I wanted to see if the service that touts “getting freelance leads on auto-pilot” and “hand-picked job alerts for the best 1% of freelance jobs on the web” was legit enough to let you know about so I signed up for it myself. I’ve tried various job boards and found most of them pretty time-intensive between the profile setup and the exhaustive proposal process only to have a bunch of your money siphoned off to the job board. No thanks, UpWork!

By contrast, SolidGigs is very quick and easy. Based on preferences you set up, it sources freelance jobs from the web and delivers them straight to your email. It’s like hope in your inbox! And at only $2 to start I had to try it. Even at full price ($19 a month), it feels much better than someone else getting a percentage of my hard-earned dollars. The monthly fee is all you pay and the service does not act as a middle man between you and the client in ANY way. And you can cancel at any time. Not only that but the founder, Preston Lee, has a really great site with tons of freelancer resources at https://millo.co/.

So what happened? First, with all of our freelancers in mind, I checked off lots of boxes pertaining to the types of work I wanted just to see what would happen. It quickly becomes apparent what skills are in demand if you’re thinking of “skilling up.” UX/UI is hot as is Social Media Manager, but let me tell you what’s REALLY hot. Maybe you guessed it: Content Strategy and Development and writing in general.

I checked the box “writing” and my one complaint is that this skill is not broken into categories. There are SO MANY types of writing gigs out there I’ve considered switching my professional focus! I am getting 5-7 lead emails a day and many are for ongoing work rather than one-off projects at 15-30 hours a week. Sadly there are not a lot of gigs for brand strategists or graphic designers unless you are great at building apps, gaming, all things web, or animation. Most of the employers seem to be reputable companies, not individuals or start-ups. Do be aware that many of the jobs are 30+ hours a week and ongoing which begs the question ‘why don’t they just hire someone and give them benefits?’

The verdict? I’ve only pursued a few of the leads so far as naturally as soon as I signed up I got really busy, but the job posters were legit and responded professionally and now I have some irons in the fire. My advice is, if you’re a writer of any sort, go sign up! In fact, at $2 for the first month, I think anyone needing a couple more solid clients should try SolidGigs.

Please note that I am not affiliated with Preston Lee, Millo.co, or SolidGigs in any way nor am I receiving any kick-back for this review (although I should be right?! 😉 )