What was your life would be like as a freelancer in the 90's?

[dannykojima1]

Here is the retro version of Fiverr I created this morning. Let's say if Fiverr was created those year between 1993 - 1994, but you all knew how terrible the internet dial-up connection was. Super damn slow as hell, even this may sounds not right for anyone who wanted to work from home as a freelancer, because the upload files or a very large JPEG image may take 40 minutes before the deadline end, and you have to sit through reading your magazine while the uploading still processing on the delivery process.

Imagine, what would you do if someone in your home pick up the phone and it cause the internet disconnected. You can imagine how frustrated this can be working as a freelancer if those days really happen. Would you still be working at the workplace, or would you still want to continues your journey as a freelancer online?

Share with us what you hates the most about living those days using the slow dial-up internet if Fiverr happen to be exist 30 years ago. I know uploading artwork take 10, 14 or sometime up to 20 minutes to complete when sending to a friend through online mail. But not sure how long it take to sending a writing contents to a buyer.

Oh I almost forgot, the kid in the photo was me. It's my school yearbook photo taken in Spring 1994, but I'd like to use this if I go back to those year, and I would be 12 again.

[visualstudios]

What I do would be next to impossible in the 90's. There would be no volume of business. The hardware was not up to par. Video was cassette based. It just wouldn't work.

[imagination7413]

Amusing mockup!

I'm willing to play 'suspension of disbelief'.

If I were on an early '90s Fiverr, offering the same services that I do now... Hmmm...For clarification and scenario setup: with current skill and discipline, but not current technology and equipment? (And no cheating in school or investment options with future knowledge, right? ^_^)

41 minutes ago, dannykojima1 said:

Would you still be working at the workplace, or would you still want to continues your journey as a freelancer online?

I'd like to think I'd be doing well with freelancing, though I'd probably consider shipping the physical copy rather than trying to upload images. My first laptop (which I bought at a yard sale in 2005 I think) was a '94 or 5, so I do actually know/remember some of what I would have been working with. (This era would also have been pre-spell-check iirc.)

Granted, if the scenario is without current skill, then I'd probably be offering something different (singing).

1 hour ago, dannykojima1 said:

the kid in the photo was me. It's my school yearbook photo taken in Spring 1994, but I'd like to use this if I go back to those year, and I would be 12 again.

Nice pic. I'm a bit younger than you, so I'd be more inclined to use a Logo rather than my face, for credibility. 4th grade artist? Believable. 1st grade beta-reader? Not so much. (Unless I went with the singing route.)

[katakatica]

So... 

I wasn't even alive in 93/94, so I'm not sure if freelancing would have been a possibility (unless it was a weird futuristic world where technology is retro but babies 'exist' before being born 😛

Jokes aside I feel like I likely would be a writer still - I'm not sure if I'd write the sams stuff though. Thinking a bit later, early 2000s I feel like I could have sold loads of corny fanfiction though. 

I... also would have lost my work while writing a LOT. Even now I forget to save sometimes, so...

 

[dannykojima1]

28 minutes ago, imagination7413 said:

Amusing mockup!

 

I am glad this give you a good laugh, imagination7413! I love coming up with something I was curious about what was the internet and technology today would like in those days 30 years ago. Like visualstudios mentioned it is impossible to freelance via internet in the 90's. I agreed with him on this one.
 

34 minutes ago, imagination7413 said:

I'd like to think I'd be doing well with freelancing, though I'd probably consider shipping the physical copy rather than trying to upload images.

Yeah, I remember the time in 2003, I had to sit through and waiting for 30 minutes for download to complete the image while reading a book but didn't realize my mother was on the phone. But honestly, I never tried uploading image or send to friend, so I can't tell how fast the upload speed on the AOL dial-up connection.
 

39 minutes ago, imagination7413 said:

I'm a bit younger than you, so I'd be more inclined to use a Logo rather than my face, for credibility

I know what you mean, I mean, I thought it wouldn't make it feel the nostalgia for use any of my artwork or a logo from 2010 to 2022 on the Retro version of Fiverr profile pic (lo). So I didn't have a choice, so I should use my pic instead for the Fiverr 90's kids work as a freelancer.
 

47 minutes ago, imagination7413 said:

4th grade artist? Believable. 1st grade beta-reader? Not so much.

Lol yeah, I remembered those day when my 4th grade teacher told me that she got contacted by the Raley's Bel Air that they wanted to commission me to draw a dragon with a cookie jar for their product for $40. So I did take that commission from them. Haha. 🙂

Those days, I used to draw a lot of characters from the video game and Saturday Morning Cartoon shows for the neighbor kids who promised to pay $10 for it. Even though $10 seem sounds like a lot to me though. I wasn't a good writer or a reader as a kid back then, but I regretted for skipping reading class. 😞

[dannykojima1]

46 minutes ago, katakatica said:

I'm not sure if freelancing would have been a possibility (unless it was a weird futuristic world where technology is retro but babies 'exist' before being born

Honestly, I don't think freelance would be possible in those days, if Fiverr was created in the 90's. I think it would create create a lot of stress for me if I ever did try uploading my drawing through a scanner machine. Internet and technology those days are just too painful and frustration for me.
 

