Hey all, I hate the fact that it is very hard to win a project on a freelance web site. I went on Elance and was declined my bid. The bidder who won, was from India and was willing to do the project for 5 times less. How is one supposed to survive when the competition will work for next to nothing?
Build you reputation in whatever industry you work in, if you are exceptional with your skills, people will pay you 10x more, compared to people within the same industry. I suggest creating a professional portfilio to host your creations and promote youself. Ash
I'm writing an ebook right now, and I'm going to touch on this topic. There are a number of things you can do to get around this issue. I see you are new here at Digital Point, so like bacanze said, you will want to focus on building up your reputation here. Once you do, you can make money by working for other members. Another idea is to become an online broker. You say that the Indian are charging less, and you can't compete? What you do is, you hire the Indian professionals, and act as a liaison between them and the people who need the project done. 1. Run an ad somewhere on the net saying you need people to work on a specific project. Keep your prices high, but not so high that you can't compete. 2. Once you have hired workers, you then go out and set up deals between them and the clients looking for projects. Once you set up the deal, all you do is take a cut out of the money the client pays you. Never let the client contact the freelancer directly, since this means you get eradicated as a middle man. The more deals you set up like this, the more you make. No one has to know you're a broker. You can keep by clients and those who work for you in the dark. All you do is pay them their share when the project is completed. Another strategy is to charge prices that can compete with people in India, but increase your production to the point where you speed compensates for the loss in revenue. The power of outsourcing is diminished on the Internet Unlike people who work at IT day jobs, or other fields that can be outsourced, on the internet, small businesses can outsource as well. If you can't beat people in India, Join them. Create strategic partnerships, and have them do jobs for you. To survive, one of the things I've done is reduce my standard of living while living comfortably at the same time. Even though I live in the U.S. my rent is only $168 dollars per month!! I have no car, and I've got rid of most of my bills, allow me to save and increase purchasing power. My purchasing power is higher than 42% of American citizens, even though I make less per year than the average American. Having said that, I've talked with Indian people here at Digital Point who tell me their mortgage payment in India is $250 per month, less than my housing here. Because I keep my prices competitive, I make my services affordable to people in India, and some of my best customers are Indian. Don't be afraid to lower you prices!!! A large percentage of the so called "poverty stricken" people of the world have a combined net worth of 2 to 5 trillion dollars! This means, if you can tap into this money over the web, you can become rich. I should start charging a little bit of money for this good advice............
Thanks for your response. I'm actually not new to DP, although I don't post much, I have been reading other's posts since 2005. I'm highly impressed that you can find a place to rent for $168 per month. My rent right now is $600 and I'm also supporting a family. I freelance on my days off. I've actually considered being the middleman, but at the moment I'm trying to build up my portfolio. Since my day job, as a web designer, won't allow me to post sites that I have created for them, I must start from scratch.
Which country u live?? emmm.. This is a reality, freelance from india always can offer less price because of money exchange... But is not means you cannot beat them... if u can make the customer confident with your services... u will be success...
It's worse here, rent is over $1000 a month. Anyways, I wouldn't suggest using those auction freelance project sites, there is way too much competition and they don't pay enough. Like everyone said, it's best to build a reputation and let clients come to you. This takes a lot of time.. maybe years... honestly wouldn't reccommend this as an only source of income for anyone..
Services like Elance also take out high fees for each completed project, which I think is annoying, though I understand they need to make a profit.
I tried using getafreelancer.com elance.com and it never worked for me. I always lost because someone from India or East Europe would bid 5x cheaper than me. But then again I know people who make a living on elance and getafreelancer.com.
Yes, that's the main reason why those sites don't work well.. because of outsourcing. I would try craigslist (IMO its way way better and that's how I got started)!