Which outsourcing sites do you use for different projects?

I've been spending more money lately posting jobs on ScriptLance, ELance, and Rent-A-Coder and I've noticed a big difference in both the bidders and the quality of the work sourced from each. Here's my observations so far based on a few writing and coding projects:

ELance appears to be mostly higher priced, American and UK-based companies. Lots of professionals that do top-notch work at premium prices.

ScriptLance runs the gambit from crappy, barely-legible writers, to freelancers with good writing and research skills - I've only used it for writing projects so far and have gotten some good people at some good rates.

Rent-A-Coder has sucked for finding writers, but I've gotten some decent coders at good prices there.

One nearly universal thing I've discovered is that even the crappy 'lancers often have good ratings, so make sure you can verify some sort of previous work if you're going to be spending more than a couple hundred dollars. Another key I've found is to search past projects for good 'lancers and invite them to bid on your project instead of just sitting on your thumbs.

What are your experiences with these services and their respective value? Any I've left out?

 

I've only tried these services once, recently posted a job on scriptlance, picked a winner and everything seemed to be going well until the programmer vanished into thin air. Still waiting to see it PayPal refunds my money.

 

Ouch, had that happen before. Was a $200 lesson to make use of their escrow services. IMO PayPal's dispute process is a farce - but that's fodder for another thread.. Also a good reason to stick with bidders with a good history (10+ reviews)

 

I use RAC for some projects that my development team do not have skills in or do not have the time to do.

I am happy with it, and I have hired both coders, designers and writers.

//Andreas

 

We have few clients those usually come from these freelancer sites with incomplete project for web designing/web development and SEO, what I have observed most of them have problem in getting contact with particular freelancer, few of them pointed out that they dont get regular update about their project in time or their project has been left incomplete.

 

www . contractedwork(s) . com
www . guru . com

 

The only one I've used has been Getafreelancer and in all honesty the results were less than poor.

Despite some of the 'lancers having a great ranking, being fluent in their proposals and having good references and samples, the work turned in was a disgrace. My son could have written better, and he's only 1 year old.

I'm not wanting to tar all GAF's freelancers with the same brush, but I strongly suspect that those who tendered for my projects in turn contracted the jobs out to other, less qualified people.

We live and learn...

 

I would steer clear of those places, too many cowboys on there. Better to make your own contacts through forums etc.

 

There is also my website that you can try. It is fairly new but growing steadily.

 

I agree with many of the observations here about the freelancers profiles and proposals being well written and professional, and then when the job begins it all goes down the crapper. There is indeed a lot of research involved in finding quality workers through these sites but I've just hired one of them full time at a very very good rate. I think there is more work involved, but when you find a diamond it all becomes worth it.

 

Turns out I got my money back from PayPal. As much as I wonder what happened to the other person, I'm more annoyed about the time lost in the project.

 

scriptlance has worked for me, but you need to make good use of those private messages before choosing the winner.

 

elance to be safe. but sometimes i use scriptlance

 

Always used getafreelancer.com, but have always stipulated that money will no be paid until project is complete and thus far have had no problems.

 

Where can I find a good coder & designer in the USA?

 

I found a good indian copywriter on scriptlance. His articles surprised me at how well his english is. Prices are reasonable and hes very enthusiastic. His name is nitesh and i pointed him to this forum. He will start posting as soon as he gets the hang of it. Ive allready used him for my insurance site and plan on using him again. If you want his email contact just give me a pm.
Once you see his samples you will understand why i only use him now for copywriting

 

If you want a good designer try this guy at anticlockonline.com. Done over 150 sites for clients all over the world . Very efficient and easy to communicate with. He has a huge portfolio also.

 

One coder (designer, seo guru or content writer) can be registered user at many outsourcing sites.
I have completed projects at RentACoder, GetAFreelancer, Scriptlance and GetACoder.
My quality the same, but sites names are different.

 

Well i have found my developer at rent a coder and hes pretty good. Overall he works good, gives ideas and is helpful but then communication is a problem, not the language but him showing up late for meetings, sometimes im talking to him online later to find out that during our conversation he left somewhere for a couple hours.

I'm trying to find a writer for a reasonable price which will write some sections. But no luck finding one, i posted on rac with the bid and all i get is poor bids on the assignment. By poor i mean, most of these people can't spell, construct sentences or overall are not worth the amount they charge.

I also posted projects on guru, for coding guru sucks. Plus you can't upload an NDA, thats why i put my original project on RAC.

For finding writers guru is expensive but quality is much higher than RAC.