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I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

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Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#61

Post by james-fend »

sequoia wrote: post #48

I'm Xposting this from his blog... don't think it will make it past moderation: Looks intriguing but be very careful with your credibility; a freelancing site that’s considered untrustworthy is a failed freelancing site. I say this because I saw your post about “Launched yesterday” then on your site I see the testimonial “Freelancify helped us find a great designer to get our blog launched. -GrowNasheville” Wait- the…

Hey sequoia, Yes, that does need to come down. That image was actually a leftover from the original 1-page splash landing site that runs running since June until yesterday. Never thought twice to take it out as my eyes literally skip over it when scanning that page.

Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#62

Post by ilaksh »

Its really great that so many people signed up listing actual US rates.

On the other hand, almost all of the projects are $500 or less, most of them $300 or less. Which are outsourcing budgets, and pretty much incompatible with the US rates for most projects.

I wonder what you could do to get U.S. organizations with actual project budgets to use these types of sites. I have always wished there was something like a US-only freelancer's site. Maybe this person could create a section where only US freelancers could bid, or a section that had a minimum rate at $40 or something.

I really like odesk because I am used to being poor and I always know I can find a spec to prototype and get a job without having to leave my house or network or anything, but I can't afford healthcare or my own apartment.

I had a few "real" gigs with a good US rate but I spent too much time working on my startup and ran out of money, sort of panicked and picked up a job at an outsourcing rate, and now I feel like I should to move to Bangalore in order to maintain my standard of living.

Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#63

Post by james-fend »

makira wrote: post #60
jmilloy wrote: post #58

I don't think I get it; I've never launched a site, so maybe that's why. I'm going to be critical and skeptical about this particular post , but that doesn't mean that I don't think it's laudable, stressful, and exciting to launch a product by yourself (and I'm glad you are getting front page press here) Why would James launch at 5:30 AM after getting no sleep? This sounds like a good way to make mistakes, make it ha…

Whenever I push a new version of an app, I always do it in the morning after having slept a good night. It's very important to be alert and able to react in case something goes very wrong. Launching after being up 20 hours is taking risks for no reason.

Live and learn. I prob won't make that mistake again as I just woke up from a crash nap and trying to catch up on blog comments..

Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#64

Post by james-fend »

cidermonk3y wrote: post #30

Good job man, had a brief look around, looks swish. Hope to have a more in depth look a bit later on. One thing i did notice in your signup form for workers, i hit enter accidentally before filling out 1 field. This caused an error and i lost all the information i had previously entered. Barring password and perhaps username do you think that the form should reload the information if an error has occured? Something t…

Thanks.. yep, fixing that is on the list

Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#65

Post by bdg »

wildbunny wrote: post #45
bdg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the insights, I've been very curious about traffic on blogs such as mine, I intend to make a monthly post that makes my trends transparent so others can see what I do.

If you're interested you can see my traffic graph here: http://www.wildbunny.co.uk/blog/2012/01/19/blog-micro-transa... Its the top graph. I post a lot to reddit, which is where those spikes come from. So far I haven't managed to post a popular article on HN, although others have posted my articles and they have gotten onto the front page, which is a little annoying. Guess the system rates certain people a lot higher…

Wow, that's an interesting model for revenue. I'm happy to see it's also a successful one.

I /intend/ to publish 10 posts about the project Euler ( cowbelljs.blogspot.com/2011/12/projecteuler-001.html ), step back and improve on them greatly, adding a lot more detail and clarity such that you could learn some algo/math from them and start offering them as ebooks. I'm not a fan of ads on the blog, simply because google forced them to be excessive and annoying with my template.

Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#66

Post by james-fend »

joshuahedlund wrote: post #41
james-fend wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Thank you for the insights.. I've added your suggestion to this ever-growing list of to-do.. eventually, the app should get polished up well with these quirks. The issue with quality of projects is quite a complicated problem. There were quite a few ways to tackle this problem, but in the end I decided to leave it open and follow the flow with a live app in the wild. Just off the top of my head, these came to mi…

I don't have a lot of experience with freelance sites (I watched the small business I work for use 99designs for something) but just something I thought of to try to solve the problem of unrealistic underfunded projects, not sure if anyone does this: Have a little up/down box by each project where browsing freelancers can rate if they think it's a good price or way too much for what they're asking. If an unknowledgea…

BRILLIANT IDEA!!

Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#67

Post by wildbunny »

bdg wrote: post #65
wildbunny wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're interested you can see my traffic graph here: http://www.wildbunny.co.uk/blog/2012/01/19/blog-micro-transa... Its the top graph. I post a lot to reddit, which is where those spikes come from. So far I haven't managed to post a popular article on HN, although others have posted my articles and they have gotten onto the front page, which is a little annoying. Guess the system rates certain people a lot higher…

Wow, that's an interesting model for revenue. I'm happy to see it's also a successful one. I /intend/ to publish 10 posts about the project Euler ( cowbelljs.blogspot.com/2011/12/projecteuler-001.html ), step back and improve on them greatly, adding a lot more detail and clarity such that you could learn some algo/math from them and start offering them as ebooks. I'm not a fan of ads on the blog, simply because googl…

Its getting there slowly - the problem is traffic, as you rightly identified earlier. Its slow to build, takes a lot of time and effort. The spikes from posting on reddit never last, so its either a question of constantly writing quality content and posting it, or having a massive marketing budget :)

Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#68

Post by LeandroLovisolo »

bdg wrote: post #24

Here's some feedback, take with it what you will. I like that you're starting yet another freelancer site, simply because I hate the other ones. They're full of often sub-quality contractors spamming the boards hoping to hit one and take some money. The other bids are from nations where the exchange rate makes my yearly salary make me look like a king. I take what I do seriously, I like serious clients, and I've find…

I couldn't find a link to your blog in your profile page. Care to share the URL?

Re: I Launched My Startup Yesterday, This Is How The Hectic Day Went

#70

Post by gamechangr »

smadam9 wrote: post #29
joshcrews wrote: post #26

I was James's Rails mentor and I can testify that he definitely did not know Ruby on Rails at the beginning of November, but he is sharp.

Although I can program already, I'm sure most people would agree that James's idea of putting a post on his learning experience of Ruby would be an interesting read.

I agree. I'm trying to learn RoR right now. Seems fast for 8 weeks!
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