Apparently now is a good time as ever to get a side-gig. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, September’s figures showed although 103,000 jobs were added, many more were needed. An option to consider apparently is Freelancer.com, an online site for jobs to be posted – much like eBay but for services instead of goods.
With over 3 million users and $100M paid to freelancers, work is being completed online in over 240 countries. This quarter revealed some very interesting trends:
- Facebook development is up in the wake of their significant launches at f8
- Small businesses are heading online for marketing and copywriting work, with AdSense work bouncing back after Google's Panda update
- HTML5 is rapidly rising, set to overtake the flailing Flash jobs sector
- Mobile app development, surprisingly, is slowing down, with the rate of growth of Android nearly halving
Freelancer.com CEO Matt Barrie offered the following snapshot of Freelancer.com’s position in the current economy.
According to Freelancer.com’s latest press release, both Facebook and Social networking projects were up 32% and 36%; which show this intensifies the battle for supremacy with Google+, whose recent changes pale by comparison, prompting prominent tech blogger Robert Scoble to claim, “If Google fails with Google+ the entire company fails."
Would you agree a long-standing Goliath like Google could be taken out with such a sling-shot?
MB: Never say never, but it would take it would take an enormous slingshot to take down Google. Google has absolutely doubled down on Google+. The predominance of Facebook is growing day to day. Google seems to have a lot of very smart engineers but not a very good product management department. In Schmidt's days lots of products got released, but released in very sloppy way, without any real marketing or post launch support.
Just look at how Buzz was launched, Google Wave and now Google+. I have no idea why they simply didn't integrate Wave into Gmail. They then hung Lars out to dry only a few months later. Now Larry has taken Steve Job's advice it seems and is paring back the product set dramatically. I think Google's big problem is that it isn't sexy. It's geeky. Just look at their logo, it's horrible. It has a tremendously powerful position controlling basically how people navigate around the Internet, but it's been very spotty with isolated successes in getting other products off the ground. Gmail is great, Google Docs is great, Android is great, but the road is littered with a huge number of failed products.
But you have to remember: Google was the last search engine to market, and I doubt it will be the be all and end all for the rest of time. Facebook took down MySpace from a seemingly impenetrable position.
The press release also reports that HTML5 likely to overtake Flash in 6 months. What happened to the campaign for mobile-friendly sites?
MB: The whole argument about Flash was manufactured by Steve Jobs just so the "walled garden" known as the AppStore worked. A walled garden is basically a closed system where content is paid for. There have been many examples in the past such as CompuServe, which you used to dialup on your modem and pay to click on each application. Another was NTTDoco in Japan where people paid a few yen for Micky Mouse wallpaper on their cell phone. On the Internet, we don't pay 99 cents for dinky little apps- they're free, and written in Flash. Walled gardens can make a lot of money in very short periods of time but inevitably they come crumbling down quickly. Steve instead manufactured an argument that Flash drained the battery life, when it fact the reason it wasn't supported on the iPhone was because the AppStore simply wouldn't work.
HTML5 is all about mobile friendly websites. Instead of having to make a native application for the iPhone and another for Android, you should be able to write one website and have it work on every device. I can't wait until it's fully released and supported!
What is the break-down of requests from start-ups vs. big/established companies behind Freelancer.com’s top-tier requests?
MB: We don't collect a lot of data on the size of the companies that use our site, however will say the vast majority of projects being posted come from individuals, small businesses and startups. We do get some projects from large companies, but usually it's not part of an organized company strategy, instead it's an individual contributor somewhere in the organization that is fed up having to wait for the graphic design department to free up some time to tidy up a presentation!
Why does Freelancer.com charge on-boarding contractors to pay for assessments? How are hopefuls who have laundry list-types of skill-sets to prioritize the work they’d like to bid on?
MB: It's actually free for freelancers to sign up and bid, and we only charge a small commission (starting at the industry's lowest rate of 3%) as you get paid. We do however, have optional exams which freelancers can take to stand out from the crowd as we put a badge on your profile if you pass. The exams are only $5 and a great way for you to get your skills noticed.
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How Freelancer.com works: http://youtu.be/SyBkaS5xJI0
You can find freelancers or browse jobs in your region online, or keep up through these social mediums: t fb yt li
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