Outsourcing on RENTACODER (also elance etc)

[Linkedin-Entrepreneurs.com Victory Darwin]

I'm going to let Gavin be the outsourcing guru (because he is), but I just want to give 7 very valuable pieces of advice that I learned the hard way.

#1 If you don't have at least 10 completed jobs (as a buyer) and perfect 10 score, you will attract nothing but the riffraff. The good coders sort all the jobs they see using that as a minimum criteria. If you are below that you are invisible.

#2 Always search specific targeted coders and invite them to bid on your jobs. I invite 100 joomla coders and get about 20 bids for every new joomla site I build. I filter by minimum criteria just like they do (minimum score 9.0 and at least 20 jobs completed).

#3 If you email and chat offsite, occasionally paste the whole text to the RAC site.

#4 As the job evolves, negotiate what is and is not covered by the original bid and document it. Bids can be altered just by mutual agreement. Type the details into the RAC log.

#5 If a job is dragging out and coder has taken on new stuff, either offer a bonus for early completion, or warn him in advance of the impending deadline. Don't just let the deadline pass. Keep communication open.

#6 If past deadline, renegotiate, or tell him to stop. Do not tell him to continue without a new agreement.

#7 Give and get a good, strong testimonial.

Wish someone had given me these tips. Woulda saved a lot of time and aggravation, and money.

[Saikat B]

Rentacoder or RAC is a good platform to buy and sell services. The problem is not only a Good reputation as far as I see from the seller's point of view.
They also include (In addition to the above points)-
# The number of arbitrations you had and what was the coders point of view on the arbitration. Arbitrations do go in the buyer's way, but sellers do read what the mediator or RAC fecilitator has commented and many a times, sellers also communicate amongst themselves. You can have an arbitration going your way, but the more arbitrations you have makes the seller more apprehensive since the seller sees that you are grumpy/ not easily satisfied or choosy. I have seen that only 10% coders will like such buyers...coders ideally want someone who can build a rapport with them.
So, keep a lookout on that factor as well
# Your Non action Ratio is also a thing that repels coders from your requests. Genuine sellers are always short on time...They dont have time to waste and if you dont have a high non action ratio, you must do something about it.

[Linkedin-Entrepreneurs.com Victory Darwin]

good points but you want a LOW non action %. 46% is average, so under that is good.

It is additionally confusing because they have a bug in their system which says ABOVE AVERAGE on most people's accounts when it isn't, so click the NON ACTION RATIO link to get the correct data.

I wouldn't worry unless it was obviously high, like over 50%.

V

[Saikat B]

Its true that RAC is a bit buggy and slow but when u would consider that this is the site that makes your work and your concepts so easy to materialise, you wouldnt mind having a small bug in the system.
Here is something which you should think about-
If you are planning to handle a site like linkedin ( RAC can be compared to linkedin) with just 13 employees or so, you need to consider the fact that it becomes almost impossible to handle all things at a time.
The bugs must have been spotted already, but the things to do list is not always small...
so, give them time and it shall be fixed!

[Saikat B]

Have u tried Odesk?
It is similar to Rentacoder and elance, but the only thing is that in Rentacoder, elance, the bid requests are just a one off project, but here the bids posted are for some weeks and most positions are for the long term.