Freelancer community website - thoughts?
Hi,
I'm currently looking for the next thing to work on and one idea I've had is an online freelancer community site.
BACKGROUND
I keep the lights on at home by working as a freelance software developer, and over the years I have never found any joy on any of the freelancer websites. All of my work has come from networking, not from "bidding" for gigs. Admittedly, I never ended up making many bids; I set up on a site, make a few bids, see the way things are going (the race to the bottom - initially at least) and then start working on something that finds me (i.e. from my network).
Case in point - my current main (and best yet) gig is working with a guy who I became acquainted with (online), then became friends with, who then "shared" part of one of his projects with me.
THE IDEA
So, the idea is very rough at the moment but would look something like a community hub for freelancers. A place where freelancers can create our profile, share our skillsets, ideas, projects (and any skills gaps in it!) etc., make connections, friends.. and then maybe share out work. Dare I say it? A sort of "social media site" for freelancers.
EXAMPLE
A concrete example is my current gig mentioned above - when someone in our network is working on a project where there's a skills gap, they can offer it out and everyone (hopefully) wins...
I'd be very grateful for any thoughts on this - maybe it exists and I've just missed it, maybe you can spot a big hole in the idea, maybe it's something you're also looking for etc.
Thanks!
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I mentioned the other day that it would be cool/useful to have a website like that, ala IH style.
Ah, cool, I'm going through that thread now - thanks!
And thanks to @stenuto for the transparency in that post - looking forward to reading more from him
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.
Communities can be really hard to get off the ground, but if done well they can be an amazing source of goodness for so many.
Yes, I think the "if done well" is sooooo important, and.. quite hard to do..!
I've been thinking of a similar product, @ados.
I stood one up over at https://studyhall.freelancing.school but it never really took off (partially my fault, partially not a big fan of Tribe.so as a platform).
I'm rebooting it soon using Circle.so.
It's needed!
definitely wouldn't mind this - as a freelancer myself, and someone who has a product targeted at freelancers ;)
Sounds interesting - I'll take a look at what you're up to.
Feel free to give me a shout if you want to talk about any of this stuff!
I like the idea. I know there are some Slack channels that exist that serve a similar purpose.
Cool, are you able to post any good ones here? I'd love to get involved (if they're decent!) whether I take this idea further or not.
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.
Thanks for the input!
That's a great point about the possibility of the "race to the bottom" happening. I'm not sure about not mentioning the work-sharing as a "feature" though, because it's sort of a critical piece for what I currently have in mind. If the idea is at all a go-er, this may need some careful thought up front - I have a rough plan, but needs more work.
I'd love to get on a call with you - I'll try to formulate my ideas a little more and then give you a shout.