What is happening with the foreign market of front-end development?

Question

Freelance

Hello!
I'm a coder (or a front-end developer, whichever suits you).
I work part-time on Russian-language freelance exchanges (free-lance, weblancer).
I like everything here, there are orders, customers appreciate me, because I do high-quality imposition, without hack-work and in general I love my job. But I realized that you won’t earn much here.
I decided to try my luck on foreign freelance exchanges (odesk, freelancer, elance). I read that people there earn even more. Passed the required tests, filled out the questionnaires. Technical English is in order, I can read and write.
But I came to the sad conclusion that I won’t be able to make money there at all:
1) You are either a layout designer who draws a design in Photoshop and typesets it, sometimes they even require you to know js programming.
2) Either you make a ready-made design for any CMS, of which there are many, and in order to be able to make templates for all CMS, you need good knowledge of PHP, which has nothing to do with the front-end
3) Hindus and Pakistanis swoop in in droves and grab all orders. Most of the profiles say that they are jacks of all trades: they draw the design themselves and immediately sculpt it on whatever framework (or CMS) you want. And they ask for a minimum of money for the entire package of services, not a penny, of course, but for such amounts I am ready to do only layout, but not a "turnkey site".
4) Yes, even if you put up with their prices (hypothetically), learn the basics of web design, learn PHP, anyway, according to my estimates, you won’t be able to earn normally, because. all projects there are 90% code edits, not development from scratch.
Did I conclude correctly that their front-end market is dead and it’s better to stay on Russian freelance exchanges further?
If I'm wrong, then why everyone praises foreign customers and foreign exchanges is not clear to me. At the moment, no matter how strange it may sound, it is more profitable for me to work with Russians in terms of layout.
I also looked at other specializations (.net, administration), where people actually do much better than in Russia. That is, the problem is just the same only with the front-end.

Answer 1

Welcome to the international market, friend.
For fun, I'll tell you one of our ideas. Create a web studio in Tajikistan. Competent guys are everywhere, they even know how to use a computer (no kidding). We decided to teach layout to some, design to others (well, there, coloring, design, type in stock pictures ...). Well, what, for 500 rubles a day, he works 10 hours without a lunch break and loss of productivity. But, it was a joke.
So, as I understand it, Toaster is not only a service that allows you to ask constructive questions. This is a service that allows you to express bewilderment.
Which I am happy to use. And I'll give it all my personal opinion. Those are the comments. =)
I'll start with this personal opinion. Making a career as a freelancer is stupid from the very beginning. Freelancing is a constant competition. Including the Indians. And fighting the Indians is like fighting statistics. Useless.
It is best to look for a confident long-term construction, ours, domestic. Not only one to just take, do and forget. And such that with users. To constantly refine it, refine it, refine it. Be proud of the fruits of your creation, be touched by the download speed and the cute behavior of objects when working with the site. To feel through space channels the pleasure that the user gets when he says: “Oh, this is the interface, mother is vigorous!”
Of course, in the end I have a little reality. This is a well-planned lure.quite by accident it happened. The fact is that we are now in dire need of a front-end developer. And we are looking for it. Yes, we're just starting up (I'm sick of the word "startup"). But, nevertheless, they are ready to pay for the implementation of applied tasks. However, those, of course, who are interested in the project in the future, are more interested.
So, we need a front-end developer! js, jquery, less. And come across all sorts of typesetters. People without a deep understanding of the behavior of certain elements. Such are the Russian Indians. :(
Esi che, posony - skype in profile.

Answer 2

I suspect it's about entry. The more difficult the tasks, the less willing, and the areas with the easiest skills to master are just hot. In general, the post is very illustrative.
And what is the problem for you to master javascript or the device of typical templates (Wordpress, Joomla) or to join forces with a designer?

Answer 3

comprehensive services rule

Answer 4

I will not argue, I will express the opinion that few people need layout, they order everything on a turnkey basis. Plus, it's easier to choose the template you need on the same themeforest and buy it, or contact its author for services.

Answer 5

You are a coder, but not a front-end developer. The frontend is mostly javascript, and not jquery, but pure js +/or backbone, angular, etc. In my experience, writing a cool live one-page interface for a huge site in pure js is a pretty decent task (considering IE6). I did not write sites in PHP before the front, I was afraid that it would be orders of magnitude more difficult - it turned out that the average site like habr could be a little more difficult, but not in such a way as to avoid such a task. Understand what a frontend is. A normal front-end developer will master the layout of a large site in no more than half an hour, without templates - only notepad ++ and emmet (as an example, in general, in a normal IDE).

Answer 6

So I make up without templates. pure html+css in sublime text+emmet. But to lay out an average site is far from half an hour. It will take half an hour just to analyze the layout and work out the html structure with classes. And no one really uses js now, everyone writes effects on jQuery, because. it is faster, easier, and therefore cheaper for the end customer.
What does the IDE have to do with it, I don’t understand who is more comfortable. I tried to work both in netbeans and in aptana and eclipse, but it's not very convenient.
By the way, you didn't answer my question...

Answer 7

As for the Indians, I now realized that they are just spamming. Almost no one interviews them and they write everywhere (even in Bitrix projects they beat them, although most likely they don’t know this system at all)