What's Wrong with Guru.com?

Most software developers, firms or entrepreneurs will eventually look for sales leads on sites like guru.com where there are jobs-a-plenty -- as well as competitors. This post focuses on my experiences with guru.com as well as other job sites.

First, here is a typical job posting:

I have bought and registered my domain. I already have a webhost. Now i need Someone to program/create my online sporting goods store for me. Im going to need a very appealing site. I will be needing an automatic payment processor that can be set up to take orders from me then automatically purchase the orders from my dropshipper(Wholesaler). There are several other things i will need that we can discuss with your bid. Sorry but my budget for this is below $250 but im not needing an extreme amount of stuff. I need it to go from an Empty site to completely finished and ready to operate.

I'm not sure why people use such strange capitalization as "i need Someone"? At any rate, the punctuation is often incorrect or non-existent and the grammar is often bad as well. Additionally, you typically only get a sentence or two and requirements are rarely included.

In general, most project owners are:

1. Not qualified to assess whether a given contractor can do the job or not.
2. Unable to sum up their project in TV guide style, much less commit to creating a good set of requirements.

This is not uncommon of all clients everywhere, BUT the big difference is when you deal with clients over the phone or face to face, you have a better chance of getting to the root of what needs to be done. The impersonal nature of the site makes it difficult to gather info as well as differentiate yourself from everyone else.

Project owners aren't required to submit a structured request for proposal and their assumptions on cost versus result are usually way off. Furthermore, the typical client usually has no concept of value/benefit marketing, they have no USP for their business or product, and they never heard of a S.W.A.T analysis. This means that you have to produce something that has no measurable goals using only vague requirements.

Sites like guru.com are still the land of dreams and big ideas. You know, that happy place where a good idea gets lots of free programming, graphic design and advertising.

Expectations are often as high as the budgets are low. Nothing about the project seems all that difficult to the client and therefore shouldn't cost too much. Almost everyone on sites like guru.com is shopping based on price alone.

The expectation of minimal cost for maximum result produces a glut of projects on which you will never want to bid; the number of "good" jobs is extremely limited.

To sum up, employers on these sites are quite possibly the worst possible prospects for an independent developer because:

1. It is difficult to differentiate yourself from the competition.
2. Prospects often dream big, but have skewed expectations for features and cost.
3. Most prospects are shopping based on price.
4. "Good" jobs are few and far between.

Is it impossible to win good jobs? No.
If you are a developer, I would say that it is not impossible to overcome these deficits, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the jobs to poor in -- especially if you're a free-lancer. You'll want to develop a strategy that's right for your skills and business and be willing to experiment for a long time with any of these jobs sites.

If you are a prospective employer, I would encourage you to purchase Outsourcing Web Projects: 6 Steps to a Smarter Business from sitepoint.com -- it's an excellent book that will help you be a more attractive prospect, which can get you better bids from better developers.