Are you just getting into freelancing or just sniffing around? Trust me, those are the more reasonable ones. :-)
I think writers have it worst. "Anyone can write" - but that's about the worst slap in the face a
professional writer can read. Some of these people are getting entire books written for them with their name.
Some of the lines from my freelancing days, that warranted an immediate close of the tab without looking back (lest I go postal . . . )
"This should be an easy job for someone who knows what they're doing."
"I figure this should be a one hour job, so bid accordingly."
"I don't have the time to email back and forth, so if you don't understand my <cryptic> request, don't bother submitting a proposal." (And I have a crystal ball, so it's kismet, a match made in heaven!)
There are pages and pages of RFP's for "a web 2.0 site with social networking integration, ecommerce integrated with SalesForce . . . using PAYPAL." <LOL> Budget: Less than $500.
"I need someone to SEO my third-party hosted ecommerce site. Won't pay until I am number one on the search engines." (For what f***n keywords or phrases? (Oh you can't get rid of query strings or control rewrites? Niiiiiice . . . but I'll take it for your $50 budget!)
In fact, you're lucky to find anything worthy of coding that doesn't have "budget: less than $500."
The RFP's are filled with buzzwords that the prospective "buyer" doesn't even understand. All they know is they want it.
Web 2.0
SEO (I'll take a bucketload please, as much SEO as I can get for $50)
HTML 5 technology. I've no clue why it's "better," just that it is.
Integration (All I know is it's all automatic and it should be easy to do for someone who knows what they're doing.)
Automatic CRM <LOL>
I better stop. It's a brutal world, freelancing. I submit for your approval, the best piece ever created on the topic, it's a few years old but still perfect:
The Client/Vendor Relationship in the Real World [youtube.com]
