dilettante
MIS
I was wondering what others think of those web sites that post IT "one offs" and odd jobs. These are mostly software development, web design, and so on. In many cases they use an auction format.
At first they seemed like a good way to pick up some extra work. Very soon I noticed:
* The pay (maximum bid) is usually absurdly low. Often $100 to $500 US for things that would take one heck of a lot more than 10 or 20 hours.
* People with no business bidding often bid things down even further. Recently these sites stopped disclosing details of existing bids.
* Very often a "job" is posted saying "well, the last guys never finished" or "the last guys made a mess" or "these other guys made it work but it is awful and the documentation was never delivered." Plenty of indication that people are low-balling these things and can't deliver.
And my favorite of all time:
* Develop this general-purpose, reusable thingy for me. By the way I want the source and all rights to the software.
On this last point I can only imagine the buyer is after one of two things. Maybe they want a competitive edge and don't want you reselling to the other guy across town or across the country. Maybe they think they'll resell it and get rich off your efforts.
I suspect that in many cases it is the latter.
But what happens is:
* YOU lose an opportunity to make money off your work.
* FUTURE CUSTOMERS lose out because you can't resell the solution to them (perhaps with customization services) at a good low price.
I mean geeze. I might be willing to spend some time on something and sell it at $200 a pop if I could resell it. Especially if the topic was something interesting. That $200 would be going into 5 hours of customization and business overhead at $40/hr. This is a very reasonable rate for quality work. I've "eaten" the development costs myself at that!
So my questions about this are:
* Isn't it too bad this sort of skills/services market is a mess? Or don't you think it's a mess?
* Shouldn't there be a way to keep people out of the market who ruin it for both "Buyers" and "Sellers?" It sounds like conditions are as miserable for one as for the other.
* Don't you agree that payment ought to be a lot higher for projects where all rights to the code are transferred? The idea here being if I can resell my efforts I can charge a lot less. Maybe even the ridiculous prices these people want the stuff for?
* Or is the best answer "fuggedaboutit" and just avoid these sources of small jobs?
Some good points though about this type of job board include:
* You can take it or leave it. If it looks like a quagmire just don't bid. You aren't committed until you win the bid.
* You can get some idea about what the buyer wants before bidding. This lets you focus on what you know how and want to do. Watch out for traps here though.
* You could get some experience with a technology you've just picked up. I'd hope you were sure you were good at it before wasting a buyer's time and money though.
* By nature most of these jobs are "telecommuting" jobs. This opens up a larger market for your skills than just in and around town.
At first they seemed like a good way to pick up some extra work. Very soon I noticed:
* The pay (maximum bid) is usually absurdly low. Often $100 to $500 US for things that would take one heck of a lot more than 10 or 20 hours.
* People with no business bidding often bid things down even further. Recently these sites stopped disclosing details of existing bids.
* Very often a "job" is posted saying "well, the last guys never finished" or "the last guys made a mess" or "these other guys made it work but it is awful and the documentation was never delivered." Plenty of indication that people are low-balling these things and can't deliver.
And my favorite of all time:
* Develop this general-purpose, reusable thingy for me. By the way I want the source and all rights to the software.
On this last point I can only imagine the buyer is after one of two things. Maybe they want a competitive edge and don't want you reselling to the other guy across town or across the country. Maybe they think they'll resell it and get rich off your efforts.
I suspect that in many cases it is the latter.
But what happens is:
* YOU lose an opportunity to make money off your work.
* FUTURE CUSTOMERS lose out because you can't resell the solution to them (perhaps with customization services) at a good low price.
I mean geeze. I might be willing to spend some time on something and sell it at $200 a pop if I could resell it. Especially if the topic was something interesting. That $200 would be going into 5 hours of customization and business overhead at $40/hr. This is a very reasonable rate for quality work. I've "eaten" the development costs myself at that!
So my questions about this are:
* Isn't it too bad this sort of skills/services market is a mess? Or don't you think it's a mess?
* Shouldn't there be a way to keep people out of the market who ruin it for both "Buyers" and "Sellers?" It sounds like conditions are as miserable for one as for the other.
* Don't you agree that payment ought to be a lot higher for projects where all rights to the code are transferred? The idea here being if I can resell my efforts I can charge a lot less. Maybe even the ridiculous prices these people want the stuff for?
* Or is the best answer "fuggedaboutit" and just avoid these sources of small jobs?
Some good points though about this type of job board include:
* You can take it or leave it. If it looks like a quagmire just don't bid. You aren't committed until you win the bid.
* You can get some idea about what the buyer wants before bidding. This lets you focus on what you know how and want to do. Watch out for traps here though.
* You could get some experience with a technology you've just picked up. I'd hope you were sure you were good at it before wasting a buyer's time and money though.
* By nature most of these jobs are "telecommuting" jobs. This opens up a larger market for your skills than just in and around town.
