I asked about the best options regarding freelance sites in the previous article. I would like to thank the people who advised me by commenting or email. My own experience with some of these sites will be shared in a future article. Now, let’s moan a bit about the crazy requests some “clients” have on such sites.

Few days ago I was reading an excellent freelance related article talking about the experienced writers frustration regarding the horrible pay some would get in such sites (elance, guru, RAC etc.)

We are talking about quality content experienced writers, people who master the words and can provide some amazing articles. I do read some of their work and it makes me wanna quit communication altogether since I really feel like a stupid monkey, if I compare my writing skills to theirs.

These people don’t work for 1 dollar an hour, as I don’t work for such low pay myself, even if in my country you might expect us to do this.

Their frustration came from seeing bids being won by people who’d write 3 books for 10 dollars. OK, it’s far fetched, but the prices some are willing to pay are absolutely an offence to any serious developer, being he/she a designer or a content creator.

I had 40+ bids on 2 freelance sites. Was able to get 2 jobs so far (one on each I am still working), with 10+ feedback and pleased customers. Extatic I might say since one of them is preparing some more work for me already. I did bid on “decent paying” jobs since, even if I am new there and in need of good initial feedback I won’t be a prostitute to do a 1000 USD work for 10.

Today, on RAC, there was a guy who wanted 3 .psd designs for a layout and had the maximum bid of 10 USD. I wanted to kick him. I wanted to smack his nose and teach him that creating 3 UNIQUE and beautiful layouts is not a 1 hour job. I do work extremely fast in Photoshop (I do have 7 years experience now) and can come up with a mockup design in few hours of inspired work, but even the best and fastest artist cannot work 3 different unique layouts in 1 hour. And 10 USD/hour I think is the MINIMUM any one should accept as payment.

And the cherry on the shit cake was: ‘I want unlimited changes on the designs, until I am pleased”. Of course, we’ll work for 2 weeks, until you’re pleased and then I will get 10 dollars for 100 hour work. And then I can throw my computer and go work on emptying trash cans in the city. I am sure those guys do get paid way better, not to mention they don’t kill their eyes as we do.

It’s not a singular case. The sites are filled with people who want huge projects to be worked on for dismal payment. I read some proposals and almost fell of my chair. Huge sites, with custom programming for 200 dollars? Let’s be serious.

In the end I think it comes to us to accept only good jobs with fair payment for our time. And the clients to learn that “cheap is not always better” and that sometimes it’s a better idea to pay a bit more for an amazing service. Not to mention that the top players in the design/content world don’t create sites similar to ebay for 10 dollars

Since I am self-employed right now (3 weeks ago the radio station I worked for closed) and have a lot of time on my hands, I was trying to see what more I can do as a designer/content creator.

So I started some accounts on some ‘top’ freelance sites. Right now I have a sour taste in my mouth.

elance.com - started the account some time ago, logged in (of course after losing the pass and username). Good thing I still use that email address. I was using the free option and selected some time ago the content creation category. Today I saw something cool in the design area and wanted to bid. Nope, can’t do this. I need to update my profile and after some hours already it’s not changed. The “premium” price for the upgrade is pretty decent, but everything moves TOO SLOW for me. I want to make changes and pay (if needed) or just see the changes right away, if I make them on the free account.

guru.com - FRUSTRATING. I have spent almost 2 hours tweaking my darn profile with all the info needed and when I wanted to see what’s for me to bid on, ONLY premium member solutions. It’s impossible for me to grasp how such a huge site can’t offer 1 lousy project for a regular user. All the paid options are VERY expensive, especially for a beginner account. I want to test and see some projects, do some work etc. Not pay 150 USD and then realize it’s useless to me. I have deleted my account. Nobody will pay me for those 2 wasted hours though.

getafreelancer.com - I think so far is the best one I am using. Can’t say I am desperatelly in love with it, but it seems to offer me a fair share of possible jobs and maybe I’ll be able to make some pocket money out of it. Should I be pleased, I might upgrade the account.

What other freelancer job sites whould you recommend? I am a designer/article writer, no programming experience though.

Should you have your own experiences in this, please do share them. I’d love knowing if you were pleased with these sites.

I started my small web business 2 years ago. I had to save money for few months to be able to pay for all the taxes to establish my small “web entity” into a real business one. Work was hard, as it still is, but the results started showing. My family had some more money for the every day life, while I was able to spend some more online to get better hosting plans, maybe a new script for a new site etc.

As you can imagine most of the people who knew me started getting ideas. The ‘best” one came from a relative who doesn’t even call to tell me happy birthday when he should do this, but who was interested in getting into MY business as soon as he heard about my new status.

As an associate.

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