How to start working remotely or freelancing, if even projects at a meager price cause difficulties?

Question

Freelance

Good day, community. For several months now I have been unsuccessfully trying to find "remote earnings" and combing the odesk exchange (sometimes I open the domestic freelance.ru, but it's still sadder there - see below).
However, most projects are a listing of the requirements of all popular and not so popular languages, their libraries and frameworks, with a minimum payment and tasks that, if not in all, then in the vast majority of cases, cause difficulties at some stage.

For example: "It is required to write several forms on site N under the "Platform1.0" system so that it processes orders in accordance with the calculator at the link http:://link. All elements from site K must be added to the form processing database in descending order the number of vowels in the name of the element, with a further possibility to update the database of elements through the REST API
Issue price: $ 20

In most cases, the response is stopped by the fact that the end result seems to be a kind of monster with a goose head, claws of a cancer with a cart in the appendage.
Less often - necessary technologies. My level fluctuates around junior and it’s hard for me to understand how a person who knows python, php, Posgtre, Angular||Node at the expert level (at the same time, sometimes there is a need for basic knowledge and work with adobe photoshop) can complete tasks in $20 (at the exchange rate on 04/11/15).

In the foreign market, tasks with wordpress are most often encountered. So far I haven’t started digging towards CMS and have taken the path of strengthening PHP OOP skills, unit testing, git and similar technologies, but I still don’t see where to implement it (in the tasks that I scroll through on odesk, there is not a single mention of this). Is it worth it to completely switch to engines and try to work exclusively in this direction?

I'm sure there will be answers from the category "how to start freelancing? just start", but this advice does not help me, as previous months have shown. Something useful is needed.
Thank you if you read to the end and only then decided to answer the question or not.

UPD
Let's just say that I deliberately downplayed my skills - in fact I have combat experience, I have solid knowledge of PHP, a couple of frameworks, a couple of cms (wordpress is not included here, oddly enough), HTML/CSS/jQuery can typeset what can ask even the most sick imagination of the customer, Javascript at the level of the course at codeacademy and the implementation of a banal toy 3 in a row on canvases. In general, I do not feel like a green beginner, but I still feel an impenetrable barrier. At least in the form of 80% of responses to the same task from citizens from India, Pakistan and Turkey, who, in turn, fill out their profiles much more competently and have more than a dozen completed tasks with reviews in the region of 5 stars. That is, here, although this is the case everywhere, you feel much more clearly social engineering, which allows you to go through closed doors, where you no longer feel constrained.

I'm a sociopath, but it's more of a state of mind - I can get along with a person. However, I don’t know how you can respond to an application that says “need web-developer, I have specifications”, at least so that the customer sees your response, not to mention getting the task itself. So it goes.

Many thanks to those who formulated and gave non-standard answers. I hope there will be some additions.

Answer 1

I would advise you to get a job in an office for a while. Working in a team helps a lot to raise your level. There are several advantages in this:
1. You always have a mentor at hand who can tell you how to solve a specific task assigned to you. The knowledge gained in this way is much better absorbed. You will better understand how to apply your skills.
2. Several people work for the team, each with his own opinion and outlook. Networking at lunch, over coffee, and at project discussions will help you broaden your professional horizons. You will learn about many technologies. You won't need them right now, but you'll know about them when you make decisions in the future.
3. Getting a job in the office as an intern (or a novice, in general, an inexperienced specialist), you inform your employer. In exchange for a lower salary (for a novice programmer, of course, the salary is lower), he helps you learn by providing you with a mentor and giving you practice.
4. You gain experience in solving real cases. In the future, you will know how most typical tasks are solved.
5. In a calm but real environment, get the experience of learning on the fly and searching for the right material.
I had the same problem when I started too. A year of work in a team of 7 programmers was the strongest breakthrough for me. During this year I have risen more than in the previous three years of self-study. I worked, gained experience (and a bunch of positive emotions from communicating with colleagues), then calmly switched to remote work.
My advice to you: work for some time in a team.

Answer 2

My level fluctuates around junior

You flatter yourself a lot.
With the junior level, you could consistently work on oDesk hourly wages in the region of $15.
I can advise you to raise your level to get to such vacancies.

Answer 3

But what good advice can be given when in 99% of cases the customer himself does not know what he wants?
Everyone in this area is like blind kittens trying to find a bowl of milk.
Each person needs their own approach.
If you are not confident in your abilities - help without unnecessary risks and responsibility to the customer.
Example: there are a lot of forums, groups, sites where children need help in solving various issues. Try to answer them. Practice.
The difference with freelancing is only in the word "money", and the degree of responsibility for the fact that you receive funds. But the importance of this money should not be overestimated.
There are such comrades (customers) who specifically receive cheap slave labor, knowing how to properly turn the screws in the mind of a freelancer. Don't be afraid to say no to such people, usually get rid of them, and the sooner the better. After all, such "friends" very much take your attention, time, nerves, and therefore money.

