Workana is one of the most important freelance marketplaces in the world, with almost 2 million freelancers and over 1,000 freelance job opportunities posted every day.
Freelancing has been growing fast, really fast. In fact, 92% of companies agree that hiring freelancers is a good development strategy. Freelancers represent 35% of the total U.S. working population and could represent more than half of the country’s workforce by 2027.
Freelance portals are becoming increasingly popular among a wide sector of the worlwide workforce, and also among companies looking to adopt more flexible employment terms, simpler and more cost-effective.
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Founded in 2012, Workana was one of the first freelance platforms to emerge in Latin America. What makes it different from other platforms is its focus on regional markets. Also, its positioning system allows you to rank freelancers and clients based on their platform reputation, promoting constant trust and good practice experiences.
Workana’s mission:
To transform the workplace, providing and enhancing people’s autonomy, development, and equitable opportunities wherever you are.
Here below we’re going to show you how the platform works, and all of its benefits, both for clients and freelancers.
How does Workana work?
The general porpose behind Workana is to offer a safe place where clients can post their projects and freelancers can apply for them. In this way, clients can choose the freelancer they want to work with according to the quality of the proposal, fees, ranking on the site and work ratings from other clients.
- Continue reading: How it works?
How to become a freelancer?
First of all you have to sign up and complete your profile as a freelancer. It’s a very simple process, and the system will assist you step by step. Remember that finding new projects in your expertise area will depend mostly on what you show on your online profile.
A typical mistake: Many newbie freelancers usually copy and paste their resumes on their Workana profile field. The problem is that clients looking for freelancers often don’t have the interest or time to read an endless list of the institutions or companies you’ve worked with.
Tips to achive a high quality profile
Your clients need to know your specific skills and to be certain you have the know-how and experience they seek. That’s why it’s so important to pick your profile category very carefully, as well as your expertise areas and, if appropriate, to show your best works as samples in a portfolio (you’ll need a Behance account to upload them).
Besides, you have to resort to a clear wording, in order to build trust and professionalism. Below you’ll find an example of a profile on Workana which actually conveys what the freelancer can do:
About me
I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have a degree in Fine Arts and working experience related to Education and Marketing. This has provided me with the possibility to develop skills such as organization, management and presentation of sensitive information, good writing and spelling, multi-tasking, coordination of events and leadership of working teams.
I’ve worked as a bilingual teacher (Spanish-English) and on the organization of workshops and seminars for different companies and institutions –both face-to-face and online. My command of the English language is very good and I can also understand some Italian and Portuguese.
For the last three years I’ve been working as a freelance translator for a news agency located in Rome. I work daily on the translation of news about the most varied topics: humanitarian causes, armed conflict, international politics, world economy, the arts and interreligious dialogue (over 4,000 articles translated).
I have knowledge of SEO plus the ability to summarize and write properly. I really enjoy being in contact with nature, sharing time with my kids and listening to good music, especially jazz and lyrical.
And here there’s an example of a profile which needs improvement:
About me
Editor and writer. I am responsible and creative.
If you want to make the most of your profile on Workana, we recommend the following articles:
- How to identify your skills
- Keys to build a good freelancer´s profile in Workana
- 3 keys to gaining visibility as a freelancer
How to find work as a freelancer?
Once your profile is complete, you can start browsing freelance projects and filtering them by category and skills. When you find a project that matches your profile and skills, you can send a bid to the client, stating how much you would charge for the job and why you think you’re their best choice.
If your bid is convincing for the client, they’ll accept it and make an escrow payment. Then you’ll get a notification from the system to let you know you can now start working on the project, and once the assigned work is delivered, the client will release the disbursement to your account. Finally you will rate each other, and ratings and comments will appear on the rating section of both profiles.
The system allows you to send certain amount of weekly bids according to your ranking and your membership plan.
How to send a bid to a project?
Apart from having a good profile, you have to send high quality bids to be assigned projects in Workana, especially if you still don’t have ratings from clients to endorse your work.
Making a bid for a project in Workana doesn’t just have to do with sending a quotation. It actually means getting yourself into your client’s shoes so as to submit a comprehensive proposal which includes not only a fair fee (you shouldn’t undercharge either!) but also to let them know that you fully sympathize with their needs and that they’ll get an irresistible added value from you.
If you want to read more tips about how to make new clients in Workana, have a look at our articles on the blog and get ready to send a good bid:
How much can you earn as a freelancer?
