I used to do a lot of contract work. I can't tell you what you should do - but here is what i did and it worked for me<p>Two approaches:<p>1) Work for one large client and essentially become an employee (consider this. a lot of startups pay good money for remote employees)<p>2) Work for multiple clients<p>Focusing on #2 here<p>Core rule: You want to be paid premium for quality and service.<p>Avoid marketplaces - it's very hard to compete on quality here.<p>Niche - the more focused you are on a (profitable) niche the better you can charge premium for domain competence<p>As thibaut_barrere mentioned - Build a brand - i would even go further - create an agency like brand. At the point is stopped saying "I" but said "we" i was able to charge more.<p>Dont charge by the hour but by the value - most developers charge their time - you want to charge the value you provide to the client. Read up on "willingness to pay"<p>Most important: Deliver as promised and always try to over-deliver in service, quality, etc. Eg try to understand why the client asks for features and not only what features she/he asks for - you might be able to come up with better solutions or anticipate future requests. Any successful project should usually lead to improved reputation and more projects and clients.<p>Good luck!
Personal networks.<p>I came into Syracuse knowing nobody and nothing.<p>I had never done any app making as of January 2015. I had done some wordpress stuff, but just the basics.<p>And I had (and have) no CS degree.<p>I now make a living on contract work. I did it by going to local meetups and introducing myself as a freelance web developer. Nevermind that I hadn't done freelance web development ever. I kept going to meetups for month and still attend a monthly hacker meetup. I participated in hackathons without really knowing how to program.<p>But all along the way I met people more experienced than I am and picked up two clients along the way. I think one thing that I do differently to most is that I charge a high rate (I always quote $150/hr). I am willing to negotiate lower than that but its a starting point. I have been paid that in the past for less complicated work like hiring developers and being a project manager.<p>What am I saying? Your questions is what sites to use? Just one: meetup.com
HN - <a href="http://hnhiring.me/" rel="nofollow">http://hnhiring.me/</a><p>Remote OK - <a href="https://remoteok.io/" rel="nofollow">https://remoteok.io/</a><p>Stack Overflow - <a href="https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?allowsremote=True" rel="nofollow">https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?allowsremote=True</a><p>LiquidTalent - <a href="http://www.liquidtalent.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.liquidtalent.com/</a><p>Working Not Working - <a href="http://workingnotworking.com" rel="nofollow">http://workingnotworking.com</a><p>Hired - <a href="https://hired.com/contract-jobs" rel="nofollow">https://hired.com/contract-jobs</a><p>Gigster - <a href="https://gigster.com/" rel="nofollow">https://gigster.com/</a><p>Mirror - <a href="http://mirrorplacement.com/" rel="nofollow">http://mirrorplacement.com/</a><p>Metova - <a href="http://metova.com/" rel="nofollow">http://metova.com/</a><p>Mokriya - <a href="http://mokriya.com/" rel="nofollow">http://mokriya.com/</a><p>HappyFunCorp - <a href="http://happyfuncorp.com" rel="nofollow">http://happyfuncorp.com</a><p>Savvy Apps - <a href="http://savvyapps.com/" rel="nofollow">http://savvyapps.com/</a><p>Clevertech - <a href="http://www.clevertech.biz/" rel="nofollow">http://www.clevertech.biz/</a><p>Workstate - <a href="http://www.workstate.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.workstate.com/</a><p>AngelList - <a href="https://angel.co/jobs" rel="nofollow">https://angel.co/jobs</a><p>I know you're just asking for sites and not approaches to finding contract work, but getting in with a very promising early stage company through contract-to-hire [that allows remote] is probably the most sustainable way to go.<p>Doing one contract project after another at an hourly rate just doesn't scale well financially and finding a next decent client can be like pulling teeth.
I've been contracting, consulting & freelancing for the last 10 years (5 years completely remote). My advice is to avoid "searching contract work", but reverse the situation completely: make your new clients find you instead. I wrote about this in depth here: <a href="https://www.wisecashhq.com/blog/how-to-have-clients-find-you-rather-than-you-chasing-them" rel="nofollow">https://www.wisecashhq.com/blog/how-to-have-clients-find-you...</a>.<p>Sites /can/ work (I know people who make a good living off certain sites), but nothing will beat self-managed marketing on the long run.<p>Feel free to email me (see profile) if you have specific questions.<p>Good luck!
