LinkedIn Services Marketplace: A Powerful Tool or a Waste of Time?

Key Takeaways

• • LinkedIn Services Marketplace is free, but it has major usability gaps and high competition.
  • Most freelancers see low-quality, low-pay requests that rarely match their skills or specialties.
  • You’ll get better clients by optimizing your profile, building a relevant network, and staying active.
  • Spend 10 minutes a day on LinkedIn to build visibility and inbound leads.

What is LinkedIn Services Marketplace?

LinkedIn is the top social media platform for businesses, with more than a billion users worldwide (as of September 2025) and about 250 million users in the U.S.  (as of early 2025). Sixty-five million users are business decision-makers. So LinkedIn Services Marketplace should be an efficient way for freelancers to cut through the noise and directly connect with clients who need exactly what you offer.

Ten million freelancers and small business owners are offering services through LinkedIn Services Marketplace (as of October 2024, the latest figures available), which was launched in 2021 to replace LinkedIn ProFinder.

LinkedIn Services Marketplace is free right now, unlike other freelance job sites. Upwork and Fiverr, for example, take a big cut from every project you complete: usually 10% to 20% of your earnings. Some have hidden fees for things like payment processing or paid bids just to apply for jobs.

But some features are only available with a premium account.

How It Works: Free vs Premium

Free

• Create a Service Page.
• List basic services.
• Receive and respond to direct project requests.
• View only the most recent direct project request.

Premium (Business Premium costs $59.99 per month, as of September 2025)

• Create a Services Showcase.
• Receive more project requests.
• View more than the most recent direct request.

Simple Cost Context

• LinkedIn Services Marketplace: free to use, but some features are gated by Premium and you get fewer requests with a free account.
• Upwork and Fiverr: take 10% to 20% per project, plus other potential fees like payment processing or paid bids.

What’s Wrong with LinkedIn Services Marketplace?

LinkedIn doesn’t understand freelancers. This is clear in the many flaws of LinkedIn Services Marketplace:

• High competition
• Likely low pay
• Absolutely awful services page
• Terrible client interface.

High competition

More than 2 million people who use LinkedIn Services Marketplace offer writing services. That makes it hard to get noticed—even if your profile is optimized and your services are clear.

Likely low pay

Clients who need a lot of help and understand the value of freelancers aren’t likely to use LinkedIn Services Marketplace. The project requests I’ve received have all been from small clients and often individuals—who can’t or won’t pay us what we’re worth.

Absolutely awful services page

The set up of the Services page for providers (freelancers) is awful. The service categories are very limited are very limited, and you can’t add other services. For example, here are the categories for writing (as of September 2025).

This list is missing dozens of types of writing projects. And as a freelance writer since 1997, I know that these are not the most common types of freelance projects.

Also note that editing and translation are both under writing. These are separate services. Clearly, LinkedIn doesn’t understand what freelancers do.

Nearly useless overview

LinkedIn only gives you 500 characters for the overview on your Services page. That’s way too short to write client-focused content that will persuade them to hire you.

Here’s my overview, which is 492 characters.

The next flaw is bizarre to me. LinkedIn has buttons to request a proposal or message you.  But there’s no button to view your profile. With an overview of 500 characters or less, if I were a client, I’d want to learn more about the freelancer before I considered requesting a proposal or messaging them.

A client can get to the freelancer’s profile, but there’s no button and they have to click on the freelancer’s name and photo to do this. How would clients know to do this?

Strange LinkedIn-generated media images

You can include media, like your website and samples, on your services page. But you can’t choose the images.

Here’s my Media section. The first image is what LinkedIn added to the link for my website. The image is totally irrelevant to my business and to freelancing. I didn’t have an option to delete it.

A website is a key marketing tool and freelancers should be able to easily share their website here. Once again, this shows that LinkedIn doesn’t understand freelancers.

Self-serving post

After completing your Services page, LinkedIn prompts you to do a post to let people know about it and creates a post for you.

But the LinkedIn-generated post is entirely self-serving and awful. It starts with “Excited to announce” and it doesn’t include any benefits. The phrase “#OpenFor Business” is just stupid. All freelancers are open for business.

Clients want to know how we can help them. They don’t care what we’re excited about.

Terrible Client Interface

Location is the first thing a client sees when searching for a freelancer. But location doesn’t matter when a client is hiring a freelancer. Here too, it’s clear that LinkedIn doesn’t understand freelancers.

There is a text box where people can add details about their writing project. But from what I’ve seen and read, clients rarely put anything useful here.

First-Hand Testing Results 

To see how LinkedIn Services Marketplace works, I tested it both as a client and a provider (freelancer).

As a client, I posted a freelance writing job for a continuing medical education program. The freelancers who provided “proposals” were 2 resume writers and 1 person who had a degree in communications and didn’t mention any experience in medical writing. The “proposals” were a few sentences of “hire me” without any focus on why they were qualified for this work. All 3 freelancers then also messaged me, which I found annoying.

