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Freelance/Consulting Websites

by Mark Shiffer 10. March 2009 17:51

I copied this quick comparison of consulting websites from another blog here. I have used some of this sites in the past, both to obtain work and to distribute work. I copied here for future reference.

  Elance.com Guru.com oDesk.com RentACoder.com
php projects 1831 271 887 425
Technical Writing projects 18 89 42 51
Sales & Marketing projects 302 127 No category 147
Alexa rank (lower is better) 4960 14833 13768 18859
Free option Yes - limited bidding Yes - higher fee on jobs Yes Yes
Fee 6.75% to 8.75% based on volume 10% for free membership level. 5% for premier level. 10% 15% or $3 minimum. Lower rates for direct payments and bonuses.
Premier Membership Fee $9.95/Month. Up to 20 bids (up from 3). Up to 2% fee discount $29.95-$99.95/quarter depending on field for each subject area (profile). 50% off for annual membership None None
Limit on bids 3 for free level/mo. 20 for premier. Fees for additional bids 10 for free level/mo. 100 for premier. Fees for additional bids None None
Dispute Resolution When Escrow service is used When Escrow service is used Hourly jobs only Yes
Escrow service Yes Yes Hourly jobs only Yes
Online tests & certifications Yes No Yes No

And some additional sites from another post that I read:

1. All Dev Jobs
Mainly web development projects.

2. Authentic Jobs
A fairly active job board that attracts some great project postings.

3. Freelance Switch
The freelance switch job board is very active, and contains a wide range of development jobs. There is a catch though: It costs $7 a month to reply to any of the postings.

4. Javascript Ninja Jobs
This is a job board for freelance javascript jobs from John Resig, the author of the jQuery library.

5. MetaFilter Jobs
Freelance development projects, mostly consisting of web and mobile application development.

6. No Agencies Please
Primarily a site for UK based work, but there are lots of remote projects. Includes a whole range of different development projects, and isn’t just limited to web development.

7. Programmer Meet Designer
A site that aims to introduce programmers to designers. Many of the projects that get listed are for skills exchanges (eg. you code my site I’ll design yours. There are occasionally paid jobs though, so it’s worth checking the site every so often.

8. Search Web Jobs
Lots of web development jobs, primarily involving CSS, HTML, PHP and MySQL.

9. Smashing Jobs
The job board of the online web development magazine.

10. Web Directions Jobs
Web development jobs. Mostly PHP and Javascript.

11. Plasis Jobs
Plasis Jobs aggregates freelance development jobs from 8 of the above 10 sites, so instead of having to check lots of different sites everyday to make sure you don’t miss out on a great new project you only need to check one! It also filters the jobs so that only freelance development jobs are shown, rather than full time jobs, or jobs for designers.

Tags:

Graphics | Programming

Amazon's Mechanical Turk

by Mark Shiffer 24. November 2008 16:48

I had seen this go up a long time ago and thought it was an interesting concept. I was reading a blog recently that mentioned it again under another context and it reminded me of the service. Amazon's Mechanical Turk is essentially a work-for-hire program for very small units of work, labelled Human Intelligence Tasks or HITS. From the employee side of things it allows for a great deal of flexibility. One can pick up the jobs on the fly that are easy for them do and provide as much variety as one would like to feed their ADD disorder. From an employer side of things, crowd-sourcing mundane tasks that can be split into simple units of work could result in greater throughput. However, my opinion on the matter, having never actually participated in the service, is that the overhead of managing the tasks could outweight any benefit gained via the increased throughput.

 Interesting none-the-less.

Tags:

Research | Graphics

Free Stock Photos

by Mark Shiffer 10. October 2008 18:34
Ran across this site that may come in handy for filler photos and such when creating web sites. It offers a great number of stock photos. The search engine is a bit slow, but for free stock photos it my be worth it. PicApp is the name.

Tags:

Websites | Graphics | Tools

Tutorials for graphic design and programming

by Mark Shiffer 30. November 2007 20:56

Found a website that may be helpful: TutsBuzz 

Not sure I will use the programming side much, but the graphics side looks interesting to me. I have yet to dedicate a great deal of time to becoming good at graphics creation/editing, but, in the past, I have found tutorials like this a quick way to get up to speed.

Tags: ,

Programs | Websites | Graphics

For those that are not graphics inclined

by Mark Shiffer 26. October 2007 21:44
This site has some good tutorials for Paint Shop to enable you to create decent graphics when you aren't really a graphics person. (i.e., me).

Tags: ,

Programs | Websites | Graphics

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