So who here Freelances?

So uh ya, just wondering.

Any of you guys do freelance programming or anything of the sort via one of those freelance sites?

I used to try to via Freelancer.com. Man what a crap-shoot. That place blows. First of all, you have 2 million Indians working for $3 an hour it's like how do you compete? Then when you actually make your $2.50/hour (to win the job ), Freelancer then takes a good portion.

I just started with elance.com. I made $110 today (wordpress clone & custom scraper). While that amount isn't gonna make me rich, I feel it's a good start and a nice break from my hit-and-miss internet marketing. They take a percentage of your money like everyone else but I find it extremely easy to obtain jobs vs freelancer.com. On Freelancer, I'd bid on like 20 jobs and get one. Today I bid on two and got them both .

I've tried two other sites along the way but I can't remember them.

I am really liking Elance though. Each client has paid up and 2/4 so far have given me repeat work.
Fuck Freelancer.com, Period.


I'm always looking for a way to make a lil more so I figured I'd post this.

If you freelance via a site like Freelancer or Elance, which site you use and what do you think the pros/cons are and how's the money?

Freelancer Pros: None.
Freelancer Cons: They don't care about the freelancers... Only their bottom line - $$$

Elance Pros: Much less bloated compared to Freelancer. No annoying self-promotion. Can actually get jobs that pay the bills.
Elance Cons: I'm unhappy that you have a limited amount of bids each month - "Connects". Some jobs take 1 "Connect" while others take 4. I know I read why somewhere but I can't find it again. It seems all freelance type sites do this sort of thing however.

Elance is decent enough to make some money on the side, but the workflow is by no means steady, at least not in my 'niche' (I'm a translator). The best thing about it is the possibility to get long term direct clients to work with outside Elance.

There's also oDesk, which is almost like a sister site of Elance. Actually, I prefer oDesk's UI over Elance's, but Elance offers some sort of mediation + escrow for fixed price jobs whereas oDesk does not (hence, a greater risk of getting scammed). Anyway, both sites are decent for what they do, but I don't see myself ever being able to live off my Elance/oDesk earnings.

Congrats on your earnings!

I agree with Derpinard, there is really not much of a future with Elance and oDesk. You are better off marketing your services directly to the consumer. If you are a programmer or designer then make a kickass website and put some sampl sites in the portfolio section, then simply start cold calling, mailing or emailing for clients. Eventually someone will bite and you will learn a lot in the process. Those freelancer sites are for shit, though. Craigslist is pretty much your best bet for leads, but even then you are competing against thousands and nobody wants to pay a real wage.

Welcome to the suck, you are an IM jarhead.

I use Odesk (haven't tried other sites). I like odesk because i get paid weekly if i was hired on a per hour basis and they automatically bill employers credit card after the work week ends. Employers are required to provide payment method when they initially post a new job. They bill the employers weekly on the number of hours you worked for the week. Different story though on a project basis where employers has an option to pay you only when the project is done.

I own 20 websites.
For lack of help from what were supposedly my partners, I dropped 14. Ya, I'm picky.
I'm also working on creating a Clickbank product.

It's just I have a kid on the way within a month so I decided to freelance some more since my existing 6 sites still need to rank and my CB product is still under development.

I really don't want to freelance forever. You're right about these sites. So is Derpinard. There's not a great future in them. For me to get 2/2 jobs today and over $100, is rare in my experience. I just really neeeeeeeed some cash right now cuz some of my projects need some cash to get them going & then my daughter on her way. Man talk about stressed . Just so we're clear here though, I can't wait to meet her . I'm just kind of freaking out cuz I simply don't have enough cash so I'm trying to freelance cuz it's quick before she arrives.

Tensegrity said:

Congrats on your earnings!

I agree with Derpinard, there is really not much of a future with Elance and oDesk. You are better off marketing your services directly to the consumer. If you are a programmer or designer then make a kickass website and put some sampl sites in the portfolio section, then simply start cold calling, mailing or emailing for clients. Eventually someone will bite and you will learn a lot in the process. Those freelancer sites are for shit, though. Craigslist is pretty much your best bet for leads, but even then you are competing against thousands and nobody wants to pay a real wage.

Welcome to the suck, you are an IM jarhead.

Click to expand...

Content writing on Elance is what got me started in IM oddly enough . Plenty of repeat work clients on there, that's the way I was working anyways.

It's a good site, but like any other freelancer site they shave a little too much off the top.

- A

Wow congrats again on the kid! High stress can actually lead to great things, in my experience anyway. So she's at the beginning of the year, huh? She'll forever be symbolic of new beginnings.

I could go either way with Clickbank. It's either a good way to get exposure and handle conversion analytics, or a great way to get a ton of bad affiliates hocking your stuff. Affiliates are just trying to make money and if you don't know them then you might get some bad marketing. Some good advice given to me has been to provide your affiliates with everything they need to keep a unified concept for your brand going on. I think Clickbank has a 'manual approval' feature so you can really cherry pick (being so picky!).

Thanks. Right on about the stress. Without it, I'm not motivated to do anything .
And as for new things. She is. Life's changed so much over this past year, mostly inside my head; my way of looking at things/living. I don't need to get into that though. But ya, Very happy to be having her.

As for Clickbank, my first product is kind of uh I don't know what you'd call it. I mean I know what the product is obviously but the best way to put it is, if I can get $1000 over it's entire life-span, I'm happy. I haven't needed to put too much work into it. It's kind of a quick fire mostly to gauge people's reactions to my concept. I'm leaning more on quickness here then high quality. It's a piece of software and it does what it claims but it's not too fancy looking . If it goes well (even a few sells), then I'll create a second version, under a different name, and re-brand it. I mostly just pick at the current version when I have nothing else to do. As for the unified concept, I planned on doing that. I used to promote CB products and hated nothing more than the product creator not having any banners/emails/etc. If I did even bother to promote it, I'd just spam the death out of it to Facebook and Youtube cuz I didn't feel like creating the banners myself .

Tensegrity said:

Wow congrats again on the kid! High stress can actually lead to great things, in my experience anyway. So she's at the beginning of the year, huh? She'll forever be symbolic of new beginnings.

I could go either way with Clickbank. It's either a good way to get exposure and handle conversion analytics, or a great way to get a ton of bad affiliates hocking your stuff. Affiliates are just trying to make money and if you don't know them then you might get some bad marketing. Some good advice given to me has been to provide your affiliates with everything they need to keep a unified concept for your brand going on. I think Clickbank has a 'manual approval' feature so you can really cherry pick (being so picky!).

Click to expand...

Anyway, this thread isn't making it too far. The responses thus far seem to lean on Elance and oDesk. I suppose I'll give oDesk a shot here when I get some time.

Fiverr, Elance, and Odesk all are Good But they are Better to use as Extra Income Sources. I Prefer Own Service Site's SEO for Better Customers.

Freelancer, Elance, Odesk and many other freelance sites are good at the beginning when you started to provide some cool services but in the long run, it's not preferable. Start with your own site and explore your services with great idea.

I am a freelancer and I've got some experience with few freelancing sites. What is most important about this sites is the fee you have to pay to the site and the traffic they get. That's why I think that SEOClerks is the best option, they take small fees and have thousands of active daily users.

The only think not good about these sites is that people do not look for quality but the how low can you provide a certain service. Lot of price cutting which is discouraging.

I started out Freelancer and ODesk.Now it's Elance. I only hire now though but Elance has been a better experience.