Remote Project Level Work?

Genjuro Kibagami asks: "With regards to the current environment in the tech sector and the difficulties finding good positions, I was curious if anyone had taken to running freelance work from their own computers at home? I'm not talking about your regular dodgy fly by night 'Make up to 10,000$ per week with no risk!' type thing. But perhaps problem solving, coding, professional advice, or remote administration / fix functions, payment via paypal or some such thing. Any assistance appreciated."

Comments

New Ideas

[RaboKrabekian]

I'm starting to get involved with a company that is trying to build an Ebay-like system for technology support.

Basically users would use the website to be partnered with service providers. Providers would bid on contracts - anything from as small as $100 on up - and the money would be held in escrow by the website until the work had been completed.

There are quite a few hurdles to solve - but it might end up being a great way for individual developers to farm out their talent and time and make money on a case by case basis.

slashad

[viperblades]

Hi i need a job my resume is attached please post it on the front page of slashdot

Compete with whom?

[eyepeepackets]

You're going to be making a whole little money if you're up against overseas IT workers: Chinese, Philipinos, Indians, Pakistanis, Brits, French, Germans, sheesh, the whole planet.

Bet that Indian dude undercuts you by 80% of what you expect to make.

Otherwise, good luck and best wishes,

Elance

[roachmotel3]

You should check out www.elance.com -- though I've heard lately that it's getting flooded with lots of entry level people doing the low-bid-wins-regardless-of-output sort of thing.

yup

[tongue]

Yeah, I do just that sort of thing. Basically I freelance for a friend I met on the internet who knows only the barest basics about web applications yet somehow finds himself as the owner of a web company. Essentially I maintain these sites when theres a problem, and he does the bulk of the changes such as "change 'the' on this page to 'a'". When there's larger amounts of development to be done than i can handle with my present job (which i also telecommute to) I have him send it out to another agency in his area, then I maintain their work. works out pretty well, puts an extra 12k a year into my pocket, and everybody's happy.

Tried this.. customers balk.

[Nonesuch]

This can work, but I find that a lot of clients are more comfortable working with somebody when you can have live, in-person meetings at the outset and then as project status and progress indicate. This tends to limit the potential customer base.

I've had a number of long-term remote host/site administration gigs and a few short "web development" projects that worked out very well, even though the client was several time zones away.

A friend referred the client, we discuss the project on the phone, fax a contract back and forth to set rates, duration, and scope, then mostly just do status updates by email.

This works for web development and for system administration because the client is more likely to be accustomed to everything being online and remote, and in thise case, they trust me because of the personal referral. I'm not sure this approach would work as well for other types of projects.

IMHO, remote freelancing has many of the same drawbacks as corporate telecommuting -- most managers just aren't ready for this.