Fr33Lancing

Here is a sampling of some of the tasks and skills needed to do them:

• Make a new site called Newbie Nudes.
  I tried to search for this one from my notes, but came up empty.  Suggested search terms included photoshop nudes, celebrity nudes, nudes photoshop, spanish nudes, free spanish nudes, you get the idea.  Picking one at random, Spanish Nudes lists 586 projects.
• Create a bot.
  A bot is a roBotic piece of software.  Generally, they crawl web pages looking for links of a certain flavor, collect product info or prices from shopping sites, and sometimes they are expected to be more active, like "I need 1000 Facebook Likes.
• Create a crawler.
  Generally the same as a bot, but usually passive with no interactive actions with the pages they crawl.
• Fix, configure, reconfigure, or import my site into a CMS system.
  CMS is geek for Content Management System.  They make it easy for a non-programmer to administer a web site, allowing them to use templates to manage the content, or just plug in available content.  Typical CMS programs people ask to administer::
• Drupal
• Wordpress
• DotNetNuke
• Jumla
• Django

• Need SEO for my site.
  Search Engine Optimization.  Involves using the META keywords and tags to make the site show up on search engines.  Some bots and crawlers pay attention to the hidden tags and keywords, and others actually examine the content.  It is an art in itself.  There are companies selling SEO products, and they use their own techniques to put their own products at the top of the search results.  I heard of one business that used the reverse of everyone else does, he got his Eyeglass distributor company come to the top of the search results by being an asshole to his customers, which generated complaints, which made lots of newsgroups and blogs mention his site, which, you guessed it, put him at the top of the search results for eyeglasses.
• Private for [insert freelancer name]
  Some Employers try to get a Freelancer from a prior project, and it would break the terms of service with Freelancer.com to bypass them and contact the guy directly, so they have to do it this way.
• Scraping
  Scraping seems to be a form of crawling that is specifically tailored for a specific site and very specific detailed information.
• Article writing, re-writing, translation, etc....
• Article writing sounds good, looks terrible.  Offers of $1-$2 for 500 words are typical.  There are a wide range of topics, one that stood out was Need 30 articles on Hemorrhoids another 20 Sinus articles.
• Re-writing sounds fishy to me.  Maybe the employer has more than one site, and wants the same content on them, but written to look like there are more authors on a subject than there really are.  More likely, they are ripping off content from someone else, and need to mask the plagiarism.
• Translation stands for itself.
• Need application written C or C++
  I'm always attracted to these, until I look closer, and they typically want the work done in expensive compiler.  Sometimes, this is because it needs to share components already written in expensive compiler, other times it is because it is a school assignment.
• School Assignments
  Not always labeled as such, but a look at the requirements is a tip-off.  Especially when they include a doc file that is from the instructor, and it states Do not discuss this project with anyone but me (the instructor).  Good luck to the generation that bought their degrees by paying $30 for every homework assignment too hard to accomplish themselves.
• Keyloggers and the like.
  They claim they have legitimate needs for keyloggers, like monitoring employees.  One guy wanted to pay to have a smart card designed that would infest an ATM or Point of Sales terminal, and BlueTooth the info to a receiver.  He claimed it was part of his job as a security consultant.
• Create or copy pricey project for peanuts.
  A lot of projects in the $250 to $700 range are just unrealistic.
• Design an activity monitor just like the $700 one already on the market.  Will pay $300.
• Design circuit board with 2 BGAs, 1 microprocessor, LCD display, ethernet, and USB.  Can pay up to $500.  Want Gerber files, BOM, component selection, and manufacturing details.
• Want a site like Facebook, can pay $100.