

Ask HN: Developers, how do you find high quality freelance work? - guynamedloren

A recent HN post got me thinking [1]...<p>Problem: Freelancer, elance, and similar sites appear to be crowded with foreign developers willing to work for next to nothing. In addition, many of the project listings on these sites come off as unprofessional and, at times, shady.<p>So how do capable, professional developers find serious freelance work? The problem becomes increasingly difficult with a small network and few industry contacts.<p>[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2540909
======
scottyallen
Have you actually tried bidding on jobs on these sites? Or have you just
looked around at the other bids, gotten discouraged, and given up? I put
myself through college as a freelance programmer and system administrator,
primarily finding new clients through rentacoder and scriptlance. When I shut
down the freelance work to join Google, I was charging $75/hour, and still
probably could have raised my rates further. I was making roughly $30k a year,
working part time during the school year, and mostly fulltime in the summer.

The key to making good money on these sites is differentiating yourself from
cheap offshore talent. Figure out why you're different from the guy halfway
around the world who is charging $5-10/hour, and show (not tell) the
prospective client that. Some ideas:

\- You're a native english speaker, and can communicate effectively.

\- You understand the problem the client is trying to solve.

\- You're in the same timezone, and can respond to questions quickly.

\- You have good understanding of the technology, and can design an
appropriate solution quickly.

You're not going to compete with these guys on price - you're going to compete
with them on quality and reduced risk that the project will be done correctly
and on time.

The best way to demonstrate all of this to a prospective client is to write
really good bids. Ask lots of questions to start with, as well as a summary of
your understanding of the problem, and how you might go about solving it.
Consider it a dialog, not a 2 sentence cut and paste marketing blurb.

Lastly, be picky about the projects you choose to bid on. Because you're going
to spend more time bidding on them, you can respond to fewer than the shotgun
approach some offshore companies take. That's ok - choose projects that look
like they care about getting it done right, and aren't necessarily just
looking for the cheap shortcut.

~~~
dmlevi
well said. I have hired on elance and I always hire "personal bids", the
developer or designer that takes the time to read about my vision. Offshore,
although cheaper, just mass bids to anything! Quite annoying for a non
developer

------
HedgeMage
My best work comes to me,either through word of mouth from satisfied clients,
or my reputation in the community.

When I was first starting out, I took a lot of so-so jobs. You only have to
have a couple really good clients to get word-of-mouth spreading among people
like them, then you can start to be more picky.

~~~
pacomerh
Same case here. If you find yourself looking into job boards all the time, you
probably need to satisfy more clients, because they will have to tell their
friends about the amazing job they got done. Happy clients and a good
portfolio equals the ability to be pickier.

------
dmlevi
Coming from a business standpoint and a non-developer, Elance has worked for
me. Although I prefer not to go offshore and to stay with in the U.S and give
back to our country, some developers are really too expensive. I have a
startup in Chicago and currently looking for a talented developer. If your
interested dmlevi [AT] gmail

------
amccloud
Funny that you ask this. I'm currently working on a solution to your question.
Feel free to contact me at andrew [at] amccloud.com

~~~
bartonfink
I'll be contacting you as well, fyi. I'm tired of clients working with me for
a couple of months, and then asking me to quit my day job to work full-time
for them.

