This article can help if you are looking for additional remote jobs (telejobs, outsourcing, freelance), if you want to get money using your brain activity and experience in Internet.
Actually, it's easy – virtually sell your work hours, experience and earn real money for that. I'm software (java/j2ee) developer and successfully use freelance sites some years and hope to use this method of earnings again and again.
What activities/jobs are suitable for freelance?
The most suitable type of freelance activity/job are the following:
- Software development (PHP, Ruby on Rails (RoR), SQL (MySQl, MS SQL, Oracle, Sybase, DB2, PostgreSQL, etc), JavaScript (expecially with some AJAX frameworks as JQuery, Prototype, etc), .Net, ASP, Java, J2EE, С++, С, Perl, Pyton, Fortran, Assembler, VBasic and a lot of another programming languages including very old and modern)
- development of games, applications for any mobile devices based on modern plarforms (apple ipad ios, android, windows mobile, simbian, rim, etc)
- Software testing, QA (quality assurance)
- SEO (search engine optimization), web site banners, advertising
- HTML/CSS coding
- Remote system administration (RDP for MS Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat, Mandriva, Mac, FreeBSD, etc)
- Graphical design
- Translators, technical writers, photographers, content managers and creators (text, images, video, audio)
- Various areas of science, engineering, culture, art
- Any else activity, where you can sent your product/result by Internet.
Participant roles
There are 3 base roles in freelance process: Seller (you) , Buyer (customer) and Dealer (freelance site). You can think Dealer is unnecessary role, but Dealer role is very important, because it:
- registers Sellers and Buyers (with financial verification of Buyers)
- publishes projects of Buyers
- allows to search suitable projects and Sellers
- gets project bids from Sellers
- has various communication systems between Seller and Buyer
- escrows money of Buyer for Seller until project/stage is successfully finished
- has arbitration, disputes systems
- withdraws earned money to your account
Risks for freelance jobs without dealer
I've been successfully earning money by freelance as Java/J2EE Developer on some freelance sites (see list below) since 2006 and 100% sure: Dealer is necessary while you don't know your Buyer. Dealer allows to minimize your risks as well as Buyer risks. Your risks can be following :
- You had completely done your job/project/stage, but Buyer don't pay for that.
- Buyer add new requirements without payment discussion.
- Buyer doesn't accept your job for some reason (quality, functionality, etc), but you don't agree with him.
- Buyer disappeared and doesn't answer to your messages.
I had some direct small projects without Dealer and 2 of them were not payed by Buyer...
Freelance Sites
There are a lot of freelance sites and every has advantages and disadvantages. I use some of them:
Rentacoder – good site for beginners, individuals for small and middle projects.Advantages:
- Has no monthly subscription fee
- Has no limit for bid amount
- Strict escrowing for projects (following bonuses – no)
- Some withdraw methods (PayPal, Western Union, Payoneer, etc)
- High project fee - 15% for standard fixed cost projects, 12.5% for one-to-one projects, 9% for "pay for time" projects, 10% for following bonuses without escrowing.
See details here
- Withdraw money by schedule twice per month.
- Withdraw fee - $2-10 / transaction
- Has little amount of large projects.
- RSS by only 1 category from fixed category list (for example, you can't get RSS for “hibernate AND spring”, only for “Java” category).
Advantages:
- some subscription plans, for example for individuals: basic (without any monthly fee) and individual (monthly fee $10)
- escrowing for projects by Buyer choice
- advanced search, control panel, a lot of helpful features (milestones, reports, tests, groups, etc)
- it's possible do project based on hourly rate (without controlling of seller activity)
- withdraw money by Seller request without big delay.
- no withdraw fee for payed user subscription
- a lot of various projects (by cost, category, etc)
- RSS channels for your search
- some withdraw methods (PayPal, Payoneer, Credit Card (not for all countries), Wire transfer)
- restriction for bid amount (connectors). Basic user has 10 connectors/month, Individual user – 25 (also he can buy additional connectors). 1 connector is 1 bid for small project. Some projects can "weight" 2,4,6,8 connectors
- Basic user can't see URL links in project descriptions.
- project fee - about 9%
- withdraw fee $10 for Basic user (but free for Individual user).
Freelancer – before it was simple GetAFreelance.com site. Now it's nice growing site for small and middle projects. They bought freelancer.com domain name and improves site step-by-step.Advantages
- 2 subscription plans for individuals: Simple member (without any monthly fee) and Gold member (monthly fee now is $19.95 (was $12). You should not pay Gold member fee every month. You can do it only after you win project (before Buyer has escrowed money)
- escrowing for projects by Buyer & Seller choice
- small (3%) project fee for Gold members.
- small withdraw fee $1 with about 1 week delay
- some withdraw methods (PayPal, Payoneer, Wire transfer (not for all countries), Moneybookers)
- advanced RSS by keywords and categories
Disadvantages:
- project fee - 10% for Simple member (Use Gold member subscription if you going to get $100 and above)
- has little amount of large projects.
Guru.com – strange site with strange functionality. I bid some projects, but had no one message from Site (excluding advs.)
PS.
This blog has some Google adv. links. I think it's easy click on them if I little help you. Thanks
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