How about a listing for the growing community of Pakistani freelancers. I’ve had a lot of trouble finding good (and cheap) freelancers to do small custom work. This listing could include reviews, ratings, previous work of freelancers.
Right now, the only option I have to post my project on rentacoder type websites and that takes quite a while.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:52 am #Fariha Akhtar
That’s one of the things that I feel we can achieve through the “IT Professionals Network of Pakistanâ€â€”the first idea at Ideas Hut :)
June 1st, 2008 at 6:29 am #Sohail Abid
I believe these are the perfect days to implement this idea. The reason: within ONE day, I get 3 people asking me to refer them to some freelance developer who can work for them task-based from time to time. Two of them were project-managers of software houses and 3rd a Pakistani abroad.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:16 pm #SAWJ
Yeah, I definitely need some projects to work on. Do you guys have any, by the way? :)
June 6th, 2008 at 8:34 pm #minky
I don’t think Pakistani sites will pay as good as oDesk.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:20 pm #SAWJ
But it’ll provide a good platform for Pakistani freelancers to find work in Pakistan.
June 16th, 2008 at 2:54 am #Fahad Ahmed
its about 6 months back when I was having a discussion with my friend on freelance works in pakistan. We were talking about same type of a solution which you are discussing. Its true that the freelance community of developers rapidly in pakistan (even s/w houses outsourcing work to freelancers) and its also true that paki geeks finding it very difficult to handle rentacoder or odesk. So keep it up guys and come up with some concrete things.
June 17th, 2008 at 10:31 pm #Usama
Yeah, this is a great idea, and what could make it more appealing are the desi payment options.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:49 am #Tehseen Baweja
SAWJ: We have a few small projects that need good PHP and AJAX people. You can get in touch if you, or anybody else, is interested; tehseen dot baweja AT gmail dot com
June 30th, 2008 at 11:44 am #Webdesign Pakistan
Although a small but a similar group with the same intentions is here @ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9772455799&ref=ts
The idea is great but for such a B2B platform following things are important:
- a minimum critical mass of both buyers & sellers
- the portal or the hosting site authenticity & 3rd party certifications
August 18th, 2008 at 6:03 pm #AamirRaz
Strongly support this idea… the responsibility, though not completely, is of our IT professionals.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:38 pm #Babar Bhatti
Much needed. I have used 99designs and this model really works!
August 28th, 2008 at 3:27 am #Hasan
We definitely need something like that.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:39 am #Mocha
If there was such a site in future, pay rate will be really low as we can see from local salaries.
Employers usually convert salary per month into hours and set rate according to that. Since every cost (electricity, software, internet, equipment, training, health, idle time, and phone) is borne by the freelancer I don’t see it taking off with so many miser employers in Pakistan.
September 1st, 2008 at 9:31 pm #Asad Imtiaz
Well yes listings are always good, but I always have one reservation with all the freelance world and such listings, i.e. “regulation”. I, myself, am a freelance and on sites like rent a coder the problem I see is that for a massive (might be enterprise) site/task or job, people are willing to quote a price which is not fare at all. how ? Image a person who requires a Social Network or a B2B site or some similar job which is eventually going to earn that person thousands of dollars he gets it done from a freelance who is willing to do it in a price which are not realistic (but for a single person yes a $100 – $200 sounds great). You can call it price control in a conventional business. If such a listing is maintained and freelancers are allowed to be contacted directly it would surely bring more business and accessibility for our developers but along with that would dramatically decrease the quality of work and price for which its done. No doubt overall credibility of our general or average IT market/developers.
Such a thing should and has to be regulated otherwise it can also prove in a negative negotiation factor for those who run small setups and are still freelancers.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:07 pm #woman in a men's world
Desi payment options is one thing that makes this idea attractive for me. you see when a freelancer starts up n gets a project of say $100 then cheque payments n even wire transfer is rather too costly for him/her. S/he may end up losing around a quarter of this money to payment processing. Plus the fee of websites like guru n rentAcoder are to be paid as well. So i think a simple payment option feasible in Pakistan will add a lot of worth to this idea. BTW can someone suggest a freelancing site who pay through western union?
October 21st, 2008 at 11:19 am #Sardar Mohkim Khan
i think that’s the best way to promote rapid expansion in the IT field (that already sees a boom). And many freelancers pull off a much better job, apart from that it would create an atmosphere for tougher competition, eventually bringing out the very best.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:39 pm #Faizan A. Laghari
All for the idea but what “desi payment” options are REALLY there for the web? How would the payment be dispersed, will the online community escrow the payments or not, and if so then how do they charge the person creating the project, how to they PAY the freelancer? :-S
October 31st, 2008 at 11:42 pm #Momekh
Well, if so many people want it, why don’t I do it? :P
October 31st, 2008 at 11:46 pm #Faizan A. Laghari
well if you really can what can be better than that Momekh! :)
December 8th, 2008 at 12:22 am #Zain Shaikh
hello everybody,
i would like to know if someone really approached to the completion of this project…, whats the result in the end of the discussion…?
December 8th, 2008 at 6:58 pm #Ali
All,
Salaam
I will be interested in developing this website however, will like someone to work with me.
