laptopmanpaul.co.uk

Getting web designer freelance work via the internet

Interesting freelancers’ site

I came across an interesting site today by total coincidence, as I was originally looking for something entirely different.

I was on Fantastico taking a look at a links application called dew-code, half-heartedly thinking about what I might put on my trial 110mb.com website at http://linkswapshop.110mb.com.

Looking around the dew-code website, I noticed a freelancers’ section and decided to check it out.

I’m not in the market for this kind of work, but I’m sure many people reading this post will be - and besides, it never hurts to tuck away a useful URL in your favourites does it?

I’ve already written about franchise opportunities for web designers in an earlier post, but this list was very much freelance work on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis … so if you fancy a weekend away on a budget airline and need a bit of extra cash, this is a great way of raising it.

However, it gets better than the freelance jobs list at dew-code as, unusually for me, I went on from there to click on a Google ad which took me to peopleperhour.com.

Sell your skills by the hour

Now here’s an interesting website.

It works in two ways:

- People post the details of work that they want doing, as well as an indication of what they’ll pay for it and what they want. Other people bid for the job and the successful bidder gets the gig.

- People register on the site to offer their skills and if they match the jobs that other people need doing, they get in touch directly.

It’s all done online, including payments, and skills providers are rated as as they go along with ebay/Amazon-style feedback under the following headings:

Work Quality
Expertise/Skill
Timeliness
Communication
Overall Rating

The pitch of the site for service buyers is:

Find experts - outsource to freelancers globally
Stay flexible - get help only when you need it
Save cost - let people bid for your work

The pitch for service providers is:

Market your services
Reach new clients - win work online
Stay protected - earn money securely

Now, here’s the really good news … there are loads of jobs on there for web designers and you get to look at the winning bids, so you can customise your own approach to win more work.

The pay levels all look reasonable to me and the navigation on the site is simple, intuitive and sensible.

Interestingly, the national newspapers have also discovered this website and are using it as part of their current ‘credit crunch’ coverage.

Times Online has a feature called Middle class take up second jobs to help cope with credit crunch (I’m surprised I missed that one as I read The Times every day) and reveals another site for freelancers called setyourrate.com.

telegraph.co.uk mentions the website in an article called 20 tips to boost your income, once again going for the credit crunch angle.

However, regardless of all the press hype about the credit crunch, I reckon peopleperhour.com will be a really useful site for all web designers as our skills are totally transferable and we can just as easily be sitting on a beach in the Bahamas making websites as we can sitting in our front room in Scunthorpe.

Right, I’m off to look at setyourrate.com now as i hadn’t heard of that website either …

Posted by pt23
webcumbria.co.uk

More websites from webcumbria.co.uk