How to work properly on oDesk?

Question

Freelance

Hello!
Since I'm planning to go full freelance, I want to ask a few questions about how to work on oDesk the right way.
First, a little background.
I am a simple 1C programmer, I live in the provinces, I get 15k a month. But the work is such that practically nothing needs to be done, “don’t beat the recumbent”. At first I didn't like it, then I got used to it. In 2008, I found out that my classmate is a cool freelancer who earns 100k a month.
I also wanted to become a freelancer.
The problem was that I used to think "freelancing is a freebie." I will work 5 hours a day when I want and get 100 thousand a month. It is clear that with such a philosophy you will not go far. It took me 4 years to understand this. Another problem was that free work spoiled me (it’s hard to set yourself up for work when you’re used to doing almost nothing). Although during such a "freebie" I developed one of my projects and learned English quite well (at work). Subsequently, the situation changed.
In 2012, the working conditions at our enterprise seriously deteriorated. Salaries are gradually declining (initially I had 17k a month), they began to involve them in duty on weekends, overtime (without pay), the amount of work became such that it would not seem enough. At the same time, my colleagues do not particularly protest (more precisely, they protest in words, but do not take active actions (absenteeism without an order, etc.)), which aggravates the situation. The director threatens to fire those who leave work at exactly 17:00. In general, the company is a mess.
In the evenings, I work on my project, which brings in good money (albeit less than 15k a month so far), so I can’t afford to stay late at work without pay.
The advantage was that in such conditions I grew up well as a specialist (I was engaged in configuring 1C, and user support, and network administration, and writing scripts). Now I feel confident and I know that if necessary I will find a job for 15k, or maybe
more per month. Did not impress. Although it is quite possible as a fallback option (according to my friends, not all enterprises have such a mess as ours).
As a result, since 2012 I have been forced to delve into the possibilities of freelancing more actively, at the moment the option of working on oDesk seems promising to me.
Since it is difficult to combine my rather nervous work with freelancing, I plan to go full freelance. To be on the safe side, I again have my own project (I plan to do it, because there will still be time waiting for freelance orders). The work that was done to enable a successful start:
- registered on all freelance exchanges (Russian and Western), activated accounts, passed the Readiness Test.
- found out that there is such an exchange oDesk, where the AVERAGE PHP programmer receives $ 15 per hour.
— after several attempts, I passed tests in the areas that I plan to deal with (about fifteen), got into the Top 10, Top 20, Top 30 (in different tests in different ways). The tests are: PHP, HTML,
DHTML, JavaScript, AJAX, DHTML, CSS, JSon, MySQL, PHP Programming Skills Test, SQL, Regular expressions test, etc. I read a bunch of books in selected areas.
- figured out the payment systems WebMoney, Yandex Money, etc., I plan to order Payoneer to withdraw money from odesk (but first, of course, you need to earn something).
- saved up money for the first time.
— I equipped myself with a comfortable workplace, bought a modern laptop, ADSL Internet, set up a working environment.
- got some experience working with clients on my project (not freelancing) - however, with Russians.
- registered hosting on the Internet, created his website.
- I internally tuned in to the fact that I need to work, I plan not to go anywhere to rest even for 2 days - for greater certainty.
The result was that now just “I want” began to turn into something more concrete, moreover, “life kicks”. I have a few questions, I think the answers will be useful to other beginners.
