Freelancing Websites: Experiences?

So I'm running a successful website averaging 100k UVs a month, and I've also designed a few smaller, simple ones (weebly, wix, etc) for friends.

I want to start making some supplementary income freelancing, but not sure of the best way to go about it. I know theres a market in the Baby Boomer small biz owner demographic, but not sure of the best way to reach them. What are your experiences? Should I try Craigslist? Should I go door-to-door? Ideas, please.

 

Local works well; better than online in my experience. The online freelancer sites are infested with people who have no real skill doing anything but ask such low prices that people try it anyway.

 

Craigslist would probably be your best option to go. You can offer your services on https://www.elance.com/ (there are couple more legit freelance platforms out there where you can offer / get freelance jobs).

If you also do small script coding, proof-reading, article writing, etc., you can post those gigs on fiverr.

 

Top level freelancing website are here.
https://www.odesk.com/ Odesk.
http://www.freelancer.com/ Freelancer

 

As a web site designer publisher, you may do OK, I ventured into freelancer.com as an app creator & game developer... it sucked big time, the market is their with heaps of jobs, but! They want Farmville, Angry Birds quality for pennies - literally under $200. They want graphics, music, sound, game designed, coded to android, iOS etc. etc. and they expect it to be done fast & very cheap. They may say "it's an easy job", "quick job" - but they are not... it's like working with your Grandpa that has no idea about coding or the complexities of design, graphics & implementation. I am kicking myself that I upgraded to contact/apply for more work.

 

You're a very helpful guy around here, huh? haha. I suppose I'll give Craigslist a shot...in all I think I want to keep it more local than be working with people from all over that I don't know whatsoever.

 

Honestly, fiverr drives me nuts. I'm looking more to help people I can communicate with directly with projects.

Also, I signed up and posted a listing on your site, hope that helps me too!

 

Yeah... LoL... most my time here these days is spent trolling. i hated Freelancing though.

 

Yeah, I'm just trying to make some quick cash some local old folks...you know, the honorable way.

 

eLance is probably your best online free lancing site.

 

If I were to go that route, how can I stand out amongst lots of competition?

 

Just make sure to spell out the project before starting and avoid scope creep. most people who dont know much about the online business have no idea about how much time things take. "hey add this real quick" or " change this when you have a sec" call all add up.. Good luck!

 

Online freelance sites like Elance can be a great way to meet new clients but take note of communication habits, how they explain tasks, etc. because you will quickly learn which clients are ideal for you and which are not. Unfortunately not every working relationship is meant to be! If you work with clients who have connections you could possibly obtain referrals directly from them and work less with Elance.

 

Yup, this was a simple request that was made to me, "can you just make that monkeys tail go down to that lid, unscrew it, make that weasels head pop & then have the monkey wink" - yeah no worries, it'll only take me 5 minutes lol.

 

You'd have to focus on topics/products that Boomers want. A huge one right now is retirement plans and/or business insurance. Just saying.

 

I'm saying more along the lines of going to small restaurant owners and offering to build them basic sites for like $300 a pop. I think it could add up pretty quickly...

 

Start off with proposing low prices, until you work your way up.

 

If you're going the Craigslist way, you might want to see how you can protect yourself in terms of payments. Otherwise, oDesk & Elance are top sites. You will need to build your rep to secure higher paying jobs. Build your portfolio there by working below market rates in the initial stage.

All the best!

 

This is very true. If you have local companies who would like a site, it's a lot easier than competing online. As Kwaku implies, it's not only the competition from suppliers that sucks online: it's the dumb clients who refuse to realise that buying cheap, crappy services costs more in the long run.

The top freelancing sites for coders/designers are Elance, Freelancer and Guru. oDesk is now a partner of Elance (though still separate, it's a weird setup), vWorker (formerly rentacoder) was bought out by Freelancer.

Elance has the best quality people, so I've always preferred it both as employer and employee. Freelancer feels like a big messy pile of crap in comparison, though it's absolutely massive and has tons of job throughput (usually at awful prices, but if you trawl you can find good stuff). Guru doesn't seem able to crawl out of the bottom spot, even though it's quite good.

Reputation. Remember that "the pie is infinite" - you do NOT have to compete on the same level as anyone else. There's plenty of work, so don't fret about losing jobs or missing out if you don't like the look of them.

I've always got work on the bidding sites by being open, honest and reasonable. I don't make claims I can't back up, I don't expect to be paid $100 an hour and I don't expect to do tons of work for pennies. I negotiate, discuss and make reasonable offers. Once you get a couple of references that say how wonderful it is to work with you, it's a lot easier.

Absolutely NOT. Do not do this. Ever.

If you set low prices, you invite crap clients who don't want to pay properly. You will NOT convince them to pay more later. When have you ever walked into a supermarket, bought the cheapest product, then voluntarily paid more for it just because you like it? Never.

Set your price at the earning level you need. Upload a portfolio. Get (verifiable) references from people you've done work for. Offer a quality service. Be the better-quality brand-name version of the shitty offers, with an associated higher price.

If you really must compete on price, make it clear that you're offering a special to get your profile started. State your normal price and the offer price, so clients see what discount they're getting. Don't do it all the time.

My 2c.

 

I beg to differ because your future customers should not be those that pay low. The reason for clinching low paying contracts is to build up your rep. But that's just my 2c. Thanks for sharing anyway.