I've been worked as a freelancer for 3 years now and think would be interesting to discuss freelance job websites, so started this thread. Let's talk about ways to get a job or hire an employee and share your experience about websites you worked on. This experience will help for just started freelancers or people who is currently searching for a job marketplace. I start first: GetaFreelancer.com Have been worked there for 3 years (started on GAF). Find it best place to start your freelancer career. Escrow transaction system, lots of projects everyday. pros: 1. Absolutely free to work on; 2. Great payment withdrawal system (you can apply for a real plastic Mastercard debit card without any ID copies sent for just $19 price which is charged only from the first added funds); 3. Low fees (there is no fees for subscribed members - $12/month cost); 4. Trial projects (projects for just started users with no feedback, which are cost-free for buyers); 5. Very good support (I have contacted them a few times and they were resolved all my problems and answered all my questions) 6. Lots of projects cons: 1. Budget limitation for the project - $30 minimum (which sometimes causes problems for a small-fix jobs); 2. Lots of providers for one vacancy due to the project popularity and no charge for membership (anyway if you're talented just needed to got your first feedback and the projects will come on); Please continue the list with your experience. Reputation for helpful posts is welcome
well I'm also registered on getacoder,elance,odesk but for me it'S to much work to get a job on this pages you need to fill out millions of forms take millions of test and then you need to bid low to gain some rep. but if you are really willing to invest some time they are a great opportunity
yes, I find this tests stuff unnecessary a little, it takes a lot of time, but it worth it. of course at first time there'd be many problems and you should place a lower bids to get hired (but good portfolio and communication skills are more important). so, the second freelance site: Scriptlance.com Had been working there for a year, got there my first freelance job. This one is also good for a starting freelancer. It's less famous than GAF, so there are more chances to get a project. Payment processing through Escrow system as well. pros: 1. No minimum budget limits (you can do a small 1 hour job for $5-10 bucks to get your first feedback); 2. Has a long-term jobs section (not a single projects); 3. Free to post a project (for service buyers) and no bids limitations for service providers; 4. Has an official option to exchange e-gold to paypal with 1% bonus; 5. Discussion forum, where you can always get help from other members; 6. More chances for users with zero feedback to get a project and really fast to start (takes 15 mins to get registered and fill the description forms); 7. Many withdrawal options, also available to withdraw funds onto Payoneer debit card (such as GAF used). cons: 1. PM system works without bidding (providers can contact buyers without placing a bid); 2. Expensive fees politics for subscribed members; 3. Bad support (maybe this was just in my case, but support was unresponsible for a long time and hasn't solved my problems when contacted me back).
Artimmi, I see you are from Moscow my dear comrad, I assume you will get paid at local job as much as in these websites if not more usually. I don't see a reason for mosckvich to hanging out there As for my experience I am very established in RAC - rentacoder.com, but seo jobs sucks there so I have leaved with long-term clients and don't bid anymore. For your 2 websites I find them very very cheap and with fierce competition. Not worth it at all. Actually RAC sucks as well (( Best freelance websites (for freelancers, lol) are guru.com and elance.com. Everything else sucks absolutely, of course if you look at freelance as serious business model. They are paid yes, but budgets are reasonable and high, there are no $5-$50 dollar clients (non-clients, just poor morons) and have lot of western people as freelancers with $10-$80 dollars/hour rate (from what I've seen) - that speaks for itself. Just look, elance generated more than $128mil in 3 years from 2005 and look how much SL, GAF, RAC and so on. There are no serious money on that websites.
DPobserver, yes, of course good IT-related job in Moscow will be much more paid, than a project on freelance websites such as these and I'm not working with projects like these now. But I've started (at first time - as a hobby) my way as a freelancer on these sites and find them great to for beginning, when you just have some skills and no experience and I wanted to write some helpful info for these people. BTW there are lots of well-paid projects on GAF. With budget $500-$1500 or even more, especially if you have strong hand (proofed with feedback) in some type of work (for example, mine is vBulletin forums). So I find these sites a fine way to earn some good (or extra) money for a first time, what I do a little sometimes (on GAF). Right now I'm working part-time on Elance, which is great for skilled and experienced designer/programmer to have a stable high earnings. But, again, sometimes it's not affordable for beginners to get a subscription in one of categories and even it is, there are not so many chances to get a project without required freelance experience. Everything serious begins from something. In freelance I recommend start on GAF and SL as they are free and great to get an experience. I can explain also some special details, if somebody needs.
Getafreelancer.com cons: 1) full of indian scammers and idiots who would take your money and disappear or ask for more then disappear 2) huge fee structure 3) amazingly slow support, for a site that large 4) lacks fast withdrawal options. They only process requests once a week and are on vacation a week every other 6-8. (payoneer sucks, it gets stuck in atms a lot and the fees are also too big).
get a coder is a good place for freelance beginners to start with. I agree with about getafreelancer.com cons.
I'm not agree with you at some points: 1. Of course there are lots of scammers, but they're everywhere... If you hire a person without any feedback, it's risky for you (in case the provided hasn't proofed his skills by portfolio with backlinks to his site or something else). 2. What do you mean by huge fee structure? $5 to post a project is affordable for buyer when the project worth of $100 minimum. As for providers, 5% also normal fee and with $12/month subscription there are no fees at all. 4. I agree, 7-days withdrawal period is really long... yes, this is a big problem. Can anybody post about other sites like getacoder or odesk? I haven't worked with them too much and have nothing to say.
You need to spend a huge amount of time either 1) building up a huge portfolio and positive feedback or 2) spending endless hours working for less-than-minimum wages to be able to make a decent living from these sites. Otherwise, jobs are few and far in between. Forums are a much better place to look for jobs if you're new to this.
Hi All, There are lot of freelancing sites which really gives opportunity for Both and Providers. It provides the freedom to work from home , Verified Payment System (Most of them) , Real Time Work Offloading and lots more. Any field you have both Scammers and Honest People. Tagging everyone with few bad experiences ... I am not what you have gone through ... Choosing people with feedback only like suggested also blocks Freshers Opportunity .... Odesk is really a good platform which offers real time monitoring for Buyers and payments are verified for Providers. Hope it helps!
Really good stuff for the new bees. I have started working as a freelance in 2002, and my first job was just for $10.00. But now i own a well structured company socalled Magicsolv.com. I have started working with two websites GAF, and elance.com But now these websites are over crowed with spammers, people offering the cheap fees, even they dont know what is the right amount to charge. I am down with that. Now we are working with some regular clients, and enjoying regular projects with them. I have stopped working on these websites, and putting my efforts to make our own website popular with that. There are very few buyer left, who can pay for your quality work, otherwise most of them move with lowest bid. I dont think so now it's good time to join them. This is to add further: With my 4 years exp with these websites, i came across with some problems as well. If you are stuck with some buyer with some issues. No matter you are wrong or buyer made a mistake. Seller would be the only one who will suffer. These website doesnt cover their sellers. A seller would suffer with the money. Buyer always in a WIN WIN position. So please please never assume that you are safe with these websites not even with ESCROW PAYMENT SYSTEMS.
Hi I seem to have more success with elance.com, you seem to get a much fairer price for your work there and I have only been misled once. Scriptlance is one of the worst, for a buyer and a seller. If you place an advert there, you get a load of people promising the world, but I have NEVER had anyone meet a deadline, then most of them just disappear. GetAFreelancer - Terrible place, people expect stuff for nothing, especially if you're a writer, people ask for stuff like $2 per 500 words which is ridiculous + it's full of scammers peopleperhour.com - Possibly the best, never been scammed here and you can find some large companies and reputable names looking for freelances, great for people based in the uk