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Over the past 7 years using the different sites I've turned down 20 projects that I've been asked to bid on, and have only taken one when I was really in dire s
by goodweeds 15y ago
Over the past 7 years using the different sites I've turned down 20 projects that I've been asked to bid on, and have only taken one when I was really in dire straits. You could probably make more on odesk than at mcdonalds, but you'll make 5-8x as much by building up a network on linkedin, and by posting your resume to craigslist once per week. I set my contracting rate on a sliding scale from $250/hour down to $125/hour based on commitment, project, and how much I like the guy I'm talking with. I manage to bill out 750-1250 hours per year depending on how much I care to work versus how much I desire to travel. I couldn't fathom managing to bill out at more than $35/hour on oDesk, and even then I would be considered expensive.
oDesk/elance/etc is where cheapskates who don't know what they want or how to ask for it go to get what they pay for from guys in India and Romania who don't know how to accomplish the work they're being paid to do.
- rdouble 15y agoWhat do you actually do, for $250 an hour?
- fleitz 15y agoHe/She probably provides value in excess of that to his clients. It's not about 'what you do' is about how much value that provides to the client. I can't charge that much for a website to my neighbor because it doesn't provide him much value. On the other hand tweaking a couple buttons could be extremely valuable to a business that relies on it's website to generate leads. Smart clients don't care how much stuff costs they care how much money it will make them.
- rdouble 15y agoI am more interested in the specific details.
- goodweeds 15y agoPrimarily devops consulting. $250/hour is what I'll charge for emergency work from unknown entities, poorly managed entities, or for piece work from customers who aren't likely to be a significant source of project work. For small projects I don't bill hourly, but rather I'll decide that a piece of work is about 4 hours of my time, and that I'm uninterested in doing it for less than $1k.
- rdouble 15y agoThanks.
- mattm 15y agoWould you be available for specific questions concerning how you built up your network on LinkedIn? You don't have an email address in your profile.