Freelancer Websites

Hey guys,

When you invest a little time trying to find a freelance job it really sucks, you do hard work by making profiles on all these freelancer sites, i tried elance, freelancer.com, guru.com . you set up you profile, pay the damn membership fee and apply for jobs.
At some point you recognize that nobody cares about your proposals, even if it is massive under market value.

Probably thats not true but how to get a job there?
It seems like these sites are a total scam or only those with highly rated profiles get the jobs.
So, in the end i will give up frustrated, payed aprox 100$ which probably would be better invested in a bootle of champagne.

Bottom line, how to get a job on a freelance site?
Should i cheat and rate myself or gtfo and get a real job?
Do you know any free freelance sites that are worth a registration?

reagrds,
mic

 

mic,

all of them you have mentioned are really good one, but membership is also too high.

at the initial point a service provider faces such kind of hurdles, sotry to get your first few job at any cost, offer too low...or what ever...try to get good feedback from your customers...then you'll get some reg customer in your list....and once you are set up you can sell you services with good fee plans.

 

I guess you just need to get your name out there...

 

the main concentration @ the initial stage should be

"GET MORE AND MORE JOB, deliver in time and offer the best services."

you may also offer 1-2 jobs free of cost to a BIG CLIENT (one who reg post jobs).

to gain a success @ freelance networks, one must posses a GIANT portfolio with good number of feedback/ratings.

 

When i started the these networks, then i have worked for 6 projects for just $10 each, and 'n' number of reviews.
then these clients will teach you how to deal with them...(i mean to say EXPERIENCE will), and also the quotation.

i have seen some good companies as well, working on these networks. Their key to success is
1) Good Customer Care
2) Good and Prompt Communications
3) They know good, what they say
4) Reasonable fees (as they believe in mass production not doing 1-2 projects and book good profits)
5) Stick to Deadlines

So if you have all in you, there is unlimited SKY waiting for you.

myself started as 1 man army show in 2002, and today i dragged that to a team of 37 professional and successfully running 3 companies.

my best wishes are always with you, if you still have any query you can ask me, i am having 9 year of exp.

 

what that "gtfo" means?

 

Are you in the states? I tried those sites and I think it's really mostly a waste of time, especially for software. First off, you're competing with a whole lot of foreigners who work really cheap. Most of them don't do good work, but it doesn't matter all that much because they're working for clueless Americans who weren't able to correctly specify what they want in the first place and can't accurately appraise how well a job was done. I've also outsourced to companies with a great reputation on elance and gotten horrible code in return.

If you're in the USA, I recommend contacting people on craigslist. Job postings are good for that because people will often post there when they're not sure what they're looking for. Networking with friends and family can do wonders too if you've got credentials to back yourself up.

 

get the f&!k out.

 

You might also consider odesk for freelance/contract work.

 

What I used before to hire contractors are odesk and peopleperhour. But I found odesk more helpful and satisfying

 

Maybe you are not skilled enouf or not very patient

Plus why to create/bid on alll

I only work on one Have 310 reviews and get constant work there is nothing of a scam about those sites ... but the start is hard you have to be patient and search and bid only on projects that intrest/can be done by you

And what fees all are free membership and when you get choosed for a project you can transform for exemple on freelancer in GD member to pay 3% not 10% of the bid ...

It took me 4 months to get my first project and that way back in 2004 when competition wasn't that hard like now ...