cefarix
September 2nd, 2006, 03:33 AM
I have an idea for a section of my website network (called the Mindblowers Network). The mainpage of that whole network is here (http://mindblowers.net/).
Anyways, the new section is gonna be called eWork Zone. So one thing I'd like from you guys is to tell me how good a layout that is the same or similar to the layout of the mainpage going to be? And here's what the eWork Zone is all about:
You might have seen rentacoder.com, guru.com, or some other similar website. I've been using both of those, and made some money (I think I got lucky to find a loyal client!), but there are some severe (IMO) shortcomings of both websites, as well as others I've stumbled across.
Firstly, navigation sucks. RentACoder.com is the best, but even its navigation for searching through all those bids posted and finding one that matches your skillsets and pays enough requires several hours of reading literally 100s of project descriptions.
Second, the most popular and easy to use of these websites, RentACoder.com, are focused more towards project posters rather than the programmers/bidders. They're pricing options are also somewhat vague I think. This results in ridiculously underpriced projects. You've got programmers making bids for $10 that then don't finish the project and the poster ends up having to do a re-post, so the project listings are also littered with re-posts of the same projects. Often, the original poster of a project goes "dead" leaving serious programmers who had post their bids very frustrated for having spent so much time and placing a bid on that project...
So here's my idea for a BETTER website... All freelancers that register on my website will need to specify an initial skillset and pay a small registration fee to confirm that they are serious. They will then need to pass a series of small tests to make sure they confirm to some basic requirements for their given skillset. After all this is done, they will be approved to bid on projects listed in the website. For posters of projects, the project they post will also be posted for some fee. There will be a minimum project of about $50 and every project will have to have a listed price. A price range can be setup around the price, but the minimum can't go below the $50 mark (or whatever minimum I might set later), and the price range can't be too big (so you don't have a project going from $100 to $1000...which is crazy and invites horrendous under-bidding which is annoying to other programmers). The specs for the project should be clear and the skillset specified should pertain to the job at hand. Multiple listings of a project won't be allowed.
Unlike most other freelancing sites....my site would make a profit only from the programmer registration fee and the project posting fee. After that, the programmer and the poster are free to communicate with each other in any manner they want to, and they can use their own methods for fund transfer. So no restrictions on that from my site's part.
Well, this is just the general idea, still to be fleshed out quite a bit. Wanted to see what you guys thought of it, and if any of you might considering joining such a website as a freelancer or consider posting projects on it?
Thanks for readin this long post and taking the time to comment on it :)
Anyways, the new section is gonna be called eWork Zone. So one thing I'd like from you guys is to tell me how good a layout that is the same or similar to the layout of the mainpage going to be? And here's what the eWork Zone is all about:
You might have seen rentacoder.com, guru.com, or some other similar website. I've been using both of those, and made some money (I think I got lucky to find a loyal client!), but there are some severe (IMO) shortcomings of both websites, as well as others I've stumbled across.
Firstly, navigation sucks. RentACoder.com is the best, but even its navigation for searching through all those bids posted and finding one that matches your skillsets and pays enough requires several hours of reading literally 100s of project descriptions.
Second, the most popular and easy to use of these websites, RentACoder.com, are focused more towards project posters rather than the programmers/bidders. They're pricing options are also somewhat vague I think. This results in ridiculously underpriced projects. You've got programmers making bids for $10 that then don't finish the project and the poster ends up having to do a re-post, so the project listings are also littered with re-posts of the same projects. Often, the original poster of a project goes "dead" leaving serious programmers who had post their bids very frustrated for having spent so much time and placing a bid on that project...
So here's my idea for a BETTER website... All freelancers that register on my website will need to specify an initial skillset and pay a small registration fee to confirm that they are serious. They will then need to pass a series of small tests to make sure they confirm to some basic requirements for their given skillset. After all this is done, they will be approved to bid on projects listed in the website. For posters of projects, the project they post will also be posted for some fee. There will be a minimum project of about $50 and every project will have to have a listed price. A price range can be setup around the price, but the minimum can't go below the $50 mark (or whatever minimum I might set later), and the price range can't be too big (so you don't have a project going from $100 to $1000...which is crazy and invites horrendous under-bidding which is annoying to other programmers). The specs for the project should be clear and the skillset specified should pertain to the job at hand. Multiple listings of a project won't be allowed.
Unlike most other freelancing sites....my site would make a profit only from the programmer registration fee and the project posting fee. After that, the programmer and the poster are free to communicate with each other in any manner they want to, and they can use their own methods for fund transfer. So no restrictions on that from my site's part.
Well, this is just the general idea, still to be fleshed out quite a bit. Wanted to see what you guys thought of it, and if any of you might considering joining such a website as a freelancer or consider posting projects on it?
Thanks for readin this long post and taking the time to comment on it :)