I have had horrible experience with all the freelance sites. I then came up with an idea and now i have settled with few cool guys who work for me full time and i am paying them well than they expect
Elance, Odesk Outsourcing Experiences !!
- Thread starter RICK430
- Start date
Been a contractor in odesk for a year now. I also became a buyer. When choosing the right candidate try including a set of instructions like type "I am ready to work" in your cover letter. Immediately, you can filter out the ones submitting recycled cover letters. Outsourcing is great although I also have bad experience on some contractor that will just leave you and will never contact you again..
Just be careful and always look in their feedback before hiring them..
Just be careful and always look in their feedback before hiring them..
Use, Rinse, Repeat
I've used Craigslist, Elance, Guru and oDesk.
I've found that working with one person on an hourly basis is the best to start off. I even gave the same project to a few people and had a bake-off to see who did the best job and then worked with the winner to further suss out the project.
However, I've found with the economy as it is its almost just as cheap to find a local person via Craigslist and work with them. That has advantages, too. I can meet them face to face, know where they live and hunt them down...
The biggest thing I've learned is don't assume the people you hire are as good as you think they should be at their job. What I mean by that is, if you don't set the bar high the great majority of people will just do good enough work, not great work. So you have to really push to find people that do great work. One web template project I hired a person that had a nice portfolio and the code looked really nice on these portfolios. So I just assumed I didn't have to worry, but when I got the code for my project it was based on old standards, didn't account for multiple browsers, etc. Just a mess. But I didn't demand it, so the person just phoned it in.
Any contractor or employee is as good as you let them be. If you want great work you need to make great happen.
I've used Craigslist, Elance, Guru and oDesk.
I've found that working with one person on an hourly basis is the best to start off. I even gave the same project to a few people and had a bake-off to see who did the best job and then worked with the winner to further suss out the project.
However, I've found with the economy as it is its almost just as cheap to find a local person via Craigslist and work with them. That has advantages, too. I can meet them face to face, know where they live and hunt them down...
The biggest thing I've learned is don't assume the people you hire are as good as you think they should be at their job. What I mean by that is, if you don't set the bar high the great majority of people will just do good enough work, not great work. So you have to really push to find people that do great work. One web template project I hired a person that had a nice portfolio and the code looked really nice on these portfolios. So I just assumed I didn't have to worry, but when I got the code for my project it was based on old standards, didn't account for multiple browsers, etc. Just a mess. But I didn't demand it, so the person just phoned it in.
Any contractor or employee is as good as you let them be. If you want great work you need to make great happen.
Guys, do you think that most of these pricks on Elance or Odesk post feedbcks and reviews for themselves. I am looking at a certain web design company on Odesk and they have 20 employees. All feedbacks for all 20 employees is at 4-5 stars. Which leads me to believe something is fishy. Also, how would one know if these people are giving themselves feedbacks and reviews to boost their own ratings. You would think Elance and Odesk will see and monitor IP's from which these reviews and feedsbacks are coming from.
Odesk freelancers have to complete a full test to verify their skills.
Elance admission test is very easy, anyone with low level skills can submit.
For important tasks i'd prefer odesk.
Elance admission test is very easy, anyone with low level skills can submit.
For important tasks i'd prefer odesk.
I've had mixed success with oDesk. Design I would always do locally (Life is too short for me to explain that design does not equal knowing HTML), development you might have success with if the spec is spelled out to a ridiculous degree and what you need done is very limited in scope.
For data entry / online research / virtual assistant, have had decent luck with oDesk:
1. Hire individuals, not firms.
2. Phillipines, not India. Not a cultural judgement but their English and understanding of the US is better (though not always good).
3. Hire 3-5 people to do the same exact task, or break the task into pieces.
4. Limit the first project to a few hours per person
5. Select the best of the 3-4 people and give them a second larger project (1-2 will probably flake and do nothing, so you could hire 4 but only be comparing the work output of 2 people)
6. Repeat
For data entry / online research / virtual assistant, have had decent luck with oDesk:
1. Hire individuals, not firms.
2. Phillipines, not India. Not a cultural judgement but their English and understanding of the US is better (though not always good).
3. Hire 3-5 people to do the same exact task, or break the task into pieces.
4. Limit the first project to a few hours per person
5. Select the best of the 3-4 people and give them a second larger project (1-2 will probably flake and do nothing, so you could hire 4 but only be comparing the work output of 2 people)
6. Repeat
I appreciate all you inputs. I think I will also give craigslist a try. I am trying to design a coupon/deals site and have specific requirements. Do you think paying by the hour is better or paying a fixed amount. I would rather pay a fixed amount since you really do not know what your getting per hour and with Odesk the work week ends on the 7th day and if a designer works for 7 days on gibberish you may have to pay them for the week even though they have not even come close to what you want. With a fixed amount you can break it up in how ever part your wish and pay them as they complete the project no matter how long it takes and if you see their full of shit you stop the work and try to get back your initial deposit. What do you guys think is better payment hourly or fixed?
Set a fixed budget for your project and set a deadline, write down on project proposal letter that for every day of delay you will cut on final commission, and good luck.
Most freelancers are lazy.
I did some projects on RentACoder, I hired and been hired there. Like it better than oDesk, especially from the coder side. Fixed bids worked better for me. It is a hit and miss pretty much everywhere. I then decided to hire a team in Uzbekistan, went through about 15 "coding gurus", only left 2 that were worth something and did what they had to. I wasn't paying them too much, so 1 got snagged in just a few months and I stopped getting new projects, running with 1 coder and 1 "moderator" which is more than enough for me right now. But my recommendation would be to not go with the cheapest. Always ask as much references/portfolio examples as possible, review what you can from the front end - css/html may be even design if he/she is doing all the work. Try - if the coder is good, keep him, pay a bit of a premium if you have to. As one of the guys I worked for told me back when I started, the hardest part of running a good business is finding good human resources who can do what they say they can.
In odesk you can't do that unless you open a nuyer account and hire yourself. You have to finish the job first before you receive a feedback.
I agree with Flash4Ever, to a point. Even if you have this project totally scoped out and the contract has the chops do it, I still bet they'll be some unforeseen gotchas that might delay this. I would propose you pay based on milestones and at least be flexible if something new comes up that wasn't foreseen.
Also, on oDesk the jobs have to be completed to get a review. I'd stay away from large multi person companies, and demand to talk to a client. I would track down the company and make sure the website on the portfolio matched what the current site of the client. If it's not, that's always a red flag.
Also, you can sort / search by skill. I've taken a few of those tests and they are not easy. If someone is a top 10% in a skill, they really have to know their stuff.
Also, on oDesk the jobs have to be completed to get a review. I'd stay away from large multi person companies, and demand to talk to a client. I would track down the company and make sure the website on the portfolio matched what the current site of the client. If it's not, that's always a red flag.
Also, you can sort / search by skill. I've taken a few of those tests and they are not easy. If someone is a top 10% in a skill, they really have to know their stuff.