How to Select a Freelancer Marketplace Plugin for WordPress

Introduction

Freelance services have expanded exponentially in the past decade and are projected to increase further in the coming years. With such growth, it is predicted that freelancers will account for as much as 80% of the entire workforce worldwide by 2030. The so-called “gig economy” is not just another buzzword anymore. With 57.3 million freelancers in the US alone (which makes around 36% of the total country’s workforce), there is no denying the fact that it is now the reality we live in.

These online professional services marketplaces serve as mediators between employers and workers to help them establish business relationships with each other. Each day, these websites help millions of their users find suitable jobs or staff, thereby earning their owners tremendous income. Freelance work, previously seen as pure side gigs and extra jobs, has now become a big job choice.

Using a WordPress Freelancer Marketplace Plugin

When you want to optimize your Freelance Marketplace’s strengths and functionality, using a WordPress Plugin is the perfect way to do that. Below are some of the reasons why you should use WordPress Freelance Marketplace Plugin to build your own Platform for Freelancer.

  • Freelance Marketplace Plugins are specifically designed and built to meet the needs of people interested in creating a freelance marketplace or other related ventures, after extensive study. Therefore, providing you with a Freelance Platform with the best framework possible would include all the necessary features and capabilities.
  • There is a rich eco-system available with WordPress plugins and codes that can help you develop and customize your WordPress Freelance Marketplace in whatever way you wish.
  • WordPress plugins have the potential to help you focus more on SEO and content marketing. They are two really effective tactics that will in no time draw clients and visitors to your website.
  • Finally, it wouldn’t be a problem with WordPress integrating with other tools and plugins. If required, you can use multiple WordPress solutions altogether to help you develop and automate your website on the Freelance Services Marketplace.

How to Find a Suitable WordPress Plugin for a Freelancer Marketplace

You’ll need to study and compare what plugins are better suited for your WordPress website. Below are several parameters that could be used:

  • Design: You need to get the template tested. A Freelancer Marketplace website uses many complex workflows, which is why it is critical that the plugin offers a great design and user-friendly features.
  • Payment Gateways: For a freelancer marketplace the processing of payments is crucial. It’s not really a problem, to begin with but later you do need a solution to essentially automate all payments. Therefore you will need to test which payment gateways are supported and you can use your WordPress plugin to enforce this. However, bear in mind, many payment gateways only allow businesses in some countries and many businesses in other countries than the US and Western Europe still have trouble getting accepted by other payment gateways.
  • Scalability: You’ll need to test the plugin’s backend structure in terms of technical scalability but also administrative ease here. It is vital that the backend has all the information at hand so that the website operator can easily find out what is going on and have all the details at hand in case of conflicts or demands for refunds.
  • Eco-System: Does the plugin come with an ecosystem of other great plugins, which can be easily added later in a cost-effective way? Here you want to start with a simple configuration to test your idea first but then you want to have access to a rich ecosystem with other plugins where you can easily add additional functionality to make your platform very awesome and where you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. So, you can verify whether your Freelancer Marketplace plugins are compatible with other applications or plugins.
  • Familiarity: You may also need to bear in mind that it is easier to find cost-effective developers for technical assistance when choosing a plugin that is compatible with other applications such as WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads because they have already worked on similar projects.

Must-have Features of an Excellent Freelancer Marketplace

In my opinion, if you want a perfect freelance marketplace, it must have the following features available:

1. Easy Onboarding Process – The platform must also offer a quick and easy onboarding process that will benefit both the customer and freelancer. The best feature for this one is that the customer can hire the freelancer right on his profile, or right on the Freelancer List.

2. Freelancer List – Customers must easily locate each of the available Freelancers, along with their profiles to check and see whether they fit the criteria that the customer is looking for.

3. Excellent Bidding Process with the option to Create Project Milestones – It is a must-have for a Freelancer Marketplace to have an excellent bidding flow and process. It must contain necessary and clear information about the Freelancer’s Bid, and also the option to create project Milestones(either by the Customer or the Freelancer).

4. Rating Procedure – The platform should enable the parties to rate each other depending on their performance as a party involved in the project.

5. Social Login – Since many people will register to your platform, we must give them an easy and quick registration process, by enabling them to register using their Social Accounts.

6. Manage Disputes and Settlements among the Parties – Different problems, issues and misunderstandings may arise during Project Execution among the parties, so because of that, there must be a way for the parties to report any disputes to the Site Administrators. They should have the capacity to submit disputes or claims against the party and the whole process needs to be managed.

