A few years ago, when I first started to seriously consider building a freelance side hustle, I stumbled upon the website People Per Hour. For a short while, it was a website that proved to be lucrative for me and it helped me to build my writing portfolio. I was recommending it to everyone.
These days it’s a site that is far less effective than it was at that time, as it seems to be overwhelmed with scammers, low-paid jobs, and it’s much harder to land work. For that reason, it’s not one that I utilise anymore.
That said, it’s effectiveness various from skillset to skillset with some niches seeming to be more profitable than others. If you’re looking for a small side hustle, or have skills in an industry with demand, it’s a website that can help kickstart your career. In today’s post I am sharing some of the tips and tricks that I learnt about earning money from People Per Hour.
What is People Per Hour?
People Per Hour is essentially a marketplace for freelancers and provides a space for people to sell their skills. There are two types of selling on the website – jobs and offers.
Jobs are work opportunities that are published by those hiring and these tend to be the most lucrative. Usually, the poster will use the advert to outline exactly what it is that they are looking for. This often includes the nature of the job, any deadlines, and any budget that the customer might have. The freelancers on the website bid on these tasks, affording the buyer a chance to select the candidate that is best suited to their specific needs.
In the tip section below, you’ll find some tips on how to increase your chances of landing work this way and how to spot scammers.
Offers, on the other hand, are posted on the website by freelancers and are purchased by those looking for service providers. These are a set amount – whereas jobs are bid on – and can be a lucrative extra. These tend to be for individual services, for example, a blog post for a specific number of words or the transcription of an audio file of a certain length.
What skills can you sell on People Per hour?
The website tends to be for those with transferrable skills with services such as writing, administration, website building and many more, tending to be the most successful.
When I was using the website to supplement my full-time income, I was primarily focussing my attention on writing and administration.
Can you make real money on People Per Hour?
Short answer – yes.
Long answer – yes, but not as much as you once could. Since I started using the website in around 2018, things have changed dramatically and, in my experience, it’s nowhere near as lucrative now as it once was.
There are more freelancers on the site than ever before, meaning that there is more competition. As a result, freelancers tend to undercut each other, brining down the overall value of the work available.
There also seems to be more scammers, with ‘please apply via this telegram link’ being a regular message that freelancers receive in relation to job bids. That was not something that happened before.
In that regard, People Per Hour is far laxer than its counterpart, Upwork. The latter tends to have a much stricter posting policy and less scam or spam slips through the cracks. A few years ago, I complained to People Per Hour about the number of academic jobs postings, it was even something that I spoke to the media about, although my comments were withdrawn when the journalist misrepresented my comments.
In a nutshell, yes, it is possible to earn a considerable amount of money on People Per Hour. However, you need to be careful with the jobs that you apply for and which you accept.
Tips for making money on People Per Hour
ONE – Don’t pay for the ‘speedy acceptance’ option
When you apply for People Per Hour, you are given TWO options. The first is to allow the process to be completed naturally with it being suggested that it could take a couple of days for your application to be approved. The second option is that you apply, and your application process is sped up. I tested this theory and found that it takes around the same amount of time. In fact, when I last re-joined, it only takes an hour for my application to be accepted and I didn’t pay a penny.
I appreciate that on some occasions it might take longer and, in those instances, it’s probably worth paying. However, for the most part, it’s not something that is worth paying for.
TWO – Use the bid space to figure out the bidding average
Here’s a trick that I learnt very quickly, and one that can help you if you’re new to the business.
If you’re reluctant to bid because you’re unsure what to charge, go straight to the bottom of the bidding form. In the box where it asks for your quote, simply £1. An exclamation mark will pop up next to it and this will tell you the minimum that you can offer based on what other people have already bid. This will help you to decide how much to quote.
THREE – A lack of information is a red flag
The less information available on the job posting, the more red flags you should be seeing. Real jobs will tend to have a lot of information, with things like deadline, budget and exact requirements usually having been fully planned out.
If these are missing, it doesn’t always mean that it’s not real, but if they’re all missing, I would be weary.
Another tip is to always charge 75% of the job total as a deposit, this protects you in case the other person ghosts. I had this happen once and with People Per Hour not able to reach the buyer directly, they granted me the full deposit. Sure, I lost money on the work that I’d done, but 75% of the job was a lot better than nothing.
FOUR – Check the website regularly
In my experience, the earlier you bid on a job the more likely you are to be offered it and so, I would recommend checking the website regularly. The website only grants you a limited amount of ‘credits’ with each bid charging a certain amount of them for the privilege of being considered.
When jobs hit double figures, there is very little point in bidding because by that point they might have a preferred candidate.
Keep checking the website and bid on jobs as quickly as you can to ensure that you’re bid is considered.
FIVE – Have your own set prices
Do some research into your chosen niche and investigate what kind of prices other freelancers are charging for their services. People Per Hour itself is a good place to start with offers tending to demonstrate the basic prices that people are charging. But it’s worth looking at other websites to generate an average medium too.
Then, create a basic price plan for what you want to charge for your services, have a small margin of error, but for the most, stick to it.
SIX – Have a portfolio to hand
If you’re new to freelancing, this tip is going to be particularly important, but regardless of your niche, a portfolio is essential.
If you haven’t sold your skill before, consider ways that you might create that portfolio anyway. If you write, create a blog. If you build websites, build your own. If you draw, design a logo. There are countless ways around this, but having examples is a sure-fire way to elevate your chances.
SEVEN – Don’t rely on it
A long time ago, I might have said that People Per Hour was a confident way of making regular amounts of money. However, these days, it’s not an income stream that I would recommend relying on.
My recent experience shows me that it’s very temperamental, sometimes there are lots of job opportunities and other times there are very few.
EIGHT – Join other websites
To that end, I would suggest joining other freelance websites too. Fiverr and Upwork are particularly good websites and are generally, a bit more reliable.
