>> "But this brings up another point, which is that freelancing often isn't a good way to get money quickly."
Although I agree with most of what you've said it all depends on how you structure the milestones. On every job I work the first milestone gets paid immediately. In other words if I win a job, I immediately get some money. If they job is small I use two milestones:
1. Project started (50%)
2. Project completed (50%)
For larger projects I split the job up further and reduce the amount required in the first and last milestone. But the result is the same - money up front as soon as you win a job. It's also a good way of gaining some trust the client will pay. I didn't do this for the first 18 months I freelanced and got screwed several times. That happens rarely now.
You are probably one buying work on freelancer websites? I don't have any experience in this area, but what the author in his blog post says is that the transaction itself did not start. So the client had already paid, and the website would have probably showed him that the first milestone is paid, but the freelancer didn't receive his money in that instance. Even if everything goes as it should it would have taken a few days till his money would have arrived.
>> "You are probably one buying work on freelancer websites?"
No, I sell my services. My main point was that if he took money immediately he might have got these issues sorted out sooner. No guarantee though. I've been stung by freelancer.com's 14 day wait for the first payment too + they used to only process withdrawals once per week.
Although I agree with most of what you've said it all depends on how you structure the milestones. On every job I work the first milestone gets paid immediately. In other words if I win a job, I immediately get some money. If they job is small I use two milestones:
1. Project started (50%) 2. Project completed (50%)
For larger projects I split the job up further and reduce the amount required in the first and last milestone. But the result is the same - money up front as soon as you win a job. It's also a good way of gaining some trust the client will pay. I didn't do this for the first 18 months I freelanced and got screwed several times. That happens rarely now.