Finding freelance programming/web dev work

[ahurtt]

I'm in a regular day job that pays good and is close to home but is not really interesting or challenging. It pays the rent and puts food on the table if you know what I mean, but I feel like I'm just sort of stagnating and bored. I've heard there are some websites you can go to and register for freelance programming jobs and was thinking about looking into that sort of thing for some small jobs to do on the side. Does anybody here have any experience doing that type of work and if so, what resources did you utilize to find jobs? I don't want to end up working for some shady miscreant who doesn't pay or something like that. I want it to be legitimate and something I wouldn't be ashamed to tell my grandma I did if you know what I mean. . .How do you get started doing something like this for programming work?

 

[Crusty]

http://www.rentacoder.com

 

[troytime]

i've done some work on rentacoder before...although i've gotten burned already

plus the last few times i've bid on projects i get seriously underbid by bigger firms.

I get most of my clients via word of mouth advertising and craigslist.

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: troytime
i've done some work on rentacoder before...although i've gotten burned already

plus the last few times i've bid on projects i get seriously underbid by bigger firms.

I get most of my clients via word of mouth advertising and craigslist.

If you don't mind my asking, how were you "burned?"

 

[Crusty]

I thought that once a price was determined for the project the money was put into escrow, but I could be wrong.

 

[Drakkon]

I've done about 5 or so projects off rentacoder and never gotten burned. Money is put in escrow so not sure how you could've so long as you did the work. I will admit I have gotten underbid - had to bid quite a bit lower a few times and its difficult to make a lot of money off the site but it did give me a way to make some extra cash.

 

[troytime]

i did an SEO project for a guy that couldn't give me access to his files.

he insisted that i send him the static changes and he would implement them
it was a progressional thing, which meant i couldn't just submit one piece of work, it was many changes, to many pages, some of which would be changed a 2nd or 3rd time depending on their effects

after the first stage of changes, he disputed everything and got his money back
the rentacoder official sided with him because the files weren't uploaded to rentacoder
I provided all the original changes, and proof that he implemented them (even with my exact typos that he copied and pasted).

I realize that i should have uploaded word documents outlining the changes, but he was still shady about it and the rentacoder admin was a dick.