I've had luck working with Creative Circle, even found full remote stuff. The rates aren't high since they take a cut, but you can sit back and let the jobs roll in. Very passive freelancing.
Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
31–40 of 71 posts
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#32I had pretty difficult experiences with Freelancer.com. I even documented it in this thread:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5177951
To summarize: I had a big project, that was not delivered after a several milestones, so the developer canceled the project, took the escrow, and I couldn't even leave a feedback!
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#33Freelancer 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.
ODesk is the least bad of the general sites. There are a few niche networks that are decent also, e.g. TopTal.com.
I agree. Odesk is decent.
My experiences with Freelancer.com were awful:
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#34This is Rishi, and I am the Co-Founder at http://dreamlance.io/
We are starting Dreamlance, a curated marketplace for projects and professionals.
Here are 3 ways how Dreamlance is different from all other “curated” marketplaces:
1. The Dreamlance Team actually vets each project that gets posted on our boards
- We make sure the project description is complete - We make sure the project deliverables are crystal clear - We make sure the project cost matches the effort required
We put in all this effort so that you don’t have to spend a third of your time qualifying leads. We qualify, prepare and polish them for you.
2. We provide a hassle-free & secure payments platform via escrow
- You begin work only when the project owner funds the agreed upon milestone - Once the conditions for the milestone completion are met, we release the funds to you
This way you don’t have to worry about chasing down unpaid invoices
3. We provide highly qualified assistance in resolving conflicts - In the event of a conflict of opinion between you and the project owner, we step in and provide unbiased arbitration - We ourselves have seen sticky situations in the middle of a project, and we believe our arbitration expertise will be of immense value to you
For these premium services, we would be charging you only 7.5% of the project cost, an industry low.
I strongly believe Dreamlance will soon become your preferred platform for professional freelancing.
To sign up with us, please visit http://dreamlance.io/apply
And we are happy to have your referrals :)
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at rishi@dreamlance.io
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#35Stay away from any website that acts as a marketplace. Their incentives are not aligned with you the Freelancer. Their aim is to get as much money as possible through the market in order to boost revenues from the commission.
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#36I'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…
I think gun.io has pretty decent projects although I've never actually worked through them. They seem more properly screened and to hold their talent to higher standards. At least that's the impression I've received.
I don't know anyone that actually were able to work on projects advertised on gun.io. These were freelancers with a high hourly rate to lower hourly rates. The experience of gun.io is frustrating because you send out a proposal and you often have no idea what is happening to it. Let alone that the given set of requirements are esoteric enough, there just doesn't seem to be any available jobs that end up happening through the website.
I've unsubscribed from gun.io and can't really recommend it because you won't find any work on it. The experience has been consistent across many freelancers and it's not at all what it is advertised to be.
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#37This is Rishi, and I am the Co-Founder at http://dreamlance.io/ We are starting Dreamlance, a curated marketplace for projects and professionals. Here are 3 ways how Dreamlance is different from all other “curated” marketplaces: 1. The Dreamlance Team actually vets each project that gets posted on our boards - We make sure the project description is complete - We make sure the project deliverables are crystal clear -…
it says "7.5% of the project cost. Payable by the project owner and the freelance professional"
Does that mean that the freelancer and the project owner both pay 7.5% each?
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#38Well, a platform like freelancer is designed intentionally such that you can't, or at least shouldn't, build contact with clients off the platform. Otherwise you and your clients have no use for freelancer.
Some people would still prefer to use the platform as protection, with their escrow-like payment service.
There is no protection against fraud on Freelancer. If a buyer issues a charge back on his credit card after the project is paid and delivered, you are screwed. Freelancer declines any responsibility for cases like that.
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#39I 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?
I worked for a medium-size web agency who used a third-party marketing company. That marketing company cold-called companies on their database, kept track of things like when they last had their website rebuilt, what technology they used, the features, the name of the decision-maker or person responsible for procurement, etc.
I believe the marketing company were on retainer by a number of web agencies, and when they found a lead, they referred it to the most appropriate agency (for a percentage commission) - the agency then continued the sales process (e.g. with a pitch, an RFP response, etc).
I suspect there are a few reasons this model worked:
* The marketing company maintained their database over the long term, so they could discuss previous developments, plans the customer was making, etc.
* Providing leads to a number of web agencies (rather than each agency having a small in-house telemarketing team) gave the marketing company a greater economy of scale, which meant they could afford to invest in tools and training that were specific to telemarketing.
* Providing leads to a number of web agencies allowed the marketing company to generate revenue (commission) from a more diverse set of needs, e.g. sharepoint projects to one agency, wordpress projects to a different agency, etc. If a small agency were doing their own telemarketing, their conversion rate would generally be lower, because they would end up missing out on potentials leads, from not having a particular specialisation.
Re: Why you should think twice about Freelancer.com
#40This is Rishi, and I am the Co-Founder at http://dreamlance.io/ We are starting Dreamlance, a curated marketplace for projects and professionals. Here are 3 ways how Dreamlance is different from all other “curated” marketplaces: 1. The Dreamlance Team actually vets each project that gets posted on our boards - We make sure the project description is complete - We make sure the project deliverables are crystal clear -…
it says "7.5% of the project cost. Payable by the project owner and the freelance professional" Does that mean that the freelancer and the project owner both pay 7.5% each?
Wow, that's a lot.