7. Ability to scale up the Freelancer Marketplace – Besides offering Freelance Services to your customer, it is a great strategy if you are able to offer other products or services right on your Freelancer Marketplace. You can either sell digital downloads, website themes and designs, documents, and others. There’s always an opportunity to let more revenue flow in so we don’t want to waste it.

8. Payment Gateways – Freelancer Marketplace must have the ability to collect payments early on and hold them back until the projects are closed. Preferably, customers can pay with different payment methods such as Credit Cards, PayPal Balance and many more options.

These are just a few suggestions I have in mind if we are to talk about an efficient and effective Freelance Marketplace platform to service customers. Of course, there would be a lot more, but I hope you keep in mind these important features.

In order to achieve the above features on your Freelancer Marketplace Platform. You might want to check out this Freelancer Marketplace Plugin for WordPress.This plugin will help you build a freelancer marketplace for WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads. It also offers a comprehensive collection of settings and configurations to give you total control over your own freelancer marketplace, allowing you to configure it any way you want.

Conclusion: Developing a Freelance Marketplace is not a problem when you have the perfect solution

It will never be easy to start your own Freelancer marketplace with WordPress without the right resources and software, to begin with. You may have thought it would be difficult today to create your own online marketplace for freelance services, but what you really need is to be completely prepared and ready with the right tool, skills, and knowledge.

Just make sure that these features are well integrated and incorporated on your Freelance Marketplace, as well as the correct marketing and management, your marketplace will soon be up and running together with many clients and freelancers working with you.

Why creating a Freelancer Marketplace with WordPress?

WordPress is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) that can cater to any type of business you intend to build. Do the research and you’ll be amazed at WordPress’ popularity among different types of websites and online businesses currently using it as their platform. The seemingly endless possibilities for creativity with WordPress never cease to amaze entrepreneurs and business owners. With the right combination of knowledge, expertise, plugins, and themes, there’s not a lot you can’t do with WordPress – from simple blogs to eCommerce stores, Online Marketplaces to custom web applications and many more!

Creating a freelancer marketplace is hence totally a thing you can do in WordPress. It allows you to make money by sharing your online marketplace platform. Due to low overhead costs, it has become a popular online business idea.
In no small measure, it became possible due to the numerous freelance marketplaces. Among the numerous freelancers, every client will definitely find the one that suits their demand regarding the skills, rate, and pricing. And even being located on different sides of the globe will no longer prevent them from cooperation. The modern web offers numerous freelance platforms, and their number increases annually.

Traditionally, custom solutions would be nearly impossible for the average person to create a Freelancer Marketplace. But with WordPress, just about anyone could take a crack at the next big online marketplace for just a few hundred dollars and the labor involved.

Growth of the Global Freelancer Industry

Freelance services have grown immensely over the past decade and is expected to further increase in the coming years. With such growth, it is predicted that freelancers will account for as much as 80% of the entire workforce worldwide by 2030. The so-called “gig economy” is no longer just another buzzword. With 57.3 million freelancers in the US alone (which makes around 36% of the total country’s workforce), there is no denying the fact that it is now the reality we live in.

Source: Forbes

Also, based on Upwork’s Gig Economy Statistics, more than 1 in 3 (35%) American workers freelanced in 2018, totaling 56.7M freelancers, nearly 4M more than in 2014.

Source: Upwork

What is a Freelancer Marketplace Platform?

Freelancer marketplace is like a meeting ground where qualified and skilled freelancers from anywhere in the world can find work and get paid. It is an online platform where businesses can find and hire individual contractors to do some work remotely. They act as an intermediary providing a safe and convenient way to contract remote experts for one-time projects.

Freelance websites like Upwork, offering a convenient, reliable, and easy way to access global freelance talent, have become very popular among digital businesses.

Some of the top freelance services marketplace are:

Online freelance services marketplaces can vary depending on the type of work (one-time projects with fixed rates or ongoing hourly projects), services provided (engineering, design, copywriting, etc.), engagement models, geographical preferences, and so on.

Despite a large number of existing freelance online platforms, none of them are perfect. That represents an opportunity for a business to join in and develop a freelance marketplace that can close the existing gaps.

Why it’s still a good idea to start a Freelancer Marketplace?

You might think that starting your own Freelancer Marketplace at today’s eCommerce trend is no longer effective, taking into consideration a lot of website platform competitors that already excel in the web. But, you really don’t have to worry, because there are still reasons to why it is still a good idea to start a Freelancer Marketplace.