1) If I plan to work on oDesk in my country house as a web programmer, will 3G speed be enough (somewhere around 500 kilobits per second, and the pings are quite large compared to ADSL), or will it be very uncomfortable (do I often need to work directly on FTP or client site, or the lion's share of the work is done locally, and then the result is sent to the client)? Or is it better not to experiment, to work in a city with normal ADSL (8 megabits, normal pings)?
2) What to do if I took a task, and then I realized that I couldn’t complete it (everything happens in life, you can’t foresee everything in the world). What resources are available to address this issue? So far, I only know refund, although its use is not always possible (sometimes, part of the work has already been completed and paid for, and then plugged). Is it possible to somehow agree with the client, or does this mean a loss of reputation and a permanently closed road to freelancing (since multiple registration is prohibited, and if there is a negative review, no client will ever work in his life)?
3) What to do in a situation if, due to inexperience, I caught negative reviews (it’s my own fault or due to the inadequacy of the client - it doesn’t matter). How to make a living? What strategy should be used in this case?
4) What to do if you are completing a task and then there is a glitch - the task is being solved, but too slowly? For example, does your head hurt that day, or is something just not working out? Disable the tracker and work for free or work when the tracker is on? How will the customer react if more time is spent than necessary (for example, 2 times), and not because of hack work, but precisely because the work “does not go”? Negative feedback secured?
5) Is it a problem for a freelancer to go somewhere to rest (to the grandmother for three days, not for a month, of course), or do you need to be constantly online (7 days a week)? Or is it better for a novice freelancer to immediately tune in to work 7 days a week without traveling anywhere?
6) Do freelancers usually work on Saturday and Sunday, or do they rest? Is it possible to maintain a normal life (beer and kebabs on the weekends, etc.) while working as a freelancer?
7) If the work is done (at an hourly rate), and several bugs are found there, are they usually fixed for free or are they paid for by the tracker?
8) What to do if you work at an hourly rate, and the time limit has been exhausted? As I understand it, there are two options - either work for free or get a negative review?
9) What is your opinion - which is more promising - what would YOU personally choose - to work as a programmer for 15k at an enterprise (the work is rather hectic) or at oDesk?
10) Sometimes it happens that the computer is broken, the Internet is turned off, etc. In this case, the freelancer is automatically marked by the customer as irresponsible, or do 1-2 days of delay usually not play a significant role?
11) What to do if I took a long-term project (for example, for 6 months), and then they invited me to work, for example, in Gazprom (and this usually happens at the most inopportune time). Of course, it’s clear that you won’t be able to work as a freelancer (business trips, etc.), or you will not work well, that you will be fired from Gazprom. How to get out of the situation with the least losses, so as not to set up the customer and not ruin the reputation?
12) How do freelancers fight laziness? For myself, I discovered one drawback in the work of a freelancer - I want to get up at 11-12, work without getting out of bed, etc. For myself, I identified several resources. Firstly, you need to get dressed and sit down at the table - this helps. Secondly, coffee helps.
13) Are freelancing jobs really difficult or quite accessible to an average (non-stupid) programmer who knows English, or do they require some kind of special mind?
14) What to do in case of illness (for example, 3 days temperature 39) - how to get out of the situation with the least losses (not to substitute the customer and not ruin your reputation)?
Sincerely.

