Working on a new freelance marketplace platform...

The Wrench

New Member
Hey everyone!

First off, I apologize if this is in the wrong section. I'm assuming 'Website Reviews' is the right section, because I'll be needing reviews and beta testers for this new site I've been working on.

Over the past couple of months, I've been working on a new freelance marketplace platform.

Sites like Freelancer and Upwork can be okay at times, but they've gotten huge. Maybe a little too huge. Employers content themselves with exploiting people in third-world countries for low-level work at pennies on the hour.

Maybe you’ve seen what this creates, even for employers looking for high-quality contractors like yourself trying to make an honest living: hundreds of applications swarm every good job opening, and if you’re not one of the first 20 or so to apply at a rate that’s still lower than you deserve, you’ll probably miss out.

And then there are the scammers – the non-payers, the non-deliverers, the vultures, etc. Just Google “Freelancer.com” and you’ll see endless posts about horror stories. Maybe you’ve got horror stories of your own, and so you’re looking for something new. That’s where my new platform comes in.

What I'm aiming to do with this new platform is to cut through the clutter, connect the quality with quality. I'm striving for honesty and accountability and only taking the employers who aren’t looking for the lowest rates, but the best work. And the freelancers who do the best work at fair rates.

This platform will include a number of unique features and it'll be much different from existing platforms.

I'm currently looking for beta testers to look through it during pre-launch – basically just test the site out for bugs and suggestions for improvement.

Our spots for initial launch will be limited, but you can be assured that beta testers will be high on our list! I hope you will take advantage and help us build something truly great, and then find work on it yourself!

If you're interested in giving this a test, please fill out the form here: https://goo.gl/28o6yy

You can also shoot me a PM (or post in this thread) if you have any ideas or suggestions on how the platform should work.

Cheers,
Mark
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
Good luck in your project. I am in. Australia and freelancer is an Australian company with a market cap of around 600 million dollars. I see people who must work their wearing the warrior forum t-shirts.
I think in order to take them on you would have to initially concentrate on a particular niche and then expand, or be clearer in how you differentiate your service.
 

The Wrench

New Member
Good luck in your project. I am in. Australia and freelancer is an Australian company with a market cap of around 600 million dollars. I see people who must work their wearing the warrior forum t-shirts.
I think in order to take them on you would have to initially concentrate on a particular niche and then expand, or be clearer in how you differentiate your service.

Thanks for the support, Ian! I agree with you. We have a couple strategies in place to differentiate ourselves.

Do you regularly use Freelancer? Do you find it serves the Australian community well?
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
No I have never used freelancer
For anything related to programming I came to the conclusion of I wanted something done it would be better off to learn how to do it myself
I think sites like that are ok for graphics though
You seem like you are trying to appeal more. To the freelancer in your pitch than to the person who will be the one paying for the site revenue, most people wanting to pay for a job will want a good job done at a cheap price.
I do remember the days when they started out as getafreelancer.com
 

The Wrench

New Member
No I have never used freelancer
For anything related to programming I came to the conclusion of I wanted something done it would be better off to learn how to do it myself
I think sites like that are ok for graphics though
You seem like you are trying to appeal more. To the freelancer in your pitch than to the person who will be the one paying for the site revenue, most people wanting to pay for a job will want a good job done at a cheap price.
I do remember the days when they started out as getafreelancer.com

I don't disagree with you. Everybody wants a good job done at a cheap price. Unfortunately, getting something done well and at a cheap price isn't such a common occurrence. You can get a cheap price, but you'll often get what you pay for. And it might take ages to complete your job.

If you want to hire some third-world contractor to complete your job at a low-price and you don't mind the low-quality, you'd go to these existing platforms. That's what they're generally associated with. Plagued with scammers, consumed by absurdly and questionably low prices, and inundated with people who just don't know the difference between low-quality and high-quality work.

We're targeting a different crowd though. We're not going after clients who want to build the next Facebook for $50. We only want clients who seek quality work, from quality freelancers, and at reasonable pricing. How does that translate into benefits? Faster progress, no communication barriers, better-written code- which, in the long run, you'd save overhead by not spending so much additional time/money on bug issues and fixes. Of course, I understand it'd be different for each category - the nature of developer jobs vs. design jobs. But we'll see how it rolls out and will be constantly iterating our system.

This will be undoubtedly one of our biggest challenges; finding those high-quality clients. But we're pretty sure that these high-quality clients DO exist, otherwise we wouldn't have as many first-world freelancers as we do today.
 
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ian

Administrator
Staff member
If you want to hire some third-world contractor to complete your job at a low-price and you don't mind the low-quality,
I think it would be wrong to associate what you are referring to as a third world country with low quality work. There are a lot of very big multinational firms outsourcing some very high level work to some of the countries you are referring to which have a low gdp per capita. And the type of work outsourced on sites like freelancer it doesn't really matter where the person is located.
 

The Wrench

New Member
I think it would be wrong to associate what you are referring to as a third world country with low quality work. There are a lot of very big multinational firms outsourcing some very high level work to some of the countries you are referring to which have a low gdp per capita. And the type of work outsourced on sites like freelancer it doesn't really matter where the person is located.

Fair point, Ian. I won't dispute your claim- I've seen a fair share of firms successfully hiring overseas contractors and getting work done on the cheap. It saves them overhead after all.

Ultimately, I think we can assume that not all clients are the same. Some want cheap, some want fast, some would be willing to pay more for quality, etc. It depends on the type of work too. There are a lot of factors that play into this. Sounds like we might need to do a better job of pinpointing who our ideal clients are, and devising the proper strategies to zero in on them. Would you agree?
 
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ian

Administrator
Staff member
I don't know what your background or capabilities are
But if you started with a niche, for instance. PHP programming and we're able to do certain things like screen all freelancers to make sure they has some sort of certification, for instance the Zen certification and we're able to demonstrate samples of their work and could abide by a predefined code of conduct, that might be something to look at.
I'm not sure how freelancer works but I do t like the per hour model, I'd prefer a fixed price quote. There is no point in saying you will be doing things differently and have better quality freelancers, you need to have some definitive plan for how you are going to achieve that.
 

The Wrench

New Member
I don't know what your background or capabilities are
But if you started with a niche, for instance. PHP programming and we're able to do certain things like screen all freelancers to make sure they has some sort of certification, for instance the Zen certification and we're able to demonstrate samples of their work and could abide by a predefined code of conduct, that might be something to look at.
I'm not sure how freelancer works but I do t like the per hour model, I'd prefer a fixed price quote. There is no point in saying you will be doing things differently and have better quality freelancers, you need to have some definitive plan for how you are going to achieve that.

We have plans in place. ;)

There is an adage that goes:

You can have good, fast or cheap, pick one!

Yup! I've heard that one. There's a lot of truth in that!
 

cwvps

New Member
The idea is great, but I think you'll be missing out on people from Europe, but not from EU.
 

The Wrench

New Member
BUMP - Just wanted to let everybody know this has been coming along nicely and beta should be unveiled in early 2016.
 
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