I’m not a huge fan of gloating about finding cheap labor, since I’m a freelancer myself and feel that you should always try to pay a reasonable wage to all your contractors, but it’s no crime to seek out labor that is slightly less expensive than what you would typically find.
That said, I wanted to put together an ultimate list of places to find cheap labor. The outsourcing and freelancing trends have taken hold of our global economy, so embrace the change in tides and use these sites to cut down on costs and boost your online business to the next level.
Fiverr
I like to start off every cheap labor list with the ole Fiverr website, since it’s a wonderful place to quickly contact people who can complete random jobs for you. In my experience I haven’t found people to perform consistent work for me on Fiverr, but I don’t see why you couldn’t start a back and forth with an individual for more work in the future.
Fiverr is fairly simple, where you only pay five dollars for a simple task like designing a logo or receiving some voice over work. Every job only requires five bucks, but the worker can specify various addons that boost the price.
For example, you may try to pay only $5 for a new business logo, but have to pay an extra $10 for the PSD files to go with it. You may even have to pay another $10 for a color version of the logo. It all depends on what the creator specifies, so it’s wise to search based on the skill you require, then click on every individual worker profile to check on ratings, reviews and payment stipulations.
Overall, Fiverr is a wonderful place for one-off jobs, and even with the addons you will end up spending a small amount of money. The quality varies drastically, but the site tends to feature the highest qualified workers to push their businesses to the top.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Graphics and design
- Online marketing
- Writing and translation
- Video and animation
- Music and audio
- Programming and tech
- Business
- Lots more
How Cheap Is It?
As cheap as $5. However you could end up spending hundreds of dollars. I hired a social media manager for a while once and the deal was for her to work for one week at $5. Any additional weeks required more money.
Craigslist
We all know how Craigslist works, but I put it on this list, because I feel many people forget about the tried and true cheap hiring medium. It’s important to remember that Craigslist gives you the unique opportunity to target your locale. Obviously you can target your location with job boards, but this is really an un-targeted marketing effort since so many people from around the world check job boards.
If you post a job on the Chicago Craigslist page you have no doubt that folks are visiting from Chicago.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Accounting
- Admin
- Writing
- Real estate
- Sales
- Security
- Tech support
- Film and audio
- Pretty much anything you can think of
How Cheap Is It?
The job posting generally starts at $25, but if you choose additional categories to target the price goes up $25 for every category. In that respect it can get rather expensive to target a large amount of people, but I can’t imagine many people would target more than a couple categories.
How much you pay the contractor depends entirely on your own discretion, but I know many people are willing to work for cheap on Craigslist to get their careers started to to boost portfolios. Don’t become a slave driver, but look for some deals.
Guru
Guru is a smaller version of Freelancer.com (which we will talk about below). Basically, sites like Elance, Guru and Freelancer all provide similar systems for finding contract work, but Freelancer has risen above as the largest site, buying out several competitors and trying to take over the industry.
It’s a solid business, but Freelancer.com has become so clunky and filled with poor talent, that I have to put Guru on top of the list. It’s a little more personal where the contractors send you nice messages and the interface is quite clean.
Although the talent pool is smaller than places like Freelancer.com, it’s much easier to locate the best talent for affordable rates.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Web and IT
- Writing
- Translation
- Sales and marketing
- Legal
- Engineering
- Much more
How Cheap Is It?
It’s free to post a job, but once you hire a “Guru” you must pay the site a small percentage of the overall rate you plan on paying the worker. Obviously you have to pay the worker as well, but the rates are rather inexpensive.
You can also add a featured job listing for more exposure, requiring more money, but I can’t imagine this is necessary.
Elance
I would put Elance in the exact same category as Guru. It’s a smaller version of the giant Freelancer.com. But, once again, it’s more fun, cleaner and easier to use than Freelancer. What’s the point of having both Elance and Guru on the same list?
Well, each of the sites have their own specific talent pools. In fact many freelancers only choose one site and stick with it because it takes some time and effort to build up ratings and reviews on a single site. Post your job listing on all of these sites for the largest talent pool.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Programming
- Mobile Development
- Writers
- Marketers
- Designers
- Much more
How Cheap Is It?
It’s free to post a job, but you’re required to pay a small fee when the job is approved. This is just like Guru, where the payments for contractors vary on how much you want to pay for them. I’d recommend sticking with an hourly rate to keep costs low.
Freelancer
Now for the big boss man. Freelancer.com is a wonderful place to find just about the cheapest labor in the world. If you want to pay a dollar for a days worth of work, I would bet that you could find someone to do it for you. I’m serious. I sometimes feel really grimy working through Freelancer because I know that the talent pool is so large and everyone fights until they can hit the lowest possible rate.