If I were a real client trying to hire a freelancer, I would never have used LinkedIn Services Marketplace again. So I’m pretty sure that the great clients we deserve aren’t using this platform.

Clients can find the right freelancers much more easily by doing a simple LinkedIn search. When they do this, they can quickly scan each freelancer’s profile to see if they would be a good fit for the work.

As a provider, I’ve received a request for my freelance writing from a real estate development company. The request had no information about the project except for a message from the client asking if she could ask me some questions.

I clearly say that I’m a freelance medical writer in my overview and mention targeted medical content. So why is LinkedIn Services Marketplace sending me requests from a real estate development company?

Other requests were from a fashion designer at Jimmy Choo and a solo consultant working in policy.  While writing for Jimmy Choo might be fun, what do shoes, bags, and accessories have to do with medical writing? And individuals rarely make good clients for freelancers. They usually don’t understand the value we bring and can’t or won’t pay us what we’re worth.

Here’s what other freelancers have said about LinkedIn Services Marketplace.

“Lots of tire kickers.”

“LinkedIn Services Marketplace is broken.”

“Project requests aren’t relevant”

Project requests have “a bare minimum amount of information about the project.”

“The problem is that LinkedIn just doesn’t understand small business, they are a business that has always focused its attention on large corporates and that blind spot causes then real issues with features like this,” says LinkedIn guru Mark Williams.

Should You Use LinkedIn Services Marketplace?

No. Instead of wasting your time on LinkedIn Services Marketplace, focus on what actually works for freelancers on LinkedIn.

Action plan: 10 minutes a day

• Develop and keep a complete, keyword-rich, client-focused profile.
• Grow a relevant network to 500+.
• Be active so your profile stays visible.

Once you’ve developed your complete, client-focused profile and started building your network, you only need to spend about 10 minutes a day (Monday through Friday) on LinkedIn to help grow your freelance business.

6 Practical Tips to Get More Clients on LinkedIn

1. PROFILE: Write a Clean, Client-Focused Headline

Clearly describe what you do and how you help your clients. You can use up to 220 characters with spaces, but a shorter headline is better.

Use the right keywords:

• “Freelance writer” (or “editor” or whatever type of freelancer you are)
• Other relevant keywords

2. PROFILE: Complete Your Profile

LinkedIn prioritizes complete profiles in search results. A complete profile includes your:

• Industry and location
• Photo
• Current position (under Experience)
• Two past positions
• Education
• At least three skills.

You also need at least 50 connections (which isn’t part of your profile but LinkedIn counts this as part of a complete profile).

3. PROFILE: Write a Compelling, Client-Focused About Section

The first 220-270 characters count most (102-167 in mobile). Make sure they flow with your headline and offer a clear, concise message. Briefly cover your relevant experience and background and your education.

In writing your profile, be conversational and interesting. Your profile is a marketing tool, not a resume. Use:

• Short, action-oriented sentences
• Short paragraphs
• Subheads (in all caps)
• Bulleted lists.

 4. NETWORK: Connect with the Right People

Be strategic when you invite people to join your network and when you accept connection requests from other LinkedIn members. Target clients, peers, colleagues, association contacts, and people in your industries.

5. NETWORK: Send (Mostly) Personal Invitations

People are much more likely to connect with you if you add a personal note when you invite someone to connect with you. Add a short note that states your reason to connect or what you share in common.

But LinkedIn recently limited the number of personal invitations you can send with a free account. The limit seems to be between 5 and 10 per month. So use personal invitations for people you don’t know. Send LinkedIn’s default invitation to people you already know.

6. ACTIVITY: Stay Visibile 

Comment on the posts of relevant people, share your own posts, and respond to everyone who comments on your content.

Once you’re comfortable on LinkedIn, share relevant content in posts once or twice a week, such as:

• Advice and tips about relevant topics and industries
• News and updates about your industry or specialty(ies)
• Comments and opinions on newsworthy topics or industry news.

Learn more about using LinkedIn to get the clients you deserve

The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Freelancers

Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Checklist for Freelancers

Learn More About LinkedIn Services Marketplace

Content from The Mighty Marketer

Why You Should Ditch Freelance Job Sites and Find Your Own Clients

3 Easy Ways to Get the Freelance Clients You Deserve in 2025

The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Freelancers

Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Checklist for Freelancers

 Other Content

Mark Williams. How To Fix The Services Marketplace!

FAQ

Q: Is LinkedIn Services Marketplace worth it for freelancers?

A: No. Most quality clients find freelancers through search and referrals, not Marketplace.

Q: How can I get steady, high-paying clients on LinkedIn?

A: Specialize, optimize your headline and About section with specialty keywords, build a relevant network, post useful content, and engage with other members. This increases the number of clients who will find you when they search for freelancers.

Q: How much time should I spend on LinkedIn each day?

A: About 10 minutes, Monday through Friday. Comment on at least two relevant posts and reply to any messages or comments. About once a week, write your own posts. If you’re still building your network, send at least one invite (personalized if you don’t know the person and default if you do since LinkedIn limits the number of personalized invitations you can send with a free account).