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Ask HN: Can Freelance be free?

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Re: Ask HN: Can Freelance be free?

#11
post #7
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you tell more about this? What exactly do you mean by "brokers"?

There are middlemen not unlike recruiters but for freelancers. They serve the same purpose as sites like Upwork but at a smaller scale.

How can i find such people?

Re: Ask HN: Can Freelance be free?

#12
post #11
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are middlemen not unlike recruiters but for freelancers. They serve the same purpose as sites like Upwork but at a smaller scale.

How can i find such people?

Usually, they find you ;-) I’m only slightly kidding here.

This is a very crowded market and if you can avoid working with them it’s probably best to do so (for pretty much the same reasons as is avoiding working with Upwork).

There are a few really good ones but most of them just try to sell developer hours as a commodity.

Where you can find the good ones depends a lot on where you’re located. There are freelancer forums (on LinkedIn, for example) where recruiters usually advertise new projects.

Re: Ask HN: Can Freelance be free?

#13
Would a person with a significant project hire through middleman websites? Maybe, but it wouldn't be a very smart move on his part, and would also denote some inexperience dealing with professionals and consultants. Finding good clients is not easy, but removing places where there is a higher chance to find bad clients helps.

Re: Ask HN: Can Freelance be free?

#14
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can i find such people?

Usually, they find you ;-) I’m only slightly kidding here. This is a very crowded market and if you can avoid working with them it’s probably best to do so (for pretty much the same reasons as is avoiding working with Upwork). There are a few really good ones but most of them just try to sell developer hours as a commodity. Where you can find the good ones depends a lot on where you’re located. There are freelancer f…

I found a good one who has contacts with some big companies. Usually the contracts are between 3 months and 1 year. I worked with them on and off since 2006.

But I agree. It’s a crowded market. I stopped answering people who contact me on LinkedIn - usually they can’t help me.

I would say this is the most effective way for me to get jobs since I don’t have a sales department to sell my services to big companies. I kind of out sourced the sales part, you could say.

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