The only list of freelance job boards that you’ll ever need
Getting your feet wet as a freelancer can be rough, especially if you don’t have a solid idea on where you go can find work. Cold calls and cold emailing can give you a jump, but both do require some extra time and effort to get the formula down on how to handle them properly, so where do you go in the meantime?
Job boards.
Job boards can be your bread and butter for freelance work, providing you with enough work to cover your next 2-3 months worth of expenses. They can allow you to get your foot in the door inside of actual businesses who are looking for work to be done, and they will allow you to spend the extra time you’re not spending trying to find work, doing the actual work. The freelance job boards can be a wonderful addition to your daily routines.
However, you have to remember that not all job boards are created equal. Some job boards will not have new leads posted every day. Some of them will allow bidding and some will be a sea of bottom feeding fish that only want to find someone to work for minimum wage. This is not where you want to end up and it’s definitely nowhere that I’d tell you to go.
You’re in luck though because I’ve narrowed it down to 10 active freelance job boards that will actually be of a benefit to check out. They’re all powerful for their own reasons, which are listed below the names and images, and any one of them would be a perfect place to visit on a daily basis, but I’d strongly suggest viewing them on all as much as possible – after all, too much work is never a bad thing (there’s a topic I will probably cover in an upcoming article).
Freelance Switch
The freelance switch job board is at the top of the list for a couple of reasons. Besides the fact that it’s run by one of the best freelance websites out today, it attracts the perfect types of clients for those of us who want to make a living out of freelancing and work with professional individuals and companies. They also allow companies to post jobs for free, but in order for you to submit your information to them, you are required to subscribe for $7.00 per month.
The main reason this is the perfect solution (in my opinion) for job boards is that it allows a ton of jobs to be posted (5-10 daily) by not charging them to post the job, and the $7.00 per month weeds out a lot of the offshore, $5.00 p/hour companies that plague places like eLance and other job bidding sites. The best part is that for $7.00 per month, you have the possibility to land thousands of dollars worth of jobs – I remember when I first signed up, I landed a $500 deal in the first week and knew that it was worth it ($7.00 investment = $493 profit). It’s definitely where you should be spending a few minutes per day if you’re serious about finding work.
Authentic Jobs
The Authentic Jobs website is one that you’ve likely seen listed in sidebars and footers across various sites, and for good reason – the Authentic Jobs website is one that should be on your “must do” list for the the day. It’s been a resource for freelancers to find jobs since 2005 and has attracted companies such as Apple, MSNBC, Comcast, Facebook, ESPN and more. You can easily change the view between, Interaction Design, Graphic Design, Development, Mobile and Management as well as freelance and full time positions. You can also search based on the type of job you’re looking for or the location in which you’re looking to be hired.
WordPress Jobs
For those of us who are wordpress workers (myself included), the wordpress job board is a great place to visit. It focuses solely on, you guessed it – wordpress work, so if you’re after some new WP gigs, you’re headed to the right place. The site breaks itself down into a few categories (design, development, blogging, maintenance, ect) so it’s easy to see which jobs will interest you the most.
The one drawback to this job board is that, at times, it does have some low paying gigs, but if you look out for the buzz-kill words, like – it should be quick, this is an easy job, I could have done it myself but I don’t have the time, ect. you’ll be able to avoid spending time dealing with someone via email who is just looking to take advantage of you.
37 Signals Gig Board
Besides being one of the biggest and brightest companies online for web based software, 37 signals also offers up a killer job board resource. It’s filled with around 100 or so jobs at any given time and features job listings from some of the biggest companies around the world – Apple, The New York Times, American Express and more. Breaking itself down into categories (design, development, misc, customer service/support and business exec/jobs) it allows you to easily find the type of job you’re looking for.
From full time gigs to free and paid internships, you can find just about anything listed here, and from companies who know and understand what it’s like to be hard working freelancer that doesn’t want to get hung out to dry and taken advantage of (if there’s one thing you realize while reading this article, I hope it is that – you don’t deserve to be taken advantage of because you’re just starting out as a freelancer. You get what pay you want, and ask for, and if they don’t like it, they won’t hire you – and that’s a good thing, I promise).
Krop
The Krop website features a live search box where you type in what you’re looking for and it shows up on the screen, which is a feature that I’ve liked since I first came across it. If you can’t see any results for what you’re looking for, it’s ok, just come back the next day and try again because this site is always flooded with awesome work to be grabbed. Another thing that I really like about the Krop website is that it has a creative database built right into their site so you can showcase your portfolio and resume right on the site – what better way than to get the attention of the company you’re writing about their job board listing than to actually have a resume page on the Krop website? It’s genius.
Smashing Jobs
I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that everyone has heard of Smashing Magazine, and for those who haven’t, it’s a website that features killer resources and articles for designers and developers. As the site grew and the fan base became more than just a small cult following (they’re at over 100K subscribers) they ventured into the job board market – and they’ve done an awesome job. The job board always has great listings for freelancers to check out and as the site itself isn’t as large as some of the others here (imagine that even being possible, with over 100K subscribers) there is a great chance that you’ll be able to land multiple jobs from it.
Coroflot
Similar to Krop, Coroflot allows you to set up a profile right on their website and also interact with the job board and it’s listings. The listings themselves are from some great companies and are constantly being updated with fresh leads. This job board actually breaks things down into over 10 categories which makes finding a job you’re interested in that much easier.
Problogger Jobs
For the writers who view the Guerrilla Freelancing website, this job board is for you. Darren Rowse is an industry leader for blogging and anyone involved with the web (yes, I said it – he’s THAT big) and when he put together the Problogger Job Board, he really did something wonderful for writers out there. This job board has a constant flow of new jobs and can easily be a resource where you can find 10-20 writing gigs per month. Turning those customers into repeat clients can mean the difference between months of steady work and a constant need to find new jobs – but the beauty of it is that with the majority of the clients you’ll find here, they’re looking (either openly, or just in their own minds) for someone reliable that they can funnel work to. Take a second and go be that person they’re looking for.
Fresh Web Jobs
Doesn’t the title say it all? If you’re looking for fresh web jobs, this is a site definitely worth checking out. I’ve personally landed a few gigs from here and each of the clients have been awesome. The site is set up so you can easily find what you’re looking for and easily contact the original poster. What more can you ask for? It’s definitely one job board that I’d subscribe to in order to keep up with the new listings because you’re sure to find a gem in there from time to time.
All Dev Jobs
I love the All Dev Jobs website because it’s built for designers, by designers (and developers of course). It’s owned and ran by Lift, which is a company that is ran by some of the coolest people to ever be found online and people who understand what freelancers needs are and what they want out of an awesome job board – and they provide it.
What do you think?
Are you finding some value in these job boards or do you have one in particular that you visit most often? Let’s chat about it in the comments section.