You’ll definitely find quality workers on Freelancer, but those folks generally hold out for more money and they aren’t always easy to find. Do I think it’s a good idea to post your job on Freelancer? Yup. But keep in mind that the rating systems on this site are useless because everyone just reciprocates good ratings back and forth.
You’ll run into people who say they run a one-person shop and they actually have 20 people working on little bits of your project. It’s also very common for people to claim English as their first language for writing, and you start talking to them and it’s clear this is not true.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Websites
- Software
- Mobile
- Writing
- Design
- Data entry
- Sales
- Accounting
- Lots more
How Cheap Is It?
Freelancer is free to post your job, but they have various weird restrictions that push you to subscribe. The system is flooded with upsells throughout the entire process, making it somewhat annoying. I’ve hired a few people through Freelancer and it’s often tough to get your fees back even if the job doesn’t go through.
Freelancer is set on gathering your fees and not giving them back, regardless of what happens with the job. It makes a little sense since everyone could just use the system and start emailing to avoid the fees, but they’ve really setup a rough system with plenty of red tape.
Odesk
Odesk is the final freelancing website that falls into the same category of Freelancer.com and Guru. How does Odesk differ? I personally find that I receive the least amount of responses from Odesk compared to the other options, but the talent quality isn’t half bad.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Web development
- Mobile development
- Design
- Writing
- Virtual assistance
- Sales
- Accounting
- Customer service
- Lots more
How Cheap Is It?
It’s free to post, but Odesk starts charging fees once the work starts. The labor is generally cheap, and the 10 percent Odesk fees are charged to the worker.
People Per Hour
I really like People Per Hour since the site seems to attract a decent set of talented individuals, and the search and job post process is really simple.
The website runs much faster than Freelancer.com and you don’t have to worry about being barraged with upsells and advertisements.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Design
- Development
- Content
- Promotion
How Cheap Is It?
The job listings are free and you pay a small fee for when it starts. I’ve hired some folks for around $9 per hour on this site, but I’ve noticed listings for as low as $3 per hour. I’m not sure what the quality of applicants you can get for this, but it’s worth a shot.
Keep in mind that you could find some diamond in the rough workers from developing countries.
Outsource.com
Outsource.com works well for finding some cheaper workers, but it’s losing traction in the overall outsourcing and freelancing game. The system, however, is safe and easy to post on, so if you can find a couple hard workers on this site, more power to you.
The system works so that you post a job, receive quotes from freelancers and you get to choose the best. Sound familiar? Yea, it’s just like Freelancer and all the other sites we’ve talked about, but it’s super clean.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Web development
- Content writing
- Graphic designing
- Data entry
- Search engine optimization
- Web design
- Internet marketing
- Lots more
How Cheap Is It?
You don’t pay a dime for website fees until you hire someone. This is one of those places where you can find some really inexpensive workers. Choose between hourly or fixed rates. You can always chat with a worker later on to change your payment process around.
iFreelance
The iFreelance website cuts out the middle man and connects you directly with those people you need to help build a logo or answer calls for you. I really enjoy this option because it’s free to post a job and you don’t have to pay for any transaction fees.
This isn’t the cheapest way to find talent, but you might be able to snag someone special for a decent rate. I’ve always noticed that the job listings aren’t all that plentiful on iFreelance, so it makes me wonders how many actual freelancers are using the site.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Accounting and finance
- Admin
- Consulting
- Engineering
- Design
- Legal
- Marketing
- Photography
- Writing
- Programming
- Much more
How Cheap Is It?
Projects can start under five bucks, but it’s more common to see job listings for $100 to $1000 depending on the project size.
Envato Studio
Formerly called Freelance Switch, that website was merged with a couple other Envato sites to make the job and talent search process a little smoother. Everyone who knows Envato knows what they’re doing in terms of bringing together communities for people to make money and share creative stuff.
That’s why I was so surprised that the Freelance Switch job board went down. It’s alright though, since the company was just consolidating and making the interface a little easier to use.
So, now it’s called Envato Studio. What makes this unique? It’s doesn’t just let anyone come on board. You receive any type of digital design or development work from people who are handpicked by the Envato team. This means you get quality. How does this affect the cost for you?
Well, it goes up a bit, but you can still find some rather affordable workers if you take some time to narrow down the field. The talent selection process works a little different than other sites, and this is where Envato truly stands out.
