I’ll start right away by saying that there are far more downsides to freelancing in Russia than upsides, no matter what anyone tells you at any seminars, webinars, blogs, or the like. Let’s figure out why this happens and identify the reasons for the dissatisfaction of many freelancers who have to deliver finished work to clients within tight deadlines.
1. Time to complete
If you think freelance deadlines are quite reasonable, you’re deeply mistaken. In most cases, clients turn to those who are ready to solve tasks faster, and the better the work is done, the higher the chance of winning the competition among students, schoolchildren, and just people on the exchange who are willing to take on any job.
Moreover, if the task is simple, some clients may set a final deadline of 12 hours or less. Everyone always has tight deadlines, so be prepared for crunch time and possible revisions right as the order deadline approaches. All of this impacts other tasks you’re handling in parallel, and of course, your already fragile nerves.
2. Quality of work
I’ll warn those who want to do everything perfectly right away: you won’t be able to complete many tasks because you won’t meet the deadlines (see above). Instead, you’ll constantly have to apologize to the client and promise that you just need a little more time and everything will turn out great. Naturally, the customer starts demanding the finished work and nitpicks over every little detail to lower the already laughable price.
Second option: you’re used to doing everything half-assed — this approach works, but not for long. After a few negative reviews, your portfolio can simply be thrown in the trash. Yes, you won’t like doing complex tasks yourself, and they will a priori turn out to be difficult, believe me!
3. Cost of work
I need to talk about the price of your work separately so you don’t get the impression that leaving a five-day job for freelancing will earn you at least as much money — you definitely won’t, at least not on a consistent basis.
As for the cost of work, it does depend on you, but in reality, for simple and interesting tasks, you’ll have to compete with a group of ready-made penny-pinching schoolchildren (see point 1). To give you an idea of what I’m talking about: they take on jobs for 500₽ to create a full-fledged website with revisions, logo design, and HTML/CSS layout.
So what does the client get in the end?
Here’s what: a hastily coded template full of errors, impossible to work properly on any CMS. There are also errors or non-functioning order submission forms, broken buttons, and many other flaws. After the customer has a nervous breakdown, this is topped off with the phrase “What did you expect for 500₽? I’m only in my first year of the Philosophy and Philology faculty! I’m studying…”
After this, the client automatically starts thinking that 500₽ is expensive, and either demands more from other applicants or raises the price for real professionals. What do you think people in Russia choose? That’s right, option one — the most worthless and cheap option of all (just like on AliExpress).
Why do professionals in their field usually not work through an exchange, or only work with trusted people? The answer is simple — the exchange’s commission plus the payment system’s fee, which is used to withdraw earnings.
Here’s an example: you have an order on Kwork (one of the popular freelance exchanges in Russia) worth 500₽. It doesn’t matter what exactly you did or how much time you spent on it — in the end, you get the following: 500₽ minus the exchange’s 20% commission!!! Sucks, twenty percent, for what? For bringing you a client for 500₽??? That leaves you with 400₽. Next comes the withdrawal fee to WebMoney, that still somewhat decent Russian service (not to be confused with garbage). And if you withdraw money to a card or pay for something online, subtract another fee from WebMoney itself.
So what do we end up with net for good work? (I emphasize this!) 400₽ minus fees for depositing and withdrawing money in WebMoney for paying for goods or services = roughly 350₽!!!! So, to burst your bubble, the value of your work is effectively zero.
No, as an option to earn a little extra and buy a transit pass on top of your official salary, or top up your mobile via WebMoney (which is what I do, and I usually set a higher price), no one’s against it. But you need to weigh the pros and cons carefully before agreeing to new work, because there are plenty of freeloaders on exchanges, and you can simply burn out from the job.
4. Customer reviews
As for reviews — that’s a whole other topic that also works against you, since a negative review can be triggered by absolutely anything: the customer’s bad mood, a project delivered late (even if it’s not your fault, like revisions and fixes), the client’s insistence that things should be done differently to improve the task (as a rule, in Russia, the person who pays thinks they know best in any field, which is why everything is done half-assed here!), you like to argue, and many other reasons.
5. Conclusions
Whether to work in freelancing or not is up to you. For my part, I’ll take on tasks, but only those that are reasonably priced — that’s the first thing. I’ve also learned to negotiate with people not just about the cost, but also the quality of the work, which saves me time — that’s the second. And third, this isn’t the only way for me to earn money.
So if we evaluate this type of work as an additional income source, then it’s fine. But if you want to quit your five-day workweek, then no.
In addition, you need to consider a bunch of nuances that come with exchanges and low pay. But there’s one advantage to taking on these orders: you build your own client base (I mean reasonable clients who pay good money — yes, there are some, but they’re few and far between). Later, after completing several high-quality jobs, they’ll contact you directly, bypassing the middlemen that freelance exchanges are.
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