

Ask HN: Recommend a freelance job board - speric

Can anyone recommend some good freelance job boards that are not eLance/oDesk etc.?
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ryanwaggoner
I've been doing contract work for three years; 95% of my work has come from
Craigslist or from referrals from people who I connected with through
Craigslist. You have to wade through an incredible amount of junk, but the
volume on CL can't be touched anywhere else, and there _is_ good stuff in
there. I look in computer gigs and I also periodically post an abridged
version of my resume in the resume section.

Other places I've found stuff include Dice.com, 37signals Gigs Board,
Freelance Switch, and AuthenticJobs.

I get a lot of recruiters for contract jobs contacting me through Dice, my
resume post on CL, and my blog. That might not be the kind of thing you're
looking for, but it doesn't hurt.

~~~
garply
Can you give a rough percentage of people who respond to you from CL?

I've only recently started hunting for gigs via CL. I've picked 3 and
responded (I took time to write what I thought was a good, carefully-worded
response) within 24 hours or so but no one's responded back. I know sales is
all about volume, I'm just trying to get an idea of what to expect.

~~~
lsc
3 to 1 sounds about right for initial responses, assuming you pick jobs that
you are obviously qualified for. this goes up and down, obviously, depending
on how qualified you appear to be for the position you are responding to.

Once you get the initial response, there's still a pretty good chance of the
gig falling through for whatever reason. Contracting is rough this way, really
no matter where you get your clients.

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natgordon
This was from an another HN thread (HN Contractors) -
[https://spreadsheets2.google.com/ccc?key=tk7rUIb-2aPdk_5gFJE...](https://spreadsheets2.google.com/ccc?key=tk7rUIb-2aPdk_5gFJEodCA&hl=en#gid=0)

I've been contacted for work through it.

~~~
olalonde
Why was this down voted?

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pmjordan
I got most of my contract work via networking in the local tech scene using
twitter and going to a couple of events, and just generally jumping at random
opportunities. Replying to local people who are urgently looking for a small
job to be done is by far the easiest route to get yourself out there. Once you
gain a reputation of being good at what you do, people will start referring
you work.

For what it's worth, I'm fairly introverted, and talking to random people
isn't all that easy for me, yet I seem to have managed just fine[1]. All I did
was talk to people what they were working on, what I did, and random techy
banter. The idea is to make people remember you when they need stuff done, not
sell yourself right there and then. This probably only works for techy
customers, if you're designing web sites for random businesses you might want
to use a different strategy.

[1] I'm offered far more work than I could possibly accept 2 1/2 years later,
rates increasing steadily, and I don't even have a website.

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olalonde
IMHO, the problem with oDesk and most freelance job boards is that they are
lemon markets[1] and are therefore disadvantageous to good programmers. If we
take the analogy from the used car market explained in Wikipedia and adapt it
to the freelance programming market:

[...] the problem of quality uncertainty. It concludes that _good programmers_
will not _offer_ their _service_ on the _freelance_ market. This is sometimes
summarized as "the bad driving out the good" in the market.

That being said, I would suggest you contact companies directly to offer your
services or look for _specialized_ job boards where buyers know exactly what
they are looking for.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons>

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poet
Are you near a college with a decent CS department? Go there. Seriously. In no
other place is there such a high concentration of talented individuals who are
willing to work for bargin rates. Put up some flyers, get an announcement in
the departmental newsletter, and buy candidates a cup of coffee once you get a
good set of potentials. Of course, there is an upper bound on the
talent/quality you are going to find. But depending on the type of work you
need done it could work out great.

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jefffoster
A few years ago I used rentacoder.com (now known as vworker.com) and made
about $10K in 3 months. I made the majority of the money from doing a good job
on something (generally at a very low price) and then getting repeat business
from outside the bidding system.

Most fun project was writing some software that showed prospective patients
what their teeth would look like after having their teeth bleached!

~~~
karatchov
I have been using RAC sporadically for 2 years now, but didnt even manage to
make the tenth of that number ! Do you have a suggestion/advice on how to
boost my business ?

~~~
gtdminh
RAC is very competitive, i suggest you move to elance or odesk or guru, where
you can get decent paid projects. And portfolio is a must to win the bids
there. i am in odesk for 3 yrs and now work as long term contractor for a US
firm in Chino, CA. All thru odesk. i dont have enough patience with elance, it
is overly more competitive

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coderholic
I created this little site that aggregates around 10 fairly decent freelance
job boards: <http://jobs.plasis.co.uk>

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oomkiller
Avoid them all, you will only find pain in that strategy, kind of like 6 pool.
Focus on building your network of contacts, they will be the source of most of
your work, mainly through word of mouth and referrals.

~~~
gtdminh
i agree, network is really important.

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sahillavingia
Sorry if this isn't helpful, but the direct approach has always worked for me
(and job boards not so much). I try to contact people I'd like to work with on
IRC, Skype, or just through email.

I include a few links and that has worked alright for me.

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Grantmd
Authentic Jobs has design/development freelance listings:
<http://www.authenticjobs.com>

~~~
flacon
+1 for Authentic Jobs. The jobs are generally high quality but it can be quite
competitive to get selected since so many people are watching this job board
very closely.

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slater
Craigslist? _ducks_

~~~
brianlash
Shit, I'm sorry. I meant to vote Craigslist up but instead gave your comment
the fat-fingered iPad treatment.

~~~
bigsassy
Well I wasn't going to vote up or down, so consider my up vote a fix for your
down vote.

~~~
bigsassy
Wait, seriously? Down votes for this? I don't get you sometimes, HN.

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jobmatchbox
If you are anywhere near Washington, DC check out
<http://www.socialmatchbox.com>. There are not a crushing number of freelance
jobs there, but there are some good ones with startups, consulting companies,
and interactive agencies.

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stcorbett
I started using this strategy yesterday: <http://sivers.org/how2hire>

From the CD Baby guy. It's pretty straightforward and so far I'm getting
decent responses.

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bearwithclaws
I've had success with this one: <http://jobs.freelanceswitch.com/>

It works the other way around. Job listing is free; job seeker has to pay.

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reinhardt
Speaking of job boards, are there any with non-trivial number of
remote/telecommuting gigs or permanent positions ? The ones mentioned here
have few if any such jobs.

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gefresh
Try oDesk. I've hired a bunch of help from there. Its been hit or miss but
I've found a few real gems who I now hire regularly.

------
hess
scriptlance.com