Instead of posting a job, you type in the skills required. You can then go in and change how much you are willing to spend and some other filters. The site tells you which freelancers land in your range and you can contact them personally.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Web Design
- Web Development
- Pretty much anything relating to design or digital, like social media and eCommerce
How Cheap Is It?
Not the cheapest, but I once spent $50 for a logo design that came out really nice. I wouldn’t expect to get anything designed for below $20 or $30 bucks, but do your research and realize that some of the best talent in the world is on Envato.
You will have to pay for the service before you send any messages to the freelancers, but this is securely held by Envato in case the other person does not accept.
Journalism Jobs
I’ve never used JournalismJobs.com to hire anyone, since I never needed a journalist. The site is really focused on the newspaper/journalism field, so if you need a cameraman, writer or media worker you might find something here.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Newspaper writing
- Journalism
- PR
- Magazine writing
- Editing
- Tech and finance in the media
- Publishing
How Cheap Is It?
I’ll be honest, this is probably one of the more expensive websites on the list, because plenty of solid companies post here. You have to pay $75 for a job ad and the talent changes depending on the type of job. Most of the job listings here are for full time journalists. At first glance I noticed a listing for $34,000 and another for $52,000.
Take that information and do what you will with it.
FreelanceWritingGigs.com
I used to grab various jobs from FreelanceWritingGigs.com since I was trying to build up my client list as a writer. As an employer you can expect to find plenty of candidates who are willing to write for your website, blog or marketing campaign.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Blogging
- Editing
- General writing
- Publishing
- Copywriting
How Cheap Is It?
It’s only $10 to post your own job listing. After that it all depends on the job you are posting, but I would consider a $0.02 to $0.07 rate per word to be a estimated range of what you can expect to pay.
99Designs
The 99Designs company is all about design, and offers an interesting way to pay for your designs, often making it more affordable for you as an employer.
Instead of paying for a single design and coming back the next time you need another one, you sign up for a package that includes a certain amount of designs.
The website is made up of a large designer community, and you can ask them to design just about anything. This way you don’t get stuck with one or two designers. The company gives you an experienced logo designer when you need a logo and an experienced book cover designer when you need a book cover.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Logo design
- Web design
- App design
- Clothing and merchandise design
- Art and illustration
- Book and magazine design
- Much more
How Cheap Is It?
The plans start at $299, where you receive 30 designs. You might think this sounds like a lot, but it’s only $10 per design, which comes out as a steal if you know that you plan on having lots of designs created.
Smashing Magazine Jobs
The Smashing Jobs board is part of Smashing Magazine, which has over 4 million monthly users. It’s a hub for creative individuals, so you can post your own job to see if any of these talented people would want to work for you.
I like that the job board is perfect for filtering between things like full-time and freelance. The design is sleek and you know many people see your job post.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Web design
- Programming
- Management
How Cheap Is It?
You have to spend $75 if you’re seeking a freelance worker. If you opt to search for a full-time worker you need to fork over $225. This is one of the most popular magazines in the industry, so it’s worth it if you want the best. Keep in mind that you won’t be finding the cheapest of labor, but the freelance listings are usually reasonable.
Writer Access
Writer Access is, you guessed it, a place to hire writers. The website uses a rather interesting system to help companies find affordable and high-quality writer within seconds. Writer Access rates its writers on a six star scale, so you can choose what quality you want.
The price obviously increases with the higher caliber writers. You can then punch in how many words you need written and the system calculates how much you will be charged.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Anything that can be written
How Cheap Is It?
It can actually get quite expensive if you opt for a six star writer, since the company is obviously taking a nice cut as well. It’s about $100 for 1000 words from a six star writer. The cheapest you can find is about $20 for 1000 words. This comes from a two star writer though.
Problogger Job Board
This is my favorite job board of all time, but I’ve typically used it to find jobs for myself as opposed to locate other writers to work for me.
To sum it up, Problogger is one of the hottest blogging websites in the world, and they have a huge following if you really need a writer. It’s definitely worth spending the money for the Problogger job board, because the candidates are qualified and not that expensive.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Blogging
- Copywriting
- Press releases
- Email marketing
- Social media
- Anything that requires writing skills
How Cheap Is It?
It only costs $50 to post a job and the workforce is generally affordable. Don’t plan on finding much of a response if you low ball everyone, but focusing on a $0.03 to $0.07 per word rate is reasonable.
Dribbble
Dribble is strictly for designers, but it’s a close knit group of people who constantly chat and share the designs they come up with. I’ve found that many of them are extremely creative, and you can either search for individuals or post a job for a fee.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Web designers
- Web developers
How Cheap Is It?