Thanks,
Ali
December 9th, 2008 at 1:13 am #Zain Shaikh
glad to listen that someone is gonna execute any idea…
I could help, but i am busy in exams by the first week of January…
I will try my level best to catch you just after my exams…
thanx!
December 9th, 2008 at 2:46 pm #Ali
What about RentACoder? Please read the following article. I guess its been widely used and accepted by Pakistanis.
http://talk.bytesense.biz/pakistan/myths-about-the-pakistani-outsourcing-market/
Thanks,
Ali
December 14th, 2008 at 12:29 am #Ali
This has a direct relation with this idea ..
http://ideashut.com/idea/it-professionals-network/
February 16th, 2009 at 9:08 pm #Noman
I would also like to work as a freelance coder.
In my last year of BS(Computer Science) in University of Karachi.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:06 am #Fariha Akhtar
@Noman
If you are willing to contribute to the development of this idea then you can keep collaborating with the people discussing this idea above. However, if you willing to work as freelancer coder in an online market place then for now I’d suggest you to check out the following websites:
http://scriptlance.com
http://rentacoder.com
February 18th, 2009 at 12:12 am #Zain Shaikh
@Noman,
she i right but i would never recommend to work with any site which uses bidding system, because i personally dont like that.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:47 am #Raja Faisal Nawaz
Dear All
Please see our website:http://poweronics.com,a freelance marketplace for all freelancers from Pakistan as well as other countries.
This is a clearcut example of the execution of the idea given here by Arfeen Godil.You can find very good and cheap freelancers here.
You are requested to visit http://www.poweronics.com now.
Thanks.
October 20th, 2009 at 10:49 am #qammar
Hi There!
You just raise a important point. but the problem with all the freelancer web sites is, most of them pay via credit cards, and paypal like services. and International Employer often do not trust Western Union like services to transfer funds. as they are expensive.
Think about providing some platform for funds transfer or PayPal to Include Pakistan in there countries list.
Thanks,
qammar feroz
March 16th, 2010 at 12:40 pm #Derwaish
This is a requirement for all Pakistani Freelancers and NRP Freelancers and everybody who posted views here have some good intentions but none have discussed about the behavior of our fellow freelancers who most of the time do non-professional and low cost programming and a big %age of these freelancers do unfinished business on-line which is damaging overall repute of Pak based freelancers worldwide.
Freelancers do have concerns about payment from clients but when you do good always expect good.
Everybody want work from freelance listing free of charge, but who will give your ethical guarantee to one who is paying some amount for any kind of development on these freelance listing sites.
It looks like criticism but when we are seeking for a good system we should be aware of our bad points too. If there is a team of people who can manage and run this listing system and its complications i offer our services for its development, marketing, business development along with payment system for Pakistan Market. It will take time though, but not impossible to develop. Only thing needed is a team of professional and like minded people from anywhere in the world with same intention to develop and grow our fellows.
regards,
Derwaish
April 8th, 2010 at 10:57 am #ZeeehanH.
Assallam o Allaykum
Well, its good to find some platform for the Pakistani Freelancers to discuss the day to day issues etc.
Well, I can say that Pakistani Coders/Freelancer are very well ranked and working good on many of the websites, and majority can be found at
http://www.rentacoder.com
http://www.elance.com
I, my self have been working as a freelancer for last 3-4 years and have been great at it.
However, some of our Pakistani coders/freelancers has done some thing in the past or may be doing these days as well that has damaged the picture.
The reason behind the scene is:
1) We try to find easy money
2) We Over Estimate even a simple task
3) We lack after sales services
4) Commitment is something not commonly found here
5) We take more then what we can do.
6) Sometimes, we do not know what we are doing
7) We first prefer MONEY over Ranking and Buyer Comments
Well, I guess, the most important among the above is Point No.7.
I suggest, that for a new coder, he can should not set a price for a task, his aim should be at the beginning to get at least 10 projects and get all 100% ratings and buyer comments. And then the coder will be getting mature to drive the buyer to his views and cost etc.
Moreover, COMMUNICATION / COMMITMENT is another key factor. I tried to hire few Pakistani to support me in making projects, but first they disappear, and later (after 3 days) I got a reply “Actually, due to rain, we did not have electricity”
Man, you are working for foreign market, and they do not feel good to hear such excuses. So a lot of cases are like this.
I can remember, when I begin, 4 years back, it was a simple job but the target time was just 2 hours away, and I got electricity problem, I can remember that I take the bus and move to my friend’s home with the floppy disc, and there i finish the project. And later I informed the buyer that this is how i DID that.
Well, in 4 years time, I learnt a lot and there are so many experiences with Pakistani coder that i can’t type in 1 go. Finally, last year I hired 2 Romanian people to help me.
OFF THE TOPIC
===========
Pakistani Freelancers, do you get full support from banks for Credit Cards and Car Financing etc (with your Freelance Working) ???
Regards
ZeeshanH
August 4th, 2010 at 3:35 pm #JavaDev
Hi,
I do agree the our freelancers we are lacking communication skills and moral values. We need to overcome this to win more projects.
Keys are:
- communicate with your client
- accept you mistakes
- manage your work properly
Have fun.