It’s perfectly normal for starters not to have an accurate idea about how much you should charge for your work. No doubt, price will be one of the decisive factors to be considered by clients at the time of choosing who will be assigned their project, mostly when dealing with a freelancer with no reputation yet.
If that is your case, you may have to sacrifice your prices a bit on your first few bids, which doesn’t mean that competitiveness in Workana is in any way determined by who has a cheaper fee. At the very beginning you should ideally abide by the market average, that is to say, how much other freelancers are charging for a similar work.
As you start building your reputation with experience and comments from clients, you will be in an improved condition to increase your fees and sell your work like an investment in exchange for a good return.
Our freelance work calculator is a tool designed to help you estimate an hourly rate for your freelance work, according to your type of activity. There are some assignments to be paid once the project is complete and some others that are paid per hour.
If you want to get more information, check out these articles that discuss the differences between both outsourcing methods, with their advantages and disadvantages.
- A 5-Step Guide To Setting Your Freelance Rates Perfectly
- Fixed-price or hourly rate: which is the best for me?
How do freelancers get paid?
Once you’ve completed a project and disbursement has been released, it will be credited to your Workana user account. Freelancers have several alternatives to withdraw this money. Some of the payment methods you can choose from are PayPal, Payoneer or a bank transfer (to get your money straight into your bank account). Each of these has a different commission, so we suggest that you check which works better for you.
Freelancers on Workana get a monthly payment (to this end, you have to customize the settings in your account as automatic funds withdrawal). Freelancers may also become Workana associates (see membership plans) and ask for payments more regularly (from two to unlimited withdrawals per month, according to the plan). Withdrawing your funds from Workana is easy and safe and your money is protected all along.
Do I have to pay for getting jobs?
You must be wondering how much using Workana costs. Well, creating your account, browsing for projects, sending bids and getting assignments have no cost at all.
Workana business model is based on the commission it charges every time a new outsourcing deal is arranged. It’s a tiered commission starting at 20% but decreasing to 5% as you make more money with the same client so that the more projects you work together, the lesser commissions.
Moreover, Workana offers additional services for professional freelancers to make communication with clients more fluent, help them access more weekly bids and withdraw their money manually, among others.
These services are acquired through membership plans: Plus, Professional or Premium. You can pay for them monthly with your account balance in Workana, or you can also make payments every three months, which are more affordable.
It’s important for you to know that the site has many functionalities we haven’t mentioned. Create your own account and make the most of the top freelance work platform Latin America.
How to hire freelancers?
Once your account is registered on the platform, you can create one or more projects with all the details you need. When the posting process is complete, the project will be visible for freelancers and you’ll start getting new bids of interested parties.
The next step will be choosing the proposal that best fits your needs; analyzing price, quality and profile of the freelancer. When you accept a bid, the platform will ask for an escrow. This advanced payment will be held by the system and you’ll be in charge of releasing it for the freelancer once the professional has delivered the work as agreed.
Once the project is complete and you release the payment, you have to rate the freelancer and grant them from one to five stars according to the quality of their work, communication and promptness with deadlines. You can also leave a message that will be displayed in the ratings list on their profile.
- Let’s find a freelancer now: Post a project.
What is escrow?
It’s very important to us that both client and freelancer feel safe at the moment to start working on a project. That’s why we ask for an escrow from the client. This means that the client has to deposit the funds for the project before the freelancer starts working.
In this way, the freelancer will be certain that once the work is delivered, they will receive the payment as agreed; and the client will be certain to receive the work requested in time, as the funds will be released only once the agreed criteria is met.
Should there be any difference or disagreement between both parties, the project will come to a mediation stage. If there’s no agreement, the platform will be responsible for settling how much money should be released, based on the history of the communication and deliveries.
How to post a project?
All Workana users have the choice of posting projects to start getting bids from freelancers. It’s as simple as clicking on the option “Post a project”.
The system will assist you throughout the process with the requirements you have to complete so as to get high quality bids, according to your needs:
When you find the ideal freelancer, you’ll have to accept the bid and do the escrow. This payment will be debited from your account at Workana. If you don’t have enough funds, you can top up from section “My finance” – “Add credit”, through several payment methods (credit/debit cards, bank transfers, cash, MercadoPago, Paypal, Payoneer, and more).
- Find more information: How does Workana work?
