Can I post a job with a commission only position?

[c182004c]

Title says it all.

[wlyonsatl]

Generally speaking, no.

Any sort of success fee or commission offers no guaranty to either the freelancer or Upwork that income will be coming to them from such a project.

And the freelancer could do a lot of work that generates no commission. Upwork doesn't allow free work.

You might be able to set up an hourly project that includes a bonus; someone else here might have some experience with that. 

[petra_r]

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JK C wrote:

Title says it all.

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Yes, but you would have to set it up as milestone-based, with the milestone being a Sale or a number of Sales and funded in advance.

Say you want a freelancer to sell Magic Gizmos, and the commission for each Sale of a Magic Gizmo is  $ 100. You hire a freelancer and fund the first milestone "Sell one magic Gizmo" in Escrow.

Once the freelancer has sold a Magic Gizmo, you release the $ 100 and set up the next, and so on. I doubt such a job would be overly popular with freelancers, but it would not be against the rules, so you might as well try.

Hourly is possible as well, but that would not be "commission only" of course, because you'd be paying the freelancer's hourly rate.

[prestonhunter]

JK:

"Commission-only" is a legitimate payment model.

But it simply is not a payment model that is directly supported by Upwork.

As Petra and Bill point out, there are workarounds. But they are problematic.

I think most clients who want to use commission-based payments either:

- use fixed-price or hourly contracts, and add commission-oriented pay as a bonus incentive

[or]

- use other platforms or custom tools which are specifically set up to support their commission needs.