Crowdsource yourself a new job

Crowdsourcing is a chance to create yourself a new job, rather than just raise some cash between gigs or while slacking, according to Matt Barrie, CEO of boom site freelancer.com. While many users of crowdsourcing sites like freelancer use them to find low-cost labor, Barrie says the site works best when workers use it as a …

[Ru]

"Crowdsourcing"

A conveniently meaningless term, isn't it?

Problem with places like this is that though they say "experts will always be in demand!" you can't find experts on such a site because they're drowned under a thousand incredibly cheap and ambiguously competent Asian and Eastern European devs touting the same wares.

I've never had any luck on such places, either as a buyer or seller... maybe I'm just doing it wrong. In the end, boring old networking of the old social type (y'know, the one where you speak to someone om real life) is incredibly difficult to beat.

[dintech]

Work as a consultant

Most UK contractor's day rates pay better than the majority of the bigger, time consuming projects on here. You need to be in a low cost-of-living country to take advantage of such opportunities. Most UK people just can't afford to work on such projects.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can work

Can work

This actually how my buisness got started. I used to browse these sites and gradually built up a good client base, which let me switch my day job to part time, then get enough work to keep a few other contrators on the books and finally enough for me to go fulltime myself and then a handful of permanant staff.

The trick is to quickly sift through the "build me an operating system for $100" postings, indentify people who have posted lots of similar jobs and stay away from time wasters. After a while you'll see people coming back (assuming you did a good job) and then to you direct (becareful, some sites disallow this without them getting a pay off), once that happens they may even just ask you to do something bigger or find other people for them. Also, a few "buyers" on these sites are people with a few buisnesses on the go, otfen with different partners, that gives you a foot in the door for other oppotunities.

Not saying i'ts easy, but for me it was a safe way of going about it, still had the safety net of a secure job until I was absolutly sure.

[Just Thinking]

DesignCrowd

Is that for real? People will do design work for free just for a 1 in 100 chance they might get paid for it?

[Tom 79]

Re: DesignCrowd

The site needs more cheap product. We're the product. No thanks.