Our Contract With the Freelance Community

When we started working on Contently in 2010, we issued a manifesto stating that we believed freelancers are the future of creative work. We still believe that, and we’ve built our company by supporting freelance workers, helping them earn good rates doing work they can take pride in. We’ve faced a lot of challenges and hard choices as we’ve worked to build a profitable business, but we never plan to lose sight of those values.

Now, as Contently readies to enter its 10th year, we want to hold ourselves accountable, be transparent, and set a good example for the rest of the industry by doubling down on our core values.

As long as we are leading Contently, we promise to:

1. Never implement any mandatory fee for freelancers.
2. Always pay freelancers fairly and quickly upon completion of their work.
3. Allow contributors to review and discuss major changes to their bylined work before it’s published.
4. Launch a Freelancer Advisory Board, made up of members of the freelance community, to ensure we receive continuous feedback on how we can best serve freelancer.
5. Support The Freelancer, our blog for freelance creatives.
6. Invest in more resources like our portfolio tool and freelance rates database.
7. Set up workshops, meet-ups, and more, based on input from the freelance community.

Thank you,
Joe Coleman, Dave Goldberg, and Shane Snow