[itake]

I wish they would reveal the compensation numbers. Like its really easy to get a freelancing job if you charge $7.25/hr. But finding a freelancing opportunities that match the rates of dev shops ($200+ / hr) is much more challenging.

[tonyedgecombe]

One of the things that surprised me most when I started freelancing was that higher paying clients were much easier to deal with. They seemed to value my work more simply because they were paying more.

[chistev]

Cheap clients are the worst.

[msadowski]

Same experience here. I also found that if they haggle on the price at the beginning they turn out very difficult to work with.

[Imustaskforhelp]

I don't want to sound rude but essentially $7.25 freelancing job is really great for developing countries like india , its like 5,056.97 per day , which is crazy nuts.

My brother did freelancing before he got his job , in fact he made more money freelancing than with his job , but he personally feels a little saddened I suppose because either he doesn't feel its justified , like a company would generally ask him for work , he would build it and then they would ship it and it would crazy. In fact one of the times , IIRC (I may be wrong) but he said that he made the whole project himself and the client is making 25$ everyday for that project by literally doing nothing , I know you might think 25$ per day are cheap but in India , its the salary that people would go for a great deal at.

Othertimes he felt the hectic schedule / sometimes got clients / sometimes didn't , he hated that upwork took a lot of his money the first time a client came.

He is enjoying his newly gotten job (he has just graduated) and for now , they aren't making him do any meaningful work except settling in.

I don't know , could you even tell me how I can get a freelancing job online for 7.25$ per hour ?

[itake]

I've hired people part and full time in developing countries (Malaysia, India, and Vietnam).

Westerners will be very skeptical of your skills, so its very important to have a strong portfolio.

Random advice:

- Talented people tend to select other talented people to work with. So if your portfolio is ugly, because the designer was bad, then that will reflect poorly on you.

- Focus on Frontend skills (web and mobile). I think western clients prefer building backend locally, but are more comfortable outsource the frontend.

- Have a day job and be busy. I have had much better luck hiring talented devs that already have jobs than devs that are unemployed.

- If there is a mobile app in your portfolio, check the mobile app ratings in the client's app store before sharing it. Multiple people shared with me a 2-star finance app, because the very few American users gave it bad reviews due to the poor support for foreign passports or phone numbers. Its a bad look.

- Cold out reach to dev shops or other western freelancers. If you're a freelancer or dev shop, when it rains, it pours. Be on their short list when they are drowning in work, but no time to interview/hire, etc.

- Don't be too cheap. That's a red flag that you don't understand the industry or are low-skill and desperate for work. I'd ask at least $15/hr, even in lower cost countries.

[bilsbie]

I offered ten hours free once because I was bored and wanted an interesting project to work on. Zero interest.

[lzr_mihnea]

Hey @itake! I plan on writing about that too, around part 3.