Is it okay for me to initially charge low rates on an Elance? | Hacker News Reader

Is it okay for me to initially charge low rates on an Elance?

13 pointstommaxwell16 comments

Looking to make a side income doing freelance work, but compared to a lot of these people with lots of reviews it seems hard to break in. Is it okay to charge a little lower than I'd like to as well as make my proposals good to break in?

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It's a very tricky decision. When I first started freelancing, I charged a pretty low rate (~30/hr around SF), and it did get my started (getting great amounts of referrals etc). Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice my code quality b/c the amount of gigs I would work on at once in order to live here, and I noticed that the people who normally book low rate devs are the ones you REALLY don't want to deal with. So I would say never, ever ever charge a rate lower than you think you are worth. It may get you some gigs, but low rate attracts crappy projects/people. The people you generally want to work understands that high rate means better code/happier life in the long term.

> I noticed that the people who normally book low rate devs are the ones you REALLY don't want to deal with.

This sentiment ought to be highlighted. It gets repeated often enough on HN that some people here get sick of hearing it (search for patio11's "pathological customers/clients"). But there are always people who haven't encountered this idea, so I think it bears repeating: People looking for a basement bargain deal bring all kinds of other expectations that will markedly impact your patience/time. This has the effect of eating up any value you may have gotten out of charging a low rate to begin with.

I live in the Bay Area, so this hits close to home.

Some personal thoughts and opinions here:

People that go on Elance to find workers, well, they get what they pay for. I am sure that there are some great freelancers out there but you are far better to find yourself local clients, charge more, and get referrals.

Really, try face to face business first. More and more people are realizing that talking to India at 4am is pain in the ass. Also, a lot of people think that they can go on Elance and hire a guy that is charging 14 goats, and they expect this to be done as if they were paying him 100 goats.

However, face to face business will really depending on how you present yourself, your age and if you can sell.

All these websites: Elance, 99 designs, etc etc are making money for their co-founders (hopefully), and very little for freelancers. Getting 40 logos for 299 dollars? 40 people working for 299 and 1 of them is getting paid.

Don't sell yourself low.

PS. I deal with small businesses that tried these things, even larger companies that make millions of goats / year. And they tell me these stories after they hire me. I laugh! :)

I'm about to start attending meetups and other events, so with some networking and meeting new people that may help me out.

I've actually just started doing this as well, so I can relate. Rather than focusing on offering the cheapest rate, make sure that your proposal is rock solid.

Be picky in the jobs you choose, but once you decide to put your bid in, invest time to understand what the client wants and make sure your proposal reflects that. It's not always easy, because sometimes there's only very limited information. Just treat every bid like a job interview.

It's also perfectly OK and normal to charge a little lower at first, until you collect feedback and build yourself a good reputation. But make sure you set the right expectation. I always put my normal rate in the proposal, but reflect a discount where necessary to make sure that I remain competitive with the other bidders.

And last, make sure you deliver what you promise :)

This is my 3rd year on Elance as a fullstack developer with a main focus on backend, and last year I made around 80k. In the beginning, it was very hard to compete with established users and 10$/h developers. In Elance, having a track a record with high ratings is pretty important, so my first few jobs were some easy scripts that were guaranteed to be 5 stars (I made sure on the proposal that I don't care much about the price but that I need a good review)

After establishing a bit of credit, you should be picky on the projects you choose and make sure that you are not throwing a generic proposal. Treat each one uniquely. Have a resume/portfolio ready. Ask questions about the project and more importantly, give suggestions about pain points.

Fascinating - I have a dozen questions for you ! I will stick to three, but really desperate for high quality info on elance and the like

1. Roughly how many jobs a year do you take on?

2. What's the median price - and roughly how long does it take you to do (ie what's your daily rate?)

3. Are the projects / buyers high or low quality (I get the impression it's a lot of unrealistic projects or simple projects at 10dollars total

I assume you live in the Isle of Man ? This does not strike me as Vietnam-cheap-lifestyle so I am surprised to say least - is that 80k USD

(for non UK folks, Isle of Man is an island just off UK mainland near Scotland. It's basically same as living in UK For lifestyle purposes but technically it's its own independant region)

Ah, it's just happened to be my domain, I don't live in Isle of Man.

Yes, it is 80k USD. My rate usually revolves between 50/75$ hour, but I generally try to charge by week. Last year, I think i worked on 3-4 relatively full-size projects including:

- Backend for an iphone app - Backend/web frontend for a continuous event processor, a commercial offering in par with http://riemann.io/ - Backend/web app for a job board in restaurant industry

It is actually pretty easy to filter out low quality buyers: They will mass advertise the project for nickels and pennies. They will always try to negotiate the rate along the way. They won't answer your questions about the project details or simply have no clue.

What is the balance between filtering out and actual paid work? Most "normal" consultants expand to a point where full time bizdev is needed - what do you see as the equivalent here? Would you and two or three others with good reputations pay someone to filter elance for you?

What about expanding into more traditional bizdev?

Have you started to see word of mouth recommendations and repeat business, or is everything start-from-scratch?

I must say I am surprised - I have only ever browsed elance and the jobs you describe seem like hens teeth.

Are you afraid of the work not being there (ie exists really just not on elance) or is there a great deal of good quality work if you can find it?

Might have to sign up and see of course :-)

What kind(s) of people use Elance? Is the Bay Area that devoid of real jobs that someone would have to go on Elance to cobble together some projects for income? Or do most people use it to supplement their income? Or is it mainly for students with little experience who just want to build portfolios and make a little on the side? (Nothing wrong with any of these, I was just wondering.) Or is it people with bad reputations that can't get jobs otherwise. (That's probably the bad ones.)

The sooner you can you can ditch eLance, the better. Spending all your time writing well-thought-out proposals for people who simply want the cheap price is rather disheartening. You're better off finding clients in your local area. Go to meet ups, meet other devs, meet people within your own community. You'll have a much higher return.

Yes, you should underbid in the beginning, until you get a couple of jobs and good ratings.

I started a month ago, and was the hardest to get the first job. After that one, and good review from client, jobs started to come up more often.

So, keep trying, underbid in the beginning, and don't give up.

Thanks for the advice. Trying to get my first gig. :)

You can try building a good portfolio on your own site, and then linking to it from Elance. Might allow you to get better clients. Though from experience, those type of sites are filled with the kind of clients you dont want.

I'm also interested in this because the rates that some people post seem way too low. I've seen people post $14/hour or $1200 to create a fully featured youtube clone.

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