Sites where you bid for work

I agree with your statement on local clients. Plus you don't have to share your earnings with a middleman.

 

I can name them as a site where you can earn first capital if you are from 3rd world country. Top coders gain no more than $3-4k a month in average. And that is top 10 from 100,000+ others. So you see the picture. Better then invest in your own business/projects. By your own rules. Not theirs, cause in many cases they simply suck at that.

 

Another good one that no one has mentioned yet (I think!) is Kasamba. They are a bit overpriced, but thats good for the seller. Try them out, and tell me what you thought. Its not my site, but I had an overall good experience.

Another great thing about Kasamba is that someone can hire you live. Like if they need live coding help, they can chat with you for $x a minute.

 

For coders?? That's totally unacceptable if you're not living the good life in an emerging economy country.

 

In my opinion the article producing mills have created a complete mess everywhere. For many writers it is just copy and paste and then some rewriting is all that satisfies them with pennies.Writing innovatively is no kid's job. But cheap market prevails quite often. Quality writers however should not worry as there will be quality buyers always.

 

amf-flt, please explain, I am not sure I understand.

I just want to say that some real money (for 3rd world) earn probably first 300 from let's say 100,000. If you didn't start at least 2 years ago then it's just not worth it.

As for my country (Ukraine) programmer here earns $700-$2300 per month, depending on experience and skills. Even $3k in capital for team leader. 5 years ago making $700 there was really really really good. Today it is just to make some basic living for 1 person (at least in my town) $3-4k per month probably will be upper average class there.

I laugh a lot when someone from West want to hire professional for $300 or so a month. I can sell prepaid cards for mobile phones for that. No need for education, etc.

 

What I'm saying is that I know guys who handle networks for small businesses and get paid $150/hr. I know freelance web designers making $125/hr and higher.

If you're in a mature market economy -- US, most of the EU, etc. -- you need more than $25K per year to live and support your iPhone-buying habits. A coder has special skills that are hard to come by, and a newly minted programmer in this country expects to make $60K or more. Good programmers push $80K-$100K depending on their niche skills.

Do you think any of those people sell themselves on low-bid-wins sites and compete against emerging market economy programmers who can afford to live on a lot less?

For technical people in mature markets, the best way to freelance is to find local clients who will pay you local rates.

 

Ah, yes, got you! But I am talking about sites like scriptlance, getafreelancer, getacoder, elance, rentacoder etc. I am not sure that lot of people on that sites (ok, let it be first 100 even) make $125-$150 per hour.

Sure I know about a lot of guys who makes $80-$100k. Even some of my comrads do

Also new fresher will not work for $700 in USA, sure. $700 sucks even here

BTW, do you know any non-USA and non-EU guys who is making good money (same as above you stated) working with local US and EU clients ?

 

Of course people on scriptlance, etc., don't make $100/hr or more. That's the point! Potential clients who post projects out there aren't willing to pay the local going rate and instead want cheap labor, regardless of the hassle or reliability issues.

Umm... if they're non-USA/non-EU, that would mean there's no possibility of US/EU clients being "local" to them.

And that's also my point: if you're in an emerging market economy, elance/guru/etc. are absolutely wonderful! But for freelancers in mature markets, the money you can make on those sites is terrible and not worth the hassle.

I'd rather develop close relationships with local clients who can refer me to other local clients and make my sales job easier than faceless bidding against faceless competitors to work for faceless cheap clients.

 

"I'd rather develop close relationships with local clients who can refer me to other local clients and make my sales job easier than faceless bidding against faceless competitors to work for faceless cheap clients." Thanks, that's what I am doing now.

 

most buyers, sadly, on freelance sites probably don't have much money either. In general they are just as bad off as the coders who are competing for jobs. The reason I think this, however I could be wrong, is because the sites they need work for are rarely professional. Obviously there is exceptions, but I just mean on the whole.

I just went and read through the postings on some of those sites and they all have something in common. The buyers posts a really small job and then always has loads more work up his sleeve.

Top freelancers get paid good rates, and good volume, working with agencies. I believe this is better for them than local businesses as they don't have to deal with small budgets and get to work on better jobs.

 

Interesting perspective. Perhaps I'm the exception? I work directly with customers -- subcontract very little work at all from others -- and get paid good rates and the size of the projects vary, but I usually get 2-4 new clients each year with projects that need more than 200 hours of work (combine that with recurring work from existing clients, so I'm not only 100% busy, but I also keep 3 other freelancers busy).

I used to do more subcontracting work, but I really like "owning" the end-client relationship. I look at that relationship as a very personal "back link" to my company.

 

Yes I can see why controlling the end client relationship has benefits. I would imagine your clients don't weigh up whether or not to outsource their projects on getafreelancer.com.

 

In general, most clients you'll find don't know how to run an IT project -- let alone clearly specify what needs to be done -- so they're not likely to hand it over to a faceless programmer on the other side of the world just to save a few $$. They WANT a personal relationship with their freelancer. They know where I live/work and can easily set up a meeting with me if things get crazy.

Posting a project to a bidding site isn't in their future.

And that works for me, because I want clients who aren't afraid to spend money on their projects to get what they want. I have trouble understanding businesspeople who think they can get great things quickly for very little money.

 

the websites like GAF and SL are really for the freelancers and the webmasters outsource their work just to get the good deal.

its competitive zone, and very thought to fight and survive.

But don't know the desnity, some time i got the very good potential customers.

I use bbfreelancers.com also, which is good to build up good clientage.

remember old customers are always give good business. so just keep on doing good work.

 

These kind of sites are good to start making contacts. You won't get paid much at first but after you do a nice job for someone you'll start working off site with him at better prices, he will recommend you to his friends, etc. I believe it's a good place to start off, specially if you are outsourcing.

 

i get tons of work through getafreelancer. starting to wean myself from that site, though...i realized i was really selling myself short

 

I have been to most of these sites. I am a member at getafreelancer, but I have never landed work through them. I stopped trying. Bidding and surfing all of the postings was very time-consuming only to possibly find a gig for pennies.

I eventually found a couple gigs through DP. I don't doubt that it is possible to make some good-paying contacts through those sites, but it just seems like a lot of work to build a rep...a rep that isn't really good anywhere except that site. I think you would have more luck with marketing a personal website with examples of your writing. You could put the money you spend that should be sheer profit on these other sites into marketing your own website...with your own original content. All of your money is going into your interests and not into another person's pocket...or PayPal account.

 

CAn any body PM me the list of Freelance Sites!!

 

Google will deliver a nice list. Research people!