5 Things You Must Ensure if You Want to Build a Freelancing Platform

Freelancing platforms offer freelancers the chance to earn thousands of dollars every month. At the same time, these platforms take a percentage of that money for themselves as profit. So, it’s easy to see that these platforms are also making plenty of money in the process.

Building a freelancing platform, therefore, seems like a good business idea. However, you can’t make the most out of your platform if you fail to ensure key necessities.

Hence, to help you out with this intriguing business idea, we’re going to tell you about the five things you must ensure in your freelancing platform. 

#1 User-Friendly Interface

People of all ages will use your freelancing platform. They can be both buyers and sellers. So, the first and most important thing to ensure on your freelancing platform is a user-friendly interface. To do that, you must think from a seller’s POV and a buyer’s or client’s POV.

A buyer wants to see what service categories are available to them. They want to know which sellers or service providers are popular in those categories. Buyers would also like to know what other clients think of those sellers and what their ratings are. 

On the other hand, a seller needs to know what type of jobs are available. They will want to know how much the gig pays, how long it will take to complete it, and other relevant information. Sellers should also know how to apply for the job or project and what requirements they must meet.

Freelancing platforms act as a bridge between customers (clients) and businesses (sellers). So, it’s only natural that you keep that bridge as straightforward as possible, without any hard turns or bends. 

#2 Services You Want to Allow

Don’t hesitate to innovate or think creatively when deciding on the services you want to allow on your platform. People these days require all kinds of digital services. Show them that such services exist, and they can avail them for a small price.

Fiverr’s approach to this is quite praiseworthy. The platform is known for providing services like graphic design, content writing, web and app development, visual editing, etc. Recently, however, they have been providing more than just those traditional digital services. 

Fiverr now provides services in more than 500 categories. Apart from the usual ones, they also have sellers that provide services related to cryptocurrency, NFTs, live streaming, and many more. They even have a category where sellers offer video game coaching, and it’s quite a profitable gig category. 

Go through Fiverr’s categories, and do some brainstorming by yourself. Think of what services are gaining popularity these days and what types of businesses people are into. Doing these things will help you decide on the service categories you want on your platform.

#3 Ensuring Security and Privacy

To keep the platform secure and obliterate fraud, you must ensure identity verification. Asking for users’ national IDs, passports, or driving license copies is a good way to verify their digital identities. Fiverr and UpWork follow a similar approach for verifying their users.

Fiverr uses an automated AI and computer vision-based system to authenticate further the user against the IDs they provide. The technology they use is available at AU10TIX. You can check out the demo they offer to see if this verification method suits your needs. Using such an established and renowned verification system is an easier way to keep frauds away from your platform than building a similar system entirely from scratch.

#4 Ensuring Seamless Buyer-Seller Communication

Initially, freelancing platforms like Fiverr and UpWork only allowed textual communication between clients and buyers. As attachments, they could send one another images or short videos. However, this didn’t fulfill their needs. As projects became more complex, users started to demand better communication methods.

Neither Fiverr nor UpWork allows their users to communicate outside their platform. So, to ensure seamless buyer-seller communication on the platform, they introduced a video calling feature. That helped them hold on to their users, and it’s something you should incorporate right from the start. Fail to do so, and potential users will lose interest in your platform. 

#5 Choosing a Payment Gateway

You’ll have buyers and sellers from all over the world using your platform. Therefore, you should integrate payment gateways that cater to a global audience. 

At present, PayPal is the leading name in offering international payment services. Besides PayPal, you can also check out Payoneer. The top existing freelancing platforms like Fiverr and UpWork use both Payoneer and PayPal to process their users’ payments. Consider using these payment gateways as they’re secure, reliable, and globally trusted.

Once you have arranged for all this, your freelancing platform will be open for business. Ensuring these things will help you make the platform more user-centric. That will then bring in more users, resulting in more profit.