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Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#51

Post by simonebrunozzi »

penpapersw wrote: post #19
aresant wrote: post #9

I would immediately update your posting with a CV, website, git, whatever. You are on the front page of arguably the PREMIER network of people with access / need for technologists.

Good idea, thanks. Updated my profile with an email. Don't have resume in order yet. But have done plenty of Clojure, front-end and back-end work, made several iOS/tvOS apps that ship on the App Store. If anything comes from this, great, but I'm not betting on it, so I'm going to focus most my efforts on the suggestions to give try toptal, upwork, and freelancer.com a serious try for the short term, and to build a ne…

It might be useful to mention where you are (location), and if you confirm your ability to bill international clients.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#52

Post by throwaway847261 »

Mz wrote: post #16

Potential alternative to Upwork that sounds better: http://gigworks.blogspot.com/2017/04/moonlight-work-for-soft...

The problem with Moonlight is lack of companies on it. The large amount of developers on there compared to the number of projects and the lack of a real site (the app is just Google forms and emails) make this site feel like a waste of time.

I really wanted to like Moonlight, but I think it has some issue right now.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#54

Post by Mz »

throwaway847261 wrote: post #52
Mz wrote: post #16

Potential alternative to Upwork that sounds better: http://gigworks.blogspot.com/2017/04/moonlight-work-for-soft...

The problem with Moonlight is lack of companies on it. The large amount of developers on there compared to the number of projects and the lack of a real site (the app is just Google forms and emails) make this site feel like a waste of time. I really wanted to like Moonlight, but I think it has some issue right now.

It is brand new. Give it time.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#55

Post by bdcravens »

wtracy wrote: post #4

The problems with Upwork and Freelancer, while significant, are regularly blown out of proportion. I don't recommend them for more than finding short gigs when you're in a pinch, but they are useful for that. Do be prepared to lose a lot of jobs to bidders from the third world. Take advantage of anything that you can use to differentiate yourself. Also, get a stack of business cards and start going to local business…

> The problems with Upwork and Freelancer, while significant, are regularly blown out of proportion. I don't recommend them for more than finding short gigs when you're in a pinch, but they are useful for that. Do be prepared to lose a lot of jobs to bidders from the third world. Take advantage of anything that you can use to differentiate yourself.

I would second this. It's not great pay, but OP already expressed they'd take less than market. If you learn which types of jobs to quickly ignore, I think a person could easily stay fully engaged in the $25-50/hr range. There's quite a few clients there that are sick of what they get at the lower end of the spectrum.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#56

Post by humanrebar »

ioddly wrote: post #22
wtracy wrote: post #4

The problems with Upwork and Freelancer, while significant, are regularly blown out of proportion. I don't recommend them for more than finding short gigs when you're in a pinch, but they are useful for that. Do be prepared to lose a lot of jobs to bidders from the third world. Take advantage of anything that you can use to differentiate yourself. Also, get a stack of business cards and start going to local business…

> Look up the local Chamber of Commerce, search meetup.com, and see if your county has any small business development classes or lunches you can attend. I'm curious if anyone has had success with this. I know Brennan Dunn talks about it as one avenue to pursue, so I've been thinking about going to the local business networking thing. I guess I just have trouble conceptualizing going from meeting people who are runnin…

> I'm curious if anyone has had success with this.

I've found full-time non-remote work through meetup.com meetups. It wasn't very hard. I'm sure mileage will vary though, especially if the "must be remote" requirement implies significant distance from an urban area.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#58

Post by eldavido »

I work with hotels. They face the same problem (how to get customers). There are basically two approaches: either pay someone a commission, or build a brand.

Building a brand is hard, it takes a long time, but it's worth a lot and is monetized over time.

Paying someone means accepting you're going to pay 10-15% or whatever price to someone like 10x consulting or some other sort of agency to find you work. This can be the right option if you aren't in it long-term or just plain don't want the hassle of brand-building.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#59

Post by orthoganol »

penpapersw wrote: post #37
aresant wrote: post #9

I would immediately update your posting with a CV, website, git, whatever. You are on the front page of arguably the PREMIER network of people with access / need for technologists.

Oh also I've made http://affluentconfidante.com/ in Clojure and http://editfight.com/ in Node.js using WebSockets and vanilla JS, each in the span of about a day, within the past 2 weeks. Unfortunately that, plus the iOS apps I posted about in my submissions, are about the full extent of my public resume. I've done a lot of private work that I'm not at liberty to talk about, and all I have to show for that are skills…

Honest feedback: those "one day" sites are not impressive, and they will not enable you to win decent contracts. I get what you said, but if you really do have 5+ years experience it confused me why you, someone who want to win clients for freelancing, have not spent any real time, even if a couple weeks, building something impressive for your portfolio. Or building something impressive x 5 given the time frame here.

I have a sweet portfolio site, mostly full of personal projects, that's made it quite easy to land remote gigs. My advice: put your 80-20 focus there.

Re: Ask HN: How do you find clients when you have no network and can only do remote?

#60

Post by Brajeshwar »

There are pretty good Remote Job sources these days, try them. There are quite a bit of contract works too, which you can start off with. Also, do not forget to walk into your area's agencies, they usually work with freelancers/contractors.

- https://www.workingnomads.co/jobs

- https://remoteworkhub.com/remote-jobs/

- https://www.crossover.com/

- https://remote.com/

- https://weworkremotely.com/

- https://getbetterluck.com/ (one of our own internal tool)

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