Top 20 Websites to Find Work as a Freelance Designer

You have the skill. You have the time. You are ready to work, but there’s one problem. You have no clients. The biggest struggle freelancers face is finding work. There are a number of services and websites that bring the jobs right to you. Here are the best places to find design work, including job boards for full time and freelance projects, blogs to write for, and a few more websites.

Job Boards

If you are looking for an easy way to get a job, and you have a strong resume, job boards are the way to go.

oDesk

oDesk provides a huge selection of jobs in almost every field of design and development. The board has many convenient features, such as a detailed search that allows you to find exactly what you are looking for. Out of all of the job boards, I think this may be the one with the most selection.

Elance

Elance is a huge job board, containing around 20,000 jobs at a time. So far they have helped creatives to earn a total of almost $150,000,000. Elance is an awesome site with large selection.

Krop

Krop is the largest job board, and is often regarded as the best place for designers and developers to find a well-paying job. This job board is always filled with hundreds of jobs in numerous different positions. Krop should certainly be on your list.

Behance Job Board

The Behance Network is a huge part of the creative community, and they also have a great job board. The selection isn’t as wide as some of the others, but it is certainly a quality selection. You are also very likely to get a job if you get you have a strong Behance portfolio, because clients see your Behance portfolio too.

Smashing Jobs

Smashing Magazine, one of the design communities best blogs, also runs a job board with a large number of high paying jobs. Smashing’s job board also contains a large selection of full time jobs from all around the world.

FreelanceSwitch Job Board

FreelanceSwitch is the resource for all freelancers. You can find freelance design and writing opportunities on their job board, and it is certainly one to check out. FreelanceSwitch generally has a nice selection of around 100 jobs available.

Coroflot

Coroflot’s extensive job board features many different creative fields. The job board contains only full time jobs, but there are jobs of high quality located all around the US.

design:related jobs

Design:related offers some awesome services to creatives, and they host a job board with a long list of worthwhile jobs.

Jobs on the Wall

Jobs on the Wall is a job board created by Web Designer Wall, a very popular blog. This is a rather new job board, so it doesn’t have a huge amount of jobs, but it generally has a fair amount. Not to mention the beautiful interface!

Authentic Jobs

Another very popular board, Authentic Jobs provides a thorough selection of jobs from top companies and agencies. Although this doesn’t have a huge selection like some of the others, it has an excellent client base.

Fresh Web Jobs

Fresh Web Jobs has a nice list of web design and development jobs. They have many full time jobs, and a good list of part time jobs also. If you are looking for web design and development work specifically, then look into Fresh Web Jovs.

Guru

Guru is another popular freelance jobs website. They have many jobs in the web and graphic design areas, but also have other occupations too.

No Agencies Please

No Agencies Please has a long list of full time jobs in Europe, and also has freelance jobs.

Writing

If you have the skills to do client work, then you certainly have the skills to spread your knowledge on blogs. Writing for blogs is an excellent source of extra income, and can also be an easy way to promote your personal brand. Here are a few blogs that you should look at writing for.

Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is a very popular blog that is based entirely on freelance writers. If you are looking to earn good money writing for a blog, Smashing Magazine is certainly something you should look into.

Tutorial9

Tutorial9 offers from $150 up to $300 for Photoshop, Photography, Web/Blogging tutorials, or resources.

The Envato Network

The Envato Network is another well-paying option for writing. On their tutorial sites, they will generally pay about $150 per article.

Webdesigner Depot

Webdesigner Depot is pays very well for articles, again $150. Again, another great website to write for.

Six Revisions

Six Revisions pays about $50 – $100, and is another great option when looking for extra cash.

You the Designer

You the Designer also pays $150 for tutorials.

Twitter

Yes, I did say Twitter. Twitter is becoming more than just a social networking platform. It has now turned into one of the best marketing sites, and is certainly the place for designers. But find work, on Twitter?! Yes, and I have done it myself. I have been hired a few times from interactions on Twitter.

How do you find jobs on Twitter? There are three ways, first of all, you can look out for tweets from people looking to hire. I have found one job that way, simply by responding to a Tweet I saw. Second, if you have a fair amount of followers, you can tweet every so often asking if anybody needs work done. Finally, Twitter is a great way to connect with others. I have received numerous jobs from connecting and interacting with others on Twitter.

Crowdsourcing

There are a number of popular crowd sourcing websites, such as Get a Coder and CrowdSpring. It is another option to find work, but is not the best idea. Many say doing work through a crowdsourcing based website can waste your time, and I recomend avoiding it as well. If your submission is not excepted, then you have wasted your time, and your time is certainly worth more than that.

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