

Existing freelancing boards suck! Sign-up to support a better service. - gbratan
http://blog.outsourcing.io/what-were-doing

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tluyben2
I like this idea, I had it myself. I was even discussing this yesterday with a
friend of mine. Two years ago I even put together a prototype and started
experimenting with it.

Our conclusions? Yes, freelance sites suck. Do providers want something else?
Hell yeah! Do buyers want something else? Hell no! Simply put; being able to
first try to get your project done for $100 while you know the real price is
at least $20k+ is compelling apparently. I know companies who had stuff we
quoted for $50k done for $1k. And it didn't even suck too badly. Why? Because
there is SO much competition on those sites that 'newer' providers have to
compete on price to get anywhere. So you can get occasional solid work for
1/50th of the price. Especially if you know what to look for.

Then if it doesn't work you just go 5x that, doing it for $5k and most likely
you'll have your $50k project done nicely. Note that most companies under $10k
price point are willing to go no-cure-no-pay, meaning if it failed so far, you
didn't pay a cent yet.

If you get farther than this, yes a different method would be better, however,
most don't get to that online or they already have their preferred teams,
meaning this won't help them. I already know that if I pay a Ukraine team with
400 5 star projects $50k I WILL have high quality; why do I need these
moderators?

I'm not against this at all mind you; like I said, we thought about this
seriously ourselves but we just didn't see enough interest from companies.
Basically most companies on freelance sites who want to buy something still
suffer from that Elance-Digg-syndrome; pay very little for top-notch stuff.
And often you do get that.

Also for that $50k the site is worth, you can for instance put 6 teams for $5k
on it, having a quite high (from experience) chance of success in at least 1
or 2 of them and banking $20k 'profit'.

I wish you luck but it's a very much uphill battle!

~~~
gexla
You have too many generalizations in your post with no mention of the
countless variables which make a project a success or not. Dollar figures are
almost meaningless as this is just one small part of the whole picture.

One of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard regarding offering
development services is that the technical skills are easy to pick up, it's
the people skills which are difficult. It's the people skills that buyers are
willing to pay for if they have the budget. These cheap developers aren't able
to connect with the people skills, so they aren't able to break out of their
low cost offerings. Instead, they might work for a middle-man who handles the
client for a mint and hands off the work for cheap.

Also, if developers on Odesk racking up 5 star ratings are so great, then why
don't companies such as Github and 37Signals with mostly remote teams just go
snap up all the 5 star developers they can find on Odesk? The reason is that
there is a big gap between A-level developers and C-level developers and that
gap is measured in ROI. Dollar amounts mean nothing, ROI is the most important
number. A 5 star developer working cheaply on Odesk might get the job done
with passable code, but the A-level developer who isn't on Odesk (no need
because this person has no problem finding work) will deliver a much higher
ROI.

Sure, the A-level developer won't be a good fit for every situation (maybe you
really just need someone really cheap to get the job done ugly) but this
person doesn't have much competition.

As for the service from the OP goes, just get going. You never know until you
at least start the initial probing.

~~~
gbratan
Scoop: Contractors will not be quantified by 400 tasks each worth $5.

Contractors will be able to include their stackoverflow profile, github,
blogs, articles written, personal or paid projects, endorsements, along with
usual reviews. This provides a much better assessment on the type of person,
and yes, communication and people skills.

I've spoken with countless people complaining that they tried going with a
freelance and they gave up when the individual disappeared. This is the
problem we have to fix and I'm willing to bet there are enough buyers looking
to buy real service for their money.

