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| CURRENT SECTION :: News | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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The doom-and-gloom merchants are predicting a dearth of contracts and a downturn in rates over the coming months as the credit crunch bites. Already some big-name banks are implementing blanket policies of non-renewal. But every cloud has a silver lining – and a bit of bench time could be the perfect way to pick up new skills as you find alternative ways to keep up with the repayments on the BMW. But just what can you do whilst you wait for the phone to ring? The internet offers a marketplace for any coder with time on their hands to market their skills. Sites like Rentacoder.com and Getacoder.com offers a way for people with work needing done to find freelancers to do the work for them – and a way for those freelancers to find freelance work. And it’s no longer restricted to coding either – there are sections for designers, artists, trainers and just about every other discipline related to software development. Facebook’s application platform has also spawned a thriving market in developers offering their services to the growing number of companies looking to develop applications for the social networking site. The company also has grants on offer of anything from $25,000 to $250,000 for developers of Facebook applications. In return, the site gets first refusal on VC funding for your company if it gets to the stage of a funding round. There are two major downsides to skills-exchange services such as these. The first is that for many jobs – particularly the smaller-scale ones – you’re competing against armies of developers from the Indian sub-continent and students working for beer money. The second is that there is a huge amount of dross on the site – teenage wannabe entrepreneurs looking for cheap content for their websites abound. But business buyers with money to spend also use the site, and there can be decent cash to be made if you’re prepared to spend the time trawling through the dross. “UK developers compete very well on any task involving a niche (for example Oracle),” claims Ian Ipollito, CEO of Rentacoder. “Many Indian developers focus on the open source projects because they can get the tools for free, and do not have access and expertise with paid/proprietary tools.” Like eBay, the key is your feedback reputation: with a portfolio of highly-rated wins under your belt, you immediately become more attractive to the serious spenders. It’s also not uncommon for students who are both lazy and rich – apparently such a beast does exist – to use such sites to find people to do their coursework for them. No bad thing, contends Ippolito: “An education is supposed to prepare a person to get a job in the real world. Our universities should be training students both how to write their own code… and also how to manage remote coders as well.” Facebook and Rentacoder offer two ways to use the internet to market yourself. In part 2 we’ll look at ways to make a profit out of other people’s goods and services. Graham Taylor Jul 16, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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