The reason why buyers and providers continue to flock to GAF is because it’s less restricted than other freelancing sites. Guru, for example, works better for professionals but charges ridiculous rates for their service! GAF, on the other hand, allows you to bid for projects for free, allowing you to earn money and the same time build your reputation. Freelancing websites that demand money before you can even find work are just missing the point. There are countless poor but talented freelancers who can’t avail of such sites, and they are the ones flocking to GAF by the thousands.

GAF has done a great service to the freelancing world, especially to the poorer parts of the planet. Guru, eLance, and other expensive freelancing sites will do well in First World countries. GetAFreelancer does the same in Third World ones.

It seems to be a badge of honor to make simple tasks difficult and the solutions inaccessible. And you get extra brownie points for finger-pointing and denigrating the users who can’t understand what the heck you’re telling them.

I understand coders like to code application script, not instructions for using those apps. But they do their apps and the community a terrible disservice when they confuse availability with accessability. If the only people who can implement your apps are those who can also write them, where’s your market?

I just posted a project on one of these services for an installation of TinyMCE or FCKeditor. I use Dreamweaver to design websites and know just enough HTML to fix the Dreamweaver screw-ups. I don’t want or need to become an expert at javascript and arcane server functions. I am interested in accomplishing other things with that time.

When I surfed the web for installation of TinyMCE and FCHeditor I was appalled by the short shrift given to understandable installation instructions by those two communities. And I encountered hordes of would-be users scouring the web forums begging for help to accomplish what should be a drop-dead simple installation process.

All they get is stupid advice like, “….download the zipfile and extract it into the root folder of your website.” (Ever try to get a zip/unzip utility to extract a file directly from your desktop to your shared website server?) Sometimes, if the responder is feeling charitable, a few jumbled code fragments are offered up to further confuse the user. Real information like a coherent step by step set of instructions are avoided like the plague.

No, you’ve missed the boat on this one. There’s real value here, a service made necessary by a bunch of snickering elitist snobs who can’t find their own rear-ends with both hands.

Sorry - that’s the way I see it.

I’m both a service buyer and provider on GAF and I must say, it’s all about ‘you get what you pay for.’ Sadly, most buyers look for ridiculously low rates from providers and often end up with poor quality work. People offer low rates on their quotes just to land the job and then give up on it because the time and resources spent on the work are simply not compensated.

Most of the providers are from developing nations and others are merely earning an extra buck doing what they love to do. It’s not a place for full-time freelancers from the US and European countries, because the pay is horribly low. But for people from India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Bangladesh, Ukraine etc, it’s heaven-sent, as they earn more from a single project than they would from a regular job in a month!

Fortunately, we have obtained a few good jobs via this site, but we’ve also worked with some unscrupulous people (I wont say what nationality) who have tried to rip us off on so many levels. That aside, however, what really gets my goat with these people is their payment system… they have a prepaid mastercard to which you can access your funds once you have been paid by a client, yet every time you are to receive funds to this card they find some reason to deactivate your account and make you jump through hoops to get it back. Now security where money is concerned is one thing but this is just outright foolishness!!!

At the same time I see many UK and US businesses who use the site moaning about the poor quality of copy provided by freelancers via the site. Hm. What on earth do they expect if they’re only prepared to pay peanuts? As the saying goes, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Getafreelancer would work a lot better if it split sites by region: europe / India / US etc. The concept only makes sense if employees offer the going rate in any particular country.

In the UK a good copywriter will charge between £35 and £45 an hour. About the same as a decent plumber or plasterer. $1 per 300 words is simply unacceptable. And greedy employers who try to save cash by taking advantage of poorer countries’ rates and foreign freelancers’ imperfect english get what they desreve. Poor work.