It’s actually not that cheap, but you do receive access to a wonderful community of designers, and the pro search features bring you right to people who will get you started with your project. What does this mean? It’s $375 for a job listing. This lasts for 30 days, but it’s actually somewhat inexpensive for the direct exposure you receive.
The reason this rate is higher than most is because the job board is primarily designed for full-time jobs. Like I stated before, you get the best of the best here.
Behance
Behance has a revolutionary creative search algorithm that really blows away the traditional job listing. The website considers various different filters and requirements to match you with the ideal candidates for your job, as opposed to simply drawing in the people who happen to notice your job listing.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Graphic design
- Photography
- Interaction design
- Illustration
- Art direction
How Cheap Is It?
It depends completely on the designer so you have to contact each person one by one or complete the talent search function.
Amazon Mechanical Turk
I first learned about Amazon Mechanical Turk because a friend recommended it for my writing career. Although I would never recommend MTurk as a viable long-term career plan, you can always find some affordable labor on the site.
How does it work? You post a job and the thousands of workers contracted by MTurk are shown that your jobs are available. This is usually a better option if you have lots of consistent work. It’s not exactly a one job solution.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Writing product descriptions
- Blogging
- Survey-taking
- Transcribing
- Lots of random skills
How Cheap Is It?
It depends completely on the project, but think of it like ordering any product in bulk. The more you buy the less each item becomes.
Copypress
Copypress is a reliable company that has a medium-sized worker base for delivering great work at a reasonable price. The difference between Copypress and the other websites on this list is that Copypress has an extensive application process for when they hire writers.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Copywriting
- Blogging
- Product Descriptions
- Just about any type of writing job
- Infographics
How Cheap Is It?
Not as cheap as MTurk, but it works the same way. They probably won’t accept your job unless you have lots of it for their writers. Because of this they generally work with medium to large businesses.
Logobids
Need a simple logo designed? This is the place to find it. The reason it’s a beautiful process is because it caters to employers. You create a contest and hundreds of designers submit logo designs that you can choose from. This gives you more than one to choose from, minimizing the risk of hiring a junk designer.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Logo Design
How Cheap Is It?
It costs you $47 to post a contest. This does not include the reward cash. So, you get to decide on how much you want to award for the winner. The more money you offer, the better selection you probably receive.
Coworks
Coworks has a strange, but somewhat interesting strategy. They select the talent for you after you submit the job requirements. I guess this is nice for people with zero time, but I feel like I would never trust another person to make my hiring decisions.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Copywriters
- Web designers
- UX programming
How Cheap Is It?
It’s completely free to use the system and find your own freelance workers. There is an Agency version which brings you into a private freelance network but it requires a small commission. The hand-selected talent is not the cheapest on this list, but it completely depends on the type of project.
Jobety
Jobety is a sleek new web design and development job board with an unusual amount of resources compared to the standard job board site. Job seekers learn how to interview, build resumes and close their deals, which is great news for you as an employer.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Web design
- Web development
- Mobile development
- Marketing
How Cheap Is It?
It’s only $50 to post on Jobety, making it one of the cheapest web design and development job boards out there.
Staff.com
Staff.com works as a way to hire your entire staff in just a few clicks. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial, then move into a more consistent payment plan for finding the top talent for a particular job.
You can keep choosing from the talent pool and even track time and verify the hours worked. Send all your payments through the site. I’d recommend this if you need more than maybe five people on your staff and you plan on having them work on a daily or weekly basis.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Graphic design
- Data entry
- Web development
- Customer service
- Just about anything you can think of
How Cheap Is It?
The Staffers usually select their salary. The time tracking, payroll and worker database packages start at $49 per month.
Virtual Assitant Forums
This is where the most serious virtual assistants hang out online. Yes, a forum is much less organized than a job board or job search site, but you can generally assume that this forum is crawling with quality talent. These are people who are already investing time into learning the best techniques for advancing their careers.
The forum has a job board for some nice target marketing, and you can even jump into one of the conversations to learn about the virtual assistants and maybe try to grab someone who doesn’t charge that much for their services.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Virtual assistance
How Cheap Is It?
There is no way of telling how much you would have to pay since the talent range is so vast. I’d assume you could find some great deals if you put some work into it. It’s free to post a job on the forum, but keep in mind that if you state an extremely low budget then they won’t publish your job listing.
This place is designed to help virtual assistants, so they aren’t going for any low-ball offers.