Answer 1

I started ~2 years ago (August/September) on oDesk (this was not my first attempt), put up 14..15 bucks, no portfolio or history. The first order was half an hour, for 7 bucks, almost random (from a beginner) - I screwed up a little, but fixed everything, spent many times more time, but achieved a positive review.
Communication immediately went through Skype and e-mail, payment - through PayPal. It's against the rules, but that's what the customer suggested.
Then it turned out that he had no end of work. Before the New Year, I remade small sites (business projects of the same person). Took a smaller pay, but increased his statistical "average rate".
The most difficult thing was in the schedule and work from home - my wife (girl) did not come up to me when I spoke via Skype / SIP, but at other times she was very disturbing and confusing. She was also offended that I did nothing around the house and went to bed / got up with a difference of 3..4 hours in relation to her - one room, a burning monitor, a buzzing fan, etc. It was very difficult when we both got sick (cold).
As a result, I realized that I couldn’t work in this mode for more than 2 weeks (I still have a permanent job in telecom on a shift and almost irregular schedule), and then I need a month (!) of rest. I had to part with the girl, I was disappointed in freelancing the next year, when I earned about $ 2,000 in a month, but I never rode a bike (it was July) and did not go to nature / on the beach.
Barbecue and wine really at least every day and a strong desire to move somewhere in English-speaking Canada (especially since they often called). The rate for hourly orders is now 20..35.
Sometimes I feel like a zombie (3 hours of sleep two days in a row, then 12 hours and still didn’t get enough sleep, 6 hours, again 2 days for 3 hours, then 14..15 on the weekend).
Life has turned in such a way that now I will have to pay off a couple of loans, including a mortgage.
The choice is obvious - sooner or later I will quit my main job (I already had an attempt, which was generally successful) and become an early riser (to get up early and go to bed late).
The success story is incomplete - I don’t give a link to the profile (I have several of them, including I had to order from myself, but this turned out to be unnecessary stupidity). So do not ask - for a third of projects, especially the first ones, it is terribly embarrassing, despite the fact that after looking at some of them, clients ask “do the same for me”, and you never guess in advance what you might like.
The only thing that pleases - UK, CA, NZ, US AU - WeekEnd is sacred for them. The soul is light and calm from 3 am Saturday to 15:00 Monday.
But it happens that the customer sends me a letter at half past six in the morning asking “How is our project progressing” at 6:30 in the morning in his time zone.
From the point of view of development, it’s good that the division of testing / development / working environment is very clear and there is always time to roll back - I usually start at one in the morning and finish at half past four in the morning according to their TimeZone, I never experiment on a live, combat server.
Well, about the channels to the Internet - I have 2 FTTx and 3 "whistles" - sometimes it is uploaded to the hosting so slowly that I have to remember the command line and try them all.
But Indians sometimes freeze with their mentality, even at good rates.
And of course, I began to notice HATE towards our local businessmen-employers who offer salaries of 15..22 thousand rubles / month. employees with education and experience, especially after getting a job at one of the local competing firms as a “mystery shopper”, or rather a developer (to see the workflow, since this is a fairly successful business project with a large client base) saw the same Job Offer from oDesk, but very poorly, illiterately translated by the top manager of the company in rare breaks between diving trips.
I also tried to go into the "small business" - very strong competition, price with schoolchildren. Then it turned out that this is not the main problem - the customer market is still growing faster than the market for performers. The main problem is a monstrous gap between the experience of the customer - THEY DO NOT KNOW WHY THEY NEED THE INTERNET AND DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY WANT AND ... A COMPLETE LACK OF DESIRE TO PAY PROFESSIONALS.
I was also struck by the ratio between the level of developers and arrogance in combination with show-offs from managers of competing companies. I don’t know who to blame - Fursenko, or the Washington Kahal right away, but so far I have met with potential customers (now only a phone, or better, email) three times a day I was in a situation where uncle Vasya, throwing out a tub of frank technical nonsense on me, in a jeep to the question "Where did you find this nonsense?" began to bully in the spirit of “The girls in the office of IP XYZ told me this, AND EVERYTHING IS CLEAR IN THEM, BECAUSE IVAN MOISEYCH HIMSELF ORDERS SITES FROM THEM!”
In short, oDesk is the only chance for Zamkadye, except for the uprising of course.

