There are a lot of ways to find great freelancers. And there are a lot of different types of freelancers out there. Here are some of the best places to find designers, developers, writers and other crucial talent that will help you take your business to the next level.
Where to Find Designers
Let’s start with designers since marketers need great designers to produce things like ads and landing pages.
Dribbble
When I’m starting off, I like going to Dribbble to look at portfolios. Whatever I’m looking for, whether it’s general infographic designers or those with special skillsets for certain programs, I just search on Dribbble.
Behance
I do the same thing on Behance, which is another portfolio-sharing site. After I find these people, I can reach out to them and go from there.
99Designs
You also have other options such as 99Designs, which lets you create a contest that designers compete for. They help you create what you need, like a logo, and you just pick the best one you like and pay for that one.
Visual.ly
If I’m looking specifically to create an infographic, I like to go to Visual.ly, which is a great community and marketplace for content like infographics.
Learn More: Why Infographics Are the Best Content Investment You’ll Ever Make
Upwork
oDesk and Elance merged their companies and then changed their domain name to Upwork. It’s a service that lets you hire freelancers.
Now, I know some people say that the freelancers on Upwork aren’t the best, and there may be some subpar talent, but the real issue isn’t the freelancers. It’s the people trying to buy the freelancers.
What I mean by this is that what you’re looking for probably isn’t clear. If you don’t lay out what you are looking for exactly, you’ll end up with people who aren’t going to produce what you want. Additionally, you can’t just hire people based on a few reviews and a few items in their portfolios.
You have to look for people who have done very similar work to what you’re looking for. If you can keep those things in mind, you’re much more likely to be satisfied since there are so many people on Upwork.
Freelancer
A similar site to Upwork is Freelancer. It works in much the same way. There are a lot of different options when it comes to designers, but these are some good starting points. Check out this article for a more comprehensive review of Freelancer.com.
Where to Find Developers
If you’re looking for developers, there are a couple of sites out there as well.
CodePen
I recruited our lead developer at Single Grain from CodePen. I feel like he can literally read my mind. He’ll spot things that I wouldn’t spot and he’s a lot more detail-oriented than I am. CodePen is a great place to find a lot of great developers.
Toptal, Andela and Crew.co
Three other options are Toptal, Andela and Crew.co. Toptal is a website that hires the top 3% of talented developers and Andela is a South African company that has really good developers. They were recently backed by Mark Zuckerberg for about $24 million.
CROssover
You can also find talent from CROssover, which helps you find full-time, remote developers overseas. They have a beautiful model in that they’re so confident they can find you better developers than what you have now that they’ll even give you two months free.
So your first two months, you don’t have to pay CROssover a dime, and you can keep the code and everything they produce. It’s really rare to find a place that’s cheaper and finishes stuff faster. And, if you’re not happy, you don’t have to continue with them. If you do choose to continue, you can keep going and cancel whenever you want.
Where to Find Writers
ProBlogger
If you’re looking to build up a stable of dependable writers, a useful place you can check out is ProBlogger. It’s one of the older sites for bloggers and all you have to do is post on the job board to find really solid writers.
Related Content: 10 Ways to Generate Topics and Write High-Ranking Blog Posts
Where to Find All Kinds of Help
In addition to using all these resources to find your talent, also try looking on LinkedIn. I know that may sound weird to you—LinkedIn is seen as a place where you go to find full-time employees—but I love going on there and finding people who’ve worked on other projects within my industry.
I’ll pay them even if it’s a premium per hour but I’ll have them work on my stuff on the side. They’re really qualified. They know what they’re doing. They can get the job done right and quickly and it’s worth every single penny.
AngelList
My secret weapon when it comes to freelancers or even full-time people is AngelList. This is an angel investing site as well as a recruiting site, where people can post their profiles. The thing is the group of people who are on this site are different from the norm—the fact that you’re looking at investments means you’re very savvy. You’re into the tech world. You’re a different type of person fundamentally.
One person we have right now came from AngelList. He’s over delivered, way more than any other candidate out there, and he’s a full-time part of our team right now. AngelList is great; you can find developers, designers, writers, even SEO marketers, whatever it is you are looking for.
Social Media
I’ve also found a lot of people through the social web, like Twitter and Facebook. I just reach out to people and they respond. For example, I’ll do a posting on my Facebook fan page or profile page saying, “Hey, does anyone know a writer or a marketer in these regions who’s looking for some part-time work?”
This is a great recruiting method because if a friend refers someone to you, you know they’re not just going to refer any random stranger. They don’t want to look bad so they’re only going to refer you to people that they know can produce and deliver on the results.
Related Content: Using the Hiring Funnel to Hire the Right People Every Time
Invest in Hiring
At the end of the day, more than what platform or website you use, you need to have a good hiring process to find the best people for you. When you’re hiring, be very clear about what you’re looking for. Ask them, “Can you do this for me?” and if they say yes, then ask them how. When is it going to be delivered? What should I expect?
If they can’t give you responses to these questions, there could be something wrong. If they say they can do it all and they can break it down and it sounds right, you should even ask them, “Have you done this for anyone else and can you please show me examples?”
With a good hiring process in place and these resources now at your disposal, you should be on your way to finding great freelancers in whatever area your business needs.
This post was adapted from Marketing School, a 10-minute daily podcast in which Neil Patel and Eric Siu teach you real-life marketing strategies and tactics from their own experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity.
