The 10 Best Digital Cameras (2018+case study)

Trying to find the best camera to buy? Should it be a Panasonic or a Canon? Whether it’s a simple compact or a more professional grade DLSR for some David Bailey-style snapping, there are all kinds to choose from.

Do you want a small camera that requires minimal effort, but takes great pictures? A pocket point-and-shoot is probably your best bet. Need to get close to the action without carrying a huge camera with a big lens? A compact superzoom model is likely for you. Or do you want a lightning-fast shooter that lets you swap out lenses and play with settings? Then you want a D-SLR or a compact interchangeable-lens camera. Plan on shooting on the beach or the slopes? You need a ruggedized waterproof model.

We picked winners from recent cameras we’ve tested in the aforementioned categories to make up our top 10. When there are multiple winners in a category, we pick models at various price points. For D-SLRs, we’ve chosen an entry-level, a midrange, and a high-end, full-frame camera. And this time around, we have four point-and-shoot models at various budget levels.

Remember, though, the digital camera market is a robust one; manufacturers release new products throughout the year, and we’re continually testing and reviewing cameras—and updating this list.

Point-and-Shoot Cameras

Fujifilm X100S
$1,299.00 at Amazon

Don’t be fooled by the Fujifilm X100S’s retro exterior; it’s a modern, full-featured digital camera that impressed us enough to earn our Editors’ Choice award.

Olympus Tough TG-2 iHS
$324.99 at Amazon

The Olympus Tough TG-2 iHS rugged camera is a very minor upgrade to the excellent TG-1. It comes in at a lower price and walks away with our Editors’ Choice award.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II
$748.00 at Amazon

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II packs a huge 1-inch image sensor into a point-and-shoot body, delivering close-to-SLR-quality images from a camera you can fit in your back pocket. This model offers a few worthwhile upgrades over the already-excellent RX100, including integrated Wi-Fi and a tilting rear LCD, but it comes in at a higher asking price.

Canon PowerShot Elph 330 HS
$149.00 at Amazon

One of the best cameras you can buy for less than $250, the svelte, 10x-zoom Canon PowerShot Elph 330 HS takes beautiful pictures and lets you send them instantaneously with integrated Wi-Fi. 

Digital SLRs

Canon EOS 6D
$1,476.99 at Amazon

The Canon EOS 6D is a top-notch full-frame camera in a compact body. With a relatively affordable price, enthusiast-friendly features, and spectacular image quality, it’s an easy Editors’ Choice.

Nikon D7100
$1,146.95 at Amazon

If you’re in the market for a serious D-SLR, but don’t want to go full-frame, the Nikon D7100 is the way to go; it’s our Editors’ Choice camera in its category.

Nikon D5200
$336.99 at Amazon

The under-$1,000 Nikon D5200 is a capable D-SLR that delivers impressive image quality and continuous shooting at 4 frames per second, earning it our Editors’ Choice for midrange SLRs.

Superzoom Cameras

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200
$489.00 at Amazon

The 24x Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 doesn’t have the most ambitious zoom ratio, but a sharp f/2.8 aperture lens and speedy performance make up for it.

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How to Manage Your Clients to Maximize Your Freelance Income

Freelancing, even today, is often misunderstood as a limited stream to earn one’s living.

This is the reason you will see many people pursuing freelancing as a ‘second source of earning’ and continuing with their illusion of a secured job and monthly checks as their ‘primary source of income.’

Did I just say illusion? Absolutely!

Your so-called full-time secured job is an illusion we have created in the last few decades. You never know when you will get the pink slip out of the blue…

A full time ‘secured’ job as an employee does not give you the right to control your earning whereas earning from freelancing is just the opposite.

With freelancing jobs of any kind, you get to choose the sources to earn money, control your money inflow and create multiple sources of income.

How to maximize your freelance income

(This is relevant to any kind of freelancer)

Managing Your Clients

One of the main hindrances to creating multiple online income sources is not having the ability to handle your clients.

You don’t need to have an MBA or attend online seminars to know how to handle clients. But know this; failure to handle clients means doom for your business as in loss of clients.

Now what does client handling mean?

(1) You must know how to communicate with them
(2) You must know how to stick to deadlines
(3) You must be clear about financial matters
(4) You must never be clingy

Again, failure to do so creates lots of problems. So how do you manage? Read my personal experience.

As a freelance writer, last year I had about 23 clients to manage simultaneously. In other words, I had 23 online web contents projects to manage and I didn’t have any clue on how to do that.

