Ask HN: Freelancing, where, how and should I?

1. Start on a small project and work your way up

2. Try to work for someone you know, so you can make your beginner mistakes

3. You can't compete with $5 and hour, but anyone hiring you is going to be paying for the fact that they can see you face-to-face (i.e. you're selling the service and hand holding as much as the code)

4. Once you feel comfortable the branch out

I'm slightly younger than you, but I'm emerging from the same situation and I'd like to talk to you. My email is on my profile. Unlike you, I didn't go to college, so that made things worse. I feel I've wasted the last 3-4 years, but I'm trying to turn things around. I'm convinced that my stagnation happened due to not being sure if I wanted to be a designer or a developer, and if I wanted to get a real job or start my own business.

Anyway, I'm a designer with some knowledge of web development. I'm not a great developer, but I'm trying to become a better developer, and in the process, a better designer. Let's share the ride.

I started out on rentacoder.com (now vworker.com) - I found that I could look for local work and I didn't have to be the cheapest. The first few jobs I worked on were very low value, but it helped build my rating up. All in all I probably only earned a couple thousand dollars while at uni but for me back then that was a lot of money.

Personally I started on Elance and while there are people charging ridiculous low amounts I just priced what I felt I could do it for at a fair rate that was still competitive but enough for me to find it still worthwhile. Sure I did not get a lot of jobs, but I did get a few and those were enough to get onto the ladder.

From those jobs I built up a network of clients which have slowly expanded due to things like word of mouth and recommendations.

I got my first few jobs with no portfolio(heck I still don't have a public one) or degree.

My advice to you would be just dive in, price what will make it worth doing to you and then once you have some experience in the field and network of clients you can raise your prices.

Many people wouldn't want to hire a distant foreigner to do their coding. Many wouldn't know how to anyway. What you will provide is face-to-face assurance, fast response time, speak their language and most important of all have an ongoing relationship with them.

By relationship, I'm not suggesting you make love to them and have their babies. Its not that kind of relationship. I'm suggesting that you support the project long after its finished. That's what most of your clients will want, so be prepared for that. Good luck.

I started out on Elance many years ago and to be honest it's pretty tough to make a decent living off.

If I were you I'd try getting out and about locally and meet people face to face. Lots of developers have too much work that they'd be happy to load off onto someone else who's competent. Try looking for local developer meetups or user groups.

You say you're based in Europe but you don't mention where, some places are better than others for finding work. Spain is pretty bad for example from what I hear whereas the UK is pretty good. Also in a particular country the number of jobs and quality will vary from city to city.

You could do worse than go to one of the places where there is a lot of development work, getting a courier job or anything and meet people until you get the work you want.

I have hired freelancers from US & India for my project via elance,freelancer - Few suggestions/comments -

* Even if the freelancer doesn't have any previous reviews on the site,I'll look for his oss contributions or 'github' projects or contributions to stackoverflow or other forums.

* I don't want to hire 5$ per hr programmer , simply because of their low rate. I prefer good and reliable person even though cost will be little higher.

* Quality of work is important, Though I'm an Indian,I have to admit the fact that US freelancer did great job compared to Indian freelancer.

* If you want to stick to python please don't put Windows admin on your skills page.It will scare people like me.Please concentrate on specific set of 'related'-skills (Python,Web Scraping,jQuery / Prototype,HTML5,CSS).

Best of Luck!

ps: For your first customer begin with 15$-20$ per hr. Once you get reviews,slowly increase the rate :)

I've been freelancing since 17, and most of my work has come from word of mouth. Tell your family and friends that your looking for work and have faith in your abilities. I never spent time on going for the low quality jobs on elance or similar because I learned early on that you shouldn't be trying to compete based on price. Charge high prices and you will get more respect and quality gigs.

Just try this: come to Tajikistan and I'll chop off your finger. I promise, it will change the way you feel about the most capable tool you have - YOUR BODY!

or... Post an ad in most popular (non-geek and geek) local newspapers/social groups/newsletters something like...

Pay me to learn quickly and properly (in person): 1. Choosing your best laptop/mobile; 2. Installing/Removing and using ANY program; 3. "0" to power-user of MS-Office and Internet; 4. Special: Find and download ANYTHING that the web has; 5. Special: Web development and e-commerce from scratch to a working online store.

Freelancing isn't just about design/code (I'm a 10+ yr.exp. freelance translator, faaaar from best ones :)))

You'll find good people in need of such skills and YOU need to meet NEW people! How can they know about your soul, voice and smell? (forking your repos?). Be NICE and friendly (not confident!), keep doing mistakes! And "surprise", girls want to learn too! Basta! :))