There are many websites out there that facilitate the process of helping freelancers find projects that require their skills. The predominant business model behind these websites is that all payments between the project owner and the freelancer go through the website as an intermediary. The website holds payment in escrow until the project owner agrees that the project is done. Of course the website takes a healthy cut out of this before the payment is delivered to the freelancer.



The problem with this model is obvious ? the website takes money out of the pocket of the freelancer. The freelancer will require the budget of the project to be more than what they will earn, knowing that a cut will be taken out of the project budget before they see the first cent. This unnecessary insertion into the process penalizes larger budget projects disproportionately. The amount of ?work? the website must do to provide their service to a large project is the same as for a small project. Yet since they get paid a percent of the project budget, they make more money for the same effort from the larger budget projects.

The solution ? a website that performs the only real necessary service in this process. The real service here is the connecting of a project owner with a freelancer, and making sure that it is a ?good? match. Enter ProjectAnswer.com. Using an innovative bidding model, ProjectAnswer.com has freelancers describe their abilities by associating skills, keywords, and a geographic area with their freelancer profile. Project owners can find freelancers who match the needs of their project. Also, project owners describe their projects in terms of the skills needed, any special keywords that further describe the nature of their project, any geographic requirements, and also a full project description.

Freelancers bid on projects, and the project owner has the ability to choose the bid they like best. A small one-time finder's fee is charged before contact information for the freelancer is revealed to the project owner.

But what if the freelancers knows they have the special mix of skills and experience to perform a project better than others? They can put their money where their mouth is and upgrade their bid to a PowerBid for a small fee. PowerBids are given priority when presented to a project owner. In addition, a project owner may select a freelancer's PowerBid for free, waiving the normal one-time contact fee.

In this way, a freelancer can express their confidence in their ability to perform a project they feel they are an excellent match for, and the project owner may select their bid without charge.

This innovative bidding model gives the power back to the freelancers and employers with a project. It minimizes the cost of doing business in the freelance arena, while still providing a necessary and important service in connecting the right freelancer with the right project.

As freelance web designer and programmer, David Taylor knows from experience the limitations of existing freelancer websites. His desire to find a ?better way? was the beginning of ProjectAnswer.com.