I didn’t have a team of writers, a day just had 24 hours, I had to update clients daily and most importantly, submit web content daily…I was going mad!!!

I couldn’t refuse the clients at the 11th hour because the money was good and I didn’t want to come across as unprofessional.

What did I do? (This is something I practice even today)

(1) I communicated clearly…

First, I divided the projects into ‘most important,’ ‘important’ and ‘not so important.’

By importance I meant the urgency to complete them. I contacted the ‘important’ and ‘not so important’ project clients and negotiated a different time frame for completion.

Note that before I did this, I was afraid to put this proposal in front of my client because it could have meant losing that client but I had to draw a line somewhere and this seemed to be the best idea…

I sent the clients an email requesting them to reconsider the tight deadlines. Out of 23, 15 received my email, 12 agreed and 3 dropped off. Not bad, I would say! You cannot please everyone…

Now I was better placed in terms of time and client expectations…this is so important!

(2) I kept deadlines…

While there are clients who are very flexible with deadlines and don’t mind numerous extensions, a freelancer should never take it for granted.

A website I write for cuts 10% off the fee everyday if any freelancer goes past the deadline. If you are working from home, I would suggest to maintain a time spreadsheet where you note down the number of hours you will spend everyday for each project and obviously, start with the most urgent ones first.

In fact, if you want more value for your services, you can multiply your income by charging higher for urgent services like in the next 24 hours or so…

Clients that are flexible can be charged less.

(3) I was firm on financial matters…

See, any kind of job that involves money matters should be communicated clearly. One of my friends is a web designer. Six months back he got a $800 project to build a customized website for the client.

He had 20 days to complete the project but my friend delayed and finished the work in 46 days, taking 26 days extra…

Now I must say that the client didn’t complain or threaten about non-payment.

However, when my friend asked for the project fees, (no advances were paid) the client dilly-dallied, became unresponsive and finally paid $600 (yes, deducted $200) after 26 delayed days.

Well, to me it seemed the client was teaching my friend a lesson here.

My intention to tell this story is to make you aware that if you want to earn money from multiple clients from freelancing, it is important to maintain your professionalism, that is, never take the client for granted.

Once you attain this professionalism, you can negotiate with the client on money matters properly.

For instance, you can draw up a contract stating the amount of advance to be paid, project milestones to be followed and the final payment date.

As a kind of guarantee, you can even write down the amount of money you will waiver off if you delay the project…some clients will readily accept such conditions.

(4) I never cling to clients…

In my freelancing career, there were clients with whom I did one-time projects spanning 10 days and there were clients I worked with for more than a year.

The point is a freelancer cannot assume that the client will hire his/her services every time. While it is good to send a follow-up email once or twice to the client, please refrain from using pressurizing tactics.

My friend, the web designer, used to send follow-up emails every 12 hours to those clients who didn’t get back to him offering more projects. This is a very negative and annoying strategy.

By doing so you will dash whatever hopes the client had in giving you a second or third project, thus resulting in your business loss!

It is a general misunderstanding among any kind of freelancing work that the more clients you have, the more you can generate money.

Financially, this is true and if a freelancer has a team then handling more projects becomes relatively easier…

However, when a freelancer is working alone, it is always advisable not to take on more clients at one time if you can’t handle it. Doing so will harm the quality of work done and thus, impact your income negatively.

Learn to manage your project clients and you can easily maximize your freelance income.

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Can You Trust Craigslist.com for Freelance Jobs?

What initially started as a simple email listing service for friends of Craig Newmark in the San Francisco Bay Area has grown into a formidable Internet presence in the last sixteen years in what we all know as Craigslist.

Wikipedia defines Craigslist as a “centralized network of online communities, featuring free online classified advertisements – with sections devoted to jobs, housing, and personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, resumes, and discussion forums.”

In the last couple of years, craigslist has helped a lot of freelancers find steady work online, especially those freelancers who are into writing and website designing.

However, we know that craigslist is a free online classified advertisement forum; therefore, there is a chance for one encountering bogus freelance jobs posted by fraudulent companies with the purpose of scamming hard working freelancers out of their money.

Finding Freelance Jobs on Craigslist

Let’s see first the positive factors that make craigslist a safe forum to find freelance jobs, and then we’ll move on to the negative factors.

Positive Factors:

[1] There is anonymity. Both the service providers and service seekers are given the option to remain anonymous with their advertisement postings.

