There’s a lot to be desired as a freelancer looking for short to medium term work. Many sites are crowded with junk, look and function horribly, provide little to no customer service, or have such a loose vetting process (looking at you, Craigslist) that you’d be hard pressed to find a worse waste of your time than using them.
What’s this all about then?
One less-discussed aspect to freelance work is job boards. I don’t mean which job boards to use, how to use them, or if they even work (I’m convinced they rarely work out for BOTH the client and the contractor).
Rather, this is regarding the structure of membership on job boards, and what particular business model seems to work more effectively.
I thought you had a job, what happened?
I am still a developer at IU, but I recently completed a few projects and had a bit of time free up for some side work, so I set out exploring the always interesting world of freelance web development.
To start, of course, I simply posted on my Facebook and Twitter accounts that I was available for work. I can’t hurt, right? And by the sheer numbers, there’s at least a small chance that someone on one of those networks either has some work, or knows of some work.
Result: Pending o_0
So social networking doesn’t work, what next?
Then I tried some freelance job boards. I’ll provide a list of the boards I signed up for at the end of this post, and after I have a bit more time working with them, I’ll post my general observations about them.
Free and Free
The first is elance. Very popular, but utterly full of junk. elance works by charging a commission, or finder’s fee, on the resulting transaction total. It’s free to post projects, and free to join and apply to work on projects. Sounds like a good deal, doesn’t it?
Not so fast.
Far too often, you get clients posting that they want 5+ years experience with everything under the sun, they’re developing some massive site that will be the “next big thing”, oh and by the way, they’re offering a handsome sum of about $500. And it’s on a Net 60 pay schedule. Ugh, no thanks.
On the flip side, you get designers and developers who are charing cut throat rates, undercutting everyone, and delivering horrible results. Way too many of them apply for way too many jobs with a copy/paste response about their Chinese* or Indian* “firm” that can create wonders. Few actually deliver.
* Note: This doesn’t mean only low quality contractors come from China or India. I’m just posting my direct observations.
Free and Paid
Now, moving on to a different model… FreelanceSwitch (FSw). How this works is that it’s free to post projects, but only paid members can view and apply for contractor positions for the projects. The cost is $7/month, a nominal fee, even if you get a single project out of it, in my opinion.
However, it, too, suffers from some major junk issues. While one would expect the quality level of the contractors to go up, it’s not guaranteed. The cost is high enough to drive out most spammers and junk contractors, but it’s low enough that it’s still worth it for a few to slip in.
Additionally, the quality of the projects posted, since it’s free, is abysmal. The “throw mud against a wall and see what sticks” mentality is pretty damn clear.
One of two things are common:
- 1) The project demands the sun and the moon and pays like crap, or
- 2) The project is crap and pays like crap.
Frequently, the same position posted on FSw is posted many other places online, and since there’s no cost, why not?
Paid and Free
There is a site that does the opposite of FSw in that they charge the client posting the project, and access to apply by the contractors is free. It’s called Authentic Jobs, and I have to say I haven’t spent much time there yet. I guess I’m not really desperate enough to force myself to try every single board out there. But I will be using it soon and writing a true review if warranted.
They do offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee to paying posters, and I have no idea what that’s for, or how good they are about honoring it, but I can tell you one thing… the rate of $250 for a full time position posting and $75 for a freelance position is guaranteed to make the poster think twice about their project and description.
There are the same issues at Authentic as FSw, but in reverse. You get a ton of replies to jobs. Some don’t reply with the correct information, some are obviously not qualified for the position, and some, well… who knows what some people are thinking.
That said, Authentic Jobs is a happening place, and many of my freelance acquaintances swear by them.
Paid and Paid
Now, here’s my ideal setup: Charge a relatively high fee for BOTH the client AND the contractor.
B-b-but, David, that’s just greedy! Possibly. But it solves a number of problems the other sites have, and if you make enough margin from charging both ends, you can afford to provide better service, better vetting, and better marketing to attract new clients and contractors.
I’ve yet to run across a site like that, but I encourage you to post in the comments if you’ve seen one. I’d love to give it a whirl and a thorough review.
Sites:
elance
FreelanceSwitch
Authentic Jobs
Oh, btw… if you’re looking for a developer, give me a ping!
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