Answer 2

Wow, why did you approach this in such detail and with such apprehension? It's just freelancing, everything is simpler here)
I'll tell you my little story. My work is not bad, in principle it suits me, it was interesting just to try myself on the Odessa for fun. I read a couple of articles, registered, passed the English test (I only ran across below average :( ) and started looking at simple tasks “for the evening”.
I didn’t even consider any hourly rate, only a fixed price. Why drive yourself if you don’t have enough experience yet?
More about the choice of tasks. We look at the price, if it suits, we put the offer 10 percent lower so that they pay attention. And the most basic step is to correctly compose a cover letter. A minimum of general phrases about how good you are (I generally wrote one sentence about this at the beginning), we focus on the task. You need to show the customer that you have read the task and imbued with it. We ask a couple of clarifying questions or suggestions for solutions. Just do not overdo it, no one will read a letter the size of this question of yours. Remember, the introductory letter is what the customer will evaluate you in the first place. This is what separates us from the Hindus who just churn out their letter without even reading the text of the assignment. You must have noticed that in many vacancies there is such a “fool protection” on purpose :)
At the end, of course, you should indicate the approximate deadlines for completion. As I already said, I chose tasks for one or two evenings of hard work, taking into account my skills. At the same time, he wrote to the customer that right now I am very busy, but on the weekend I will have enough time to complete the work. After all, no one bothers you to offer a comfortable deadline, taking into account the main work, barbecue, family, etc.? I closed any vacancies with the word urgent without even reading it, I don’t need hassle.
In this mode, approximately 25-30% of my letters found a response. Further - preliminary coordination with the customer. Here it is important to understand what kind of person he is, so as not to run into an inadequate person. If he communicates in a standard English business style, answers the questions posed, everything will most likely be fine. Once I came across a person who did not answer a specific question twice, there was no point in continuing to communicate with such a person. Either incompetent or inattentive, but why do you need a person from whom you then have to pull with ticks? And yes, of course, it is better to choose Europeans / Americans, it is not very pleasant to communicate with illiterate Asians.
I answered some vacancies only for training - I brainstormed the problem and wrote a letter. I was wondering if they would answer or not. Then he simply rejected the offer, because before the conclusion of the contract you owe nothing to anyone. After one of these deviations (marked as “price too low”), the customer contacted me again with an offer to pay more. I had to take it all the same and do it :)
In general, I have one piece of advice for you: treat it easier. Start simple, no need to cut from the shoulder and go freelance from your main job. You can always leave. And while you were reading a lot of books, for some reason you passed a bunch of tests and wrote a huge question on Habr, you could just take and do a few simple tasks on Odessa, get some stars and practical experience instead of bare theory.
PS All of the above should be taken as a stream of consciousness of an amateur with three tasks completed and a couple of hundred bucks in the account)

Answer 3

When freelancing with foreign clients, it is important:

• Knowledge of English. I wrote about the level recently ' Freelance FAQ: what level of English is needed? '
• In general - the ability to conduct official (formal) correspondence / negotiations with the customer (including those who are far from technology and can only set a business task)
• Ability to convert business tasks into technical ones (draw up a project plan, describe the technical part of the work, estimate the amount of work)
• Ability to report (daily status reports, time tracking, etc..) and manage risks (timely warn about the likelihood of their occurrence, suggest ways to eliminate them)
• The ability to produce results on time (not to wait for someone to feed and adjust you when necessary) and to guarantee its quality (that is, in addition to development, be able to check and double-check the result of your work)
• Once again - knowledge of English. The ability to communicate effectively in a language understandable to the client is 80% of success. The remaining 20% ​​is already a matter of technology. So practice this skill constantly. Read, write, listen, watch whatever you like in English. If there is an opportunity to communicate - do not miss the chance. Even in writing. Let not with carriers.
• Well, follow the demand - what technologies are in trend and are most in demand. Try to add to your bandolier those that are closest to you, gradually expanding the list or even completely changing your development stack

