Python, ruby, php, scheme, c, c++, java.
Any ideas how quickly I could make the money off of something like elance (or how quickly you could, since we don't know our relative coding speeds)? Likewise for Mechanical Turk?
Any ideas how quickly I could make the money off of something like elance (or how quickly you could, since we don't know our relative coding speeds)? Likewise for Mechanical Turk?
We just started our open source task site but there are two notable tasks for the languages you listed: Fix Audio Sync against Video in live555.cpp, $500 http://nextsprocket.com/tasks/fix-audio-sync-against-video-i...
Nokogiri pure-Java version for JRuby, >$600 http://nextsprocket.com/tasks/nokogiri-pure-java-version-for...
the nokogiri problem's been around and people are dying for a good solution!
From a supplier point of view, there's two options - either going for fixed price bids for projects, or for bidding for stuff on an hourly basis.
In terms of rates we average about $20 an hour for top quality C++ stuff, about $17 for good Django/Python and about $12 for web-design/HTML. You need to subtract elance fees. But if you're good - it wouldn't be hard to earn a lot more than your target without having to work too hard.
Where you really pay is that elance takes something like 5-10% of whatever you earn for the job.
That said, I created an account and scored relatively highly on a few of the tests a while back. I've gotten invited to submit proposals for jobs on a regular basis ever since. (For example, I received 7 invitations last month.)
I usually turn down the invitations, as I have plenty of work, but one of my favorite clients found me through elance.
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/07/05/can-you-actually-e...
If it's like it was back then, I think you might be able to make $400 on it in a month. Not the quickest or most fun way to do it, though. I like the eBook idea.