RE: elance

For small design projects, I've used http://99designs.com/ a number of times
and been happy with the result. This is a completely different process
though as you set up a 'project' that people create and you pick the winner
to get the $. The cross communication between designers seems to work
well.not the same idea as a dev project.

 

- stw

 

I don't even use spell check - my misspellings are on purpose.

 

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Richard Howells
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 3:11 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [OT] elance

 

  

Hi John,

 

I've had one experience of getting work done, it wasn't elance - vworker
which I bet is much the same thing.

 

It wasn't programming, I need some images created for an advertising flyer.
I felt I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted.  I had loads of bidders.
I selected a Romanian lady (I'm actually guessing lady from the name - we
never spoke, just emailed).  She wasn't the cheapest, by a long way, but she
seemed to have the clearest grasp of the concept from my description and her
English written communication was excellent.  With a number of the other
bidders I wasn't even sure that they knew I wanted images.

 

Her work was excellent - I paid her USD 100.  I was completely satisfied
with the result and I thought I got great value for money.

 

In getting this done I was definitely acquiring expertise I do not have
myself.  I'm not sure that I would get programming work done this way.  I
train programmers as part of my living.  From what I have seen in my
classrooms - and these are from organizations enlightened enough to pay for
training - I want *much* better that industry average quality.  I'm worried
I might be disappointed.

 

Best wishes,

 

Richard Howells

richard-yP/[email protected]

www.dynamisys.co.uk

(L) +44 (0) 1793 731225

(M) +44 (0) 7769 266522

 

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Elliot
Sent: 20 July 2012 15:47
To: [email protected]
Subject: [OT] elance

 

  

Just wondering if anyone has any experience good or bad with the elance
website. For those that don't know elance is a jobs market place where
you can look for work or advertise jobs (including programming jobs) you
want done.

A while back I tried to farm off some work at elance and I offered $400
for a script to help me with my version numbering and subversion
releases. I only got one proposal and I gave the guy the job but after a
few months of excuses I just stopped hearing from him and he didn't get
the job done.

I felt a little lame offering $400 for the job. If someone was to employ
me to do that job for them I'd probably charge them something more like
$5,000, which I think is a more realistic price (but I'd sooner do it
myself than pay someone else $5,000 to do it for me).

Which brings me to my other observation. Most of the work I see
advertised on elance calls for the programmer to work for $10 or less
per hour. I'd flirted with the idea of picking up a few freelance gigs
at the site but when I read through the jobs and the offers I just feel
insulted and disenchanted, I can't believe how little money people seem
to expect you to work for. Their demands are really high and their
compensation really low.

Just thought I'd ask what others thought? Is my future viability as a
programmer shot because I'll be competing with people who will work for
$10 an hour, or is it just a case of if you pay peanuts you get monkeys
(which was my experience in trying to employ someone, but I only have
one data point).

Any thoughts on elance? Anyone had any success working on elance? Anyone
had any success getting work done for them via elance?

John.