This is necessary as it prevents scammers from knowing your email address and other personal details. A freelancer can post an advertisement online without worrying about displaying contact details; the same works for service seekers. People who apply to job / service listings have to apply through the generic reply address given with each advertisement listing.

[2] There is time limitation. Both the service providers and service seekers can decide the amount of time they want the advertisement live. After the stipulated number of days, the advertisement is taken offline until you log in to your account and re-activate it.

[3] Advertisements are geographically defined. Both the service providers and service seekers are given the option to make their advertisement either relevant for a global audience or restricted to any particular geographical area.

For instance, if you are freelancer looking for web designing jobs in the New York area only, you can apply. Similarly, service seekers too can mention the area from where they are seeking applicants.

It has one positive advantage: power of verification. A company in New York looking for web designing applicants from New York can verify the claims of the applicant’s contact addresses and professional experience more easily than verifying authenticity of applicants in some other continents.

Moreover, people who use craigslist for selling products find it better to deal with local customers/buyers than international ones because of payment troubles.

Negative Factors:

[1] There is possible exposure to money scams. Though craigslist warns people against sending any money if you don’t know the person, newcomers to craigslist can often get duped.

Therefore, the advertisers create ads in such a convincing way that by the time you realize it, you are scammed.

For instance, if you reply to an advertisement which is about massage services at home, the advertiser can ask you to pay the service amount in advance. In all instances, never do that.

[2] Craigslist does not verify advertiser’s authenticity. There can be unscrupulous people out there who will post advertisements on Craigslist under a fake company name to attract freelance applicants.

Since you cannot see their email id and some of them do not even disclose their names, it is impossible to verify their credentials online. There are freelancers who have unsuspectingly applied to such advertisements only to come out scammed in the end.

Solution:

You will get both quality/high paying and sub-standard freelance jobs on craigslist. As a freelancer, your best shot at succeeding with craigslist is to rely on advertisement information. An advertisement having a 2-line job description should be avoided in favor of detailed advertisements.

When applying to craigslist advertisements, do not disclose all your professional and personal information. If the advertisement asks for resumes, cover letters, and samples, never mention more than your email addresses anywhere.

If the service buyer wants you to give a specially written sample, ask for payment for that article. Craigslist ads receive a huge response and if a service buyer asks every applicant for a specially written sample and not pay for it, you can imagine the amount of free content that person will have or any other freelance products.

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Clueless About Beginning a Freelance Web Designer Career?

To be a successful freelance web designer or graphics designer, you need to be able to deal with requests of all kind of clients because no two clients are the same.

You will have to face difficulties working with different kinds of clients. If you want to become a freelance web designer you will have to take the challenge and need first of all to find places where you will find your jobs.

Start working with a place like a church or any charitable group. This may not give you money but you will get experience and gain credibility in the community. This will up your reputation and add to your profile. You may think you are wasting your time doing charity work but actually you are making the best beginning by working for a good cause and also gaining experience, reputation and popularity to help you in the future.

You can then move to contacting small business groups. At this stage, your job becomes tough because to make a small business owner understand that a website is a worthy investment and not just an extra show off feature is really tough.

Adding to this, small business owners can be tight with their money. They are also very strict with what they want so to satisfy them you have to use your best skills and still it won’t be a surprise if they ask you to do some ridiculous changes in your design.

Just face the challenge and do it because these are people from which most of the freelance web designers get their first pay check.

Next you should move to the marketing department… businesses don’t mind spending money on websites because all they want is popularity to build up their business.

If you get a marketing client it is a huge success for a freelance web designer. Having marketing clients in your client list secures you of a lot of money and a good position in web designing.

However, the tough part of the game is when you are working with a marketing firm where there can be multiple internal clients having different demands and needs but also because of being an organization the decision maker is always a different person.

Quickly learn these trends and know the demands of the actual boss and work accordingly to his taste instead of others involved in the project. The other major problem with them is budget cuts and you can’t complain so you’d better sign a contract.

Then the best of all is to work with agencies and design firms because they understand the business and don’t make crazy requests. They are also regular and pay off well.

The agencies always face an excess of work which internal designers can’t handle. So, they move to trusted freelance web designers.

The tough part of the job is gaining their trust. You don’t need to worry, just build a good portfolio and keep sending them your best when they assign you a project. Once they trust you… they send you regular work. So, always try to make a network of clients.

