Thread by @patio11

Freelancer marketplaces are markets for lemons. You should not sell your labor through them.

I promise you: you CAN do better.

How are they markets for lemons? Sellers mostly know if they're capable of shipping projects to spec. Buyers don't, and so price in failure.

Any seller capable of shipping code & communicating professionally realizes "Wait, market here is 80% discount to off-platform." and leaves.

The supply side gets even worse. The buyers respond by a) further lowering prices and b) clueful buyers exit, in search of capable teams.

The ending equilibrium is low-savvy buyers getting scammed out of peanuts by low-quality sellers operating at scale.

The platforms are not unaware of this. They design systems around this reality. If you are a seller, you will be judged by those systems.

"Why does their dispute process treat me like I am a scammer?" Because they know you're selling on their platform. The shoe fits!

Scammers they have in abundance but suckers they lack so they will take the sucker's side over the scammer's side every time.

I understand that many folks feel like the platforms take all of the sales work out of getting gigs lined up for them, particularly overseas

If you are capable of delivering a bespoke software engagement, you are more than capable of selling a bespoke software engagement.

As somebody who sold quite a lot of those from Ogaki, I assure you that you can sell remotely. Skype and email work over borders.