site that developers bid on work?

**Durbs** · 14 June 2009, 18:15

I'd be interested in knowing whether any of these sites are worth it any more.

Years ago, i used to bid and get bits of work via elance but it soon turned ridiculous when the offshore firms moved in en-masse. Every piece of work attracted automatic $150 bids from these firms no matter what size/type of project. I assume the people posting projects on there now are only interested in cheap offshore labour. Basically i found i could not even remotely compete any more and gave up.

Used to really annoy me when i checked the portfolio of the Co's i was bidding against and they all had exactly the same big lists of flash sites lifted straight from templatemonster.com with the Co name changed to theirs (or even not in some cases!).

It used to be good though so maybe there are more new ones out there with the emphasis on quality rather than cost? The few pieces of work i got were mainly from clients who explicitly wanted a UK based developer because they had previously had a bad experience offshore.

**dozer** · 15 June 2009, 08:42

someone mentioned a site recently as a plan b but the search eludes me.

**Menelaus** · 15 June 2009, 08:44

EBRD has a bid-site.

**malvolio** · 15 June 2009, 08:51

Rentacoder?

You'll be outbid by offshore and Eastern EU companies though.

**dozer** · 15 June 2009, 09:07

im looking to find someone, rather than provide services.

im not a developer and would rather not sacrifice my social skills or personal hygene just yet to become one.

**VectraMan** · 15 June 2009, 09:12

Originally posted by dozer View Post

im looking to find someone, rather than provide services.

im not a developer and would rather not sacrifice my social skills or personal hygene just yet to become one.

Why not post here? Most of us have no social skills or personal hygene.

I tried rentacoder and the like a couple of years ago, but as Durbs says it was full of people wanting 3 months work for $400 and apparently finding no shortage of bidders.

**minestrone** · 15 June 2009, 09:34

I have someone working for me through rentacoder just now, working out quite well although I have had to tell him to speed up once.

The job was pretty much a design and branding job on a very large site which include forums. I asked to see previous work, an estimate of how long the job would take and the cost.

90% of the bidders were complete jokers, most just sent through the same list of skills the team had, honestly this list was about 5 pages had everything possible on it and they all used it. Some of the designs I was shown looked about 10 years old. Scrolling text.

Some of the quotes were $250 and the job was massive. they had obviously not read anything I had written in the spec.

Came down to 2 people, one in pakistan and one in England, gave it to the guy in pakistan as he had a 9.8 rating and his designs looked excellent.

**Clarky** · 15 June 2009, 09:53

First time poster, long time lurker...

How about ifreelance.com? elance.com is another as well.

I've had a look at both and posted work on ifreelance.com, but like others say, be prepared to be beaten by offshored people - so make sure you stand out and have a portfolio set up which people can look at if possible.

**dozer** · 15 June 2009, 14:53

thanks for the sites and advice, im helping out a friend so if i get the go ahead ill run it past the great unwashed here for a first quote.

site that developers bid on work?