I want to know what is your current most successful strategy for getting good side jobs? i.e. Do you have an Elance or Guru account? Do you comb craigslist for postings that are legit?<p>And what are some of the hurdles you are faced with that you have overcome? i.e. How to detect a client on craigslist won't pay...etc.<p>The reason I ask is I want to make a site similar to Elance but for local developers to compete against the craigslist people. With support by it's own developer community (i.e. developers are the moderators not moron staff). Also I have experience working for local recruiters and I want to use them to get jobs as well. Thoughts???<p>Also if anyone has any good ideas on how to do escrow without sucking at it please let me know.
My current strategy for finding side jobs is to wait for them to come to me. I have it easy -- I have widely recognized expertise in several narrow fields.<p>The biggest hurdle I've faced is US tax paperwork -- companies like to ask for W-8 forms. Fortunately I recently had a client with a tax lawyer on staff, and I now know that being a non-resident working outside of the country means that I'm not subject to US tax withholding and no paperwork is required.<p>I've never bothered with escrow; if I'm sufficiently uncertain about a potential client that I would even consider escrow, it's a client I don't want. This is in part because of the nature of the work I do -- fly-by-night operations generally can't afford my rates and don't need my expertise anyway.
I would recommend networking within a local programming user group (Python, Ruby, Cocoa, etc). Introduce yourself at a meeting or on the mailing list letting people know just a little about your background and that you're looking for a side project and would be interested in getting in touch with anyone who knows of an opportunity.
I've had a number of recruiters contact me through LinkedIn. There are also language/framework/technology-specific sites like <a href="http://djangopeople.net/" rel="nofollow">http://djangopeople.net/</a>. I've gotten a number of calls through that site, including the one that led to my current side job.
I've never tried it but is this similar to what you are looking for? <a href="http://www.peopleperhour.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.peopleperhour.com/</a>