I posted this article on medium the other day that contains all the advice I've compiled after 8 years of freelancing as a software developer: <a href="https://medium.com/@marknutter/advice-for-the-freelance-developer-68b63c69b050" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@marknutter/advice-for-the-freelance-deve...</a><p>In short, to answer your question, I never used any sites to find contract work. I got all my leads through face-to-face interaction with real humans in the real world, and a good deal of it came from word-of-mouth because of exceeding my clients' expectations.<p>Contracting sites marginalize developers and the type of clients who troll them are typically the kind who will try to squeeze as much work out of developers for as little money as they can. On top of that, developers are generally a pretty introverted crowd, so the number of introverted and talented developers who troll those sites looking for work is far greater than the number of outgoing, personable developers in your local area. Which group do you want to compete against?
Welcome to HN! You'll find that this was asked previously:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8908279" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8908279</a>
I have a different approach to finding contract work, particularly as I don't have much work experience. Upwork and similar websites have not worked well for me.<p>Instead, I browse job boards and when I find an interesting role I contact the company. If they are interested in my background and the fit is right, I sell them on setting up a contract relationship instead of full-time employee. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. The important part is being honest that you are looking to work as a contractor, not an employee.<p>Job boards to consider: AngelList, WeWorkRemotely etc. If you're looking for a list of job boards (<a href="http://nodesk.co" rel="nofollow">http://nodesk.co</a> has lots and so does this article by teleport <a href="http://teleport.org/2015/03/best-sites-for-remote-jobs/" rel="nofollow">http://teleport.org/2015/03/best-sites-for-remote-jobs/</a>)
The one thing I always tell anyone on the job hunt (which in your case is finding contract work), which few ever seem to take me up on: Informational Interviews.<p>These are informal "Can I take you out to coffee?" talks with people in your industry to see what they are working on, what is happening with them, what is going on in the industry. Every job I have ever gotten is through informal meetings with people I have met through my network (whether its your old job, your friends, parents, relatives, or other).<p>At the end of every one I ask: "Is there anyone else you think I should talk to?" and "Do you currently have any opportunities at your company for me?". Rinse repeat.
I guarantee that after investing in 30 informational interviews you will find work.
I would avoid sites like Upwork (aka: odesk), elance, and anything similar like the plague unless working for less than minimum wage and dealing with morons is your idea of good contract work.<p>I suspect the secret to contract work success lies in having really good networking skills and a Rolodex of contacts from having worked in a given industry and having a reputation as someone who delivers. If you don't have that then you would probably have better luck finding reasonable work by going to meetups or similar industry events to build a network of professional contacts. The only way I know of to do this online is to become a notable contributor to prominent open source projects and then use that to leverage paid work.
I recently made it through the Toptal (<a href="http://www.toptal.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.toptal.com</a>) screening process but haven't taken on any work through their site yet, the hourly rate that you can ask there seems to be quite reasonable though compared to sites like upwork.com, where you will mostly compete with people that are willing to work for 10 $ / hour (which for someone living in a developed country is just not possible).<p>For Germany, Gulp (www.gulp.de) is a very good site where you can actually find clients that are willing to pay a reasonable hourly rate (they even have a rate calculator on their site).
What's the context?
Which country are you in?
What are your skills?<p>If you're in the UK...<p>I've been contracting about 3 years now and started it the simple (and probably dumb) way - stick a resume up on jobsite.co.uk, wait for agents to call. Lots will. Be nice to them on the phone but be firm about what rates and locations you're willing to work. You'll get lots of useless ones who haven't even bothered to read it, but no matter, you'll learn to filter them out pretty quickly. Remember the good ones. Rinse, repeat.<p>I've had two contracts now through reputation, which is quite nice, but getting contracts from previous workmates isn't a panacea. One of them was the most boring thing I've ever done in my life (worse than shelf-stacking in a warehouse) and I quit after three weeks because I was literally unable to complete the work it was so dull. I told the client that I was poor value for money and a recent graduate would be a better choice. The other one was good though!<p>Also, make sure you're prepared for some time off between contracts, it's pretty much going to happen.
Anyone, currently looking for a remote front-end developer? I am full-stack developer (tending towards front-end nowadays), I live in Lagos, Nigeria and looking for remote work.
I have a strong Javascript(NodeJS, AngularJs) background with over 3yrs experience.<p>Portfolio: <a href="http://goo.gl/OmEpz8" rel="nofollow">http://goo.gl/OmEpz8</a><p>Git: <a href="https://goo.gl/oYbi8F" rel="nofollow">https://goo.gl/oYbi8F</a><p>some side projects I have done:<p><a href="http://goo.gl/TGRSWg" rel="nofollow">http://goo.gl/TGRSWg</a><p><a href="http://goo.gl/kHcn5M" rel="nofollow">http://goo.gl/kHcn5M</a><p><a href="http://goo.gl/eUPozF" rel="nofollow">http://goo.gl/eUPozF</a><p><a href="http://goo.gl/6orP0y" rel="nofollow">http://goo.gl/6orP0y</a><p>Have done more complex stuff but requires user to login.
