Many creative professionals around the world have chosen freelance work as their lifestyle. What could beat the freedom of being your own boss and working whenever and from wherever you feel like, right? Well, if you have ever tried to work as a freelance photographer you know that it is not all fun and games, and actually takes a lot more endurance than it may seem to outsiders.
Maybe you thought that after buying all that gear, mastering its use, spending countless hours shooting and editing, and finally creating a stunning photography website, the hardest part of becoming a freelance photographer was over. Turns out, finding clients and recurring gigs won’t leave you any time to be bored either.
But fear not! We’re here to help you on this exciting adventure. Here’s a list of 7 amazing websites to find freelance photography jobs:
Upwork
Freelancer
Guru
PeoplePerHour
Hubstaff Talent
Fiverr
Your own photography website
01. Upwork
Upwork is one of the biggest and most popular freelance work marketplaces, with over four million businesses and ten million freelancers. With hundreds of photography-related listings, the gigs are divided into many different categories so that each user can find their perfect match. Upwork’s jobs can be on-site or remote, paid hourly or for a set price, short or long term, and aimed at entry, intermediate, or expert-level users. Sure, all this categorization may seem like a lot of hassle, but look on the bright side: the more specific it gets, the more likely you are to find a project you absolutely love!
You may find that most jobs are about photo editing rather than photo shoots, as the majority of them are aimed at remote workers, but there’s a fair number of remote still photography projects you might be lucky enough to get. And you might actually live close enough to great on-site jobs such as creative portraits, wildlife, and weddings!
02. Freelancer
Meet the world’s largest freelancing marketplace, boasting nearly 20 million freelancers and employers. There are three ways to get jobs at Freelancer: contests, where clients choose from a selection of works that users present; projects, where users offer their bid on a listing before starting any work; and being contacted directly by clients.
If this bidding system makes you think that your only chance of getting a project on this site is by offering your services at an uncomfortably low price, you’ll be glad to know that employers review experience and portfolios prior to making a decision and tend to choose higher bids in order to get more professional results.
Because of the platform’s size, there are hundreds of photography jobs at any given time, both on-location and remote. Most listings are related to photo editing, portrait, travel, product and video. You can browse all listings by type, category, budget, skills required and location.
03. Guru
Don’t worry, no one is suggesting you should become a freelance spiritual guide. With nearly four million freelancers on its site, Guru is considered one of the most successful online job marketplaces. While the photography jobs offering is more limited than on the two giants mentioned above, there are still hundreds of listed gigs. The most popular topics are photo editing, Photoshop actions, and event and product photography. Listings can also be browsed by category, location, and budget.
Guru takes great pride in its payments system, which aims to offer higher flexibility for both employers and freelancers. In order to do so, the platform offers four kinds of customizable agreements that both sides must sign before the project is started. Guru also lets freelancers see when a job is funded before they decide to apply, and allows employers to review the work before making any final payment.
In addition to applying to listed jobs on the site, freelancers can advertise their own services, for which they list their price per hour and a minimum total to pay for the completion of the project.
04. PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour is quite a bit smaller than the previous three sites, but that doesn’t stop them from offering hundreds of photography-related jobs. These jobs include a wide range of projects like photo editing, tutorials, and product, wedding, and event photography. The listings are categorized by location, experience level required, budget, and status. Users can ask for clarification on each job’s characteristics by commenting on its public board – no more jumping blindly into a project!
Listings are divided between fixed price and hourly wage, and users are required to send a formal proposal in order to apply. Employers later choose whom to hire from this pool of proposals. Additionally, employers can browse creatives’ profiles and send job offerings directly to them, and users can also create their own listings offering specific services at a set price.
05. Hubstaff Talent
Hubstaff Talent is a relatively new platform, and takes the title of the smallest marketplace in this list. Because of this, the number of listed jobs is much lower than on other sites – but so is the number of people competing for the same gig!
Instead of focusing on short-term projects, Hubstaff Talent has taken the road less paved and aimed at any kind of remote job. This means that listed jobs can go from one-day tasks for a fixed price to full-time positions. Listings can be browsed by type, category, skills and experience level required, budget, and pay rate.
Freelancers can create their own profile for employers to browse, which includes a short bio, skills, website and social links, resume, portfolio and hourly rate. Because the job listing section of the platform was only recently included, most of the action happens here.
06. Fiverr
Technically, Fiverr may be better described as a place for online freelance photography jobs to find you. Here, freelancers are the ones posting the kind of services they offer and for how much, while buyers browse the marketplace to hire them
Don’t let the name trick you, we’re not saying you should be selling your work for $5. While “five dollar gigs” were the platform’s initial purpose and a huge part of its growth and success, nowadays the site has expanded to include more pricey projects. So which kind of photography services can you offer on Fiverr? The sky’s the limit! Still photography, photo editing, portraits, landscape postcards… you name it (literally)..
Because the only way to get a job here is being noticed by a buyer, gig hunting may be a challenge until you get some customers and reviews – but on the bright side, you might get a steady inflow of relatively quick projects in the long run!
07. Your own photography website
That’s right, your website is more than a way to showcase your photographs. In fact, you should see it as the most powerful tool to reach customers. Think about it – how do people look for business and services nowadays? Exactly, they look it up on the Internet.
If you are a photographer looking for freelance gigs, you definitely want people to be able to find your work on the Internet easily. Make sure you offer all the information these visitors might need – where you are based, what kind of work you specialize in, how much you charge, how to contact you, etc. To guarantee that all these potential clients actually get to see your portfolio, pay attention to your site’s local SEO so that it’s the one that shows up first on search engines!
You can also use Wix Art Store to sell digital copies and prints of your photos and expand your customer reach to visitors who are not located near your area.
But no matter how good your photography website ends up being, don’t limit your online presence to it. There’s a sea of opportunities waiting for you in social media platforms, where the right steps may lead you to wonderful projects. To make the most of these as a photographer, be sure to follow the business tips we put together for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.