 

52 minutes ago, katakatica said:

I... also would have lost my work while writing a LOT. Even now I forget to save sometimes, so...

 

Same, at one time I forgot to save the test in computer art class 5 years ago at Sac City College. Then I gave up doing a test all over again.

[nomuffinsforyou]

waaa that looks amazing 🤩

I do not know a lot about the 90s, I am not born yet at that time! The thing I remember though, is my dad connecting to dial-up for internet. I was sitting next to his laptop (I was 3 years old) and it made that funny noise every time. Then he would show me the interactive and cool emails that he was sent, pictures, stories, etc. 😄 

If I was a freelancer in the 90s, maybe I would do like what @imagination7413 said, ship a physical copy of my art to buyers! I would also make comic books and stuff, maybe also make comics for the newspaper 😄 

[mikavirtanen]

Nothing would change.

We didn't have internet in Russia back then – now we don't have fiverr

[dannykojima1]

26 minutes ago, nomuffinsforyou said:

I do not know a lot about the 90s, I am not born yet at that time!

The 90's is the weirdest year for most of us who growing up from those era, although I didn't care much about the internet back then. All I care about drawing and the SNES gaming! At least, you can see why the designed of the internet browser looks funny because most designers who created the AOL (America Online) think the graphic looks good enough to attractive the people to technology of the internet they have never experience with before. The designing of the internet browser is all about making money. lol

 

33 minutes ago, nomuffinsforyou said:

my dad connecting to dial-up for internet. I was sitting next to his laptop (I was 3 years old) and it made that funny noise every time.

Yep, they still had that kind of internet via AOL for those who can't afford cable or ethernet cable. That's why I used to buy an AOL CD and pop into my Windows 2000s XP and installing the internet from there at the time I started my first year in college. Create AOL account. Click OK, then sit back and wait for the computer to make a noise with phone dialing. Then boom, there is the internet with the male voice said "Welcome!" Or sometime it said "Welcome, you got mail!".

 

39 minutes ago, nomuffinsforyou said:

I would do like what @imagination7413 said, ship a physical copy of my art to buyers! I would also make comic books and stuff, maybe also make comics for the newspaper

That's exactly what I did in 2000s when I was high school. I enjoys creating art with watercolors and color pencils until I moved to digital art when my art teacher introduced me to the Adobe Photoshop 5.0 on a Mac G3. For now, I'm more focusing into creating character art for the comic and comic writers

You should check out Wacom Intuos Pro if you're going for comic books. Adobe Illustrator CC also a great choice to create the comic template as well. 🙂 

[dannykojima1]

17 minutes ago, mikavirtanen said:

now we don't have fiverr

I'm so sorry to hear that, mikavirtanen. 😢

[poshlulla]

The number of people who say they weren't alive to be a freelancer in the 90's makes me feel really old.

I was a writer in the 90's, just getting started doing small, cheapo, crappy work in my small town. I'm fairly sure the people who purchased did so because they felt sorry for me. I used a Commodore that my grandpa had given me. 

The writing was delivered in a beige interoffice memo folder with a 5" floppy disk.

I ended up quitting and becoming a nurse. It wasn't until 20 years later that I tried again to make a career out of writing.

floppy.jfif

[dannykojima1]

19 minutes ago, poshlulla said:

I used a Commodore that my grandpa had given me.

Oh gosh, I remember those floppy! Hah, these disk sure does make me feel even more old now. 😂
Thanks for sharing those floppy disk, @poshlulla!

[imagination7413]

I actually have a picture of my first laptop. Took the pic when I got an upgrade, and tried to sell this one. I rather wish I still had it, if only to properly get it to the retro-computer community.

(That blanket might look familiar. ^_^)

The internet says it was 6.7 pounds. It had both a floppy drive and a CD drive, and I know I made use of both. You can also see that I wore the 'eraserhead' pointer down to the plastic. ^_^

This laptop serviced a fair amount of fanfiction (both reading and writing), which is where I actually discovered I do like to write. Because it didn't have spell-check, I just wrote. I didn't have to worry about a grade or points off for improper grammar. (I still have trouble with spelling, but if it were not for this laptop and learning I liked creating stories, my typing would probably be worse than some of the non-natives here in the forums.)

[melanielm]

1 hour ago, poshlulla said:

The number of people who say they weren't alive to be a freelancer in the 90's makes me feel really old.

I'm with you there! I graduated high school in 1992. I didn't start freelancing for a while afterward, however. In the beginning, things were quite different than they are now.

[dannykojima1]

Okay @poshlulla and @imagination7413, here is the 4.0 upgrade 1998 version of Fiverr Online Marketplace installation CD. These are so fun to play around with the '90s mockup. 😂

Love the laptop you post here, by the way!

Edited June 16, 2022 by dannykojima1

[imagination7413]

I'd use the old serif Fiverr logo, but otherwise, that's GREAT and FANTASTIC and I'm smiling so hard! 

 

---

Edit: found the video where they showed off the update.

Edited June 16, 2022 by imagination7413

[poshlulla]

that CD needs an AOL logo - it was a partner deal! 

@melanielm i graduated in 1994, I started writing for a car dealership in 1993, my senior year. It's mind boggling how far things have come since then.