"Budget: $750 - $1,000"
Too bad. I would have done it for $749.
"Website like Amazon"
51–60 of 97 posts
Re: "Website like Amazon"
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Education can also be dangerous in the hands of a potential client. I've had to explain to clients why they were paying what they were paying for a website when one of the owners of the company pipped up saying "But it's just a bunch of HTML, I could do that, so why are you charging us so much?" In this situation, you really want to say "then go do it yourself if it's so easy", but that's not the best way to put it.…
But it's just a bunch of HTML, I could do that It sounds like you might have the wrong kind of client. I can only recommend reading this great piece by fellow HNer patio11: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/09/21/ramit-sethi-and-patrick-... It's full of gems such as: The general thing that people find both in pricing products and in pricing services is that at the low end of the scale you deal with people who perceive le…
That particular client was from my earlier college days of starting out in freelancing. They didn't give me any real issues after that point, but yes, they were not the ideal client to what I would want now :)
Patio11 also has some great articles, so I have to agree with your link.
Re: "Website like Amazon"
#53Elance/oDesk gets ridiculous - but I've heard stories of the Digg prototype being the product of oDesk freelancers and a couple thousand dollars. Never have found proof/merit to this but I still wonder... anyone know?
The Digg prototype was the product of a single freelancer and two hundred dollars.
If I remember an episode of diggnation correctly Rose paid $10 per hour, though this is probably wrong. 20 hours is doable for a prototype of the first version of digg.
Re: "Website like Amazon"
#54What's truly scary about this is the fact that it's attracting serious bidders.
These are not serious bidders. They are robo-applications or blindly copy/pasted applications by cut-rate shops that are mind-numbingly bad at development.
Elance and sites like it are crazy uncharted territory for me.
Are there really folks who run bots to scrape Elance, put in a bid for the minimum budget price (someone did bid $750, according to the min/max spread on there), and hope they get picked?
What happens when they do get picked, and they just agreed to build Amazon for $750? At that point I guess $750 is just so low an amount that neither party really cares to fight over it when the "developer" can't deliver?
Re: "Website like Amazon"
#55I'll throw out another idea--maybe this is a honeypot for bots making automated responses to every proposal.
Good point. It seems like there is a variation on Poe's Law here, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
It works as a honeypot either way.
On a more practical note, Derek Siver's advice at [1] to ask bidders to post a "magic phrase" of some sort has worked really well for me. I literally just select a couple of random words from /usr/share/dict/words and add something like:
To prove that you have actually read this listing, please include the words 'FOOLHARDY PARADIGM' somewhere in your response. Any bid that does not include these words will be ignored.
Re: "Website like Amazon"
#56I think this highlights the interesting lack of fundamental understanding by the general public about software and how complex and expensive it is. Intuitively people understand things like cars and laptops are expensive, time consuming and difficult to build requiring complex tools and machinery. This is not the case with software, where we see time and time again requests like "same as Facebook..." or "Same as Amaz…
Design has always existed in this sort of gray area, especially with the introduction of Photoshop and desktop computers. Many people think graphic design is as simple as selecting a font and picking some colors to go with it. I doubt software/web development will ever get past the same hurdle in the minds of the general public.
I think there's this conceit floating around, perhaps, that the web is supposed to be some kind of overunity money engine for which the laws of supply and demand need not apply. Photoshop, SaaS sites like Wix and Business Catalyst, and freelance sites like elance, play a bit part in fostering the idea that what we do (at any level) isn't necessarily work, and seem to cater at various degrees to the desire to outsource or eliminate developers altogether while still gaining all the fruits of the development.
After all, freelance sites like elance exist based on the premise that developers will claw over one another to underbid for a project, and they will. Just try to win a contract there charging more than twenty dollars an hour. It's absurd what rates people (on both sides of the table) will accept just to get any business done at all. It's terrible, and unjust, but on the other hand enough of us are willing to participate in a system stacked against our own interests that we prove its efficacy to business owners, because we need the work.
Re: "Website like Amazon"
#57Actually, he wants more than Amazon for $750 to $1000 "I want all amazons catergories plus #1. Freelance Jobs ( just like fiverr ) #2. Auctions ( ebay catergories ) #3. classifieds ( Craigslist catergories without Personals) need to be able to charge or make free for listings #4. Forums "
I wonder how many orders of magnitude more money it would take to build something like that and how long would it take...
Re: "Website like Amazon"
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
These are not serious bidders. They are robo-applications or blindly copy/pasted applications by cut-rate shops that are mind-numbingly bad at development.
Elance and sites like it are crazy uncharted territory for me. Are there really folks who run bots to scrape Elance, put in a bid for the minimum budget price (someone did bid $750, according to the min/max spread on there), and hope they get picked? What happens when they do get picked, and they just agreed to build Amazon for $750? At that point I guess $750 is just so low an amount that neither party really cares…
I too want to know what happens here, I've been working as a web developer for over a year now and am just now confident in my abilities to want to do some freelance, and all I see are these horrible responses all over sites like these.
Re: "Website like Amazon"
#59Re: "Website like Amazon"
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
These are not serious bidders. They are robo-applications or blindly copy/pasted applications by cut-rate shops that are mind-numbingly bad at development.
Elance and sites like it are crazy uncharted territory for me. Are there really folks who run bots to scrape Elance, put in a bid for the minimum budget price (someone did bid $750, according to the min/max spread on there), and hope they get picked? What happens when they do get picked, and they just agreed to build Amazon for $750? At that point I guess $750 is just so low an amount that neither party really cares…
It's very difficult to get work there, but it is possible, and easier if you don't fall into the trap of trying to game the system (treating proposals like actual proposals will help you stand out more.) Don't bother with their BS about "verifying your identity" either.
But yeah, if you can get real work then run far far away. It is the proverbial shallow money trench where good developers die like dogs (only without money or that many good developers)