A quick review for freelancing sites revealed a bunch of exciting material.
Besides the wide range of commissions charged, multiplicity of said sites and all the consequences arising from that, one particular thing has drawn my attention.
The two sites – GetACoder.com and GetAFreelancer.com – look very much alike. Closer examination showed even more stunning similarities – the sites are word-for-word copies of each other (except dynamic content, of course). They were definitely inviting for further investigation.
First let’s look at WHOIS data.
GetAFreelancer is all-Swedish, just like they show it quite openly throughout their website. Even the bad English stylistics in some places (those probably having undergone upgrades in-house after initial cloning) gives them away. GetACoder is Arizona, USA based.
Domain creation/exp dates:
- GetACoder.com
- Created on: 16-Aug-03
- Expires on: 16-Aug-07
- GetAFreelancer.com
- Creation Date: 09-Dec-2003
- Expiration Date: 09-Dec-2006
Nothing special here: GetAFreelancer is a clear “descendant”. And both companies don’t take their businesses very seriously – they both prolong their domains only for the year immediately ahead.
Google PR (PageRank) for the two is a bit confusing though. It is a moderate “5″ for the presumably “original” GetACoder and a respectful “7″ for the “descendant”.
Well, this might just confirm the notion of Google PR being very relative measure of site’s popularity. Really, since PR is based mainly upon the number of “votes” (inbound links), GetACoder might have suffered from negative voting of unsatisfied coders which are treated like shit by GetACoder with it’s TOS governing project fee charges right after project start, with no guarantees of payments for the job.
How is negative vote cast? It’s easy. When you write an article about a site in question just don’t make a hyperlink to it – only mention the site’s name. (A reader-friendly alternative would be to include a normal link with the attribute of ‘rel=”nofollow”‘, which is an effective “negative vote”.) At the same time do hyperlink to the good sites in the same article so that your “voting balance” is shifted towards them.
Now the most inspiring finding.
I’ve found just about exactly what I subconsciously was expecting to find: a project titled “EXACT clone of getacoder.com” on… right, on GetAFreelancer! here
It is no surprise that many project on all the freelancer sites devoted to website design start with the words “I want a clone of …” Yet this one was definitely over the roof. Well, almost: the project isn’t on the GetACoder itself…
This is the ominous reality of freelancing venture.
So what a good coder/freelancer to do? Which agent to choose? Which one to award more respect?
Looks like one of the ways to go – as suggested by the mentioned findings – is… to build a freelancing job site. Yes, this may even explain their multiplicity. After all, GetAFreelancer declared more than $4M of turnover for a year’s term, which in all probability translates into some $100-400K net profit per year. Not too bad given the announced budget for “EXACT clone of getacoder” of “$100-300″…
← Rate!
The best one is clearly Getafreelancer. You can see Getacoder is a copy from getafreelancer for they are INFERIOR in every single aspect. They benefit buyers instead of coders. Freelance like me have more than $50 stuck on gac because their stupid laws say you can not withdraw the money. THEY KEEP the money…they main objective is to keep all the few dollars form indians and russians that can not withdraw to paypal to their personall richness. They present crap when it comes to grab your money…getafreelancer at least presents several options showing they Clearly thought of freelancers when building the site. Getacoder must belong to some creepy old greedy man. Pick getafreelancer they are better and possess more projects.
GAF was created from scratch. I suggest looking at the Wayback Machine to verify this:
GAF first time with content: http://web.archive.org/web/20040207014452/http://www.getafreelancer.com/
GAC first time with content: http://web.archive.org/web/20040411010456/http://getacoder.com/
Notice the date.
Or try a completely different model for connecting freelancers and projects. New startup projectanswer.com attempts to offer an alternative to the other websites that either take a percent out of the project budget or charge a membership fee.
Created by freelancers for freelancers. Please give us a chance, freelancers please register at projectanswer.com . Free of course!
getafreelancer is for new freshman ,I often get project on GAF when I was a new freelancer. It works well for me,and I often use GafReminder to get new project on GAF
Another great site to check out is http://www.freelancewar.com . Same concept, but free, and has a lot nicer look to it.
i like http://www.bestcoders.co.nr
Getacoder is SH*T. The thing must be run by a kid on a crappy house on a crappy country. They never answer a question after I asked for withdraw and kept my $110.
Shouldn’t anyone KILL Getacoder.com?
There are some other good options try http://www.savvylance.com
http://www.guru.com etc
Hah, indeed. Pickpocketing business culture (whoever stole). Just the fact that they tolerate “I want a clone” projects speaks enough.
I’m waiting for the nex generation of jobboards that will kick them off the market.
hello friends i came across the new thing and work with them ,they people work on my site and gave me proper satisfaction .this is only a site where you can find a professional on a click , to get your work done .
http://www.marketraise.com/employeebasis.php
I feel GAF is a cool site.Easy to navigate and great reputation too.
I consider GAF is a great site, but i will have a shot on GAC too. I will let you know later.
In my opinion GetACoder.com is the original one. I have tried GetAFreelancer and didn’t like the experience. Buyer steal my code and never paid me. On GetACoder I have already lots of reviews and buyers with whom I worked were honest and professional people.
Getafreelancer is the best site around. Only someone that have not tried can say getacoder is better. Getacoder is way inferior in every aspect. Moreover, Getacoder is full of incoerences and bad admins. They have stupid rules like taking money out of your account when you do a mistake…even if you place a portfolio url. CHOOSE GETAFREELANCER. just ignore getacoder…
i have used gatafreelancer and its great. made around 1500$ in the past 3 months. a wide variety of projects to choose from. works great for me.
GetaCoder.com is some BS, asnd GetaFreelancer.com is also BS, I need someone to develop a better website and I have a great idea and concept and the design is already written. So if anyone wants to help me on this, email me Devondon7@yahoo.com We could be the next millionaires and completely monopolize the market for job postings. I’m tired of this recession, these fake sites, GAC, and GAF, I will make the site beneficial to all parties not just buyers or coders.
I think Get A Freelancer is better than Get A Coder. GAF has more membership base and more new jobs are posted there every hour. It is more more reliable too.
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