Show HN: Wheelhouse – A directory of freelancer-created products

Creator here - here's a blog post explaining the reasoning for the site - http://knowingwhattosay.com/confessions

Basically as a freelance client hiring a freelancer is a weird proposition because you don't know what you're getting before it's too late. Productized services take care of this because they outline exactly what you're getting before you buy.

I think the landing needs some work. The value prop of the landing page is vaguely discussing a service product in a similar pattern to Fiverr.com - however the listings are from very experienced consultants, and the productized service offerings they give are very different from the Fiverr model.

High end consultants will offer packages like a "Roadmap Session", which is typically just a flat rate consulting session where the deliverable is a polished project proposal, with the anticipation that the client will gain confidence and hire the consultant for the full project proposed in the roadmap.

In the case of Fiverr they do service-as-product really well, however the suppliers basically use a grittier version same loss-leader method of charging for the $5 product package on Fiverr and using that as a gateway to having the client hire them on at full rate for other projects longer term. (Though in many cases they just sell simple info products)

The difference with Fiverr is the client often gets a deliverable that they need right then and there like a design or a video etc. A high end consultant rarely delivers something like "a new website design" as a product package, they'll instead deliver a powerpoint presentation about how to approach your new website.

A high quality custom website design can't be just packaged up, it takes a lot of time and effort. There are nuances and requirements that change from client to client and different levels of value contributed. Charging a single flat fee for every website would be a disaster. But a proposal wrapped up as a roadmap is pretty cut and dry and pays dividends with more client work.

So those are the types of products you're getting on this website. They just need to be communicated in a more honest way

I'm not getting it - the marketing says products are already created, so you can jut buy them, but the front page is giving you options to purchase consulting sessions from freelancers, not products.

I feel its somewhat like fiverr.com!