Beware of Freelance Job Site Clones

There are very reliable sites for freelancers to find work online. One such site, Rentacoder, works to protect both the clients and the freelancers - called buyers and coders respectively. This is done through a series of checks and balances, and Rentacoder does not charge buyers or coders to be members of the site. Their money is made by taking a percentage of the revenue for each job that is completed. This arrangement works out well for everyone. The buyers don't have to pay any additional fees to search for coders to complete their work. The coders are protected because the buyer's funds are escrowed as soon as they accept the coders bid, and on top of this, they do not pay a fee to be a member of the site. Rentacoder gets their money as soon as the funds are released to the buyer. Everyone wins.Unfortunately, there are also sites online that aren't really very good. They look like Rentacoder, and in some ways, they operate the same as Rentacoder, but when it comes down to it, there are some major differences - none of which benefit the coders in anyway. As a freelancer, it is important that you learn to recognize these sites, and to walk away from them.Many individuals who have programming knowledge come across the Rentacoder website, and see quite a bit of potential. They look through it, and see how it operates, and then they decide that they can do the same thing, but make more money from it. They decide to get things set up, then charge the coders fees to become members, or to get premium listings. They may even have a free membership option, but save the best jobs for their premium (paying) members. The buyers may be charged fees as well. They may be charged an overall fee to use the site to find freelancers, or they may be charged a fee for 'premium' membership, which will allow them to see extended resumes, or the resumes of 'premium' freelancers.On top of these fees, these sites still take their cut of each job that is completed through the site. They may even charge additional fees for handling the payments that go from the buyers to the freelancers. They envision themselves making money hand over fist, from every possible direction.But this is a lose-lose situation. The freelancer loses by having to pay membership fees, payment fees, and a fee for each job that they complete through the site. The buyer loses by having to pay membership fees, and by not getting a large group of coders to choose from. The greedy individual who had the idea for the site to begin with loses as well when everyone figures out what is going on and quits using the site - or when they find a site like Rentacoder that doesn't charge all of those fees.Sadly, what that greedy individual did not realize to begin with is that sites like Rentacoder are already making money hand over fist due to the sheer volume of coders and buyers that use their services - simply because they are not charging all of those additional fees. There are currently over 100,000 coders signed up with Rentacoder. Even if only 10% of those coders do one job per month, at minimum $3 per job, Rentacoder is making a minimum $30,000 per month. They don't feel the need to cheat any hardworking freelancers out of money for 'membership fees' or any other fees. The coders don't mind paying that 15% to Rentacoder because of the service that they are getting.On top of the fact that these greedy sites rip off the freelancers, they also lie to them often. It is hard for a new freelancing site to get coders and buyers - especially when sites like Rentacoder exist. But to attract freelancers, they often post fake jobs that appear to pay well. A few other real buyers will also post jobs, but the real attraction is those fake, well paying jobs.The coder arrives at the site, and sees these jobs, and decides to sign up and make some money. They go through the sign up process, only to be presented with a form asking for their credit card information. They see that they have a monthly payment option or a yearly payment option. Many think they have made a mistake and that they pushed the button for the software buyers. But it's no mistake. This site really expects you to pay for the privilege of working.They may not even ask for payment right away. You go through the signup process, then get back to the page where the 'good' job was listed, click on the link and you then find out that this job is reserved for 'premium' members. They may call this a subscription fee, a membership fee, or a registration fee. Whatever they call it, it means that it is going to cost you money to bid on that job.In many cases, the membership fee will be small, and when it is compared to the amount of money that you can make from that job that you've been trying to bid on for the past hour, you decide that you will pay the fee. Unfortunately, by the time that you get through the process of entering your credit card information and paying your fee, the job will magically already be awarded to another freelancer, or after a period of time it will be awarded to another freelancer. You can bet that it wasn't really awarded to anyone - but they got the fee that you paid!Think about this. If one of these sites charges a membership fee of even $5.00 per month, and it has 500,000 freelancers who renew their membership month after month in hopes of winning a job, they are making 2,5 million dollars every single month - on membership fees alone. But, you won't know that, and you won't be able to figure it out. They will never tell you how many subscribers they have, or how many jobs are posted or completed through the site each month.Rentacoder, on the other hand, makes this information publicly available - even to non-members. You can see how many coders are registered, how many buyers are registered, how many jobs were posted, how many jobs were awarded, and how many jobs were completed through the Rentacoder website every single month. The Pulse of RentACoder.Rentacoder never asks their coders, or buyers, to pay any type of membership or subscription fees. They just quietly take their percent - which coders happily pay - every time a job is completed. So, with a site like Rentacoder, why would any self-respecting freelancer want to use a site that takes their hard earned money for no reason? There is no reason to work with a site like that, when there is plenty of work to go around at Rentacoder!Copyright 2005 - Sergey I.Grachyov