Job Portals
How to Get Paid with GAF
Freitag, 20.November 2009GAF, or Get a Freelancer, is a popular method of both looking for freelance work as well as finding talented employees for your business. GAF hosts jobs for websites, software, and IT services. If you are a freelance writer, there is plenty of work available on GAF. Data entry and virtual assistants can look for work on Get a Freelancer, as can media and design experts. Anyone with a marketable skill who wants to work from home, either part or full time, should be able to find their niche on Get a Freelancer.
One of the reasons for GAF’s popularity is because of their ability to guarantee secure payment transactions. They protect both the employer and the employee. This way no one pays for work that he doesn’t receive and no one works without pay either. If you are new to Get a Freelancer’s payment system, it can be a little confusing, however after spending some time looking at all your payment options, you will see that their innovative payment methods are a good way to transfer payments over the internet.
When you first set up your Get a Freelance account, either as a freelance or an employer, you automatically create a GAF bank account for yourself. This account is linked to your profile and your password, but not to any external banking system. You begin to place bids on GAF and eventually one of your bids is accepted. When this happens you will find your GAF account goes into the negative. Because there are no membership fees at Get a Freelancer when you join it, the site makes their money by taking a commission from you for every job you get. However, if you upgrade your account to ‘Gold Status’, you have to pay $20 monthly. Therefore, if you bid of $90 is accepted for a project, GAF will take a commission of $9, or ten percent. Keeping a negative balance on your GAF account is fine; once you complete the project money will be sent to your GAF account.
You and your employer need to work out a payment system. Many employers will pay on a weekly basis. Others pay upon completion or the completion of increments. You are able to look at feedback from other employees to see how well they rate your potential employer. Because of this self-policing system the people who use GAF are generally honest. However, if you are working on a large project or working with a person with whom you have no prior relationship, you might want to ask them to use GAF’s Milestone payment system. With a Milestone payment, the employer puts money into a milestone account. This money can be viewed by the employer, employee, and GAF support staff. When the project is completed the money is easily transferred to the employee’s account. However, if there is a dispute about the work, the money will be held in Milestone form until the GAF team settles the issue.
Whether or not you choose to use Milestone payments, when you have completed your project and submitted it to your employer, he or she will transfer money into your GAF account. At that time you will also receive an email that announces the transfer of money. The balance of your account will be the payment minus the initial GAF commission. For instance, a $90 bid on a project takes out a $9 commission, leaving you with a GAF bank balance of $81. This money will stay securely in your GAF account as long as you want it to. You can use this money to pay further commission fees or to pay others who are doing work contracted out by you.
When you are ready to withdraw money from GAF, there are many different options from which to choose. You may want to sign up for a GAF debit card, sponsored by Master Card, which lets you spend from your GAF account like a checking account. You can also choose to directly transfer money to your bank account, however that requires that you input your bank account and routing number into the GAF system. While Get a Freelancer is safe and secure, many people feel uncomfortable sharing their bank account information online. That is why GAF also offers transfers to PayPal and Moneybookers accounts, two ways for people to use their money online or transfer it to their bank accounts.
Get a Freelancer is set up in the most user friendly manner possible. From bidding to withdrawals, GAF payments are quick and easy.
Click on the banner in the header graphic or follow this link to visit GAF Get A Freelancer
Logo competition: 15,000$ Price!
Freitag, 30.Oktober 2009The well known freelancer site getafreelancer.com extendet the logo competition, submission deadline is now 20th of november 2009. The price, which was 10,000$ at the beginning, is now 15,000 US Dollar!
The present logo has been on the site for over 4 years:
It seems gaf got tired of the old logo and therefore announced the competition. This is the official site about the competition: http://contest.getafreelancer.com/
I bet nobody had designed a logo for 15,000$ before. Well, now you got the chance, so grab it;)
Getafreelancer vs Scriptlance
Dienstag, 30.Juni 2009People around the world are feeling the pressure of this ongoing global depression. It is reminiscent of the Great Depression of the early1930’s which resurfaced in 1937. But as they say “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. People have a “never say die” attitude. They keep on looking for opportunities in related and unrelated fields as well. As salaries and jobs continue to be slashed, people are seeking solace in online job portals some of which offer work from home opportunities.
