Starting tomorrow, I’ll be running all the web operations for DeskGig.com, an American only freelancer website.

I’m not political or nationalistic at all, but it makes sense to try to capitalize on trying to capture the American freelancer market, and I’ll tell you why. As a freelancer, I cannot compete with Pakastanis or Filipinos on price. I might be as good as they are, but they will beat me on price every time. That means that I don’t even bother with looking for gigs on oDesk or elance. Am I the only American freelancer who doesn’t bother with those sites? I have my doubts.
Also, as someone who has used an offshore development center in the past, I can tell you that the issue of communication is a big one. I’m on Pacific Standard Time (UTC-08:00) and dealing with someone on Philippine Time (UTC+08:00) is a super pain in the tucus. As a business, I would much rather prefer dealing with someone who I can communicate with during regular US business hours.
So yeah, 9 hours to go before I start my new job running the website for a new startup in Spokane, Wa. Good times!