Important Tips To Follow To Be A Successful Freelance Web Designer

1. Do not approve of everything the client wants you to do. You just do those projects you are good at and not every job out there.

This may seem like a loss to you but it helps a lot in the long run. In freelance web designing business, your portfolio depends on the perfection of your work so if you do those jobs you are not skilled enough at it will destroy your portfolio and create a bad reputation for you.

2. Do not support the people who think freelancing web designing is cheap by under charging.

As a freelancer you may not need an office and staff but still you need to earn a good living so never undersell your work. Always keep competitive prices. Charge what is reasonable.

A professional never overcharges or undercharges. It may sound easy to you but it takes a lot of experience and time to fix the exact price which satisfies everyone.

3. Try to create a bond with the client by interacting with them as much as possible within professional limits. This builds credibility and they’ll keep coming back again and again with new work.

4. Don’t think an assignment to be too small and ignore it. It may seem foolish to you to spend time on them but often the clients whom you satisfy with your work on the smaller assignments come back to you with bigger ones. In their eyes, you understand the importance of a job however it may look. This is what enhances your reputation.

5. Never begin a job without an initial deposit. Usually it is good to settle the money in two payments. One payment should be done at the beginning of the project and the other before handing over the final project.

You can be a bit liberal with the clients whom you personally trust. It makes your relationship with the client stronger and they become your repeat clients.

6. Keep your portfolio always ready and up to date. It may sound funny but many freelance web designers either don’t have a portfolio or have a bad one. This creates a negative impression on your new clients…they haven’t worked with you. When you get free time, work on making your portfolio the best it can be.

7. Don’t work all the time. Don’t over exploit yourself because then you will get bored with your work and won’t be able to focus and produce your best. Quality is the most important element.

Also, don’t waste your time surfing the net when you are free. Use the time to learn new programs and create some template designs that helps to get more customers.

Follow these easy tips and launch your freelance web designer career with confidence!

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Freelancercareers.com: Review From The Writers Perspective

Unlike popular opinion out there that freelancercareers.com does not pay its writer, the truth is that they DO PAY; however, it is an academic writing portal that you should definitely stay away from if you were thinking to make it your primary source of income!

Having worked about five months there, I have realized three things:

• the motto of this site is to slap unjustified fines on writers;
• their Quality Assurance Department (QAD) is in serious need of brainy proofreaders;
• No matter how correct you are, the QAD will support clients and penalize you.

To all the new and experienced academic writers out there, think thrice before signing up on this site. Read our detailed Freelancercareers.com review with evidence below.

CRITICISMS:

Problem 01: Misleading Statistics Info

When you visit their home page, they show you a brief info about their company and on the left side, you are shown a brief info about the number of assignments available, highest cost of those assignments and the number of registered writers…It is easy to fall into their trap seeing those numbers…

Once you see the real number of assignments available, they are not even worth the time, forget about getting any decent pay!

On 20th July evening, the left hand bar on the home page showed this stat:

(click image to enlarge)

Check out the total order cost, available orders, most expensive order…Now see the reality…Below is the insider screen shot of the truth:

In reality, there were only 28 orders available and the highest available order was $506.04 as you can see…

Often I have seen that the company misleads its prospective writers this way…And if one compares the number of orders available (28) to the number of active registered writers (7521), tell me honestly, do you think there is much scope of earning any substantial amount of money here?

They are clearly overstaffed at any point of time.

Problem 02: Misleading Affiliations

Before I had signed up on freelancercareers.com, I was working with essaywriters.net but stopped once they didn’t pay me my money. Stupid that I was, I thought freelancercareers.com would be different.

I passed their test and started working with them. After completing about 5 assignments within 5 days, I noticed something…the web layout of both the sites seemed similar!!!

I emailed the support system asking whether freelancercareers.com is associated in any way with essaywriters.net…They denied…kept on denying…while my intuition said something else. I clicked every link on the site to find some evidence and viola! See the screen shot below…

Check the web browser and what I have marked in red.

Not only essaywriters.net, freelancercareers.com also owns superiorpapers.com, bestessays.com and rushessays.com…at least that’s what I found out when I contacted each of the sites for applying as an academic writer and they directed me to freelancercareers.com.

Moreover, twice I received phone call from freelancercareers.com and their support representative mentioned she was calling from superiorpapers.com regarding an assignment…

Just imagine how much trouble the company takes in hiding its sister sites and such untrained support people bust the bubble…LOL!

