The other concept of money that takes a definite shaking and needs a shift online is that money is not necessarily the physical cash you have in hand. As you will recognize from another related post, there are many people with money online that is not in cash form. The reality is it still is money and you can do tremendous things online and turn your fortunes purely by realizing the value of a dollar is not in the note that you get from the bank.
What about your work ethic? You succeed online by your effort because to get freelance jobs online, you bid for the job. You stand in line with hundreds of other equally qualified (and many jokers) to try and catch employer attention. If you do get the job, but fail to deliver, the employer does not pay and dumps you because they have such choice. If you are a 'newbie' as people without a previous jobs portfolio are called, then you will have to get into the game to find new jobs by learning how the competition works.
As much as I have said this is a way to get paid working for others, it is really only successful if you see it as your business and plan it seriously as such.
How do outsourcing sites work and which ones are genuine?
Outsourcing sites make money by providing a platform for you to meet with potential employers because they charge both you and the job giver. The genuine ones that are there to actually provide a service that people are happy to pay for, earn a commission on your jobs; the more your job pays the higher the commission. There are many brands of outsourcing sites; the first one, you pay a membership fee upfront and 'hope' that the fee will give you returns by getting you serious clients. Nevertheless, fee or no fee, if what you are telling clients and your work are not good enough, you still won't make money. This type work very well for high skill professionals and you may wish to stay away from them if you are just starting out.
There is a second one that is free to join, such as Elance.com and Freelancer.com, but certain juicy aspects of the site that would help you make more money are locked from you until you pay their token fee of either membership or something. The good thing here, as I see it, is that by the time you pay that membership, it is because you have identified its value, not because someone held you at ransom. I actually made my first freelance buck as a free member. The other plus on these is that their main source of revenue is commissions, which means they expect to only make money when you make money.
Then there are the third kind that are out right racially prejudiced. These one's will be friendly and allow you to join their programs for free, but you will never get jobs on their platform unless your flag has the right number of stars and lines on it. The moral ones of that brand actually state it in their terms, and I think that is okay. The immoral ones will not; they will just send you job offers after the job has been awarded and flood your email with offers to make money off you.
The fourth kind are the ones that I personally think are definite scams. These ones charge the worker and not the employer. They will allow you to join for free, then send you hot job offers, only to discover that to bid on the job, you MUST pay for their personalized page to sell yourself. Well, to me, if my getting a job can only happen if I pay, then that is fraudulent. In my world to charge me to 'give a CV' whether online or offline is a scam straight up and I do not ever look at them twice. It is way too easy to fabricate fake jobs online just to keep me paying your personal website fees for a CV page that does not bring me money.
Games played online that you should know about
The most frustrating game is that of people who will seriously underbid on jobs. The first reason for that is that they could be from countries with a far lousier economy than Kenya's. Therefore, if their currency translates to 200 shillings to the dollar, and yours is 80 shilling to the dollar, you can immediately see that they feel nothing bidding for a 10 dollar job at a dollar. Ni kuharibu soko (disrupt the market). Secondly of course is there are idlers online like anywhere else. There are employer idlers and worker idlers; employers give jobs and refuse to pay, workers underbid, collect a fee and refuse to complete the job. Either way, they are idlers.
How to protect yourself
Whatever your work aspirations are online you must have a lot of internet time on your hands. The more relaxed you are online the better placed you are to read the tons of information available. If you are joining a company, read their literature. If you are bidding on jobs, read other bids, read the employers portfolio, read, read, read… There is no other online protection – at least not in Kenya because our legal redress systems are still growing.
Related Posts
How Can I Get Paid To Work Online In Kenya?
Escape the fraudster trap when looking for jobs in Kenya
Still to come: How to get paid working for your self online in Kenya
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