Freelancing and Freelancer Jobs between 2001 and 2008 on Rent-a-Coder

Based on the numbers available on the still public jobs we could create a realistic picture of the sofware creation market. We can safely presume that this numbers - at a smaller scale - reflect the trends in the market. Also we can safely estimate the number of successful Freelancers (at least in percentage). The numbers are very interesting - at least because of the clear trends that are shown and also because it clearly raises a flag for both buyer and freelancer. Most freelancers do not even get to their first job. They create accounts, bid on jobs, but never land one successful job. Rent-a-coder has in Marc 2009 approx 35.000 coders that won at least one job won, and has the whopping number of 244667 registered coders!!! wow.. so at less then 15% (!!!) get to win a job!
Also We can clearly see that most successuful Freelancers land under 10 jobs per year and more then 80% of this "successfull" freelancers make less then 1000$ per year. Only as little as 0.5 - 1% of the winning Freelancers make more then 5000$ per year! I know we do not have the private jobs and all the bonuses one freelancer makes in this table. but even if we suppose them at double of the visible income this is not an income that can be sufficient for most of them. And do have in mind that 85 % of freelancers DO NOT EVEN GET a winning bid. Also We can clearly see that most successuful Freelancers land under 10 jobs per year and more then 80% of this "successfull" freelancers make less then 1000$ per year. Only as little as 0.5 - 1% of the winning Freelancers make more then 5000$ per year! I know we do not have the private jobs and all the bonuses one freelancer makes in this table. but even if we suppose them at double of the visible income this is not an income that can be sufficient for most of them. And do have in mind that 85 % of freelancers DO NOT EVEN GET a winning bid.

Of course there are a lot of successfull developers, but they rise from a mass of over 240.000 people. amaizing.
In the next table we can see the evolution of income and number of jobs in Rent-a-Coder for the last 8 years. Do have in mind that this figures DO NOT include: bonuses that buyers may pay the freelancers and NO private auctions (and i assume that most private auctions are high value). So we can safely presume that more realistic figures would be around twice the grossed sums in the table. But the statistic distribution of the sums and number of jobs should be proportonal tho these numbers.
Also all programming language specific statistics are not 100% accurate in absolute amounts, but as a trend and as an order of magnitude these are quite accurate. Most of these trends do correlate with real events (like for instance the Mambo - Joomla Fork back in 2005).
We can see analysing the following table that a large number of posted auctions go without a winner. Most of them are cancelled by the initiator or get to expiration without a chosen winner. This is good to know when you bid on some auctions and you do not get results. Advice: keep trying!

http://softmarket.ro/newsflash/softmarket-analysis-freelancing-and-freelancer-jobs-between-2001-and-2008.html





We also take a look on specific Programming languages and Frameworks.

 

great thread...

 

This is really interesting. Thank you so much for this information.

 

Well, everyone suggest to register at SL, RAC, GAF, to earn money.
But what comes after thousands of bids?
Well, we hardly won any bids.
The problem here too is same.
Number of jobs are less than number of applicants.
We need a more managable way to earn money by freelancing.
The newones hardly earn any money due to lack of feedbacks.
Well, a portfolio will make their chances a bit more.
Freelancing forum is more preferable for me rather than a script like SL, RAC, GAF e.t.c

 

Yes, you can see the ratio Canceled to Finalized. i was amazed too.. and that is not just one year, it seems that is always the case.
What is also amazing is how low the average winning bid is - around 150$ .. that means that there are a lot of small jobs that are put on market. Big jobs are commissioned somewhere else

 

Interesting read. I have been a member of a handful of sites for years and have just never followed through. Judging from this chart, it looks as if I may have missed my window of opportunity.

It IS just me. So, overhead is to a minimum. I would like to make a living freelancing if I could stagger a handful of project and make it into a stream of income.

I will definitely flesh out my user accounts before the month is out and see what the spring brings me on alternate freelancing sites.

 

In the main article we take a look at the technologies and programming languages that seem to be on the trendwave, maybe you should have a look if one of them fists your expertise. for instance Action Script seems to be on a very good trend

 

Is there any data regarding the effect of the global economic crisis on freelancing or RAC jobs?