These types of websites help buyers and sellers to meet on a common platform and work under certain rules. The services offered are generally related to programming, designing, copywriting, accounting, data processing and transcription. The buyer has to post a project stating his requirements along with his budget and effective deadline for the completed work. The sellers then keep bidding on this project and try to outbid the other on parameters such as skills, experience, price, timeline and past reviews. It is not necessary that the lowest bid would be chosen in every case. It all depends on the buyer and his comfort level with particular bids.
Many programmers, freelancer and fully employed workers bid on these projects. Countries like India and Russia offer high value as the bidders from these locations are ready to work for lower wages and provide good quality work. This has had serious implication for high-cost workers from developed nations like UK and the US. Though, at times there are projects marked strictly for them. If one is able to select a good provider with good project management skills, the advantages of using such sites far outweigh the disadvantages.
Getafreelancer is one of the many similar sites currently available online. It might be a bit confusing initially for people that are new to the world of freelancing. However, one gets accustomed as he starts using these services. Buyers can have varying demands, like a buyer setting up a new website might require a web designer and developer whereas another buyer may require accounting skills for his account work.
Moreover, this site is open for both individuals and companies. Sellers and buyers both can register in any one of these categories. Getafreelancer is however, a more popular and genuine site recognized globally. It does not require any upfront payment to buy or sell services on this marketplace. The memberships are optional. Free membership has it own restrictions on the number of projects that can be bid in a month and the commission that would be charged on every project won. Paid or Gold members can bid on a maximum of 150 bids over a month and do not have to pay commissions on each project they undertake. They however, have to give a flat monthly fee. Free members can upgrade to gold membership whenever they want.
One disadvantage that getafreelancer has over scriptlance is that buyers request for samples of work. At times these samples are tailor made according to their needs. This allows heinous buyers to get their work done for free and they flee away thus duping the service provider. Scriptlance, however, has a portfolio section where you can upload pre-determined samples of your relevant work. You can even have different portfolios for different types of skills which you can forward to the buyer while bidding on their project.
The bigger disadvantage is that on being duped by these buyers, one cannot do anything. There are times when buyers have to pay and release the fund to the seller for incomplete or partly finished work, the seller then disappears without completing the work. Though, getafreelancer has a customer support system in place also known as getahelpdesk, yet it does very little to resolve these issues and waits for parties to resolve it on their own which is a time and money consuming process.
Getafreelancer offers projects for as low as 30 dollars and talented people from developed countries find it difficult to compete against people from low-wage countries like India and Russia. Since talented people have spent so much time and money on their education and past jobs, it does not suit them to work for wages as low as 5 dollars an hour. This could be termed as another drawback.
The site also needs to be revamped as it looks outdated and has to include some more functionalities. Moreover, people use this site to process their illegitimate funds and try to transfer or convert it into legal money.
Scriptlance is another such freelancing site offering a common platform for buyers and sellers of services. This site has an advantage as it runs on Perl technology which is fast and secure. Although, the design and font sizes are not quite good, it can be used for freelance activities, though the responses and reviews about this site have not been that heartening.
There are many unprofessional people that have posted their profiles on this site. They don’t take your work seriously and do not bother to meet deadlines. They are just interested in minting money by whatever means possible.
They charge buyers heavily for posting projects; charge for depositing money and also for refunding money if the project is not completed or the seller goes missing which is quite often the case.
Another problem is with their withdrawal. They do not support each and every option; take quite a lot of time and charge a commission to release your own payment.
People working on this site can be termed as bottom fishers or stealers at best. They have no regards for your time, energy or money. This site is not very highly rated and accepted by the developer communities online.
One way for buyers to prevent fraud is by dividing the entire project into smaller modules and keep on paying partially as each module gets completed and delivered successfully on time. Even if one module goes awry, you can stop sending further work. In that case, you would only lose a small portion of your budget amount.
The one big disadvantage is that it is difficult to select good providers on these sites. It is a type of minefield with very few gems hidden there. One has to carefully unearth those. (weiterlesen…)
Getafreelancer – Promoting Freelancing
Dienstag, 30.Juni 2009
The current economic downturn has left many people jobless while many more are waiting for their layoff notices. Most people have no option than to settle for a lesser pay package or live on government help. Other people are launching their small start-ups or taking up freelancing.