Problem 03: They Pay On Time but Their Automated Payment System Sucks!!!

They will not tell you this when you sign up and neither will you see this in their website guide or FAQ. You will know this once you experience this yourself, like I did.

Freelancercareers.com has an inbuilt useless system that keeps track of earnings. The payments are sent every 15 days. For assignment completed between 01-15 of any month are paid on the 16th of next month and for assignments completed between 15-30 of any month are paid on the 01st of next month…There is no problem here once you are regular with assignments but the problem arises when the client request for revision.

For instance, you submit an assignment on 10th July, the client downloads it and the earning is reflected in your account. According to the info above, you will receive payment for this on 16th August. Now, suppose, the client sends back the paper requesting a genuine revision on 15th July with a new deadline of 20th July, what happens? The assignment earning is removed from your balance amount, which means you won’t get paid for this assignment on 16th August but on 01st September.

When I work for freelancercareers.com, I try to ensure that the assignments are not sent back for revision but sometimes you come across irritating clients who are dissatisfied with everything you write…even if you want to shout ‘why the hell don’t you do your paper yourself?’ you have to keep your cool and basically, go with the flow. This is a serious disadvantage here.

Problem 04: They Have Devised Every Reason Possible to Apply Fines

…and they have this automated system that applies these fines. Four or five times, they applied fines on my account citing low quality paper and reference mistakes. I knew they were wrong so I contested and they had to remove all the fines but still they don’t learn…they keep on trying…well, two can play this game!

Below is a screen shot of the various kinds of fines applied, followed by my solutions; always remember that you won’t get to see this while you are applying, the hell breaks loose later!

They define fines as:

They explain fines as:

How can you deal with them?

[1] Order Deadline Over – if you cannot submit the order on time, ask the clients’ to “update” the time and not “extend” the deadline. If you ask for repeated extensions, fine is applied. If the client does not respond to your messages, message the support system to put the order on HOLD. Even if fine is applied later, you will have evidence of your communication to the client and the support system, and they have to remove the fine.

[2] Revision Deadline Over – usually the revision time is 24 hours, less in some cases. Meeting revision deadlines are sometimes impossible because of two reasons: different time zones and extent of revision (a dissertation can’t be revised in 24 hours!). In this case, follow the same tactic as in [1].

[3] Cancellation – the QAD draws pleasure in applying fines for submitting low quality paper. If you know the paper is not of low quality, bombard them with your reasons. The more reasons you give, they will have no option but to remove the fine. Remember that their proofreader is not worthy of their job. Why?

On one particular assignment, I had copy-pasted three paragraphs written by me at different places in the same assignment…the proofreader didn’t detect it…Amazing! The paper was through and I got paid. My small experiment paid off and proved that their proofreaders are utterly useless and lacks common sense.

This is the reason why writers are often charged with low quality paper. Don’t fall into their trap when you know there is no fault from your side. Other reasons like “writer disappeared” and “writer plagiarized” never applied to me so I didn’t face any issues.

[4] Low Quality – First, read the different definitions of low quality in the screen shot. From the five reasons listed there, I faced problem only with reason one: “inability to follow instructions”.

A paper I completed and got paid for in May was charged a $50 fine few days back. Why? Apparently, the client/student received below pass grades. Politely, I asked the support to send me the teacher’s feedback given to the student. The teacher had written that even though the arguments in the essay were strong and relevant, the student didn’t apply essays/concepts from the term module.

I checked the order page to see if I had missed reading any essays/concepts uploaded by the client/student. I did not. To make a long story short, the client/student had not uploaded all the essays from his term module and therefore, the below pass grades.

Well, guess who suffered? ME!! I couldn’t get this simple explanation pass their dumb minds that it was not my fault…

I can only advise to handle such situations carefully.

[5] Plagiarism – This is one aspect where it is justified to apply fines!!!

[6] Partially Refunded Order & Refund – Read point [4], it’s the same.

[7] Late Reassign Request – Once you accept an order, you are given 15 minutes to refuse it. If you feel the need to request reassignment of order/s, do so before half of the deadline is over and you won’t be penalized. If you request reassignment at the last moment, the whole project fees will be deducted from your account.

[8] Others – Try not violating any of the rules in this section. Whatever the case maybe, never be rude with the client or disappear or ask for repeated extensions. Doing so will be in your favor only.