1. Answer and help on thematic forums for free to "feel" the field of activity, and get more experience.
   
2. Constantly try to take on something that is a little more difficult than you previously decided, this will also help you not stand still.
   
3. Approach each client individually, perhaps what seems oh so difficult, in practice is done on the knee in 2 minutes
   
4. Make friends who are successful freelancers and learn from them
   

PS . It's strange that your topic was not rubbed. And then today the toaster is some kind of evil. I asked a similar question, they designed it as "general questions" when there were more specifics than yours. :D

Answer 4

1. Raise the level, now you (judging by the description of the question) are a very weak trainee.
2. Your ceiling now from the point of view of customers is business card sites.
3. There is a stereotype that IT === "a lot of quick money, just read the wiki", this is not true.
4. Do not use the word "simple" and its derivatives, never))
--
On the account of orders for $20: there are no tasks that a programmer of any level cannot master)) It's just that it can take 1 hour for a signor, and a month for a jun .
And you won't find them. That's when you go to the store for bread, it is important for you on which machine exactly flour was ground for bread? With unit tests / functional tests / appearance tests / psr-*** / git / code reivew / code analytics tools / doxy gen / ... - about the same, don't give a damn))
In medium / large projects, this is necessary. In small projects under composer - this is also useful, you can get feedback from the community and improve your own library))

Answer 5

I'll tell you what. First, forget about PHP.
Second, forget about PHP.
Third, try to forget about PHP.
You may be asking "Why?". And I will answer you, almost everyone codes in PHP. This is half a million Indians, a couple of hundred thousand Russians, a couple of tens of thousands of Ukrainians, and there will definitely be several million more in the rest of the world. And each of them beats his chest that he confidently knows PHP.
Now, if you said - "I know Knut by heart all N volumes and I can start writing in any language in 2-3 weeks at an above average level, but I can't find a job," then I would really think about the injustice of this world. And so, humble yourself, you are 1 out of several million.
On a subject - select other language, be engaged in basic knowledge. Forget about engines and php, you will not earn normal money, and you will take a sip of grief a lot. It's better to be puzzled by the development of multi-platform mobile applications or something like that, if you don't want to dig serious things.

Answer 6

When I came to odesk.com, it seemed to me that it was easy to make money there. But then it turned out that there it is necessary to deal with management, all sorts of communications, beliefs.
Once I took a simple order for site parsing, without waiting for the customer to choose me from a dozen others, and began to do it. (It was necessary to translate the site in Sanskrit into csv.) I kept in touch with the customer through the site's personal account while he was choosing the artist. He gave clarifications on the assignment, explained how the site works, how many entries should be made, and so on.
Somewhere in the middle, the customer disappeared, but I decided to finish this business, and in good faith (with unit tests, sqlite - with all the crap in general).
When I did all this, I realized that I do not understand anything in real work.
The site was broken - many of the tags that closing tags should have didn't. There were even pages without closing </html>. It was broken not only in terms of HTML, but also in terms of navigation - links were cycling.
In general, from the "maximum two days" planned by me, it stretched out for two weeks. For the first time I did all this, although before that I thought that this task was easy for me.
Because of this, I no longer look for orders there, because I just won’t pull it, and I wouldn’t want to drop stars because of such a trifle.

Answer 7

It seems to me that being a junior it is better to go to work in an office where you can quickly gain experience in business and communications, working with senior colleagues.

Answer 8

Study, study and study again.
If you don’t know how to work and you can’t learn yourself, then go work as an intern at some company, it’s better to go to a web studio, they have pretty much everything streaming and more or less everything is standardized in development.

Answer 9

Start on oDesk with $20 per hour (you try to answer several papers with such a rate, the result will pleasantly surprise you, the main thing is that while you are without feedback, try to answer first or second), do the first project for free - for yourself, in order to gain confidence, the second project fixed price - for a review, this is the shortest way, read Puma Thailand blog , read my blog.
A simple rule helped me: those who want - look for opportunities, those who do not want - look for excuses, start tomorrow or come up with a new excuse, everything is simple.

Answer 10

In my opinion, your knowledge is enough for many tasks. Tasks appear on the odeska that can be completed in a couple of hours picking your nose. They are not many, but they are. The question is how to get them, since the competition for such tasks is not weak. We can advise you to practice on Weblancer - there are enough simple tasks for a person who has a good command of PHP. Well, and ... set for yourself more and more difficult tasks and tasks in unknown areas in order to constantly progress and not engage in typical tasks for a small price.
Be patient and good luck.

Answer 11

For example, we have systemo.biz
A team of about 20 programmers. All removed.
We will give orders. We will teach you how to set tasks and solve them.
The main thing is to be able to ask questions and bring things to results.

Answer 12

Upgrade to intermediate. With a sincere desire, this can be done within a week. I have seen this experience dozens of times with my own eyes.
Then the fears will disappear.