There are number of freelance job portals on the internet. Most of them are doing good business. However, please check their authenticity before applying for any job or putting your money and financial information there.
There are many sites like getacoder.com, scriptlance.com and elance.com. One such site that is quite popular amongst freelancers is www.getafreelancer.com
The signup process is simple. This site offers projects for people in data entry, accounting, IT services, writing and many other job categories. The best part is people can choose many skill sets while creating their profile on this site. This helps them to get project offers for all those categories. People can apply to multiple projects within separate categories simultaneously. However, there is a catch here. The site offers free and paid membership.
People that have a free member profile are able to bid for only a limited number of projects in a month. Their bid quantity is set to the previous level after each month of their activity on this site. Paid members however can bid on any number of projects in one month. Moreover, there are certain projects strictly for paid members on which ordinary members cannot bid. The good part is that there are certain featured projects that do not charge a single penny from both types of providers, whatsoever.
Getafreelancer has a very irritating commission policy. It immediately debits your account with the commission account once you start doing a project. Normally, it is 10% or $5, whichever is higher in case of ordinary members. Paid members are leveraging this, as they do not have to pay any commission charges.
Withdrawal policies of this site are also quite dubious. However, it offers many withdrawal options like money bookers, PayPal and wire transfer. There is a fixed fee deductable for every withdrawal. Moreover, one cannot withdraw any amount less than $30 in a single withdrawal. Also, when one is about to make his very first withdrawal, the site takes up to 15 days to verify the providers financial information before allowing him to make the withdrawal. E-Gold withdrawal method can take up to even 45 days. Wire transfer is even more costly and time consuming. This also raises credibility issues for the site. The other drawback is those withdrawal requests received until Sunday is send for processing on the following Monday or Tuesday. The site is useful for buyers and providers in the US as it is setup to meet their needs along with payment options. International service providers find it difficult to work through this portal.
GAF also offers a very effective and unique affiliate program where in people can sign up and make money even when they are not directly working on GAF. This affiliate program is popular by the name of GAFcash on the web. This affiliate program does not require you to have any knowledge of programming or graphic designing. After signing up at GAF, one is entitled to use GAF ads on his personal blog or website. This program is useful for entrepreneurs, webmasters, bloggers and many small online businesses. It is a quick and easy method to earn cash. The payment is collectible instantly whereas on other programs there could b a delay of one to two months. People having good flow of traffic on their website stand to gain a lot of money from this program.
GAF even states that one can generate up to a whopping US$ 100,000 in commission if one can redirect their subscribers to become GAF paid subscribers.
Getafreelancer has started posting fake projects recently, as found out by some sources. They even bid on these projects and keep them open for months without selecting any bidder. This is just to ensure more and more traffic. At times, the project description is very vague. Moreover, the Australian company that has taken over this site recently, needs to prove its intent.
There are even reports of people’s money becoming unusable in GAF’s escrow account without any provider giving them a service for months. GAF does very little to resolve disputes and is provider friendly rather than being buyer friendly. In fact, it needs to have a balanced approach and set of rules for both providers and buyers.
Other issues that are common with this site are of anonymous providers creating fake profiles to lure buyers to put money in the escrow account. They then somehow manage to get the work done from somewhere and request for release of escrow, which the buyer cannot deny even if he is dissatisfied. Moreover, some people use this site as a social networking site only to come into contact directly outside the GAF network. There are reports of people transferring illegal funds in escrow account run by GAF. This is helping them in converting their black money into white, as GAF rules are not that stringent.
This review is personal to the author and has no implied interest in any party. The website has had a new makeover recently with a new design and some more security features which should help in addressing these issues to a certain extent. It is a personal choice to join GAF. The author takes no responsibility whatsoever for any dealings with GAF.
However, we highly recommend the affiliate program of this site.
The freelance portal business has a lot of potential and this market is charging up. Other sites are catching up and filling the gap, which was created by GAF due to its first mover advantage and by providing of good services and solutions, initially! GAF would need to tighten up its seat belt if it wants to walk the course.