Freelancers: Protect Your Work

With the development of internet more and more online businessmen tend to outsource part of their work to people from all over the world, thus giving equal opportunities to specialists to earn money regardless their location and nationality. But unfortunately there are lots of unprincipled people out there who want to get their job done without paying for it. How can a freelancer protect himself when doing your business with strangers?

Well, there is a number of ways to do it. The most secure way is to use the escrow systems offered by most freelance websites. They are designed to protect both buyers and providers, to ensure that the first will get their job done properly, and the second will get paid for their work as arranged between the sides.

Another way to secure your business, although not so safe as escrow systems, is upfront payment of some part of the price of the project. It is also risky, as the buyer can avoid paying the rest of the money, but more secure than a mere oral (or written) arrangement.

If neither of the methods described are by some reason inaccessible, you can protect yourself in a more sneaky way. In a word, it consists in delivering to the buyer a “trial” version of your work. The buyer checks that the job has been done according to the agreement, pays the price and you send the full version.

For example, freelancers working with photos and graphics can put their watermarks on the pictures, or deliver their low-dimension versions. Writers and translators can lock their documents to prevent copying and opening more than once, assign passwords etc. Website and software developers can deliver versions with limited features or limited time of use.

But still, there are more honest people in the world than dishonest ones, and lots of online co-op projects are based on trust.