Best Place for Freelancers

5 replies
Hi - wondering what your experiences are working with freelancers and where you think the best place to find them is.

I've used Freelancer , for example, which certainly has quantity, but not always quantity. My experience has always been one where I'm inundated by people who just spam every job that's on there or, at least clearly haven't even read the project brief and/or posses the requisite skills to begin with. Lots of opportunists, lots of noise, "dear sir I am seo expert many years" when I'm actually looking for a designer and so on. It's really a needle in a haystack to find intelligent, capable and creative people I can entrust my business and its processes to without having to do the whole "Run Forest! / Stop Forest" micro-managment thing which of course defeats the whole purpose of outsourcing to begin with. :rolleyes:

But maybe it's just a question of finding the right outlet, perhaps I'm having these issues because it's like looking for a gourmet dining experience at McDonalds.

How I would love to find some small, unspoiled corner of the web where the really talented and remarkable freelancers are, who can not only speak and read English but can actually write, spell and punctuate it properly too, with a total comprehension of tone and nuance. Freelancers who actually follow instructions and processes to a tee, and understand their significance, people who take pride in what they do and provide an honest day's work for a highly competitive price.

Does such a place exist or am I just living in a dreamworld guys?
#freelancer #freelancers #outsourcing
  • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
    Originally Posted by HarmonicNet View Post


    I've used Freelancer , for example, which certainly has quantity, but not always quantity.
    I really am curious to know if you meant they have quantity but not quality or quality but not quantity as I've never even visited that site. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you meant the first one.


    Originally Posted by HarmonicNet View Post

    Does such a place exist or am I just living in a dreamworld guys?
    I'm not sure if a "place" exists, but that type of writer certainly does. You will need to be prepared to pay for that quality of work, however. It won't be a penny a word by any means. Good luck to you.

    Terra
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  • Profile picture of the author TMW
    So you want the best writers in the world for a dime? I can write decent copy for websites but I sure as hell wouldn't do it for less than premium payment. After all, you want the writing so that you can make $$, so should the writer not also make $$?

    (FYI I'm not asking for work; I only write legal sites.)

    That being said, Odesk seems decent but I haven't hired anyone there. Fiverr is very hit or miss.
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  • Profile picture of the author BrainCandy
    You can visit Odesk.com. I think you will find something there for sure!
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    Outsourcing is becoming a way of life

    Outsourcing provide you leisure time, more profits and reduced costs.
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    • Profile picture of the author HarmonicNet
      I really am curious to know if you meant they have quantity but not quality or quality but not quantity as I've never even visited that site.
      Oops. Yeah, quantity but not quality I meant to say - so much quantity I said it twice and so little quality...

      By the way I'm not talking specifically about writers, when I say freelancers, I don't just mean writers but a variety of different skill-sets; designers, developers, assistants, etc.

      So you want the best writers in the world for a dime?
      No, that's not what I'm talking about at all, quite the opposite.

      I seem to have touched a nerve here which is completely accidental. Actually I thought that whole disgruntled writer thing's been dead for 2+ years when the dime-a-dozen, dime-store writers all got squished by Google and the writers who stuck to their guns and delivered good quality content were rewarded. (Another quantity V quality thing)

      Anyone who's still looking to pay 0.000001c per word for generic drivel from About.com or Wikipedia regurgitated 500 times through a cheap article spinner are welcome to do so. Good luck with that.

      That's just taking writing as an example, but it could also be someone offering SEO services with just a copy of SeNukeX or providing graphic designs with images lifted straight from Google Image Search or whatever.

      And that's the whole point you see, it's like anything, when the whole freelancing thing was new you'd find some really talented, kick-ass people from non-Western countries and make great savings through currency differences while still paying them a fair wage but now so many other people have jumped on the bandwagon (and of course I can understand why, if it earns them a living) it's almost impossible to find those rare few people who actually know what they're doing amidst the swarming multitudes of "me too!"s .
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      • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
        Originally Posted by HarmonicNet View Post

        Oops. Yeah, quantity but not quality I meant to say - so much quantity I said it twice and so little quality...

        By the way I'm not talking specifically about writers, when I say freelancers, I don't just mean writers but a variety of different skill-sets; designers, developers, assistants, etc.
        The same holds true for all other freelancing services, as well. I suppose I just imagined you were speaking of writers because that seems to be the biggest trend in freelancing these days.

        Originally Posted by HarmonicNet View Post

        I seem to have touched a nerve here which is completely accidental.
        Oh, and no nerve trampled on, got on or even touched here.

        Terra
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