Problem 05: Non-Disclosure of Company Details

I read online that freelancercareers.com, essaywriters.net and other sister companies are owned by a Russian entrepreneur and this guy has been in this business for the last 15 years. Oh boy, he must be an unnamed millionaire!!!

Also, the company, registered under Universal Research, doesn’t take pride in owning their presence online. This further questions their authenticity. I mean, if you are legitimate, why don’t the owners come forward?

Upon further research, I found various numerous complaints about the company are registered at Better Business Bureau. Further, the Universal Research is a bogus company name that not only indulges in academic work but also TV gadget promotions and pornography.

Problem 06: Payment Receiving Problems

Presently, freelancercareers.com pays through PayPal, MoneyBookers, AlertPay and Wire Transfer. I have used only PayPal and MoneyBookers so far. There were no problems with payment processing in PayPal but the second time I received payment from freelancercareers.com in MoneyBookers, they stopped my withdrawals. They emailed me to re-verify my account by sending an account statement, especially the last transaction sent from freelancercareers.com. See the screen shot:

The transaction marked in ‘red’ is the one from freelancercareers.com. Perhaps, MoneyBookers had some doubts regarding the sender of the payment. If you face a similar situation, its better you submit full verification details and get the account limits withdrawn.

Problem 07: Cost per Page is LOW 95% of the Time

The remaining 5% gives at least a better cost per page (min 275 words, double-spaced per page), ranging between $8 and $14 per page. Further, their inbuilt system is such that they pay more when the deadline is closing near.

Often I have seen 2-3 page assignments paying $40 per page and the deadline is like 2-3 hours. But don’t jump at seeing the page count because the project is so tough that you need 3-4 days to complete them. This kind of system is nothing but a lure. Out of greed, a writer might take them but failure to adhere the deadline results in penalty.

Finally, your chance of getting projects with better per page cost is very slim given the high number of writers available. As a result, you are mostly in the 95% category where you are paid between $2 and $8 per page.

NOTE: When you take higher paying projects, be assured that one day or the other, you are going to receive a low quality paper feedback. That’s their way to scam writers out of their hard earned money.

I will tell you two tricks I devised to turn back the ball into their court. Of course, before applying these, you have to be sure that there are no faults in the paper from your side. The tricks are:

[1] Apply this trick when the QAD is acting smart and there is no problem with the client. Subtly insinuate that you are going to publish the paper online in few hours if the issue is not resolved. Yes, you will risk your earnings on this paper but it’s worth it. Knowing this the QAD has to give in because they know that if you publish the paper online and at the same time, the client/student submits the paper in his school/university and the teacher finds out, the student’s career will be in trouble.

[2] Apply this trick when both the QAD and the client is trying to rub you on the wrong side.But for this trick you need to know where the client/student is studying. How do you find that? Check the assignment instructions! You can clearly state that if the issue is not resolved in few hours, you are going to call the school/university and report the client/student. This will silence both the QAD and the client/student.

I know both the tricks sound like manipulation but what else can we writers do if we are denied our hard earned earnings??? Once again, I will state – apply the above tricks only if you are damn sure there is nothing wrong with the assignment from your side.

Problem 08: Quitting / Account Closing

If you are already a member there and thinking of quitting or closing freelancercareers.com account, do so after there are no pending payments in your account. If there are, they will withhold them for 90 days mandatory period, during which all your assignments will undergo a rechecking (again a way to apply fines!).

You have to be patient here. Make sure you receive all your earnings and while you are waiting, log in occasionally to randomly check orders…they will know you are still ‘active’ in their system.

APPRECIATION:

There is not much to appreciate, except these three:

[1] They pay on time, always. At least, I have never faced any kind of payment delays.
[2] Their plagiarism rules are strict in a good way.
[3] There are no membership fees.

In the end, I can only hope that you will take note of the above review positively and make an informed decision about joining this company. This review may seem negative to those who are still trying to find a legitimate way of making money online but don’t be dissuaded, there are other legitimate companies out there!!!

If you have experienced other issues with freelancercareers.com or any of their sister sites, kindly share your experience below

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6 Tips – How to Avoid Freelance Scams

In the last few years, freelancing has become a preferred way of earning a second source of income. For some people like writers, web developers, journalists and online designers, freelancing is their primary source of income.

Owing to the vast economic problems in both developed and developing countries, people find it lucrative to work online and earn a decent amount of money.