Answer 4

Although the question is old, I still decided to write my opinion, for those who come from search engines.
1) It will be unpleasant to work with 3G Internet (500kb and large pings), but it is quite possible, because it is often necessary to communicate with the customer via Skype, and also exchange large files. For the web, this is especially important when working with the site directly via ftp.
2) You can refuse to work without any consequences before the start of the contract (that is, even at the stage of an interview and an invitation to work, a client can be refused without consequences). If the project is already in progress, then the only right option would be to agree with the customer, return all the money to him and ask him not to put a review, many go to a meeting. A bad review can greatly affect success if it is the only one, otherwise everything is fixable.
3) If you have received a lot of negative reviews, then you should register a new account and continue to be more careful and professional, because bad reviews are not posted just like that.
4) Most customers understand the increase in the budget and terms of the project, especially if the initial TOR was not ideal (in most cases). However, there are also meticulous and incomprehensible customers, but they are usually easy to identify even at the interview stage and not start working with them.
5) It is not necessary to be online all the time, usually a time is set, for example every Tuesday and Thursday evening to discuss current progress. However, during a project release or close interaction with the client's team, you need to be online every day for at least a few hours.
6) From personal experience: I work for a couple of days without rest, but then I completely rest for 2-3 days and manage to do several projects in parallel. In my opinion, I have a lot more freedom as a freelancer than when I worked in an office.
7) Usually, all bugs are taken into account in time tracking and paid for, but this must be discussed with the customer in advance so that there is no misunderstanding.
8) If the limit is exhausted, then it is worth completing the current milestone to its logical end and raising a question for the client point-blank, either increasing the time quota, or abandoning the project. However, if you indicated the deadlines in advance and did not hit them at all, then this is more likely your fault and you should work for free and be more careful next time.
9) With full time work on oDesk can bring from $3-4k per month. So the conclusion is clear.
10) 1-2 days of delay usually do not affect, but professional freelancers immediately look for opportunities to inform the client about this and, if necessary (to fix the bug urgently), work through the backup channel (neighbor or cafe).
11) In my opinion, it is better not to take long-term orders until you decide for sure whether you want to freelance completely or not. You can't sit on two chairs.
12) A freelancer has no laziness. On the contrary, even. There is a team in the office, there is a manager who bears all the responsibility, and in freelancing you are responsible for any of your jambs and this greatly disciplines.
13) There are different tasks in freelancing, from developing an algorithm with a strong mat apparatus to typing from pictures. For non-stupid programmers, at least with basic English, there is more demand than supply at the moment.
14) The best option for force majeure and long-term absence. Find a new contractor for the customer and bring him up to date.
More information can be found on my freelancing blog - jff.name

Answer 5

Most of the answers can be found here
pumainthailand.com/category/rabota-2/
1) that's enough, 30 kilobytes per second was enough for me to work.
2) Talk to the customer and refuse the task, if there was no payment, the rating for the task will not be counted in the statistics.
3) Catch positive ones on cheap jobs.
4) At the discretion of the customer, I usually stipulate the deadlines for work in advance, if I exceed them, I inform the customer about this and say that it will be more expensive for such and such a reason. But of course my head hurts and I spend twice as much time, what is it, are you generally a sane person?
5) 4 months a year I travel, Europe Asia Russia
6) I have beer with kebabs every day and I work on weekends, because for me it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is. There is usually no current work on weekends, because everyone has beer with barbecue.
7) I always work for a fee. But in general, you should tell the customer about this before you start patching them. And it’s not just that suddenly bugs were found and the project became 2 thousand bucks more expensive.
8) Ask the customer to increase the limit. What's with the time limit and feedback? Where did you get the idea to work for free, are you definitely an adequate and sane person?
9) I would have been better off working at an enterprise for 15 thousand bucks, and if it’s rubles, then it’s pointless in Russia you can’t live on that kind of money, what kind of barbecue can there be?
10) Tell everything to the customer and part with the project or Gazprom.
11) Read my articles on Habré, there is a lot written about it.
12) Freelance assignments are no different from non-freelance assignments, how can they differ in general?
13) Work in pairs, there is also an article on Habré about this.
habrahabr.ru/post/165201/
habrahabr.ru/post/159571/
habrahabr.ru/post/158769/
habrahabr.ru/post/154699/
habrahabr.ru/post/154181/
pumainthailand.com/otvechayu-na-voprosy- o-workote-na-amerikanskoj-frilanserskoj-birzhe-odesk-com/
habrahabr.ru/post/149041/
habrahabr.ru/post/138673/

Answer 6

Of your 10 posts, 4 are off the right thread. Are you sure that you can work with the customer through the site?)
In fact, treat freelancing like a regular job, only at home. And most of the issues will resolve themselves. Put yourself in the place of the customer more often, and figure out what thoughts he has now in his head about your actions. What would you do in his place? This approach helps to get positive feedback, which is important in Odesa.

