Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com • Hacker News Board

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#11

Post by j4pe » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 3:33 PM UTC

I've been thinking about forming a co-op for a trusted network of freelancers, to handle the crummy parts of the job (sourcing, selling, collecting) while encouraging the good parts (building, branding, partnering with quality colleagues). I had similar experiences being left with fake jobs/bad credit through freelance markets.

Thanks for sharing! I generally take longer-term gigs, so consistent dealflow isn't as big an of an issue for me. OP, what are you planning to do to fix your offline-network problem?

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#12

Post by alex_hitchins » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 3:38 PM UTC

Does anyone have a good alternative? Like many people commenting, so many people are willing to do insane amounts of work for next to nothing - where do those who provide value-added services look to outsource or tender?

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#13

Post by itl12 » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 3:42 PM UTC

As a western developer, is it possible to earn six figures (US) from any of the bidding sites? Which would be the best to focus on?

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#14

Post by settsu » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 3:51 PM UTC

Use your Freelancer portfolio to get contract work with agencies. They tend to fancy themselves one stop shops for clients and you can capitalize on that.

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#15

Post by ulisesrmzroche » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 3:56 PM UTC

billmalarky wrote: post #10

gregthompsonjr wrote: post #7

I try to stay away from sites like that in the first place, because I see wasting a lot of time building a reputation before getting actual work. It just never made sense to me. The sites like Freelancer and oDesk are saturated with highly competitive, cheap developers from Asia anyway. It's annoying. Nothing against Asians, but I wouldn't try to dive into a pool of them to get work. It's unrealistic in most cases, b…

How do you cold call? Who do you cold call?

Just find a local web design agency, for example, and send them an email introducing yourself and asking for work. There's plenty of resources about this, shouldn't be a huge mystery.

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#16

Post by gregthompsonjr » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 3:57 PM UTC

billmalarky wrote: post #10

gregthompsonjr wrote: post #7

I try to stay away from sites like that in the first place, because I see wasting a lot of time building a reputation before getting actual work. It just never made sense to me. The sites like Freelancer and oDesk are saturated with highly competitive, cheap developers from Asia anyway. It's annoying. Nothing against Asians, but I wouldn't try to dive into a pool of them to get work. It's unrealistic in most cases, b…

How do you cold call? Who do you cold call?

That remark was mostly meant to be understood as a joke, but since you asked:

Depending on what you're doing, you can Google businesses that need help, get their contact details, and go to town. See a business with a busted site? Check for their contact details, call them up or email them, try to get a response, convince them of why they need you to build them a better site.

Cold call.

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#17

Post by garybarnes » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 3:58 PM UTC

This is a common problem with a lot of the online project sites. Elance is a horrific nightmare, with the management there abusing freelancers as part of their policy. It is literally a nightmare and a lot of people share your plight, myself included.

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#18

Post by itl12 » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 3:58 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #4

Freelancer is awful. In fact all of those sites are. I made my living off Freelancer for a few years and I can't count the number of times they severely screwed me. I move to Elance which, although much better, has it's own issues. I try to find long-term clients on those sites and move the business away from them as quick as possible and that seems to work well.

Without being rude, what sort of income is possible from those sites?

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#19

Post by chrisked » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 4:00 PM UTC

mk3 wrote: post #2

Had similar issues with oDesk, which is now as I know is owned by the same company as freelancer.com. Though it has time tracking and I always tried to bid only on projects with hourly rates, I got stuck with non paying client which dissapeared from the face of the earth, and even when submitting that project is canceled from my side because of no show they are not closing the project. Not to mention I was not paid a…

Odesk and Elance merged. Freelancer is different. They IPO'd in Australia.

Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com

#20

Post by k-mcgrady » Mon, Dec 22, 2014, 4:14 PM UTC

itl12 wrote: post #18

k-mcgrady wrote: post #4

Freelancer is awful. In fact all of those sites are. I made my living off Freelancer for a few years and I can't count the number of times they severely screwed me. I move to Elance which, although much better, has it's own issues. I try to find long-term clients on those sites and move the business away from them as quick as possible and that seems to work well.

Without being rude, what sort of income is possible from those sites?

It's tough. Personally I know that I severely undervalued myself but it allowed me to work via email and not have to interact on the phone or in person with people which I had trouble with for a few years. I was able to make enough money to 'get by' In other words I just about covered my basic living costs for a small city in the UK. We're talking about £800-1300 per month which was fine as a single college aged guy. Eventually I got a few long term clients from those sites (I've been working with one guy for 3 years now) who I gradually raised my prices with until I was valuing myself fairly. I've moved off them completely now and am working in a startup which I much prefer (although I've kept on that one long-term client as the work is easy and he's easy to work with). I've lost the tremendous freedom freelance work gave me which I'm finding difficult but I don't have to stress about where my paycheck is coming from.