For those who are London based, I recently launched a mailing list for members of the London Hacker News Meetup, which sends out contracts based on your language preference. It's averaging about 10 jobs a month at the moment however I am working on getting it to about 100 pm by the end of the year. The current sign up page is at <a href="http://eepurl.com/byq7Af" rel="nofollow">http://eepurl.com/byq7Af</a>
A lot of people are saying job websites don't work. I don't agree with them.<p>I've been consulting over a year (US-based, near NYC) and I've found plenty of very good clients (small and large) through freelancing websites.<p>Few loose guidelines I've used to help me with applying to gigs:<p>1) Evaluate if you think the person understands the value of the work, and only reply if you can somewhat-confidently answer "yes."<p>2) Reply to gigs that say "$5" or some other crazy low number, as long as they seem competent at explaining their project.<p>3) ALWAYS follow up with your past clients! Ask them for new work regularly.
I've never used a website. Reach out to everyone you know. Buy them a coffee, mention you are getting into contracting, ask who else you should talk to, thank them, repeat.
I get my clients primarily through gigster (<a href="http://www.gigster.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.gigster.com</a>), referrals, and my website.
Depends on how I'm feeling. If I'm not looking for very interesting work or I'm saving for travel, I have a few large clients (5000+ employees) that always have projects going. They are the bread and butter of my contract work and I'm known across pretty much all of the IT senior management at those companies.<p>If I'm looking for more cutting edge, interesting work I'll go out and find either a company, industry or project I'm interested in and try and insert myself into it somehow. Usually through meetups, over coffee or in one case just showing up (probably wouldn't recommend that, depends on the people - in my case it was 4.30PM on a Friday and I brought beer).<p>Usually I'll either do it gratis (if it's non-profit or public domain) or cut my rates if I'm learning on-the-job.<p>When I started pretty much all of my job offers and contracts came by word of mouth. I only had to kick down doors a few times before I had developed a reputation as a good worker. This involved cold-emailing, calling and meeting people at various industry events.
Some people at HN will tell you the opposite but I find two of my best clients at Upwork.<p>I didn't bid to low quality jobs and once I finish my job I offer them an maintenance contract outside upwork.
I like to go to places like upwork or elance and seek out people in the US with low rep that haven't done a lot of jobs. A lot of times those people are ones for big companies that are stuck in a situation that need a quick hack put together. Do a good job and you get put on their 'list' for future use.
Does anyone have good place to look for contract work in field of UX & Product design? I'm UX designer currently living in Prague, looking for remote work (and I'm open to relocate). My portfolio: <a href="http://podorsky.cz/" rel="nofollow">http://podorsky.cz/</a>
A bit of tangent but some advice needed. So I've been contracting out a bit on UpWork - used all the bahavioral hacks in the book: using "we" etc... It's worked amazing for getting clients. Not bad at sales. I've got one client now -- a hedge fund -- that's being very stingy. We agree on a fixed price for a particular scope/milestone, the release is shipped, but they come back and say "this is great, but we need this one additional feature or this whole release is worthless." Usually I, I mean "we", oblige. But it's getting ridiculous. What do we do? Play hardball and say no shipment until payment? Or just ditch the client. The day rate is plummeting mind you, closing in on free. Total contract size in the low XXks.
I tackle this sideways by going to Meetup or Eventbrite. Specifically I go to meetups and events that potential buyers go to and let them know what I do (I don’t try to sell my services on first contact). It takes some pruning but after a while my preferred clients are the ones I keep in contact with and we start working. I get less work through this than just by referral though.<p>Depending on your living situation and time available I’d recommend trying to establish your own identity so you don’t have to go through a marketplace for contract work. Instead you’ll have the contract work come to you and not filtered through a middleman that would take a cut out of your work. I would never recommend someone go through fiverr, Upwork or these other marketplaces unless they were just moonlighting.
HN who's hiring threads, exclusively<p>update: I post my pitch in the freelancer thread and potential clients contact me, for example <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9998249" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9998249</a>
One thing that I think is valuable when looking for contracting work (what I call consulting) is to learn how people that have been highly successful in consulting built their business. Checkout episodes 4 (Marcus Zarra) and 5 (Michael Fellows) of Consult:
<a href="http://consultpodcast.com" rel="nofollow">http://consultpodcast.com</a><p>or<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/consult/id1018251429?mt=2#_=_" rel="nofollow">https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/consult/id1018251429?mt=...</a>
I've had good success hiring developers for short-term project work through <a href="https://gun.io" rel="nofollow">https://gun.io</a>.
