Ok, Airtasker cops a fair bit of flack, sometimes for good reason. A lot of people may advise against becoming a “tasker” for various reasons, but hear me out…there is money to be made if you’re willing to put in a little time and effort to find it. I’m going to give you a step-by-step guide to make money on Airtasker. This is a method I’ve followed since I started “tasking” in 2017. Since then I’ve earned thousands of dollars by offering my copywriting and creative services through the platform and even built what started as a hobby into a full-time career, gaining upwards of 80% of my client base through Airtasker alone. If not for Airtasker, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Read on to find out how I did it…
What is Airtasker and how does it work?
Airtasker is an online platform built essentially to match up people who need to get shit done with people who can get shit done.
In other words, it’s a hub for businesses and individuals to outsource their tasks to the wider community.
Here are a few examples of people who use Airtasker…
- Small business owners who don’t have a big enough budget to hire a full-time team member to manage certain aspects of their business like content creation or website building.
- Individuals who need a day-to-day task completed but don’t have the resources to do it themselves, ranging from needing movers to help them move home or even just someone to make a trip to the grocery store for them.
- People looking for quirky gifts or entertainers for an upcoming event.
The list goes on and on and on!
Once a task is posted with the poster having communicated the task details along with their budget, it is uploaded to the job board. If someone sees the listing and thinks they’re the right person for the job, they will bid on the task, naming their fee and letting the poster know why they are the best person for the job.
It’s then up to the person who posted the task to look over their offers and assign whoever they think will be the best candidate for the job.
It’s all done through a secure payment system where funds are taken out of the poster’s account once they assign the task and are only released to the tasker once the job has been confirmed as completed.
So, that’s the basics of Airtasker. Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty details.
The benefits of using Airtasker
Airtasker provides a range of benefits for both parties involved in a job…
- As a poster, you can usually find someone to complete your task for a lower fee than if you were to go through an agency, another business, or hiring a full-time staff member.
- You get to make connections with all kinds of people with a range of skills.
- As a freelancer, you can build a pretty solid client base by finding tasks where the poster requires regular work done – eg. weekly blog posts, consistent real estate ads, etc.
- You can choose to bid only on the tasks you want to do, meaning you can complete the work you’re comfortable with and know you will enjoy.
The cons of using Airtasker
- As the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for”. While the majority of taskers are genuine, talented freelancers, there are some who will look to take advantage and may provide subpar workmanship. This can be especially frustrating if you need the work done by a certain deadline.
- Airtasker takes out a pretty hefty fee, depending on how much you earn per month. At the lowest level, they take 20% of each task fee but as you earn more, the fee decreases.
- Sometimes it takes a little follow up to get people to pay once you complete the task. It’s always best to communicate directly through Airtasker unless you trust the person 100%. Airtasker will help follow up on unpaid fees but you have to prove that the task was completed and that you’ve followed up yourself before they will intervene.
How to make money on Airtasker
Tip 1
Offer a lower fee
To start with, offer a fee that’s a little lower than the budget set on the post (within reason, of course). This will leave the poster more inclined to choose you as they will be able to save money. In the beginning you won’t have a huge amount of reviews for them to look over, so they’ll be trusting your word and your portfolio only. A lower fee will entice them to trust you more. As you build more of a presence on the platform, you’ll be able to start charging more.
Tip 2
Gain 5 star reviews
Reviews are soooo important on this platform. As you gain more and more 5 star reviews, your credibility will increase and task posters will be more likely to engage your services for a higher fee when they can see that you’ve done an amazing job for other people in the past.
Tip 3
Increase your completion rate
Your completion rate is calculated by taking the amount of posts you’ve been assigned to and averaging it out with the amount of those tasks you’ve actually completed. You want to aim for a completion rate of 95% or higher to show that you are a reliable tasker. A low completion rate usually means that you or the task posters have cancelled because a) you offered to complete tasks that weren’t right for you, or b) they didn’t provide accurate details in their task description. This is a waste of everyone’s time, whether you’re the tasker or the job poster. Do not do this.
Tip 4
Customise your offers
As all veteran customer service reps will know, a personalised response is key. You don’t want it to seem like you’re just copying and pasting a generic response to someone’s task. Of course, you should have a good idea of the services you can offer and it’s ok to have a few lines that you use to describe how you can help each time, but submitting a personalised response will show the tasker that you’ve taken the time to read and understand their task. It also allows you to add a little bit of personality to your offer. I’ve had people assign me to their tasks in the past purely because I was the only one to write an offer that wasn’t a copy/paste job, even though my fee was higher than the other candidates.
Tip 5
Complete your profile
Fill in all elements of your profile. Add a cover photo and a profile image. Write an engaging description of yourself and your services. Add samples of your work to your portfolio. Take the time to add your skills and certify any badges you can claim. Having a profile without blank space helps build trust and looks MUCH better than a profile full of gaps.
You’re now ready to tackle Airtasker head on! If you have any questions at all about how to make money using Airtasker, feel free to get in touch via my Contact page or leave a comment below.
I’d love to hear your thoughts if you frequent Airtasker yourself. Do you have any other tips to add?
Until next time,
Katelyn
THINK | WRITE | CREATE
WHAT ARE THE TOP 5 BENEFITS OF FREELANCING? FIND OUT HERE!
P.S. Enjoy these cats emulating my day job….
