TaskCity: Marketplace to Match Freelancers with Employers

As we all know, one of the toughest challenges for freelancers is to consistently find new projects and sources of revenue.   Marketing your services and finding projects is a major key to long-term success for any independent freelancer. Luckily for us, a number of project-matching web services have launched in the last few years, including TaskCity.com. These services are immensely helpful tools built specifically for freelance business development.

I took a look at TaskCity, one of the newer platforms for matching professional freelancers with outsourced projects.  This free market for freelancers and employer services is focused squarely on the following categories of work:

• Web Development
• Software Development
• Networking & Information Systems
• Graphic Arts & Design

I didn’t really find any projects related to writing, marketing or administrative services, so please note that this platform is not suited to every type of freelancer at this point in time. From browsing the site, the greatest number of existing project listings appear to be technical in nature.

When you first use any project-matching service, it pays to describe your best professional and personal attributes in your profile. Promote your relevant education, training and experience, upload samples of your work, link to your portfolio, and even speak to your working style and personality. By perfecting your profile, you will increase your chances for winning your first project within the service. And once you do score that first job, each additional project will be easier to win, since you’ll have some new credibility via favorable ratings and referrals from project employers.

Once your profile is set, searching for projects on TaskCity is quite easy. From a usability point of view, the interface is clean and it provides good flexibility for searching on a number of important dimensions. Once you find an appealing project (there are over 1500 open projects at the time of writing), you can submit your bid and proposal. If all works out well, the employer will choose your services and pay through TaskCity’s escrow-like payment system. This payment method provides a level of credibility and trust to the system, and is crucial when matching people who probably have not met face-to-face or interacted previously.

There is no cost to register for TaskCity, and the only fees are related to actual transactions between buyer and seller. If you’re a technical freelancer looking for new avenues to find work, it couldn’t hurt to give this service a test run to try and win new business.