Is LinkedIn ProFinder Worth Your Time as a Freelance Writing Professional?

When LinkedIn launched ProFinder in October 2015, I was super excited to see what it would mean for freelance writing professionals like myself who generally hate pitch-based job boards like UpWork for the purpose of finding decently-paid gigs.

And when LinkedIn got in touch with me in early January of this year to set up my profile (even though ProFinder wouldn’t launch in my area for quite some time), I got even more excited.

I knew it’d be awhile before I could use the platform for myself, but I thought that if LinkedIn was gearing up in such a big way, this platform must also be something big. (I mean, they went out of their way to actually call me and walk me through the setup.)

But since then…it’s just been a lot of…well…crickets.

Which could be understandable in my hippie mountain city where people are more concerned about chakra energy flow and mountain climbing than business. So I thought I could find out more about the platform and what I could expect from its future by reaching out to freelancers in larger metro areas that are more business-oriented.

Trying to Find Freelancers with REAL ProFinder Experience

I started by reaching out directly to my network of other freelancers who do the same kind of freelance writing work I do (all are located in larger, more business-centric metro areas). I thought for sure these people, being well-known in the industry and writing for some of the most popular sites, would have had some success with the platform, but I was wrong.

Only one had any experience receiving requests for proposals, but none of them matched her skill set, so she never applied.

Then I reached out to some larger groups, like the private business-based groups I’m a member of on Facebook.

I got a lot of responses from people telling me they’d love to read this article once it published, but again, only one guy told me he’d received a request for a proposal out of about five 200+ popular business groups full of freelance-style service professionals.

This was shaping up to be an interesting challenge, so I turned to HARO to help me out, which has seldom let me down before. I put out a pitch saying any experience would qualify for the article, but I didn’t get one single response.

Getting desperate, I went to Twitter and searched for mentions of LinkedIn ProFinder. I scrolled back a number of months to make sure the people who’d mentioned being on ProFinder would have had some time to actually interact with prospects on the platform, and reached out to them for an interview.

I pinged lots of people and only got one who replied with any kind of experience on the platform.

A Lot of Hype for Nothing?

When ProFinder was first being rolled out, I felt like LinkedIn was putting in a big effort to make sure the freelance and business community knew about it. It seemed like a great way to help businesses and freelancers both cut through the fluff of sub-par matches and only spend their time pitching and receiving pitches with quality, professional candidates.

This may still be the future of ProFinder, but for the time-being, it seems like there was a huge hype build-up only for the ball to be dropped at the time of execution.

I’m not sure if LinkedIn was only trying to get loads of freelancers on the platform before they started marketing the concept to companies who outsource some of their tasks, but it seems like it would have at least had some sort of attempt at balancing its approach to keep both sides interested and happy.

Hope for the Future

Of the freelancers I talked to who’d actually used ProFinder to interact with potential clients, the sentiment seemed to be that the platform was worthwhile—but for it to be of any use for freelance writing, we’d need to wait it out until LinkedIn gets businesses on board.

I asked the freelancers to be totally honest with me, but no one had any harsh words to say.

Shayla Price, a B2B Content Marketer who regularly receives leads but hasn’t submitted a proposal yet because the leads aren’t good matches for her, still recommends the platform. “I recommend freelancers sign up for LinkedIn ProFinder,” she says. “However, wait for the platform to mature. Qualified leads will come as everyone learns how to effectively use the tool.”

Mel West, a business growth coach at Prosperity Logic says it’s worthwhile simply because it’s free. “Currently, the program has no downside,” he says. “Since it doesn’t cost anything and the proposals are fairly simple, I will continue to use it as long as it is free.”

Brian Walch, the writer and translator I found on Twitter, has had the most activity of anyone: close to 20 requests for proposals. Out of those 20, though, only six or seven were fitting for his expertise, and he only had further communication on two of the projects, but still hasn’t signed any contracts yet. “Overall,” he says, “it’s a great concept, and enables you to apply for a project for which you know there is no ‘internal candidate’ or something like that.”

Conclusion: Wait it Out

Right now, it seems ProFinder isn’t ready to become the robust freelance hiring platform most freelancers (or at least I) dream of it being. No one I talked to had actually signed a contract for a project via the platform.

While there is some activity on the platform, there isn’t much, and there’s certainly not enough to rely on it as a platform for reliable job leads.

And based on the freelancers I talked to who have experience using the platform, my advice would be this: if ProFinder is live in your area, go ahead and create a profile on it. It certainly won’t hurt.

But once you set up your profile, forget about it. If you get a request for a proposal, that’s great. But if not, at least you won’t be relying on it for work.

Psssst—If you are looking for a cool platform with quality writing jobs, consider signing up as a contributor for Skyword.