[Phpwm] Web programmer / sysadmin for hire

[Richard Wallman]

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 03:28:23PM +0100, David Goodwin wrote:
> Isn't that like rentacoder (?!? am I imaging that site exists?) /
> freelancer.com etc? . Ignorance makes me think it would be flooded with
> people from abroad all trying to outbid each other towards zero...
> perhaps.

Some of the bids are a bit LOL - I've seen people wanting PHP devs for
$2/hour. I'm guessing they must have found some in the past, otherwise
they wouldn't put such a ridiculous rate.

But yes, with the different exchange rates and cost-of-living figures
for different areas of the world, some regions can undercut the bids of
others.

> If you had geographic restrictions in place, and perhaps some form of
> feedback / rating system....
> 
> But I'm sure such places already exist.

And probably losing out to the cheap bidders - if people see a $100 bid
and a $500 bid, they'll (more likely than not) go for the $100 one.

There's also the question of market size - you need job advertisements
to attract contractors, and you need contractors to attract job
advertisements.

I *have* got work from freelancing sites, but it *is* quite tricky,
especially if you're in a saturated market like PHP webdev (people read
"Learn PHP in 24 hours" and consider themselves capable!). In some
cases, my rates have been three times that of some other bidders, but I
guess I was able to convince the buyers of my quality. :)

-- 
Richard Wallman
Birmingham Open Source Solutions Ltd (#7222230)
http://www.bossolutions.co.uk