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A friend swears by https://www.elance.com/ https://www.elance.com/ (He hires.) What is more interesting is that he knows how long it should take (within 20%) a

by awjr 13y ago

A friend swears by https://www.elance.com/ https://www.elance.com/ (He hires.) What is more interesting is that he knows how long it should take (within 20%) and discards the crazy cheap offers. Much of what he does is 'find' people on elance, takes a gamble, and if it works out, he hits them up again for more work. The more interesting thing about his work process. He always always pays on successful milestone delivery immediately.

cs02rm0 13y ago
Sounds interesting, is that through a bad experience at the lower rates? It always strikes me that the rates on these sites seem very low, puzzlingly so even at the top end. Especially as the projects seem to be relatively short term.
- awjr 13y ago
  IIRC he had anecdotal evidence that the cheaper end was not producing maintainable code. Initial blocks of work on elance are going to be short. It's more of a proving ground. (Consider what type of work you would put on elance.) Deliver well and expect a client to contact you directly for future work. If you are hiring from elance, then one of the 'rules' is to make sure that if the freelancer fails to deliver, you could pick up and run with the work if needed. That's the key to making it work. It's there as a resource to enable him to get on with growing your business. I hope this makes sense.
darklajid 13y ago
Are you sure that applies? The article is about _first_ clients. In my experience (I only ever dabbled a bit in the elance et al area) that's crazy hard. The prices are insanely low and - worse for this case - newcomers have zero reputation to build on. So getting a first(!) client on elance seems to be next to impossible unless you want to work for ~free~ for a while to build up a name, a brand.
- swalkergibson 13y ago
  I find that if I price myself how a real human with real skills would price that I am inundated with offers. Those places are overrun with spam, so if you can demonstrate that you are not a bot when responding to a post, you should get work.
ryanSrich 13y ago
I found it incredibly difficult to get hired for a reasonable rate using any online service. All successful freelance gigs I've had have either come through referral or cold call. Granted your first gig should be priced accordingly but when the majority of experienced freelancers work for <$50/hr on Elance it's hard to not stoop that low.

by awjr 13y ago

cs02rm0 13y ago

Sounds interesting, is that through a bad experience at the lower rates? It always strikes me that the rates on these sites seem very low, puzzlingly so even at the top end. Especially as the projects seem to be relatively short term.

awjr 13y ago
IIRC he had anecdotal evidence that the cheaper end was not producing maintainable code. Initial blocks of work on elance are going to be short. It's more of a proving ground. (Consider what type of work you would put on elance.) Deliver well and expect a client to contact you directly for future work. If you are hiring from elance, then one of the 'rules' is to make sure that if the freelancer fails to deliver, you could pick up and run with the work if needed. That's the key to making it work. It's there as a resource to enable him to get on with growing your business. I hope this makes sense.

darklajid 13y ago

Are you sure that applies? The article is about _first_ clients. In my experience (I only ever dabbled a bit in the elance et al area) that's crazy hard. The prices are insanely low and - worse for this case - newcomers have zero reputation to build on. So getting a first(!) client on elance seems to be next to impossible unless you want to work for ~free~ for a while to build up a name, a brand.

swalkergibson 13y ago
I find that if I price myself how a real human with real skills would price that I am inundated with offers. Those places are overrun with spam, so if you can demonstrate that you are not a bot when responding to a post, you should get work.

ryanSrich 13y ago

I found it incredibly difficult to get hired for a reasonable rate using any online service. All successful freelance gigs I've had have either come through referral or cold call. Granted your first gig should be priced accordingly but when the majority of experienced freelancers work for <$50/hr on Elance it's hard to not stoop that low.