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CodeLance newsletter October 2003

Welcome to the October edition of the newsletter!

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE

One of the best things about being involved with running the CodeLance website is the opportunity it gives me to communicate with buyers and developers from all over the world, especially those who are "off the beaten track". This is very good for my knowledge of world geography (which, believe me, could do with some improvement) and a great way of keeping in touch with the state of custom software development (in terms of supply and demand) on a global basis. The downside to operating worldwide is undoubtedly the large number and varied types of financial systems which are encountered when developers need to be paid. As you are aware we use PayPal or regular cheques to process withdrawals and for the vast majority of members these methods work just fine. Unfortunately some of our members operate from regions where neither of these methods are appropriate. In order to accommodate their needs we've been testing the use of international bank wires over the past few months...with mixed results. This is an area which we will continue to investigate to see if we can bring our members another method for withdrawing funds and I'll update you later with our progress. Until then PayPal and cheque remain the standard methods for withdrawing funds.

GET RATED

The CodeLance ratings system consists of a score out of ten and a written review, both of which are viewable by other members and accessible from a user's profile page (in addition your current average rating is displayed whenever you post or bid on a project).The ratings system is the best way of establishing a good reputation at CodeLance, an invaluable asset for both buyers and developers. Furthermore, developers with a minimum of 10 reviews and a minimum overall rating of 9 out of 10 will automatically save 20% on project commisions. To raise the profile of the ratings system and encourage its use even more we've added a list of the top ten developers to the buyers login page at the following URL:

http://www.codelance.com/cgi-bin/codelancers/buyers.cgi?login=now

As a result, each time a buyer logs in they will be made aware of the very best developers at CodeLance!

ARE YOU SPECIAL?

Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that one of the developers in the top ten list mentioned above has a small "S" next to their username. This signifies that they have been designated as a special user, but what does that mean? The following is taken from the explanatory page at http://www.codelance.com/aboutspecial.html:

"Users who have demonstrated a commitment to high standards of work and professionalism in their CodeLance activities can be accorded "special" status (identifiable by a graphic) at the discretion of the CodeLance management team. Programmers who achieve this status save 20% off the normal commission rates so please recommend outstanding service to us at admin@codelance.com. Buyers can also be accorded "special" status at the management's discretion. This status is an important sign to programmers that you are a respected member of the CodeLance community and a pleasure to do business with."

So now you know!

MINIMUM BIDS - WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

As all but our newest members will know we recently changed the minimum bid amount for secondary projects to $200 (from $100) in an effort to encourage buyers to post primary projects more often. This has been resonably successful and, while we always realised that we would lose some projects where buyers weren't happy with a $200 minimum and weren't willing to pay for a primary project, I'd like to get some feedback from any buyer who has decided not to post a project because of the $200 secondary project minimum so that I can judge just how big an issue this is. Equally if you'd just like to express your opinion on this matter, whether as a buyer or developer, I'd love to hear from you. Please send all comments to admin@codelance.com, thank you.

Well, that's it for another month. Look out for a big announcement next month for all those interested in web design and internet marketing services, I think you'll like it!

Kind regards,

Rod Morris
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Owner, CodeLance