Freelance Sites are the Devil?
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- SteveJobs
Of course I'm talking about Elance, Guru, and the like. What are your experiences with them? I know the genereal consensus on here about how you're doing your fellow designers/developers a disservice by working for what I'm guessing is generally a very low fee. But what about in terms of leads? Are the sites useful in that respect? I've considered partnering with a designer to form a micro agency, but I honestly don't know where the leads come from.
- jamble0
Not worth it if you want to work for more than $6/hr. Utter junk leads and so much low grade/cost competition.
- moldero0
yup tried a few in the past, but never lowered myself to those low rates. might be good for students or something though, fuck that jaz, im almost 40
- fyoucher10
Yeh, those are the last places you should look for work.
Network. Especially on LinkedIn, seriously. Folks contact me all the time on there (Two of my larger clients, Yahoo and Discovery Channel, contacted me through there). It's an easy way to keep in touch as well. At the time time, I put a lot of work into using it too (I update it all the time, keep in touch with existing contacts, bookmark folks I'll want to get in contact with in the future, etc). A lot of ad agency folks are on there too. Just do a title search and try and connect with specific people at companies....then do your pitch.
- <ThiswoodyBatts
- LinkedIn is quite possible the best business research tool out there.Continuity
- yupgoldieboy
- woodyBatts0
Elance, Guru, etc should be your lowest level (Hell) of hustle. Though believe me little jobs can lead to bigger...just not all of the time.
- sofakingbanned0
nice, Ive had luck with LinkedIn too. i only experienced people contacting me though... how receptive are people when you contact them out of nowhere?
- Continuity0
I'm curious, for all of you finding success with LinkedIn; are these client connections in your local market, or from farther afield? What sort of groups do you participate in? How do people find you, just an organic search or something else?
- Hombre_Lobo0
they're awful.
Bidding wars for the work result in $6 an hour rates, like moldero said.
then on top of that the bidding wars mean they clients choose the cheapest offer, naturally being some ham fisted monkey charging $2 an hour who has no idea bout good design. Doesnt really help the industry.
- ukit0
Don't listen to these people, you can make tons of money, just bid on the $6 job and subcontract out for $3.
- ha genius! bet the design is cutting edge too!Hombre_Lobo
- fyoucher10
For me, folks contact me from all across the US. They find me because I'm a part of their network somehow (typically because I'm connected through one of their connections, or one of their connections connections, or am a part of a group). Or, they did a search and found me (this is where putting time into your profile pays off).
If you contact them out of nowhere, just make sure the reason why you want to connect with them is relevant for what they do, that they may have a need for your service -- making it beneficial for them to connect as well.
- SteveJobs0
$6 an hour? seriously? haha, i thought they would be lowballing for like 40-50 an hour. 6???? seriously?
- jtb260
yeah - i took a glance last month and decided to GTFO before my head exploded, the budgets are ridiculousness.
$100 or less for logo design...
Vomit
- ethanfink0
solvant?
- Beeswax0
Not really. I'm a freelance designer and I usually need help with programming. I'm thinking about posting to those sites in the near future for outsourcing some of the load that I have.
- remember if you pay little, your gonna get some poor code.Hombre_Lobo
- woodyBatts0
@beeswax cover your a** I would get 2 coders. I have gone through two situations where I paid 50% to programmers and they took off with the loot after completing very little of the project. Unfortunately I made the same mistake twice :(
- SteveJobs0
Anyone ever HIRE someone from elance? Maybe for marketing or finding leads for your freelance work?
- nocomply0
Just had a client go through one of those find-a-freelancer kind of websites because he couldn't afford my fees at the time. He paid around 1/4 of what I would have charged him and got utter shite for it.
As a customer you get what you pay for with those places. And as an avenue for potential freelance business, I would never even consider it.
- Ancillary0
Sorry to piss off all you serious designers, but I got my iPad game designed through one of these sites because I needed it done quickly and cheaply. Dude in Guatemala smashed it out in three days, awesome designs and illustrations and it's going live on the app store in a couple of months. He's happy, I'm happy, everyone's happy!
- nocomply0
To expand on my comments a bit...
Those websites are just a crap-shoot in my opinion. Sometimes you really do get good results from talented people like Ancillary said. I've seen that happen before.
But other times (seems to me like *most* of the time) the results are just sub-par.
I wouldn't look on those sites to hire anyone unless I was desperate.
And as for getting business, I prefer to work my contacts and get referrals via word-of-mouth. People who come to me that way are predisposed to trust me and usually local, which means that we can meet in person to ensure that the project goes more smoothly.