A Codeable Review from a WordPress Developer

As a Developer, I always searched for various freelance jobs so I could gain more experience and earn more money. Being mainly a WordPress developer, I had a hard time finding good jobs and clients. Tried a few platforms and finally, I found Codeable. This Codeable Review will be aimed at developers and people who are looking for a trusted developer.

Previous Experience

Before I get to write this Codeable review, I want to tell you about my experience from various platforms and strategies to find new WordPress jobs (in short).

Previous to any platforms, I tried finding freelance jobs through papers. There are a few of that in Croatia from where you can submit what you’re looking for. In my desperate attempt to find a job, I actually found one after a few months of searching. The result was: a difficult client to handle, unclear scope and low income. I don’t blame the client here. I blame myself, mostly because I did not have enough experience back then.

Then, platforms kicked in. I found out about Elance, oDesk and a bunch of other various platforms. In summary:

• Elance: 1-2 years of applying for jobs. Writing different (short and long) proposal. Result: 1 job for $30. Simple fixes. I was even awarded additional $30 from the client due to being really fast at fixing.
• oDesk: 1 year. 0 jobs.
• Freelancer: few months. 0 jobs.
• Upwork: 2 years. 2 jobs. Earned somewhere around $700.

The first three platforms were used simultaneously. Since oDesk and Elance merged into Upwork, I’ve used it since then. So to summarize it all, I spent months and months of seeking for new jobs but with no real results.

Now, to start the Codeable Review with some actual data. I am using Codeable for about 1 year and a few months and I was able to generate more than $10k. If you would like to learn more about my last year with Codeable and other companies, you can read it all in my article on 2017 – Year in Review as a WordPress Developer.

If you are a WordPress developer and would like to use Codeable as your main source of income, then don’t get discouraged by my revenue. For now, Codeable is the source of my passive income. But, there are experts that are using it as their main source of income. One of them is Nathan who has generated around $300k in 2 years.

Since I want this Codeable Review to be as accurate as possible, I will break it into two parts. One will be aimed at developers where I will explain how things work here when you are a Codeable Expert. The second part will be aimed at clients where I will explain how you can use Codeable to find a WordPress developer that will be just right for your project or site.

Codeable Review for WordPress Developers

If you want to apply as a developer, you can go to codeable.io and send the application. In my own experience, you could wait for a month or two because they process each application. If they think you would be a suitable expert, they’ll contact you directly.

I won’t describe how the process goes here, but you’ll have to go through different steps before you can join Codeable.

Finding Tasks in Codeable

Finding new projects (jobs) or tasks on Codeable is pretty easy. You have a list of various tasks to which you can apply. You can open them, read the project details and then discuss it with the client.

Since a lot of clients are using Codeable to outsource WordPress developers, it may seem there is an unlimited number of tasks.

The Codeable support staff is something I have not seen elsewhere. You may contact them directly and discuss anything related to Codeable. They even contact you on their own and promote tasks which they think you could find interesting.

Community

As a community of WordPress experts, we all discuss WordPress related and unrelated topics through a private slack channel or a private forum.

There is zero competition which I really like. We even share tasks among ourselves so if someone can’t work on a project they were invited to, that expert shares the task and other experts can jump in & discuss the project details with the client.

Even if you stumble upon a problem for which you can’t seem to find a solution, other experts will help you if they know how. That may be an explanation on how they did something similar or guide you with other sources that can expand your knowledge.

Building Trust with Clients

This is another thing I like when working on Codeable. Before even starting to work on a task, you can build trust between you and the client.

That is why it is really important that you can discuss the project details and ask numerous questions. You are also able to view the discussion between the client and other experts so some of your questions may already be answered.

Once you start working with a client on their project, you can communicate your process with them whenever you want. The important thing is that the client knows where are you standing with their project and how it progresses.

This is nothing new, of course, since that’s a common thing when working with clients. But if they like how you work and if they trust you, you may get a direct task from them. Codeable has a way for clients to select preferred developers for their projects. So, when they want a new project, they may add you as a preferred developer and you can start a new project much faster.

Codeable Review for hiring WordPress Developers

If you’re looking for a new WordPress developer for your new project, you should consider Codeable.io. You can create a new task here. Why should you consider it?

Well, you will get into a network of selected WordPress experts. You can discuss your project with various developers and select the one who seems like the best fit for you. If you think nobody is right for you, you can contact the Codeable staff and they’ll find developers with skills you require.

Creating a Task

I won’t describe the whole process of creating a task. I just want to let you know what we, as developers, would like to see.

When creating a task you can choose between different categories. That will narrow the scope of your project down so if needed, the Codeable staff can search for developers with specific skills. If you don’t even know what category your project would fit in, you can create a consultation task and discuss it with a developer.

The most important part is the description of your task. This has to be filled with everything we would need because we can then narrow down our questions to specific things.

If you have any files that could help us define the scope of your project, you should add them there.

Example:

A simple example of a “not so great task description”: “I need a website for selling pictures. Here is the current website www.something.com. I want a new design that will work on phones.”.

Some of the initial questions would be: do you have a website you like so I can see what styles you like? Are you already selling products? Will you ship the pictures? How do you intend to receive payments? Where are you hosting your site? Are you looking for a complete custom redesign or a customization of a theme that would work for you? And some more.

If some of those questions were already answered in your description, I and other experts would have a better understanding of your requirements.

Discussing your Task

Since this is a Codeable review, I’ll explain how we discuss the task on Codeable. Once you’ve posted your task, several experts might introduce themselves and ask you their initial questions.

Based on the nature of your task, some might even ask temporary credentials so they can look at your site. Since people at Codeable really do care about privacy, you can use the Codeable Vault which will hide your credentials from other experts. You can then add your credentials and select only the experts that you want to check your site.

If your task is small, then some experts will already know what to do just by looking at your site and you may get estimates within hours. When tasks are complex, you may discuss your requirements with experts for days. The end result will be that the experts, who will estimate and apply for your task, will know what to do and won’t have to ask much more questions while working.

Hiring

Hiring on Codeable is pretty straightforward. You will choose one among several experts who have applied to your task and then you’ll deposit the estimated amount to Codeable.

Once that is done, the chosen expert can start working on your task. Once everything is complete, you will mark the task as complete and the chosen expert will be paid.

If you’re not satisfied, at any moment, you can contact the Codeable staff and they’ll discuss it with you and also with the expert.

Another good thing when using Codeable for outsourcing is that you can always contact the developer whom you’ve hired and if something related to the defined scope of your project is buggy in the next month from completing the task, the WordPress expert will fix it free of charge.

That happens to all of us and I also fixed bugs related to a task several months from the time it got marked as completed. Sometimes, bugs are not even related to it but you can discuss the new bugs even in the chat of the completed task. You can also open an additional task with the developer to fix or extend your project.

Conclusion

Using Codeable as a developer is really great and you can get challenging tasks to expand your knowledge. I even considered using Codeable for some things I’ve needed but did not have time to create them myself. That is just because I trust the Codeable staff and the experts working there.

In my own experience, I got a lot of tasks that were assigned directly to me because of the trust I have built with those clients on previous tasks. The most important thing when working on tasks, for both client and developer, is trust and communication.

Have you tried applying to Codeable? Are you using it for outsourcing other developers? Or are you using some other platforms? Be sure to comment it below:)

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