically doing this, so the joke is on me, in the end… (I know the AI generated images are not pre-made random images, but they might as well be sometimes.)

In some cases you may have no choice but to use freelance platforms. 

Let me explain. Let’s say you find a job posting made by a company. They will want an invoice. If you’re just starting out, and you don’t have your own company or VAT number or any of that stuff yet, you can’t make an invoice for them. But those freelance platforms can.

A storyboard for a client video I made years ago (storyboard by freelance artist Xiang Hui Q)

In fact, I have hired people on Freelancer.com when I was still making motion graphics for clients. Mostly for storyboarding work (I had found a very good storyboard artist online) and also to outsource small parts of my work I was too busy for. It was convenient that I could get a professional invoice. That was the only reason I was using that platform. Otherwise I would have preferred to work with those people directly, but they themselves had no way of invoicing with VAT etc, so that was the only way.

The 3D animation based on the above storyboard.

In a lot of countries (at least here in Europe), you can make 5,000 or 6,000 euro extra per year with a ‘side hustle’, without having to have an official company number or VAT number. So if those freelance websites pay you, you can report it on your taxes as “additional income”, or something similar. (Check the specific tax situation in your country, I’m not an accountant and this is not fiscal advice…)

Once you start making more than that, you can become really self-employed. In some cases, you can become self-employed as secondary activity, meaning on top of your main job (which can be just flipping burgers, or anything really). 

That usually means you have lower social security payments than if you were a full-time freelancer, which is a smart move if you’re just starting out. In fact, I recommend it! It might mean paying only ±90 euro in social security payments per quarter, instead of 3.500 euro or more (which is more or less what I pay currently). That’s a big difference! And certainly in the beginning that will make it easier for you. So get that part-time job, just like Indiana Jones, and have freelance adventures in the time that’s left over.

Either way, at that point when you make more than just side-hustle money, you can and should definitely ditch those freelance platforms.

So, having personally used those kinds of websites only from the side of the customer, I can give you some tips.

When you post a job briefing on those platforms, you immediately start getting offers. And I mean immediately - they can’t possibly have read the briefing with any amount of attention. You just get some stock message about how they’re the best one for the job. So, those first replies I would just ignore.

If someone reacted to the job listing with some question or comment that indicated that they actually read the brief, I would go check their portfolio. 

And here’s who I would then definitely NOT hire:

If your portfolio says you do: concept art AND 3d models, photography, web design, programming, videography, typography, vector graphics, branding, and in addition you’ll do my taxes, do the dishes, re-order my DVD’s alphabetically and cook dinner at the end of the day after you finish all that work, you can’t possibly be good at any of those individual things.

So I would never hire someone who lists many skills. I get it - you really want to get work - ANY work - so you think listing all these things will increase your chances. It does the opposite.

Instead, what I look for is someone who does ONE thing over and over again (with a consistent level of quality). Because that means they have more experience getting better at that one thing. Trust me on this - if you just focus on one single thing in your portfolio, you’re going to get more clients.

For example, focus only on storyboards. You may think I’m talking about movie storyboards. That would be cool, but there are many agencies who make motion graphics like explainer videos for clients. 

They outsource most of the work, like storyboards (which is actually the most difficult part, and I speak from experience). If you make a portfolio with just storyboard work, you will get hired. It’s a difficult position to fill for video marketing agencies.

As a 3D artist, focus (as an example) on only product visualisations. Or architectural visualisations. You’ll get hired faster than someone who also does characters, game assets, cars, airplanes, trees, 3D clothing, etc. And you’ll be able to charge more.

By the way I’m not saying you should only focus on boring corporate stuff. It just happens to be the low hanging fruit in my experience, when starting out.

As long as you laser focus on the specific thing you want to do, the jobs will come eventually. Just look at someone like Vitaly Bulgarov, all he makes is scary looking robots. 

And now he’s designing robots for movies, like Ghost in the Shell and Terminator. Because he’s THE go-to scary robot design guy. 

If every image on his Artstation or Instagram was a different kind of subject, he probably wouldn’t get those jobs even with the same skill and talent.

Speaking of Vitaly, did you know he uses a sculpting workflow for his hard surface designs? He doesn’t use Blender, but the general workflow is similar to that explored in my own hard surface course. Sculpting, retopo, booleans, etc… he just throws everything at it. The result speaks for itself.

All that said and done, I really hope you never have to use a freelancing platform like Fiver. If at all possible, just focus on getting better, post your work on social media, and wait for clients to come to you there. Or reach out to some agencies from time to time, they really don’t mind if it saves them the time searching for you (don’t do it too often and be respectful).

Be very selective. Don’t work for free. Don’t work for too low an amount. The race to the bottom of pricing doesn’t help anybody.

And by the way, the advice of “only do one thing” in your portfolio also goes for your social media and your other portfolios like Artstation. At least if you want to work for clients, if you’re just doing this for fun, then of course do whatever you like!