People Per Hour Review: Update

It's been over a year since I joined People Per Hour. When I initially reviewed the site I offered a mixed bag but came to the conclusion that, on the whole, it was worth it.

I've changed my mind.

Use the site with caution - people are whoring themselves out for as little as £6/hour. When I've complained about this do you know what PPH said? "We are a global platform, some people will charge what is reflected in their country".

Ummm... isn't that what sweatshops do?

Anyway, that is clearly a LIE. If they *were* a global platform they wouldn't need to send me tweets like this:

I'm pretty sure that globally, somewhere, someone is awake and working for PPH.

It's a dastardly, murky world with little gumption as far as I can see.

On £60.00 I earned I only received £49.20. You don't need to be a mathematician to work out that is shocking. In fact, for the £90.00 I've earned via the site this month, I've only actually had £75.80. I would rather give a free hour to the client that have the greedy PPHers take the money. And what are they taking the money for? Pure profit?

Oh, if you ARE a keen maths brain you might notice that actually they are taking MORE than 15%.

I tried to get in touch with them. To contact them it took 4 clicks and poking around the site to find out how to do this - which is dodgy. If a company haven't got a very clean and honest way to contact customer service then they don't offer honest, clean customer service as far as I'm concerned.

I mailed them. How dare they steal a further £1.70! That is really bloody rude, actually. The answer? It's VAT.

YEAH? Then be upfront about it!! Don't provide a patronising "earnings calculator" that doesn't include VAT. What is the bloody point?

This screen shot says is all. In the background you'll see my earnings AFTER they've taken their commission. It very clearly says £49.20. Yet, in the foreground you'll see their "earnings calculator". This tells a different story. The Earnings Calculator is designed, from what I can see, to help you work out what you'll really earn (NET) after you've charged your client. In this instance, I invoiced £60.00 and could expect to get £51.00. Yet, I only got £49.20...

Sorry, I'm seething. Can you tell?

REVIEW UPDATE. On a scale of 1-5 (1* being the worst) I award People Per Hour the following:

Honesty? *
Clarity? *
Site layout? *
Customer Service? *
Value for Money? *
People I've met using the site? *****

Overview: Don't touch them with a bargepole.

I'm off to find something better. Anyone got any suggestions?

PeoplePerHour Review

I joined people per hour in July. I thought this might be a good way to generate a bit more business and, on the face of it, the concept is really good. It's free to join and advertise yourself - in accordance with VERY strict guidelines - no personal branding allowed. Which is hard, that kinda goes against the point of advertising. You only "pay a fee" once you've been paid - so if you earn they take a cut. I thought, fine, still cheaper than other advertising packages. I'll give it a go.

My smiling face - why wouldn't you hire that face?

My first job came in - a short copywriting piece for a lovely client and the money appeared. Oooh. Exciting! £12.00. Oh, that shrunk to £9.84 but that's okay. This could lead to more work and I did get 5 star feedback from the client.

See, would I lie to you? Okay, you get it, I'm good, so hire me?

The first trouble came when I tried to withdraw the funds. Now, ANY freelancer will tell you that when you do finally earn a buck it feels great. That £9.84 is all mine and will go a little way towards the food bill.

Except, you can't withdraw your funds if the balance is UNDER £10.00.

Wow - that is frustrating

Another thing that any freelancer will tell you is that you must spend time on your own business admin/advertising and portfolio. You need to stay fresh and relevant in order to appeal to the market. So I updated one of my adverts - People Per Hour call these "hourlies".

This concept of an hourlie sort of shoots itself in the foot. If you really are just doing an hour for a client and 15% of your earning is being deducted from your fee AND you can't withdraw funding under a tenner then you are looking at an hourlie rate of around £14.00. That is fairly steep in a competitive market where people are scrabbling around to earn whatever they can. The only way around that would be to sell in bulk. "I can do x in 3 hours for £xx.xx" but I don't think that is as appealing to a buyer. People PER HOUR. The clue is in the title.

These details aren't that easy to find to be honest.

Once you've got your advert, or hourlie, set up you have the option to share the advert - on your chosen medium. I opted for twitter, g+ and facebook. Again, this is you scratching their back as well as advertising your services but it is free and takes no time at all.

A word of warning, make sure the hourlie has passed the very stringent moderation guidelines. I updated mine and pushed it out only to be told (hours later) that it hadn't passed moderation as People Per Hour had updated their "best practice" rules.

The massive downside with is was the exposure that I'd already got (PPH make a point of retweeting hourlies that they see posted on twitter and had RT'd mine) with a broken link to an error message hinting that I had, in some way, broken the LAWS OF THE INTERNET.

Bearing in mind, for a moment, the services I offer  that is potentially going to ruin my small business. It makes me look massively unprofessional. I spend my working hours advising people on social media and URLs. To send out broken ones myself is a tad embarrassing. To send out links with the implication that I am breaking rules is quite something else.

However, I complained and the team got back to me straight away, which was good customer service at least.

On the whole I recommend PeoplePerHour if you are looking to get freelance work - or hire a freelancer. Just be careful to know everything upfront and don't fall into the trap of the £10.00 minimum withdrawal limit, rules on hourlies and the slightly confusing billing system!