How to make sure you hire the right freelancers

How to make sure you hire the right freelancers

You are looking for a freelancer to handle your project or projects but you are reserved in hiring someone over the internet without meeting them in person. You don't trust they can get the job done right and on time and maybe you even have some bad previous experiences with freelancers.

Here is a guide explaining how to find the best freelancers, fit for your niche, how to motivate them probably and how to ensure you end up with a completed project, in time and at a decent expense. 

How to make sure you hire the right freelancers for your projects:

1. Make sure you know exactly what you want. 

If you want to hire a freelancer you need to be ready in outlining what there is to be done. If you "kind" of knowing what you want but you want to figure things out once you start I suggest you first put in perspective exactly what you need. 

Write everything down as points in a spreadsheet and include things like: delivery time; deadline; price and even schedule. 
All of this will help you but also the freelancer you are hiring by painting a clear picture on what he or she is getting into. You aren't going to lose time on explaining and clarifying certain aspects, the freelancer can just start working and as soon as the freelancer finishes you will get your delivery. 


2. If you decide to place a job post make sure you are giving out the proper details. 

If you decide to post the job online you need to have a proper job description. Make it fun and interesting but most of all try explaining and giving important details on the complexity and special need of the job. The freelancer needs to understand your objectives and exact requirements for the job. I suggest you don't go much into deadlines and very specific management issues, leave those for future discussions with the freelancer. 

3. Don't post a job proposal but contact freelancers directly. 

Another approach you can take is not to publish a job post but to directly seek freelancers yourself and contact them. I personally love when clients contact me out of the bloom. If the client is serious and not looking for a cheap service and is not scammer such proposals can go a long way and you can actually build a nice relationship between you and the freelancer. 

You can find freelancers on freelancers platforms like this one here on SEOclerks, just shoot a proposal PM to the users you think can help you with your projects, I'm pretty sure with most of them you can actually work something out. 

4. Need 24/7 help? Hire people all over the world!

One of the great things about hiring freelancers is hiring people all over the world. Why? Because if you have a HelpDesk for example and you need people to be active and online 24/7 you can't really hire only people from the same time zone as you. The best solution is to have people in different time zone cover different hours. This way everyone will work in a relaxing time frame and you will have the job done constantly. 

5. Money. You will need to pay the freelancer. Don't be cheap. 

Here is what I've learned over the years. Clients that pay just a little bit above industry average for a certain service are usually going to have very dedicated freelancers that will prioritize their jobs every time. So don't be cheap and pay people well they are doing quality work, they'll be dedicated and will give their 100% every time for you. 

6. Set a clear deadline.

The deadline is very important. Freelancer need to prioritize, make the deadline as clear as possible so that the freelancer can honor that without any problems. Try being fair about the deadline, don't rush people hoping they'll work 16 hours per day just to meet your deadline. 

7. Have an interview. 

The initial talks should be done over email or the private messaging of the platform you are contacting the freelancer from. If the project is really big and important, I suggest you also do a interview over Skype to make sure you are getting the right person for the job. 

8. Have a trial run. A test run. 

As a freelancer I always ask for a test run, a test to see if everything goes well. This both me and the client will know exactly what to expect from one another if we decide to take things to another level. 
I personally never take big projects without a trial job. Sometime I'm surprised that many clients just don't ask for one, they tend to go head first into the project without getting to know what I'm capable of.