Jobstreet
Jobstreet is a hub for inexpensive workers in the Philippines and elsewhere in the world. You have two options: To post a job ad or to search for individual resumes. Depending on your job it may help to do one or the other. I would recommend creating a job ad to start off since you’ll still have to sift through tons of resumes.
This isn’t a typical virtual assistant site that you generally find in the Philippines. It’s designed to match people with various skill sets to the right employers.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Engineering
- Education
- Accounting
- Admin
- Arts
- Construction
- Sales
- Computers
- Design
- Much more
How Cheap Is It?
It’s free to create an account, and they provide a free job listing for the first time you post. After that, you have to pay a small fee. When it comes to Philippine talent you really can’t go wrong. They are hard working people and you don’t have to worry about communication issues.
That’s why so many of these sites are dedicated solely to the Philippines workforce.
Best Jobs Philippines
You may have heard in the past that the Philippines is one of the best places to find inexpensive labor. This is quite true, and the virtual assistance game is huge over there. The greatest thing about the Philippines is that most of the people speak English so you can really focus on training your virtual assistant as opposed to trying to communicate with them.
Virtual assistance is obviously a general term, but you can expect these contractors to help you with just about anything you need, such as answering phones and sending emails or even punching in data for your company.
The Best Jobs Philippines website categorizes the resumes nicely so you can find additional skills for areas such as HR, legal, marketing, sales, computes, healthcare, accounting and more.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Virtual assistance
How Cheap Is It?
This service is completely free to sign up, which is refreshing compared to some of the other virtual assistant sites that make you punch in all your payment information just to start searching through their databases. The site is designed to push jobs to the Philippines, so it simply lists your email in the job post, meaning no fees are required.
The payment to your virtual assistant all depends on how long you want to keep them around and what the work is for. I’ve noticed some companies make listings with $15,000 to $20,000 salaries, which is fairly reasonable if you keep someone around full-time.
You can also post hourly or short-term jobs, but the typical employer on this site is interested in hiring someone to stick around for awhile.
Hire Your Virtual Assistant
Hire Your Virtual Assistant was recommended to me a few years ago, but I never got around to using it, since I didn’t really need someone to check my emails or answer phone calls.
Now that I look at the site it actually seems old, but the company is still up and running, so you might be able to find an inexpensive virtual assistant. I’ve heard from others that the average is around $10 per hours, but you have to send the company an email if you want a true quote.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Virtual assistance
How Cheap Is It?
It’s tough to tell unless you contact the company for a quote, but from what we’ve heard it isn’t out of control.
Ask Sunday
Ask Sunday is another hot spot for finding affordable personal assistants. You can sign up for an account, then find your very own personal assistant to work on various different tasks such as answering phone calls, designing images, managing your social media or organizing your files.
In general, the virtual assistants are around to keep you on task, manage your scheduling and keep you on your feet in terms of speaking with clients through emails and phone calls. This is great, but some of the assistants also have additional skills, so you’ll have to filter through these workers and really see what you need help with.
What Skills Can You Hire for Here?
- Virtual assistance (Although all the assistants have different skills)
How Cheap Is It?
It’s required to sign up for a paid account, so the plans start at $119 per month, which comes out to paying the person $13 for 10 hours of work every month. The plan go up to $1099 per month in exchange for 160 hours of virtual assistant time.
So, some of the plans aren’t cheap, but it really depends on how valuable your time is. Can you make up for that $119 in the 10 hours you save of your own time? I would bet that most people could get some good work in with an additional 10 hours on the clock.
Connect with a Local School to Setup an Internship Program
Is there a high school or university near your business? Many of these schools are actively seeking out businesses to help them place students in summer jobs or internship programs. Speak to the school to see how to get setup for interviews, or even ask to speak with one of the relevant classes to get the process started.
Hire Your Family Members
There’s no better way to give back to your family and help the people you love make some money than by giving them a job at your company. Especially with younger kids in your family, you can get some day-to-day work completed for lower wages.
Just remember to check in on your child labor laws for the state to ensure nothing illegal is going on.
Is that enough for you? It’s amazing how many job boards and cheap labor sites have popped up in the past few years. I’ve hired a few people on the huge sites like Freelancer and Elance, with mixed results. Most of the time you end up with someone who stretched their qualifications, but then again, these sites are the cheapest options, so you get what you pay for.
I would encourage you to find more niche workers by going to job boards, but don’t expect to find the same rates you would see on Freelancer.com.
Share your thoughts in the comments section if you have any questions about my ultimate list of freelancing websites to hire cheap workers.
Featured Image Credit: surfergirl30
