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Getafreelancer vs Scriptlance
Von admin | 30.Juni 2009
People around the world are feeling the pressure of this ongoing global depression. It is reminiscent of the Great Depression of the early1930’s which resurfaced in 1937. But as they say “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. People have a “never say die” attitude. They keep on looking for opportunities in related and unrelated fields as well. As salaries and jobs continue to be slashed, people are seeking solace in online job portals some of which offer work from home opportunities.
These types of websites help buyers and sellers to meet on a common platform and work under certain rules. The services offered are generally related to programming, designing, copywriting, accounting, data processing and transcription. The buyer has to post a project stating his requirements along with his budget and effective deadline for the completed work. The sellers then keep bidding on this project and try to outbid the other on parameters such as skills, experience, price, timeline and past reviews. It is not necessary that the lowest bid would be chosen in every case. It all depends on the buyer and his comfort level with particular bids.
Many programmers, freelancer and fully employed workers bid on these projects. Countries like India and Russia offer high value as the bidders from these locations are ready to work for lower wages and provide good quality work. This has had serious implication for high-cost workers from developed nations like UK and the US. Though, at times there are projects marked strictly for them. If one is able to select a good provider with good project management skills, the advantages of using such sites far outweigh the disadvantages.
Getafreelancer is one of the many similar sites currently available online. It might be a bit confusing initially for people that are new to the world of freelancing. However, one gets accustomed as he starts using these services. Buyers can have varying demands, like a buyer setting up a new website might require a web designer and developer whereas another buyer may require accounting skills for his account work.
Moreover, this site is open for both individuals and companies. Sellers and buyers both can register in any one of these categories. Getafreelancer is however, a more popular and genuine site recognized globally. It does not require any upfront payment to buy or sell services on this marketplace. The memberships are optional. Free membership has it own restrictions on the number of projects that can be bid in a month and the commission that would be charged on every project won. Paid or Gold members can bid on a maximum of 150 bids over a month and do not have to pay commissions on each project they undertake. They however, have to give a flat monthly fee. Free members can upgrade to gold membership whenever they want.
One disadvantage that getafreelancer has over scriptlance is that buyers request for samples of work. At times these samples are tailor made according to their needs. This allows heinous buyers to get their work done for free and they flee away thus duping the service provider. Scriptlance, however, has a portfolio section where you can upload pre-determined samples of your relevant work. You can even have different portfolios for different types of skills which you can forward to the buyer while bidding on their project.
The bigger disadvantage is that on being duped by these buyers, one cannot do anything. There are times when buyers have to pay and release the fund to the seller for incomplete or partly finished work, the seller then disappears without completing the work. Though, getafreelancer has a customer support system in place also known as getahelpdesk, yet it does very little to resolve these issues and waits for parties to resolve it on their own which is a time and money consuming process.
Getafreelancer offers projects for as low as 30 dollars and talented people from developed countries find it difficult to compete against people from low-wage countries like India and Russia. Since talented people have spent so much time and money on their education and past jobs, it does not suit them to work for wages as low as 5 dollars an hour. This could be termed as another drawback.
The site also needs to be revamped as it looks outdated and has to include some more functionalities. Moreover, people use this site to process their illegitimate funds and try to transfer or convert it into legal money.
Scriptlance is another such freelancing site offering a common platform for buyers and sellers of services. This site has an advantage as it runs on Perl technology which is fast and secure. Although, the design and font sizes are not quite good, it can be used for freelance activities, though the responses and reviews about this site have not been that heartening.
There are many unprofessional people that have posted their profiles on this site. They don’t take your work seriously and do not bother to meet deadlines. They are just interested in minting money by whatever means possible.
They charge buyers heavily for posting projects; charge for depositing money and also for refunding money if the project is not completed or the seller goes missing which is quite often the case.
Another problem is with their withdrawal. They do not support each and every option; take quite a lot of time and charge a commission to release your own payment.
People working on this site can be termed as bottom fishers or stealers at best. They have no regards for your time, energy or money. This site is not very highly rated and accepted by the developer communities online.
One way for buyers to prevent fraud is by dividing the entire project into smaller modules and keep on paying partially as each module gets completed and delivered successfully on time. Even if one module goes awry, you can stop sending further work. In that case, you would only lose a small portion of your budget amount.
The one big disadvantage is that it is difficult to select good providers on these sites. It is a type of minefield with very few gems hidden there. One has to carefully unearth those.
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