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We're now approaching 5 years of the freelance boom caused by the masses of layoffs since March 2020. When is LinkedIn going to catch up with the ways of work and become more freelance friendly? We still can't effectively list or apply for freelance projects. I still get weekly notifications of full-time jobs I'd be a good fit for (even though I unsubscribed to alerts and listed myself open to part-time contract work long long ago). Full-time is not my focus, nor is it the focus of thousands (millions?) of self-employed professionals. I read over a year ago they were trying to pilot a freelance section to the job postings area of Linkedin. Where's that pilot and why is it taking so long? Employers need easier ways to find skilled contractors, ideally in the same place they find their full-time hires. Freelancers need a primary space to find opportunities on the platform they're already networking on, instead of hunting through crowded marketplaces full of gigs with low budgets, no budget transparency, or at best varied budgets. And many of those marketplaces make us pay. Make it make sense.
I’ve been freelancing since 2006 and marketing on LI since 2008. I built my freelance copywriting business exclusively on LI. I’ve found most of my clients on LinkedIn (and the rest through referrals). And I’ve found tons of freelance journalism gigs on here. If ur looking for clients who are looking for freelancers this IS the right place. Trying to get LI to perform like FIVVER or any traditional job board is definitely NOT the move. (Especially if you want clients who pay well & value what you do.) Doing that will dilute the efficacy of LI to help u find clients & build a business. If freelancing were as easy as applying for a traditional job, everyone would be doing it. It’s not. You have to work ur freelance career like ur own small business, with time set aside to market yourself & your business. That means networking & making valuable connections on LI. LI truly is THE MOST robust, target-rich environment for freelancing but you have to take the time to understand all the sections of LI & then figure out how to effectively target those companies through meaningful engagement. But — if ur just looking for freelance gigs— search the LI jobs section & choose “Remote” and/or “Contract” work to find available freelance gigs.
we’re not LinkedIn but if it helps, we list freelance marketing jobs on jobs.themincave.com aaaand there’s a weekly roundup here too: https://cavejobs.substack.com
The freelance economy should be a major story for LinkedIn to follow in 2025. Time to do so.
The challenge with building a great freelance talent marketplace that serves both freelancers and companies in need of that talent is that they typically wind up becoming a race to the bottom. They usually start strong with high caliber talent and high quality gigs offering fair pay, and then deteriorate into the exact opposite. This is the free market at play of course, so the solution these marketplaces typically come up with is to take protectionist measures in the form of pay to play membership models, but even that only works so well for so long.
I also wish it was easier to list my freelance jobs without it making seem like I’m job hopping. I need a section header to indicate that these 13 companies I’ve worked for are all part of my freelance business.
I couldn't agree more... but being that the full-time job board is largely useless on LinkedIn, I wouldn't be confident that this would make a difference. That said- here's a hack you can try if you haven't already. In the Jobs section, type in Contract + [type of work] and it will filter contract jobs.
100% agree with you! While I do subscribe to a few newsletters like Chris Bibey & I joined the TOF Slack community, 98% of my freelance work comes from word-of-mouth and networking. That’s great, but I’d also love an actual legit platform that doesn’t also require a monthly subscription (looking at you Freelancer.con and VirtualVocations.com).
This is just part of the reason Ashley Dennison founded CommsConsultants.com earlier this year. There are some brilliant comms pros who, like me, are interested in part-time, fractional or project-based work and are banding together to build a community for on-demand consulting. It’s also an incredible resource for hiring managers and employers fo find top-notch talent without wading through the usual recruiting hoops.
totally agree to this Sara Norton 👩🏼💻 in fact all job vacancies should be open for freelancers to apply.
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3dAnother big problem with LinkedIn: dishonest advertising of service requests. I’ve recently begun receiving frequent notifications stating my services have been requested, and that I can “unlock this request and more be reactivating Premium Business.” Out of curiosity, I reactivated to see what these requests were all about. The notifications were showing me names and photos of real LinkedIn users, but once I paid LinkedIn for the Premium Business access, ALL requests disappeared and instead a message displayed that said “Requests will appear here when a client reaches out from your service page.” This is clearly a money-grab by LinkedIn. It’s unnerving that the platform itself would be sending dummy requests to users. While I immediately requested and received a refund, what a terrible mechanism to get folks’ hopes up that work might be available, only to take their money and say “just kidding! Keep paying us $60/mo and wait.”