Hello,
Thank you for accepting me in your forums. I’m a full stack developer with over 3 years of experience and degrees in relative fields and until I leave my country for some job offers I have i would like to try one of these sites.
Have you tried any of the mentioned or similar?
Are they reliable and did you really get any money?
I see some really low rates but they told me the client will want to pay more if he/she thinks you worth it with strong portfolio etc.True?
I imagine you get paid by paypal or similar and the service holds some fee.Correct?
I’m reading a lot of stuff that people didn’t get paid ,for scams, for clients that ask a lot more than the contract was for, stay away from those sites and stuff like that. Please help me to understand if it’s worth it.
It is kind of hard to get into that kind of jobs. You need to build a reputation first which is tough. Competition is fierce and devs from countries like India can do the job for very little (from a westerner’s point of view, of course)
Regarding scams and customers that ask for more than it was requested… that’s just like real life. Of course there are some of both. That’s why you have to do your research and why you have to set the rules very clearly. And yes, even then, you’ll have some problem with someone at some point
I can tell you a a customer of upwork that I never hire anyone without a lot of experience and recommendations and I assume there are a lot like me so maybe it’s hard to get a lot of work there as a new freelancer.
I’ve tried this myself for similar jobs and got nothing. It’s just too competitive on sites like these. And as @molona said, there’s generally someone out there who will do it for a lower rate than you. For me personally it wasn’t worth it.
Unless you’re truly dedicated to building up your portfolio on one of these sites and putting in a lot of time and effort, I recommend searching for things locally perhaps? It sounds like you are only looking for something intermittantly too.
I know with Freelancer they use a Milestone Payment System and it worked out fine for me. I never had any problems.
Thank you all. I have personal site with strong portfolio on what I have built. I have more than 20 projects in different programming languages, frameworks etc. I don’t know if that’s gonna help me. For me locally is hard to get something because my country has issues.