How to Avoid Freelance Scams

As a beginner, you can become a victim of online freelance scams. The scammers are not behind: as numerous freelance opportunities emerge, they find new ways to scam people online.

You won’t find mailer-list scams as you would have five or six years back, but today you will come across more serious scams that really look authentic, erasing the subtle features that distinguished genuine money making online opportunities from scams.

Common Types of Freelance Scams or Work from Home Scams:

[1] Ad Typing Jobs
[2] Home Product Assembly
[3] Envelope Stuffing
[4] Medical Billing
[5] Multi-Level Marketing Affiliations (where no ‘real’ product-selling is not involved)
[6] Email Processing Jobs
[7] Book Typing Jobs

Basically, any advertisement that promises huge earning potential with little time input and no details whatsoever should be completely avoided.

Since scammers are also brainy intelligent people, they too have found ways to make their so-called make money online businesses too lucrative for people to resist. If you have found any freelancing or work from home that falls in the above common types, here are some warning signs you should be looking out for and some steps that you can take to make sure the jobs are genuine.

[1] Avoid any kind of work from home or freelance jobs that requires you to actively participate in seminars, that is, the company asks you to attend seminars to actually know how the work from home option works.

Please note that there are some genuine companies, mostly writing companies, which sometimes organize meetings to train freelancers regarding work profiles.

If you have been contacted by such a company and it’s located in your state, you can take a chance and visit. Otherwise, if it’s a company selling products and requires you to learn about direct selling, it’s best to avoid.

[2] The payment you are supposed to receive is either too good to be true or is based on advertising revenue. These kinds of freelancing offers should be avoided as well.

For instance, if you are a newbie and a freelance writing gig offers you $500 for a 500 word blog post, it’s clearly a scam. Again, freelance writing gigs based on advertising revenue may not be a scam per se but it’s not a beneficial way of earning. Why? Where is the guarantee that your blog or article will lead to advertisement clicks? Is there any? No.

[3] If you find freelance opportunities too good to be true, you need to perform a background search.

For instance, check the Yellow Pages for a record, do a WhoIs online search for website details, search about any complaints against the company in BBB (Better Business Bureau) records, or you can check with the states general’s office and ask for work from home scams (if any) are registered against the company.

[4] Never fall for freelance gigs that ask you to send money either for more information or to get a membership.

For instance, freelance websites like freelancer.com, elance.com, guru.com or odesk.com do not have a mandatory policy to take memberships. If you want or feel that a membership will benefit you, you can purchase monthly memberships, otherwise, these freelance sites are free to use and their genuineness is time proven.

Be careful of individuals who ask for money to send work from home details. They are surely scams.

[5] You should never take any kind of home freelance jobs at face value. Never take them for granted. Perhaps the only disadvantage of freelance work is that there is no sense of permanency or certainty with jobs.

The job you are doing now may continue for 2 months or 2 years, who knows? Therefore, if you are associating yourself with any company that offers a freelance/work from home option, try to get contractual work.

[6] Favor working with those people or companies that have a social media presence like a page on Facebook, a Twitter account, active blogs or active participation in forums. Such people or companies are more genuine than those without any social media presence.

Finally, the best ways to steer clear of work from home scams or freelance scams is to Google the company name or the individual’s name and see what kind of responses you get. In the end, the judgment is yours.

Have you been scammed? Share your story below…

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Freelancer.com or Elance.com? You Choose…

Are you a freelancer and would like to take your skill online to make some money?

If you want to work online or you want to get some jobs done from other people, you will find several opportunities on these websites.

There are workers who are ready to take up any of the jobs that you have to give them and there are individuals who are ready to make work available for those who want to work online.

All you need to do is to get yourself registered on any of the sites and you are good to go. Before long, you will make money online.

The truth still remains anyway that there are several differences among the various freelance sites online.

While some of them are able to offer you excellent services, there are some other ones that may not be able to live up to their claims.

In this article, a comparison will be made between two of the prominent freelance sites that are used today.

In case you have been working on them, you will be aware of some of the facts that are mentioned about them here.

In case you have not been involved with any of them, you will do well to make use of the facts revealed here to finally make up your mind about the two of them.

Freelancer vs Elance

The below info may be the master info that you need to choose the one you would choose to work with.

The two freelance sites that will be reviewed here are freelancer.com and elance.com.

This article is not intended to tell you the specific one to choose between the two. It will only lay out the facts and we expect you to make your choice on the one you will choose to use in your bid to make money online.