Answer 7

I would recommend that you address issues as they come up. Where does this desire to lay straw everywhere come from?)
One customer will calmly survive if you lie in bed for three days from 38.7, and he needed to swap banners. And the other may become hysterical if it was necessary to correct the wiring in order to calculate the salary normally. Too many options to answer "correctly". =)
Consider that on oDesk the average programmer " wants " to receive $15, but 8 out of 10 orders are received by Filipinos / Indians at $1 per hour)
Also note that an adequate customer, as a rule, lives in "pacific time", and you it makes no sense to get up before 11-12, because it is night there at that time.
In terms of prospects, I would choose Gazprom, in general)

Answer 8

- Sometimes you need to do work through Team Viewer, it is unpleasant to work with large pings in it.
- When to work, when not to work - you decide. If there are long-term contracts, coordinate the rest in advance. As a rule, they are not forced to work on weekends (except for fixed-term contracts, where this is clearly written).
- Don't go - don't do it. If you cannot complete it on time, inform the employer immediately and agree on the amount of the refund (with your considerations).
- Bugs, tests, docks, etc. - by timer. [Long] reading of manuals by you - no timer. If the limit is reached, send the report/forecast to the employer.
— The tasks are different, from “press 5 buttons in the WordPress admin panel” to “make webmail better than Google’s”

Answer 9

perhaps one thing can be said here - go for it - you will figure it out along the way

Answer 10

As for $1 per hour, if everything is so bad, no one bothers to leave this market and find a job for 15k in your city. You just have to try.

Answer 11

I have been on both sides of the barricades more than once. lately, however, more in the role of the customer. so my view is more from this side will be.
1) everything depends on the task / customer. if the customer does not have a specific environment / special wishes, then it is possible locally.
2) warn the customer about this as early as possible so that he has time to find someone else. we are all people, anything can happen, an adequate customer may well enter the situation. do not pull the rubber in any case, this will only aggravate the situation.
5) you can go on vacation for at least a year, if this does not break the deadlines. otherwise, you can set everyone up very cool and spoil the relationship. that you are leaving (if this happens not on the weekend), it is better to notify in advance.
9) freelance.
10) the worst thing is when you just disappeared or you have to look for. something happened - give the news.
14) see p2. (but in this case, a new person will be sought if the deadlines are missed / the project is on fire / etc.)

Answer 12

On Odessa, the situation is this:
I fought, fought, finally took the task - to make some kind of automation for Google Adsense / Adwords for 30 bucks - FIXED PRICE - they gave me it! He worked hard, tried to do something. It turned out that to complete the task, you need a test account, without it it is impossible to complete. The person refused to provide a test account. I started to register a test account, it took a week, the person was warned.
The test account did not want to register at all. After 10 days, this friend asked me to refuse, he said that he would not even put a minus. I said wait another 2 days. Finally, the account was registered, but it was not possible to figure out what to do with a zero account and how exactly to test it.
And in general, either the level of requirements there is so drop dead, or I’m stupid (don’t forget, I passed about 15 tests with the results of Top 20, Top 10), but it seems that the tasks there are mainly for Indians for $ 5 per hour. 15 dollars an hour is rare and it seems that for such awesome money you should be super-duper and jump out of your pants.
I already reconciled myself and was ready to work for 7 bucks an hour, but it turned out that it was not so easy either (you have to wait long and hard until they give you something).
Bidov put a thuy khucha - a response of 5 percent (so far, unfortunately, there are no feedbacks).
In general, did Refund. Bottom line: disappointment - spent so much time with such a low return. It’s good that I’m also running my own project at the same time, plus hacks - I managed to earn a miserable 10-15 thousand (I worked approximately), on the outfit a complete ZERO. Although at the moment I am a free person (I quit my job).
In general, my third attempt failed. Well, will try to do the fourth.

Answer 13

Why exactly oDesk? In my opinion, freelancer.com is more adequate and popular. Regarding most of your questions (#2, #10, #14): everything is solved only by dialogue , customers are people too and understand that shit happens sometimes.

