I am a designer working with a developer and we are looking to do some freelance work. We have looked on craigslist, but that does not seem like the best place to find jobs. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I recently wanted to break into the freelancing market and had some success with this chain of events:
1) I joined my local programming mailing lists - e.g. the nearest Hacker Space, Ruby Ireland.
2) I went to a local tech conference.
3) I went to local tech meet ups and made a lot of noise. I paid extra attention to the non techies.
4) I followed everyone I met at said events.
After a few months of doing this I understand the local freelancing scene much better, have a good idea of market rates and am exposed to lots of freelancing opportunities.
I have had great success with Elance.com. At first I had to bid the projects on the lower end to get some ratings. After I had a few happy clients and a few 5 star ratings I started receiving 3-4 proposal requests a week. I also tried oDesk, but did not see the same results.
Many of the freelancers I know work primarily from referrals. I realize this is a chicken-and-egg problem, so here are a few ways to get started:
- Tell all your friends and family you're freelancing. Chances are, you can find a few leads this way.
- Get hooked in with a network of local freelancers; they might share referrals. Unfortunately, I don't think you can just search for these groups on Google. I believe they're mostly informal networks of freelancers who stay in touch with each other, rather than actual clubs or trade organizations. I found one through another freelancer I happen to know, so give that a shot. YMMV.
-I haven't set up a Sortfolio account yet, but you might want to give it a shot. If you do, and it works out for you, please let us all know.
1) I joined my local programming mailing lists - e.g. the nearest Hacker Space, Ruby Ireland. 2) I went to a local tech conference. 3) I went to local tech meet ups and made a lot of noise. I paid extra attention to the non techies. 4) I followed everyone I met at said events.
After a few months of doing this I understand the local freelancing scene much better, have a good idea of market rates and am exposed to lots of freelancing opportunities.