Experiences with bidding on freelance job sites?

[aracaris]

I've joined a few freelance job board websites, on which you bid for jobs. I'm curious about other peoples experiences with such websites. Guru.com is an example of one such site, freelancer.com is another.

Anyone care to share? Any tales of caution?

Obviously I should avoid the people that want a website designed for $20 (it just seems ridiculous to me that design work could be that undervalued. Even in the cheapest parts of the world I bet a website would cost more than that). But beyond the really obvious, what else should I look out for?

 

[leroy30]

I never had any luck with those places. Seems like there are millions of people willing to do crap work for $20 and millions of people ready to accept that quality because the price is so low!

I get all of my work from word of mouth. I've found that if someone wants some graphics or web design and someone they know happens to know you then it's an almost 100% hit rate. Word of mouth is trusted highly.

 

[LouTheDesigner]

Seems like there are millions of people willing to do crap work for $20 and millions of people ready to accept that quality because the price is so low!

I get all of my work from word of mouth. I've found that if someone wants some graphics or web design and someone they know happens to know you then it's an almost 100% hit rate. Word of mouth is trusted highly.

My experience exactly. I can't even begin to tell you how many restaurant sites I did out of word-of-mouth.

One site, however, has provided me with some business:

www.scriptlance.org

I recommend giving that a try.

Also, you can offer to do a site for free if you find a gig on craigslist, and then that person will promote you to death for how you helped them -- and they can act as a great job reference. I did this and made a ton of money off references and the client acts almost like a cheerleader if I use her as a job reference.

-Lou

 

[aracaris]

Yeah, I've gotten most of my jobs from word of mouth and Craigslist too.

Sounds like experiences with these sites are generally not great, that's what I'm reading other places too so far. Well, worth trying just about anything once though I suppose.

Edit:
Wow, people have some absurd expectations. There was one that wanted a 15 page website for not more than $250, oh, and of course it shouldn't take more than a day to build. It's like wanting fine dining at the speed and cost of McDonald's.