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Author Topic: Best Skills resource Sites  (Read 8675 times)

Rupert

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Best Skills resource Sites
« on: February 03, 2016, 10:03:31 AM »
for "Important" work, I still seem to buy locally generally. However, I am going to be in need of loads of skills again, and just drawing up a list of places to go.
 
When looking for a skill I don't have, I go to:

www.fivrr.com
really cheap and dirty stuff.

www.freelancer.com
scraping for data, quick and dirty wordpress, image work,

www.guru.com
more complex programming.

I have tried Freelancer for design work, very unsuccessfully, even for the cheap stuff...  fivrr has been better surprisingly. Thats generally a bit of a logo for a make up site, so nothing "important".  I think because of the culture I have bought from, not the website.

Any other great resources that can be recommended that I miss?

found this, not tried it:
https://www.upwork.com/

and of course:
http://feedbackarmy.com/  if the feedback is from people who might use the service. Often they can miss the point, as they are browsers, not real customers.

and :

https://www.textbroker.co.uk/  has worked  in the past, but the good writers do not stay there long in my experience.






talked about www.odesk.com

Are they any that are great for different skills?
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Rooftop

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2016, 11:43:47 AM »
I'm using upwork at the moment.  I was previously using oDesk and Elance. As Upwork now own them both I'm using upwork.
Yeah, it's OK.  The usual though - I'm about to send a search squad into eastern europe to find my AWOL devs.
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rcjordan

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2016, 12:52:22 PM »
This is part of my interest in going to Vietnam. I had some excellent programming done there a decade ago. I didn't use a service, so I'm wondering how I found him. It's a good area for English-speaking devs & programmers at low cost.
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Chunkford

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2016, 12:53:25 PM »
I've used http://www.peopleperhour.com/ in the past (press releases, logo's etc) with good results.
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Rupert

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2016, 01:44:26 PM »
Quote
This is part of my interest in going to Vietnam.

Interesting you say that.  I know a chap who has built a team of 50 people writing software, but in Saigon, not Hanoi. But because they were good.

Quote
I'm about to send a search squad into eastern europe to find my AWOL devs.
Tell them to go carefully.

thx Chuckford. Not seen that one.

Is there a Marketing focused one?  If not perhaps there should be.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 01:46:17 PM by Rupert »
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sugarkane

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2016, 02:03:15 PM »
> textbroker.co.uk

A similar, but slightly better, variant is greatcontent.co.uk

They have a higher proportion of proper brands ordering content, and stricter editorial standards, but it's still a cheap and (sometimes) cheerful lottery.
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rcjordan

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2016, 02:14:47 PM »
>in Saigon, not Hanoi

Without hijacking your thread on searching for sites, this sort of relates to who might make good individual prospects; Somewhere (maybe here) and in articles I've read about offshore elves, the comment was made that Pacific rim countries that had once been subject to UK/US colonialism were an excellent areas for English-speaking workers. Call centers in India are, of course, a prime example.  But demand has driven up costs in the 'easier' 2nd-world countries like the Philippines and India. (Also, NZ used to be touted because of its high population of expats.) But I think the relatively high cost-of-living and/or their aspirations to be more '1st-world' vs. countries like VN drive up the labor costs.
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ergophobe

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2016, 03:17:52 PM »
Are you friends with bakedjake?

He was telling me about using Amazon Turk. He did a massive geography/mapping project of some sort
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rcjordan

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2016, 03:39:56 PM »
I've sent several (desperate) people to work on mturk. Apparently, they weren't *that* desperate.

If you want to peek at the other side, reddit has an /r

https://www.reddit.com/r/mturk
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Rooftop

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2016, 10:46:27 PM »
Quote from: Chunkford on February 03, 2016, 12:53:25 PM
I've used http://www.peopleperhour.com/ in the past (press releases, logo's etc) with good results.

I used to use them, but am right off them. 
I had some credit in my account (because their freelancer went awol). They have apparently been charging me to look after that credit and it has been slowly reducing, which is bloody cheeky.  I can't withdraw it so that means being forced to use them again.
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Rupert

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #10 on: February 04, 2016, 06:10:15 AM »
mturk looks dirty.  If I read those hits right, its a hard place to earn.  Looks like you have to break down jobs into tiny parts.

I know of bakedjake, I think I met him briefly, but over 10 years ago. I see that working.

I worked well with some folks in Manila for quite a few years, and have now opened discussions again with someone else from there. I think thats right RC. They understand the culture a bit.

Those folks in Vietnam are just so lovely.  Best country outside my own in the world, level with Nepal imho.
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Rupert

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #11 on: February 04, 2016, 06:57:14 AM »
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rcjordan

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #12 on: February 04, 2016, 01:11:45 PM »
>this?

No, I hadn't. Thanks.

>Mturk dirty

It is, as best as I can determine from anecdotal evidence.  I know Agerhart used them quite a bit back 4 or 5 years ago, and -yes- the jobs I've see mentioned as successful seemed to be the 'narrow' ones.   
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ergophobe

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #13 on: February 04, 2016, 04:31:17 PM »
I've only used MTurk a couple of times for transcriptions of video. So I don't know it and this conversation with Jake was a couple of years ago, so hazy on details. His main message was that people are using MTurk all wrong and there is huge potential if people knew how to use it.

A few things I remember....

>>https://www.reddit.com/r/mturk

I think the one he said was most active was
http://turkernation.com/

I think there's another one too

Also, he said he paid a lot. He aimed to pay people $15/hr, more if they were really good. Partly that was just a matter of his personal philosophy/ethics, but partly because being one of the best payers means that when you post a job, you bump to the front of the queue.

Now is where I'm getting hazy, but I believe he said that he does small jobs as "auditions." If people prove themselves, they go into his pool of top performers. Then when he posts big jobs, only his top performers get the invites. Since he's paying more than most, they top performers drop everything else and do his work. So he can scale up really fast.

He kept emphasizing that people see MTurk as a *cheap* way to get help and he thinks that misses the potential. If you don't try to go cheap, it becomes a fast, quality, scalable way to get help.

Again, this was a dinner conversation at Pubcon and I didn't go last year, so it was 1.5 or 2.5 years ago so I'm scratching the deep memory banks.
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Rupert

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Re: Best Skills resource Sites
« Reply #14 on: February 04, 2016, 04:42:13 PM »
Of course.. classic point, thank you for spelling it out for me.  Don't follow the crowd.  ::)

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