Background about freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is a freelance site that has been around for sometime now. It was formerly called getafreelaner.com before it finally changed its name to the present freelancer.com.

It offers several freelance services ranging from article writing to website designing and all sorts of programming services.

You can even get graphic design jobs and data entry jobs on it. It is a site that links those who are looking for jobs with those who are willing to give them the job online.

Background on elance.com

Elance.com too has been around for quite a while now. In fact, it had been around since 1999. It is a site that many individuals have found to be very reliable. It does almost exactly the same thing as mentioned above about freelancer.com.

You can come by several online jobs and several buyers are also available to give jobs to online professionals who are seeking work. All you need to have is the necessary qualifications and you will be able to acquire work on either of these sites.

Registration on either site

The registration procedure on either freelancer.com or elance.com is actually not to difficult. You are asked to supply simple info to open your account.

Neither of the sites gives you any restraints when you want to set up account. You will also be able to set up your account free of charges.

While freelancer gives you complete freedom to set up an account, elance, offers the option of either setting up a standard account or a premium account.

The standard account is completely free to set up while the premium account may cost you some money.

This has really reduced the number of people seeking jobs on elance. Because of this, people would rather flock to freelancer to get a free account.

Effect of free or paid account on elance

There have been several rumors that those who make use of the free account on elance do not usually get any work at all.

However, those who set up a premium account have been able to land several mouth watering jobs on elance.

This may not be true everywhere. It is possible for some other guys to be able to get jobs with a free account on elance and be able to make money online from there.

It is however advisable for such people to get premium accounts as soon as they are able to gather the money together.

Limit of job bids

Both freelancer and elance have a limited number of jobs that an individual is permitted to bid for.

On freelancer, you are given the grace to bid for up to sixty different jobs per month. Once your 60 bid count had been used up, you won’t be able to bid for any other job until the following month.

On elance, a free account gives you access to only 10 points. This does not mean you will be able to bid for ten jobs. Each of the types of jobs on elance have different points attached to it. You may end up bidding for only four jobs with your 10 points in case each job carries about 3 points.

Strictness of getting job

It is stricter to get jobs on elance than on freelancer.

Elance rarely welcomes anyone that is a new writer. You need to have real experience to show along with your bid.

The case is different with freelancer. Freelancer employers always give equal opportunity to new writers. There are some employers on freelancer that do not even require you to submit samples before they give you a job.

How much per job?

On freelancer.com, the jobs done are almost always cheap. You can have an employer who is only willing to pay a meager $1 for 500 words article on freelancer. This is not the case with elance. A 500 word article can cost as high as $8-$10, depending on the writer’s merit, of course.

Some people may criticize freelancer.com for providing cheap jobs to freelancers and thus lowering the job’s merit, but this should not be reason enough to avoid freelancer.com. Employers pay as per their budget allows, whether freelancers take it or not depends on them.

How to get paid?

Several workers will bid for a particular job. The employer will choose any one of them that he thinks will be able to do the job for him. The two of them will agree on price and the outsourcing site will charge them for the job awarded. The employer will give the employee a period of time to get the job done and he will put the money in escrow.

Both freelancer.com and elance.com make use of escrow.

Escrow helps to keep the payment for the job on hold until the job is finished. Once the worker finishes the job, the money in escrow is released into the account of the worker.

Escrow works in such a way that the worker and the employer will not be able to get the money out of it. The only access the employer has is to release the money into the account of the worker. It is only the site management that can take any other action with money in escrow.

This makes it hassle free to get paid for any work done on either site as long as the money is in escrow.

The worker can then decide to withdraw his money through any means he deems fit. Each of the sites have different means through which money can be paid from the worker’s online account to his personal account where he can withdraw it in cash. The choice used is completely dependent on the worker.

Charges on work done

Freelancer.com only charges each worker 5% of the total value of the winning bid and elance.com places a predetermined amount as their fees before the deal is finalized.

However, there is a difference: while freelancer.com takes fees from your winning bid, elance.com doesn’t take such a share. Elance.com charges above the price quoted by the freelancer.

Each of these sites makes sure that the charges are removed from your balance immediately after you win a bid. They will remove the charges and release the balance to you. This means that you do not need to spend a dime before you can make money on either site.

Conclusion

Read through the info above and consider all the points so as to know the one that will work well for you in your bid to make money online.

The info here may not contain everything that you need to know about both the freelance sites. You can then check other sources or user feed backs to get more info.

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