andy’s blog

i feel good!

almost a week ago (Jan 11, 2007), i found Rent A Coder, it’s site that provide facility for coding project owner (buyer) place a bid request and coder (seller) to bid on those requests. currently the have 68.185 registered buyers with 2.260 open bid requests, and 165.194 registered coders. i thought it’s a perfect site for freelance coder from developent country like me, first and most importantly because i can register for free, the use all the facility on the site for free! there are no class for coders, all are treated with same treatment. what makes coders disthinguised from each other on their ability to perform (read complete the project), not their ability to buy. compare to other site a like i’ve seen before, this is one of factors that makes RAC great. most other sites charged coders and put them in class like silver, gold, platinum, whatever, then it automatically creates unfair competition. another thing that i feel important in RAC is that the coder is protected. all project owners screen thorough to ensure that they are financially ok, and on every bid acceptance project owners must put a payment into an escrow. this will ensure coder that after the job completed and accepted 100%, he WILL get paid. if you interested, have a look on about, what, and how RAC.

so, i started to browse available projects, and later day i found several possibilty, one of the is the project that requires a php script to convert tab delimited file to LDAP entry. i put my first bid on this project, then put another 2 bids on other projects that i feel suitable for me. same day i got first reply from project owner of the LDAP one, and we exchanged 2-3 discussion (he also ask me to explain my capability in PHP, LDAP, and text file processing) that day. and on Jan 13, 2007, i was informed that i won the bid, project owner also have completely escrowed fund for my payment, i then was instructed to start working on it, and the dateline set for Jan 14, 2007. i completed my coding, plus documentation on Jan 14, 2007 and immediately upload the result on RAC site, actually several hours prior to dateline. and today, i was informed that the program has been fully tested and working as expected. the buyer accepted my work, and escrowed fund release to me ;-),

sounds like easy catch wasn’t it? but no, is was NOT. imagine that i virtually have to compete with 165.194 other coders, most of them probably have more skill than me, and some of them also bid on this project. i believe, i was choosen because i was examined as the most suitable and capable coder to complete the project, also amount i asked was reasonable enough. but i must admit that i kind of feel lucky somehow. first won on first bid according to experiences shared by other coders is a hard thing to get, most coder spent weeks even months to get the first hit. about other 2 projects i bid, one i lost (winner qoute only 1/6 of mine), and another still silent.

i like to share some tips based on my first experience:

• read all RAC instruction/faq thorough and FOLLOW every one of them.
• provide complete profile of yours that sells yourself honestly, don’t bluff on your ability/skill.
• put your photograph on your profile, based on RAC stats, possibility to get the projects is increased on coders that provide own photograph.
• only bid on project that you are absolutely 100% sure that you are able to complete.
• read specs/requiresments of the projects thorough and examine supporting document provided by buyer before considering to put a bid
• start your bid with brief explaination on who you are on technical side, then, explain your understanding of the project, make a questions and a suggestions to invite buyer into a discussion.
• always communicate on site, use RAC bid/comment facility only, this will ensure that all discussion are recorded by the system
• read RAC articles, follow advices from fellow coders, and comply to DOs & DONTs.

there are tons of advices on RAC site, read them all, implement it, and i wish a good hunting!

Bookmark to:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 at 9:52 am and is filed under rentacoder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.