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Ask HN: Open and Free Freelancers Market

9 points by ricksharp ↗ HN
tl;dr - Is there an open/free job board for software development contractors/freelancers that promotes highest talent at highest pay (where the developer makes the top money not the company)?

- I want to find or create a job board where the top developers/engineers can win.

- I want the system to promote top talent, not cheap talent.

- I want the clients coming to that system to understand that top talent will save them and make them 1000x more value.

- I want developers to get paid 10x-100x more then a junior developer. (Because they can provide this 1000x more value). To be specific $100/hour - $1000/hour should be the norm.

- I want to be one of those developers.

So if this doesn't exist, I want to make it.

Here are some ideas:

- The system is 100% free and 100% open and belongs to the developers.

- Direct communication between client and freelancer would be encouraged. - Direct payment between client and freelancer would be encouraged. - Escrow solutions could be provided if needed. - Peer review processes could be deeply integrated in the system: - Peers could test and rate each other's skill levels in a mutually beneficial way. - Peers could promote and improve each other's Profiles (and which would generate a highly polished resume if used for traditional job applications).

I have other ideas about how to create a system that promotes top pay, top talent, and top performance. But I would love to hear feedback from the community here.

7 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 30.3 ms ] thread
randomerr
Fiverr and CraigsList already does most that. Freelancer and Indeed fits the other parts of your niche. How are you going make this solvent? What is your pricing model? What you want to do has been done before. But it usually dies on vine because it can't get the traction in the industry or folds on the bandwidth cost.

Sit down and write a full business plan on how you get your business going and keep it going. And yes, even non-profits have businesses plans.

ricksharp
Most of the sites charge a 10%-20% cut of the job, restrict direct communication, ban people regularly for stepping out of line, and are designed to make the owner a bunch of money (instead of the freelancer making good income and the client getting a good product).

I want to build a site by developers for developers. I would make money by doing contracts myself, as would all developers who worked on the site.

We would all benefit by cutting out the middle man and offering a premium service where we can't compete today.

The overhead of a site like this is minimal and bandwidth costs would be paid on a volunteer basis (sponsored by developers/freelancers like me).

randomerr
Do have a business plan put together yet? What will be your costs? Servers platform, bandwidth, database, administrative (you need paid)? How are going to make money when everything is voluntary? Please talk with a mentor at the link below:

https://www.score.org/find-mentor

If you factor all that in you you have to charge 10%-20% to fund the base services?. If have an abusive client or contractor are you going let them go to harass? Yes, then you'll have low overhead but a bad reputations for not protecting your people. No, then you'll look restrictive and have a higher administrative cost.

Don;t forget admistrative costs. Your time costs money. It also keeps you away from working on contract.

Your point about 'designed to make the owner a bunch of money': you do realize that most of these site work on 1-10% profit margin with the owner putting in 60-100 hour a week for 5-10 years before they turn a profit if ever. Here's a good read on that:

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/financial-management/long-bu...

I really think you need to set done with a pen and paper with electronic devices turned off and write down a list of similar services. Write down what you like and dislike about them. Then write out what why they would do something you dislike.

odonnellryan
No there are not really great websites for this.

There are a lot of problems that go beyond development and even the social-aspect of the site.

I'd love to discuss more, as I have had similar ideas for creating a job board such as this. Send me an email: ryan@luma.im

BjoernKW
Each of those so far over time has devolved into a place where recruiters try to promote their projects in order to attract developers they in turn can sell as an anonymous commodity to their respective clients.

The solution to the problem you're describing isn't getting freelance developers on yet another job board but precisely the opposite: Instead of marketing them as an anonymous bundle of TLAs have them actively market themselves as valuable problem solvers with specific experience and niche specialisations.

A possible approach for achieving this could range from individual coaching to courses about sales and marketing as well as helping freelance developers with creating compelling websites and online presences for their businesses.

ricksharp
Of course it would be ideal if freelancers could just find contracts because they have a great portfolio, but that isn't reality.

It has to be a big site in order to compete with the SEO and marketing budgets of big agencies.

Individual freelancers don't stand a chance of being found.

So I want to create a place where we can be found and also promote each other.

More importantly, it needs to be a site where clients can post potential jobs maybe with a process of clarifying job description and help identifying a realistic budget.

BjoernKW
> Of course it would be ideal if freelancers could just find contracts because they have a great portfolio, but that isn't reality.

Then why not create that reality instead?

> Individual freelancers don't stand a chance of being found.

Steady and consistent efforts (blog posts, involvement in open source work and similar public projects, talks etc.) accompanied by networking and customer referrals go a long way. This isn't something that can be achieved quickly but over time and through consistent work you can build a decent public presence as a freelancer / consultant.

> So I want to create a place where we can be found and also promote each other.

Sites like this are ten a penny. How would you compete with the SEO and marketing budgets of big agencies yourself?