Things I learned after I worked for free to get reviews

ByPreeti Gupta Posted on Updated on

When I was starting my freelancing business, I heard that I needed to do a couple of free projects to get the initial reviews. I can then use these reviews to attract better clients.

To get the reviews, I did a bunch of free work:

  • Audited the websites of two random people who commented on my Reddit post
  • Gave mentorship lessons to 4 – 6 people free on phone calls, video calls, and via text messages
  • Did a small consulting project with a company for almost a month

And I am not even counting the free internships I did, lol. But that’s for another conversation.

After doing the work, the people from Reddit ghosted me. A few of the mentorship people gave the reviews, and the company also ghosted me.

After being in the industry for a bit, here are the things I learned and what I would advise myself if I were starting out again:

  • Don’t work for free for for-profit companies. Period. Whether it’s free internships or freelance projects. If you really wanna do free work, do it for non-profits.
  • Set boundaries or a contract. Have everything in writing. Mutually agree on how much work you’re gonna do, how and when they can contact you, how long you’ll do it for, and more. And make sure they don’t overstep their boundaries.
  • The people who are asking you to work for free will almost certainly not work with you if you were to ask them for money after the free project is done.
  • It will be hard to find real clients with those reviews, and those reviews rarely help you land real clients..
  • Learn about the timing when you should ask for reviews. Too late, and you lose it, or they will ghost you. Too early, and the clients will get annoyed/confused.

The thing is that whenever you’re working for free, you’re almost never happy about it. You’re doing it for the sole purpose of building reviews. And along the way, you might even end up regretting your decision.

Takeaway for you: Don’t do free work for for-profits. If you choose to, though, use a contract, tightly define the scope, set an end date, and ask for a review right after a visible win.

P.S. Read from the experts on whether you should work for cheap or free.

Preeti Gupta is product-led growth consultant at Packted. She helps SEO SaaS companies attract the right users—ones who try, love, and keep using their product through product-led growth. A recognized voice in the SEO community, she has spoken at BrightLocal’s SEO for Good. Her expertise has earned her mentions in HubSpot, Collaborator.pro, Search Engine Land, Women in Tech SEO, Moz, SEOFOMO, and more.