Answer 14

The desire to “lay straw” or just get an understanding of the situation arose because this is my 3rd attempt to go freelancing (the previous 2 were unsuccessful). Without proper preparation, as I understand it, it makes no sense to go full freelance - the result will be very low. But I can’t do it full-time - it’s quite problematic to combine work and freelance.
I would also choose Gazprom, but so far, unfortunately, this option is not available.

Answer 15

As for other questions. How should one act in such situations?

Answer 16

Yes, just for this case (to notify the client if the computer is broken) a mobile phone with Android is suitable.

Answer 17

I plan to order Payoneer to withdraw money from odesk (but first, of course, I need to earn something)

No, it is better to order a card in advance, it will be sent to you by mail for about a month. It won't interfere :)
1. 3G is… NSFW :) I don't know about anyone, but you can't communicate with the customer and via Skype at such a speed.

Answer 18

I had a permanent job found on Odessa. I worked for a little over a year, paid vacation.

Answer 19

1) What is the problem to take and try?
2) Refund is always possible
3) Catch positive ones, obviously
4) Relax and continue. Naturally, if the customer receives an invoice 2 times more than he was originally called, he will be dissatisfied. It is better to work a little without tracking and get great feedback. Correct assessment is a matter of experience. If you are not working with a client for the first time, then you can talk to him and explain that you missed the mark.
5) There are no problems to leave, but of course not at the expense of deadlines.
6) Freelancers don't care what day of the week it is. You can rest anywhere.
7) Usually by tracker.
8) Talk to the customer, explain that more time is needed. An adequate person will understand (if you ask to add a little, and not 2 times, of course). With inadequate it is better to finish for free and no longer communicate.
9) Funny.
10) It depends on what task and client. But in general, if agreed, it must be carried out.
11) No need to rush about. Freelancing is a completely different lifestyle, it either suits you or it doesn't.
12) I get up when I want. I do not fight laziness, there is no need.
13) Thousands of them.
14) First of all, inform the customer that you cannot work. Then agree with him - either the delay does not play a role for him, he will wait. Or give the task to another programmer. Or you can recommend someone to him. The worst thing you can do is just fall.
2 main commandments
1) do not work with inadequate customers. You need to cut them off right away. They use capslock in posts. They are trying to "swoop" to take. They do not respond to arguments.
Also look at the reviews. And not only on the reviews that the client puts, but also on those that he himself puts. There are those who are always dissatisfied.
2) Work must be done on time.

Answer 20

Hello.
Well, what happened to go completely freelance?

Answer 21

What about orders? How long are periods without orders? As I understand it, you put bids, after 2 weeks they give you a task (if the customer chooses a contractor). Then you complete the task. Then, when you have completed it to the end, you sit for some time without work (a new order will not be given immediately). As I understand it, only long-term orders (for 2-6 months or more) are insurance against such instability. Do I get it right?

Answer 22

It's very good that it is. And for the first time, I have my own project to somehow use the downtime. And you can also improve your professionalism, read books, in order to increase your rate to $ 25 per hour in the future.

Answer 23

By the way, what to do if long-running scripts are executed (for example, 10 minutes)? Do you still have to wait?
To stop the tracker or not to stop? On the other hand, the tracker takes screenshots, so you can't really do anything that is not related to the task. Or stupid to drink tea?

Answer 24

I went to Odessa and got scared - mostly projects for 5-7 dollars per hour. How do people (PHP-programmers from Russia) work for $15 an hour on average?

Answer 25

Hi colleague!
Well, 100 thousand is not a goal, it’s not difficult to earn that much with a 1C nickname, though you need to move to St. Petersburg or Moscow, this is a minus (maybe). I chose “my business” instead of freelancing for myself, I write applications for Android, and the benefits are greater (you need a little luck, really), and these are assets in their purest form! That is, the profit goes without my participation, after the project is launched.