  1. There’s a good opportunity to start a freelancer marketplace for select niches. It is correct there already exist various freelancer marketplace out there, but what’s still missing are freelancer marketplaces that cater products and services for select niches. This could be a brilliant idea that can eventually lead you to start your own niche freelancer marketplace.
  2. Host a niche website that offers pre-vetted freelancers for certain tasks. This is a good way to attract clients and customers that prefers vetted freelancers to work for their projects, thus giving you more opportunity to start and work with a niche freelancer marketplace.
  3. While selling your digital products, there is still an opportunity for you to add a freelancing service on your website. This strategy will allow you to better monetize your digital product marketplace and earn more revenue by selling digital products and offering freelancing services at the same time.

Using a WordPress Freelance Marketplace Plugin

If you want to maximize the possibilities and features on your Freelance Marketplace, using a WordPress Plugin is the best way to do it. Below are some of the reasons as to why you should use WordPress Freelance Marketplace Plugin in creating your own Freelancer Platform.

  1. Freelance Marketplace Plugins are specifically designed and developed after thorough research to cater to the requirements of people interested in building a freelance marketplace or other similar projects. Thus, it will have all the important features and capabilities to present you a Freelance Platform with the best possible structure.
  2. There is a rich Eco-system of WordPress plugins and codes available which can help you improve and optimize your WordPress Freelance Marketplace in any way you want.
  3. WordPress Plugins have the capability to help you with focusing on SEO and content marketing more. These are two very important strategies that will attract customers and visitors on your website in no time.
  4. Lastly, with WordPress integrating with other solutions and plugins wouldn’t be a problem. You can use several WordPress solutions all together if necessary which can help you improve and optimize your Freelance Services Marketplace website.

How to create a simple Freelancer Marketplace in no time

Now, if you have decided to give a Freelancer Marketplace a go, here are the things you needed to do in order to start building one.

  • Choose your Domain Name

Picking a domain name is the first step in creating a website.

Your domain name, or URL, is what visitors will type into their browser’s address bar to access your site. You’re more likely to have increased traffic with a straightforward, easy-to-remember name. You can try GoDaddy and NameCheap to search and buy for available Domain Names.

  • Choose your Web Hosting Provider

To have your website available for people to visit, you need a server to host it. A reliable hosting company is vital because if you are always having issues, you will lose users. Bluehost is an excellent choice due to its customer service and reliability.

Here’s a list of some select web hosting providers that you can use:

  1. Kinsta
  2. WP Engine
  3. iPage
  4. HostGator Cloud
  5. BlueHost
  6. Iozoom

Web hosting providers are needed to keep your digital products eCommerce store online. Important here is to choose a web hosting provider not only for the price but also page speed, support, and additional services to ensure the website will not suffer any significant downtime.

  • Install WordPress

WordPress.com is a free, third-party website builder and host. It makes up 29% of the world’s CMS. WordPress has been around for more than a decade and billions of dollars of development have been put into its creation.

Once you’ve installed WordPress, you’ll be able to go to yourdomain.com/wp-admin and log in with the username and password you chose.

You can actually choose any WordPress Theme and Plugin you prefer to use with your Freelancer Marketplace. The WordPress Theme only provides your website a startup look viable for a Freelancer platform. As for the Freelancer Plugin, there are also a number of plugin you can choose from to start with.

Conclusion: There’s an opportunity for Niche Freelancer Marketplaces

It is without a doubt that a freelancer marketplace business model is extremely scalable and can be applied to various business types and domains. That is why one good opportunity is to build a niche marketplace where you can specialize or even vet freelancers for certain tasks that could be an attractive model to various customers. Another good strategy is that you can have the opportunity to better monetize your digital product marketplace and earn more revenue by selling digital products and offering freelancing services at the same time.

Creating a freelancer website may let you feel intimidated by the amount of work ahead of you. But with the right tools, skills, and knowledge, you can afterward see your freelancer marketplace all up and running.

Freelancer Marketplace Plugin will help customers to build a freelancer marketplace leveraging WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads platform. It allows freelancers to find suitable projects, lets them bid by demonstrating their skills and expertise and for customers, to have an easy way to submit their products and find suitable freelancers.

The plugin was specially developed to help niche websites leveraging their network by offering freelance services to assist customers. As the plugin uses Easy Digital Downloads it can also be easily combined with selling digital products at the same time.