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Ask HN: Where are the best places to find Freelance jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: Where are the best places to find Freelance jobs?

#5
I have had great success with Elance.com. At first I had to bid the projects on the lower end to get some ratings. After I had a few happy clients and a few 5 star ratings I started receiving 3-4 proposal requests a week. I also tried oDesk, but did not see the same results.

Re: Ask HN: Where are the best places to find Freelance jobs?

#6
Many of the freelancers I know work primarily from referrals. I realize this is a chicken-and-egg problem, so here are a few ways to get started:

- Tell all your friends and family you're freelancing. Chances are, you can find a few leads this way.

- Get hooked in with a network of local freelancers; they might share referrals. Unfortunately, I don't think you can just search for these groups on Google. I believe they're mostly informal networks of freelancers who stay in touch with each other, rather than actual clubs or trade organizations. I found one through another freelancer I happen to know, so give that a shot. YMMV.

-I haven't set up a Sortfolio account yet, but you might want to give it a shot. If you do, and it works out for you, please let us all know.

Best of luck!

Re: Ask HN: Where are the best places to find Freelance jobs?

#7
I recently wanted to break into the freelancing market and had some success with this chain of events:

1) I joined my local programming mailing lists - e.g. the nearest Hacker Space, Ruby Ireland. 2) I went to a local tech conference. 3) I went to local tech meet ups and made a lot of noise. I paid extra attention to the non techies. 4) I followed everyone I met at said events.

After a few months of doing this I understand the local freelancing scene much better, have a good idea of market rates and am exposed to lots of freelancing opportunities.