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I have mixed emotions about this because I have made a solid income at times with oDesk's time tracker, but I don't want it to become the standard way of doing

I have mixed emotions about this because I have made a solid income at times with oDesk's time tracker, but I don't want it to become the standard way of doing things. That's because majority of the work I do now is on a subconscious level, so I'm basically thinking about a problem all day and it may only take an hour to code up the solution. I guess a workaround is to double or triple hourly rates, but I don't see that happening, because as more places merge, we may find ourselves in a race to the bottom. That said, I got burned on eLance by charging a flat rate for a client that was never satisfied with my work. I made less after several weeks than other contractors make in an hour. I guess that's the main reason I went to oDesk (though I always liked eLance). Please, somebody, somewhere, come up with a daily rate mechanism that doesn't invade workers' privacy. That and finding a way to spread workloads across multiple developers (to reduce stress and make for a better product) are the two main challenges I see right now in freelancing.

albedo 13y ago
Our company Lambda (http://getlambda.com http://getlambda.com) helps negotiate contract work for our freelancers. We often set up the following arrangement: the client pays in advance for a week or two of work, and we agree that "a week" contains X hours of developer time. If there are hours unused by the end of the contract, we refund the money. It's an elegant way to avoid most payment issues.
- yogo 13y ago
  On your site it doesn't say whether or not you get a cut, but given the natural alignment of interests I think it's safe to say you won't have a problem with having to return unused hours, even an honest developer will simply maximize those hours.
- macarthy12 13y ago
  How much work have you managed to get? Do you restrict where dev's are located (e.g. north america?)
  - albedo 13y ago
    We get about 15 qualified leads a month (on average, each project is worth about $25k). We're focused on the US and Canada only for the moment.
- mrfusion 13y ago
  Do you guys need any Python or Django people?
  - albedo 13y ago
    Yes, we're currently looking for Rails, Django, js, and iOS.
pmorici 13y ago
What do you consider a solid income? It seems like the majority of the jobs posted on oDesk are asking for a lot and only willing to pay very little. I wonder how even someone willing to work for 2 bucks an hour could possibly make reasonable money on there.
- Iftheshoefits 13y ago
  $2/hr is a lot of money to some people in some places, particularly certain "developing nations". Of course, you get what you pay for. Most people looking to hire on these sites aren't interested in quality; they want quantity at a discount. It works well for both them and the people doing the work at least in the short term. After all, some money (food) is better than nothing. I consider it a pretty base form of exploitation, though.
  - jfoster 13y ago
    Can you give an example of a place where $2 peer hour is a lot? I often hear this type of assertion being made. I can believe that $2 per hour is enough to live off in some places, but I don't know of anywhere it would be considered "a lot."
    - Iftheshoefits 13y ago
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nom... Pick a country in the list on that page where the Per Capita Income is less than ~$4160/year. Most likely, in such a country, $2/hour is very likely going to put an individual at or above the median income (farther above, the lower the GDP Per Capita). $5/hr is a nice wage. For comparison, the UN ranking of the US in this category is ~$51,000, and the median household income in the US is about $55,000 (per year).
    - sergiotapia 13y ago
      Where I live, a software engineer makes about $500/month. That's $3/hour and some change, I know software developers who make even less. Freelancing for me is basically a no-brainer as I will not work for those wages if I can help it. I have the incredible fortune of being able to speak and write at a native level, that gives me and a few others an edge but most people suffer a lot. If you land a job making $5/hour, full time 40 hour weeks, that's $800 a month. A LOOOOT of people here would kill for that kind of salary.

albedo 13y ago

Our company Lambda (http://getlambda.com http://getlambda.com) helps negotiate contract work for our freelancers. We often set up the following arrangement: the client pays in advance for a week or two of work, and we agree that "a week" contains X hours of developer time. If there are hours unused by the end of the contract, we refund the money. It's an elegant way to avoid most payment issues.

yogo 13y ago
On your site it doesn't say whether or not you get a cut, but given the natural alignment of interests I think it's safe to say you won't have a problem with having to return unused hours, even an honest developer will simply maximize those hours.
macarthy12 13y ago
How much work have you managed to get? Do you restrict where dev's are located (e.g. north america?)
- albedo 13y ago
  We get about 15 qualified leads a month (on average, each project is worth about $25k). We're focused on the US and Canada only for the moment.
mrfusion 13y ago
Do you guys need any Python or Django people?
- albedo 13y ago
  Yes, we're currently looking for Rails, Django, js, and iOS.

pmorici 13y ago

What do you consider a solid income? It seems like the majority of the jobs posted on oDesk are asking for a lot and only willing to pay very little. I wonder how even someone willing to work for 2 bucks an hour could possibly make reasonable money on there.

Iftheshoefits 13y ago
$2/hr is a lot of money to some people in some places, particularly certain "developing nations". Of course, you get what you pay for. Most people looking to hire on these sites aren't interested in quality; they want quantity at a discount. It works well for both them and the people doing the work at least in the short term. After all, some money (food) is better than nothing. I consider it a pretty base form of exploitation, though.
- jfoster 13y ago
  Can you give an example of a place where $2 peer hour is a lot? I often hear this type of assertion being made. I can believe that $2 per hour is enough to live off in some places, but I don't know of anywhere it would be considered "a lot."
  - Iftheshoefits 13y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nom... Pick a country in the list on that page where the Per Capita Income is less than ~$4160/year. Most likely, in such a country, $2/hour is very likely going to put an individual at or above the median income (farther above, the lower the GDP Per Capita). $5/hr is a nice wage. For comparison, the UN ranking of the US in this category is ~$51,000, and the median household income in the US is about $55,000 (per year).
  - sergiotapia 13y ago
    Where I live, a software engineer makes about $500/month. That's $3/hour and some change, I know software developers who make even less. Freelancing for me is basically a no-brainer as I will not work for those wages if I can help it. I have the incredible fortune of being able to speak and write at a native level, that gives me and a few others an edge but most people suffer a lot. If you land a job making $5/hour, full time 40 hour weeks, that's $800 a month. A LOOOOT of people here would kill for that kind of salary.