I'd like a way, similar to the first of month feature (where employment possibilities are posted on HN) where you could post requirements for a software project and get responses from the hacker news community (or at least links to either relevant profiles or reputable hackers as suggestions).<p>Edit: I mean on HN similar to the first of month feature not a site (I know these are out there obviously).
Wrote about this recently: <a href="http://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-leads/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-le...</a><p>The gist of it is, as many here are saying: Don't use marketplace sites. Instead show off your knowledge in a way that gets attention of potential customers, then they'll come to you.
I've done this by reaching out to friends and old work colleagues to see what they're up to and offering to help. Because it's people you know it is much easier to make arrangements you will both be happy with. After 15 years working in software that turns out to be quite a lot of people, especially if you take the time to regularly reach out to people via LinkedIn etc.
Tip: Have an Indeed.com resume verbose with your areas of expertise. Build a project using Parse.com or the Twitter API? Put that in there. As an employer, one of my more successful methods is to search for specific skill sets that a project may require, then reach out to a small handful of developers who hit on those searches with a pitch to why -new project- is exciting.
If you are looking for frontend contracts, in particular - angularjs,<p>I would recommend <a href="http://AngJobs.com" rel="nofollow">http://AngJobs.com</a><p>disclaimer: I run AngJobs, <a href="https://github.com/victorantos/AngJobs" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/victorantos/AngJobs</a>
LinkedIn.<p>I send a LinkedIn message to some of my contacts I'd like to work with, telling them it's been a while and that I'd like to get in touch, and offer them to take a cup of coffee with them this week.<p>During the meeting, tell them about your freelance status and that you're looking for work.<p>Good luck!
I'm fairly new to consulting (been doing it for almost a year now). I'm on my second gig right now, and both of them are through Toptal. For the first one, a recruiter reached out to me with a gig, the second one I got thanks to an article I wrote in their blog.
Anybody knows of (good) sites for remote server (Linux esp.) contract work (sysadmin/devops/optimization/security/reliability)? if there are none, anybody interested in one?
My way was working at several successful startups, and <i>then</i> going into contracting. So I had contacts at every level of Silicon Valley. Might not work for everybody.
I've been contracting/consulting for a couple of years now. Most my contracts have come through referrals (of friends) and sometimes recruiters. However, I was able to start my contracting career thanks to a contract that came through Toptal. This allowed me to quit my job and do this full-time.<p>Here's my list of resources that I would be looking at if
I needed to start looking for a contract immediately:<p>Boards:<p>- Authentic Jobs: <a href="http://www.authenticjobs.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.authenticjobs.com/</a><p>- StackOverflow Careers: <a href="http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?type=contract&allowsremote=true" rel="nofollow">http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?type=contract&allowsre...</a><p>- We Work Remotely: <a href="https://weworkremotely.com/jobs/search?term=contract" rel="nofollow">https://weworkremotely.com/jobs/search?term=contract</a><p>- Angelist: <a href="https://angel.co/jobs" rel="nofollow">https://angel.co/jobs</a><p>- Github Jobs: <a href="https://jobs.github.com/" rel="nofollow">https://jobs.github.com/</a><p>- Hired: <a href="https://hired.com/contract-jobs" rel="nofollow">https://hired.com/contract-jobs</a><p>Networks:<p>- Toptal: <a href="https://www.toptal.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.toptal.com/</a> (I'm a member of Toptal's network)<p>- Gigster: <a href="https://www.trygigster.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.trygigster.com/</a> (haven't used it yet)<p>- Crew: <a href="https://crew.co/" rel="nofollow">https://crew.co/</a> (haven't used it yet)<p>Offline ideas:<p>- Approach companies at Meetups<p>- Meetups, meetups, meetups<p>- Pitch on forums<p>- Work with contract agencies<p>- Become a subcontractor<p>It also helps to work on branding yourself, blogging, and integrating into communities (like HN!). Generally, just becoming an authority on a topic and allowing people get to know you before they work with you helps a lot. Kind of like patio11 has done for himself around here. Then people start coming to you instead of the other way around.<p>I would also highly recommend looking at DevChat TV's Freelance podcasts for ideas, they're really great: <a href="https://devchat.tv/freelancers" rel="nofollow">https://devchat.tv/freelancers</a>
Fiverr (<a href="https://www.fiverr.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.fiverr.com/</a>), tasks usually take less than an hour and give me enough revenue to pay domains and hosting for my pet projects.