OK, just a forewarning - this is half question, half rant 
Freelancing sites - anyone know any good ones?
I've had a look at a few. They are rubbish, for a number of reasons.
Lots seem to charge a registration fee - now to my mind if the site is even half decent and you might get some work for it, you'll pay them on some kind of commission basis. Anyone that needs to charge a registration fee obviously isn't making enough money through the actual work available on the site, which isn't a good sign.
One of my biggest bugbears though is the "budgets" for these projects.
It's like "hey, I want an ASP.Net site with a SQL Server backend, full security, 10 different webforms, xy & z functionality, my budget is $100"
WHAT???
The same goes for the Access stuff. Basically I thought I'd try to make a bit of cash in my spare time doing what I'm good at. But A) the sites are full of these clowns wanting the moon on a stick for basically nothing, and B) the sites are also full of "programmers", who I think would also be better described as clowns, who are willing to do the jobs for that sort of fee.
$100 for a fully functional Access database? Hell, even for a simple database with say 5 tables, 3 forms and a couple of reports, I think you're talking a couple of days work minimum if it's fully tested, documented etc. I'm a firm believer in getting what you pay for and I think - in fact I hope - that a lot of people are paying crap money for a very crap product. I think you're selling yourself short if you do this for any less than £25 an hour (minimum!), let alone for $100 for something that would take over 20 hours if done right.
These people are basically devaluing our (and by "our", I mean experienced, professional developers") work. As you can probably tell, they really, really get on my t*ts
So, with this in mind, does anyone know any DECENT sites?
Do they even exist? Or should I just set up my own consultancy and look to take on smaller jobs outside of my own working hours?
Freelancing sites - anyone know any good ones?
I've had a look at a few. They are rubbish, for a number of reasons.
Lots seem to charge a registration fee - now to my mind if the site is even half decent and you might get some work for it, you'll pay them on some kind of commission basis. Anyone that needs to charge a registration fee obviously isn't making enough money through the actual work available on the site, which isn't a good sign.
One of my biggest bugbears though is the "budgets" for these projects.
It's like "hey, I want an ASP.Net site with a SQL Server backend, full security, 10 different webforms, xy & z functionality, my budget is $100"
WHAT???
The same goes for the Access stuff. Basically I thought I'd try to make a bit of cash in my spare time doing what I'm good at. But A) the sites are full of these clowns wanting the moon on a stick for basically nothing, and B) the sites are also full of "programmers", who I think would also be better described as clowns, who are willing to do the jobs for that sort of fee.
$100 for a fully functional Access database? Hell, even for a simple database with say 5 tables, 3 forms and a couple of reports, I think you're talking a couple of days work minimum if it's fully tested, documented etc. I'm a firm believer in getting what you pay for and I think - in fact I hope - that a lot of people are paying crap money for a very crap product. I think you're selling yourself short if you do this for any less than £25 an hour (minimum!), let alone for $100 for something that would take over 20 hours if done right.
These people are basically devaluing our (and by "our", I mean experienced, professional developers") work. As you can probably tell, they really, really get on my t*ts
So, with this in mind, does anyone know any DECENT sites?
Do they even exist? Or should I just set up my own consultancy and look to take on smaller jobs outside of my own working hours?
