Now I need a few dollars to bootstrap my startup. So I started looking for mashup and web development contests. Ofcourse, you make money only if you win. But if you are dedicated you will win. The most important thing in contests is the idea and the way you present the idea as a working app.
You can't depend on contests if are looking for a way to feed yourself. I am just depending on them for that extra cash I need to bootstrap my idea into company.
http://programmableweb.com/contests lists mashup contests. http://99designs.com list webdesign contests (if anyone knows more just pour them in)
If you have chosen to do freelance work as your mainstream profession and looking for your first set of clients, then why don't build a portfolio first? Build an app that helps your kid brother in his geometry homework or build a webapp that does event management for locality... Just build anything to show-off your skills. And then show people your work, so when they look at your work, they 'must' feel that they have found a guy who can do it (you proved it with samples).
I have a question too. Does anyone know any agencies that deal with outsourcing freelance work? What are these agencies called?
For my money, the best people to talk to about freelance work are design firms, boutique consulting companies, and recruiters. They always seems to have some expertise they're missing and willing to subcontract out.
Make some calls to firms you trust or have heard of and ask. It may be harder in terms of effort, but I'd bet you'll land a better gig that way.
Clients come to me for work and all of my clients have come to me for repeat work after the fact. I give them my hourly rate, which is lower than most US-based coders but significantly hire than offshore, and an estimate of the total hours their project will require.
They either take it or leave it - no bidding and worrying about whether I'm going to pick that client up. There's a long line of potential clients behind him if he turns the offer down.
I guess the mentality is a bit different, in the way I freelance. Not to sound prudent, but I envision the relationship as the client competing for me, not I competing for the client. I don't need the money, it's a nicety - if the project doesn't interest me, the client seems like an idiot, or I'm just to busy, I can turn it down with no worries.
You can also try asking friends or acquaintances who are contracting if they have any overflow work or need a hand on any current projects. Offer to subcontract at a lower rate than the friend charges his/her client. (Just make sure the friend is allowed to hire subcontractors for the given job.)
Finally, try looking for part-time / contracting gigs on Craigslist.
I run a local networking group for freelancers ( http://www.brightonfarm.com ) so get a lot of work through that. If you can find some local freelancers, it's well worth teaming up with them as you'll either have complimentary skills or can refer work direct to each other when you're too busy.
I'm lucky because I live in an area with a lot of small tech companies, which is close to London which has a heck of a lot of work opportunities.
If you're trying to attract work when you don't know anyone locally, and you can't find any business networking groups, then mailing lists and forums can provide work. A simple way of getting is to post that you need some work (good for a short term boost.) More subtle is to put "I'm a freelance _____ programmer" in your signature on forums/e-mail with contact details and links to your website. I've had work from doing the latter, although I get better quality work from the other sources listed above.
You might find the sites http://www.freelanceswitch.com and http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk useful, they've both got podcasts as well.
[edit - getting links to work]
@walesmd Believe it or not I used to frequent the CodeIgniter forums when it was first starting out. I do see your name there alot. Although I forked CI and created my own private little framework. I recently came back and introduce the Functional PHP Extension library to the folks at CI(I'm currently the maintainer and contributer). Is there any work I can get via the CodeIgniter Forums?
@Jeffrey-dalton Hey Jeffrey, I will definitely look at Craigslist. Maybe you could give me some referrals? I would love to discuss this with you via email of course.
@sosueme I've done a fair amount of J2ME in a past life of mine. But now I'm pretty much focused on PHP development(please look at my reply to walesmd) and I've done alot of work using jQuery. I'm a US Citizen based here in South East Asia.
@xgamerx To be honest I haven't touched Prototype in while....fell in love with jQuery. I mostly do PHP(using forked CI) + jQuery. Maybe we could discuss this over email?