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Outsource Digital Labour at Task Market
Posted by Lifehacker US Edition at 11:30 PM on June 3, 2008
Microsoft's launched a tech-oriented outsourcing marketplace called Task Market in Tech Preview (that is, beta). If you need a logo for your company letterhead, but lack the Illustrator chops, or you have a knack for writing compelling resumes, Task Market's worth checking out—outsource the first and advertise the second on the market. Jobs most suitable for Task Market cost between $0 and $US500, and the product must be something that can be delivered in a digital format. Logo creation, web design, photo editing, proof reading, and document translation are just a few potential items. Get paid or pay your freelancer via PayPal, and rate their work after it's complete. Looks like a good place to test-drive a side business freelancing. Have you ever outsourced work or freelanced using a Task Market-like open forum? Tell us your experience in the comments.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Roger
Posted June 4, 2008 11:10 PM
That's funny - just yesterday I was at a conference at the Microsoft campus where they were talking about this. It looks interesting.
For folks looking for design though, one of the presenting companies at the conference was a group called crowdSPRING (http://crowdspring.com). Their presentation was pretty hilarious and they won the audience award for best in show. Worth checking out too if you're looking for logos or business cards or website design.
stuboo
Posted 11:52 PM 3/6/08
As I type, I have projects open at oDesk.com, rentacoder.com, and elance.com. I've long wanted someone with some interface chops to get into this market and keep things simple. Alas, Microsoft has never wow'd me with their interfaces. Elance has a nice clean interface, but, in an effort to be everything to everyone, it is complex.
I'm sure I'll give this service a try sooner or later.
For what it's worth, 99Designs.com is the best place I've found for logo design - though upfront fees come from the contest holder, not the designer.
stuboo
xenobyte72
Posted 12:22 AM 4/6/08
Are any of these sites UK friendly or generally open to international freelancers? If not, can you recommend any?
xenobyte72
Jared Goralnick
Posted 12:07 AM 4/6/08
I've used elance for similar tasks. The really important thing is to be THOROUGH in the specifications you give for your task. In addition to the usual issues with communicating electronically there are often language barriers. And, most importantly, if you don't ask for something explicitly you're not going to get it. Even things like "heavily commented code," "compatible with Mac Office," "CMYK colors," "match these PMS colors," "include meta tags on every page," "provide templates in Dreamweaver," "provide PHP includes for the site's template," etc etc. All of this stuff needs to be explicit or you will NOT get those results.
One other tip: start with a really tiny project (whatever that means for your purse) and then, if they succeed, give the same freelancer a bigger one. This may sound obvious, but often times people go for the big pie in the beginning--not only might you have issues with your freelancer, but you'll probably make a lot of mistakes in how you spec out the work. So try it before you have a lot at stake.
Outsourcing rocks, but it takes a little planning to do right :-).
Jared Goralnick
stuboo
Posted 12:46 AM 4/6/08
@xenobyte72: All of the sites listed in my post above are open to international freelancers.
stuboo
fishlips20
Posted 12:28 AM 4/6/08
Not a bad site, but the lack of personal credentials / background on individuals makes it a nightmare for people posting jobs.
Looking through some of the job offers, one request is asking for a market assessment for 50 bucks. That guy is going to get what he pays for. Some grade 9 kid will win that bid.
fishlips20
caedus
Posted 1:03 AM 4/6/08
These things are great starting, but once they get saturated with developers, it goes downhill. Developers will do a job that would normally cost say $500, and will do it for $25 or $50 to make a quick buck. Plus, the person wanting the service wont know any better, so they'll go with the low-baller.
caedus
AT203
Posted 2:52 AM 4/6/08
Similarly, check out Etsy.com's "Alchemy" service. Etsy is a website where independant craftspeople sell their wares. Alchemy is a service where you can present an idea, that people then bid on to create. They focus more on clothing, jewelry, paper goods, but they do logo creation also. [www.etsy.com]
For Information Technology related stuff, there is Amazon's Mechanical Turk service where you can outsource small or repetitive tasks: [www.mturk.com]
AT203
chrishad95
Posted 3:05 AM 4/6/08
How long do you suppose it will take for you to start seeing projects posted that say stuff like,
"Need somebody to do a website that is just like facebook/ebay/myspace/youtube/... and it shouldn't cost too much."
The other ones that amuse me are the ones that say stuff like,
"Have website written by a different developer who has moved on and I need it finished/fixed/rewritten... Oh yeah, and it shouldn't cost a lot."
It is probably just me, but as a developer, I've had very little success with these kind of sites.
chrishad95
speed1961
Posted 1:15 AM 4/6/08
This is a huge market for India and China where coding and programming can be had for pennies on the dollar. It's awesome if you're a U.S. buyer but not so great if you're a seller. (Intense competition from people who live on $1.50/day.)
speed1961
cbiggins
Posted 9:22 PM 4/6/08
0 open tasks for php
heh, looks like I'm out of work.
cbiggins
xenobyte72
Posted 9:12 AM 7/6/08
@stuboo:
Awesome, finally an easy way to crack my way into freelancing.
xenobyte72