Web site clones
May 11th, 2007 | Posted in Funny, Techy Talk | 4 Comments
My first tentative steps into freelancing involved trawling the many project sites, bidding for potential assignments. Sites such as Getacoder and Getafreelancer were where many hours were spent until the small hours of the morning.
Many years later, I am happy to say that I no longer need to take part in the daily fought bidding wars. To put it bluntly, freelance sites like the ones mentioned are a meeting place for clients with no budget, clue and in many cases manners looking to acquire the services of developers and designers who end up with no other choice than to accept whatever is thrown at them.
Example, when I started out I bidded and won a project which was to take online betting onto handheld devices. I was several weeks in to the project when I received an email detailing why the client suddenly needed to back out. Apparently, he was being threatened by the Columbian mafia and he could no longer continue with the project. He claimed that they were developing something similar and did not want the competition. Needless to say, I never heard from him again and I was out of pocket. Lesson learnt.
I realise there maybe genuine projects posted but they are few and far between.
Not only that, but they have become a source of ridicule, especially when cloning sites is concerned. Barely a day goes by when a project is posted asking for an “Ebay Clone” with a budget of $300. Simply, a clone is a complete copy of the site in question. So for $300 the person wanted a complete copy of Ebay with all its features. I kid you not.
See for yourself, visit www.getafreelancer.com and do a search for “clone”. Last I checked, there was a YouTube clone where the highest bid was $36.
So, for someone entering this field, how do you recommend finding good, legitimate freelance jobs?
When I first left employment, the first thing I did was to list all the possible ways to find work. From memory, they were things like “Get a nice portfolio site”, “meet local businesses”, “join the many project sites”. I then realised that you would only really get smaller projects through this route. In my experience, these clients either did not want a web site, or did but it wasn’t a priority and so your efforts were in some part going to waste. Instead I focused on people who would want a developer, or a technical person who knows about web technologies. E.g. web design and development agencies, marketing companies and other freelance designers. As a result I got lots of repeat work with the added bonus of rarely having to go through the initial “what would you like your site to do?” phase. To sum up, there is no definitive answer or book you can buy explaining it. If you ask 10 freelancers, you will get 10 different answers.
a YouTube clone where the highest bid was $36.
LMFAO
In response to Mark S, I would recommend checking out elance.com or scriptlance.com for freelance jobs