
Ask HN: How to get freelance clients without Elance, oDesk, and the like? - krrishd
I&#x27;m going to have my summer vacation from school very soon, and I&#x27;m hoping to make some money freelancing.<p>I&#x27;ve used Elance in the past and it has worked, but I don&#x27;t want to have to filter through postings determining the legitimacy of various jobs.<p>I know the best way is through one&#x27;s personal connections and network, but I&#x27;m looking for an online platform with quality jobs.<p>Thanks!
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tptacek
The conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't.

The single largest barrier to entry for lucrative freelance contracts is
ability to sell, and the second largest barrier is development of a
reputation. Sites like oDesk remove both barriers, by standardizing and
transactionalizing projects and by relying on a superficial reputation system.

The result is a race-to-the-bottom competition that will slash your rates and
pit you against gamesmanship from suppliers that can't even deliver
competently, but against which you'll have a hard time differentiating.

If you're considering freelancing over your summer vacation, you have more
flexibility than almost all other freelancers. You should exploit that by
developing your sales ability and your reputation, which will pay off
_handsomely_ when you leave school and it comes time to collect and negotiate
offers.

One (of many) ways to do this:

1\. Start writing articles (for your blog, but don't call it a blog). Start
with your preferred technology stack and gradually branch out. Write case-
study style about solving actual problems with Node or Angular or Rails or PHP
or whatever it is you work best in. Work in specific languages with specific
example, but make the focus of your articles _solving actual problems_ and
_how you set about the process of generating those solutions_.

2\. Circulate articles on HN and Twitter; participate in related discussions.

3\. Make it clear, constantly and regularly, that you're available for
projects that are similar to what you've written about.

4\. Optionally, build a "Github Resume" of the code that forms the basis of
those articles, and link to it.

5\. Start asking friends and acquaintances if they know people who have
problems that could be solved well with software development; be forward once
you find prospective clients, and, after establishing bona fides (for
instance, suggest a 15 minute conversation about their problems and _actually
provide free advice_ ), follow up by _asking for the sale_ ; you have nothing
to lose --- "no" is a perfectly fine answer.

You'll do better long term executing this plan than you will on oDesk.

~~~
krrishd
Thanks for the advice! One question I still have- I'm sure that the tips
you've shared will work in the long-term and pay off far more than making a
quick buck, but any ideas how I could find good projects/jobs from people
outside of my personal network?

~~~
tptacek
My advice would be to drastically grow your personal network by getting
yourself out there and engaging with the broader community.

------
ceeK
I was in a similar situation thinking how to obtain freelance contracts. I now
have plenty of work, and it boils down to my reputation and portfolio.

If you haven't got a portfolio, I'd build one. Even a simple application in
your target domain. Ideally, make the application for someone else so that you
can obtain a reference. I did this by severely cutting my rates and offering a
cannot-be-refused scenario to HN, I'd build your iOS app for $200 [1]. Some
people may say this isn't correct to start out by gimping yourself, but it
worked for me. I got around 15 offers from that post, and took up two clients.
The first I completed in a week or so, the next took me a bit longer, but the
client then went on to become a staple and was paying standard rates (I
charged £20 an hour).

From these applications, it became much easier to sell myself to clients and
demand a higher fee. Now I practically have clients when I actively want them
(the freelancer HN post is a good resource here). My rate is still £20/hr,
which is fairly low by some people's standards, but I'm comfortable with it as
it allowed me to live a comfortable life whilst finishing my University
degree.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6382405](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6382405)

------
Im_Talking
"but I'm looking for an online platform with quality jobs.".

You should probably change this view because the good ol' world just does not
operate like this.

~~~
krrishd
Upon examining the options, looks like you're right. Although I did manage to
find [http://betatype.io](http://betatype.io), which seems interesting.

------
Mankhool
I think that "Offer HN" is a great way to get clients. It's how I found my
first Dev (who is on this page!) to help me create an app that was better than
anything I could have imagined - and I mean that literally because I imagined
and designed X and he re-imagined and created X to the 10th power.

FWIW I have looked at eLance and oDesk and the like on more than one occasion
and I find the process very tedious. I would much rather go to my Community
first (HN, Reddit etc.) because it is, to me, more genuine.

------
wikwocket
The only "online platform with quality jobs" that I know of is StackOverflow
Careers. :)

Sadly, anonymous online marketplaces are not the way to get decent-paying,
non-crazy people to hire you for software gigs. I know some people have
success with Elance or Craigslist, but I recommend looking at your personal
network again.

The trick is not to ask people, "Need any software?" No one will ever say yes
to this: no one needs "software." They have enough "software" and they hate
the software they have. What they need is solutions to problems they may not
even know they have.

What works better is watching people work, or asking them about their work.
You can use the pretense of wanting to learn how they use software, or
whatever. Just watch them work, and look for pain points, bottlenecks, manual-
but-automatable steps, etc. Dig a little deeper to understand the problem as
they do. Explore ways to address it with software. Offer to build a mockup/do
a demo/write up a proposal (1 page description of what you could do and how it
would help) and walk through it with your friend's boss.

To borrow a patio11-ism, this is the "Find an Excel workbook that someone
edits and emails to someone else; then replace it with software" approach to
finding freelance opportunities. And it's an approach I've stumbled into as
well.

My personal testimonial to this approach is that my first freelance
opportunity accidentally grew out of helping my mother with some work. I wrote
a Java app that did some web searches for her and parsed/saved some numbers.
Very crude app, yet it saved her hours a day. Then her boss heard about it. 10
years later, that app has grown into a suite of applications that launched my
consulting business, earned me probably $50-80k over the years, and has easily
made my mother's company millions of dollars.

------
adamevers
+1 for the "Offer HN" idea.

What types of projects are you looking for? Having a clear idea of what types
of projects you're willing / able to handle will help determine which jobs or
contracts you're able to complete.

