How to choose a freelancer to work with on your projects

TEmelie — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 07:52:22 +0000

First of all you should take this information very valuable. Why ? That’s simple. I work as a freelancer for about 4 years now and i met a lot of people from all the countries and i have some experience.
Let’s enumerate most important things you should consider before choosing a programmer / designer.
- Portfolio ( not always most important )
- Skills
- Reviews ( if you are connected in a freelance website )
- Hourly rate , or rates per task.
When you first contact a freelancer ask his name & nickname & website / portfolio and google them. You might find very interesting info about him ( complaints maybe from clients ) and we both now you don’t want to waste your time rite ? Most of people don’t do this and i think it is very important.
Second ask for a portfolio but keep in mind that there are out there a lot of good programmers without a portfolio. I know some of them Though a good designer i think will always need a strong portfolio to impress his potential clients.
Few tips when you work with a designer :
- be very polite
- look for prompt response, tight communications
- give him examples of designs you like and explain your ideas as much as you can from the first time
- encourage him even when the first concept isn’t what you are looking for ; don’t say never “I don’t like it, it sucks!” because he will loose interest.
- leave him to be creative ( very important for your project ) ; there are some people asking for a design like xxxx.com with few changes and this is unacceptable. He will know you are an inexperienced person.
- learn few things about your project, google the terms so you’ll know to guide the provider. This is really important unless you want to pay for a project twice.
The worst things you can do :
- pay upfront all the money agreed for the project; the provider’s motivation will be for sure 0 unless he is a very credibile;
- release payment during the project ( if it is held in a escrow account ) ; most providers ask for this , beware !
- start the project without having the smallest idea about programming & design.
- don’t pay freelancer’s work on time as agreed. He could make a bad reputation to your name with google’s help.
- use copyrighted work from a freelancer even if you didn’t paid for his work ( please use Alt+F4 combination if you did this )
These are just few ideas i could come up with.
If you have more ideas, you’re welcome to comment here !

TEmelie - web design blog » Outsourcing

How to choose a freelancer to work with on your projects