Hey everyone! It’s been some time since I had a new online writing company to review for you and I have an interesting one for you today! This company is young and energetic and was founded on the idea that outsourcing jobs to freelancers is the future. As I have pointed out a number of times in various articles, every company needs to have things written and few want the expense of an in house writer. They would rather outsource the jobs to freelance writers and thus only pay for the service when it’s actually needed.
People Per Hour provides a safe place where freelancers of all stripes can sell their services and businesses can hire exactly what they need. It’s a straightforward business that benefits everyone involved. The best part is that it has a simple format without much of a learning curve. You will be able to figure out the site quickly and start making money almost immediately.
Getting Started
Go to the website and sign up. You will immediately be sent an email verification that activates your account. Click on this and you are now a member of People Per Hour. I highly recommend that you sign up to this site via your LinkedIn account.
The Application
Once you have become a member of the group by validating your email address you can then apply to begin selling your services. This is a rather odd process so let me take you through it step by step.
The first thing they want is a lot of information about you. If you signed up via LinkedIn then most of this is already filled in for you. Your basic biography and job skills will be there but you can alter them if you wish. Pay close attention to the skills boxes. There are two and one is for those skills where you are an expert and the other is for general skills. You want to be sure and highlight the right skills.
If you didn’t sign up via LinkedIn then you will have to manually input the information. Thankfully you only have to do this once s it can be time consuming.
Next they will want references. If nothing else, download a copy of your website and upload that for them. It will make them happy. If, by chance, you should have skills that lend themselves to other areas besides writing, please add any documentation you might have for those.
Finally, and this was the odd part, they want a video. It’s not required but your application will take precedence if you submit a video. You can select a text option and they will give you a guided list of the questions that you should answer in the text box.
After that you have a short wait of 1-3 days.
Once you are approved you can start making money.
Your Dashboard
Your profile has already been created via your application. Beyond that your Dashboard will have your hourly fee listed as well as information about the projects you are working on, the money you have made and jobs you have posted.
There is an area for endorsements as well. This improves your ranking and makes you look good to potential clients. You can request endorsements from friends and/or those within your social media network.
Finding Jobs
You have a couple of options here. The first is to click on the “Sell” button and browse jobs. By default the system will look for those that match the skill set in your profile. You can choose other criteria for a manual search if you wish. When you find something interesting you click on “Send a Proposal” and you will be given further details on the job and the ability to apply for it.
It should be noted here that every account is given a total of 15 proposal credits a month. That means you can send 15 proposals per month and this number doesn’t change based on whether or not your proposal was accepted.
The other method of finding a job is to post what the site terms an “hourlie” or a job that should take no more than an hour. You set the parameters and if clients wish to engage you for the job they purchase it. You do the job and then you get paid.
Working a Job
Once you have a job, either from a proposal or selling an hourlie, it will appear in your workstream. Through this you can communicate with the client and then complete the job. If you are writing an article, for example, you will complete it in Word and then upload it to the workstream for the client.
There are a few rules but they are mostly common sense. You have to respond to messages from the client within 24 hours and meet the agreed upon deadline. Likewise, they have to respond to you within 24 hours. You can’t solicit them to pay you outside of People Per Hour and they can’t offer to do so.
Ratings
Once a job is completed and you have been paid you can rate the client. They will also rate you and the higher your rating the better offers you will get and the sooner the best jobs will become available to you.
Getting Paid
This is pretty basic. After you complete your assignment and the buyer is happy you submit an invoice to them via the invoice button. They pay the invoice and the money is deposited into your People Per Hour wallet. You can then withdraw it at any time to your Skrill, PayPal or bank account.
There are transfer fees for both Skrill and PayPal but none for a bank transfer.
Buyers are required to pay within 7 days. Most pay within hours.
There is also an escrow option for large jobs and any job over $500 should probably use this service though I have not heard of any problems at all with buyers not paying. Buyer disputes tend to favor the seller (or writer) in most cases.
The Downside of People Per Hour
It seems like there is always a downside. In this case it comes via fees. You pay 15% of the first $280 you earn in service fees. Anything over that is calculated at a 3.5% fee. Then there is the proposal credit fee. After you run out of your 15 free proposal credits you can purchase more of them at roughly $1 a credit.
The easiest way to deal with the fees is to pass it on to the client and charge a higher fee. This seems to be the norm on the site so apparently the clients are all good with it.
Tips for Success
On your Dashboard, at the bottom of the page, there will be a number of “Trending Hourlies.” Not only is this a great way to see what people are buying and get some cool ideas, it’s absolutely fascinating. The wide range of available jobs, the prices on them can all serve to help you word your own Hourlie, set your rates and even give you an idea or two.
This can be a fun site to play with and if you work it you can make some serious money. Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you.