At the Boulder/Denver New Tech meetup last night, @AndrewHyde started off saying, “How many of you here are freelancers?” (A fair number of the audience raises their hands)
“How many of you hire freelancers?” (A fair number of the audience raises their hands)
“You guys should get together sometime, maybe online. Someone should make something for that.”
What he made was http://pick.im (it makes more sense if you say it out loud), a super-easy-to-use freelance site. On the employer’s side, all you have to do is select from two drop-down menus to find freelancers of the right type who are in your price range.
On the freelancer’s side it’s a little more complex, but not much (it’s easier than filling out a Facebook profile). You can post your description, keywords, price range, and projects you’ve done, so that prospective employers can decide if you’re a good fit. You can view my portfolio here if you’re wondering how it all looks (surely you can make a more impressive-looking portfolio than that.)
Freelancers can only add a profile by invitation, but you can apply to be a freelancer at http://pick.im/request/invite.
Give it a shot. If you don’t think you’re good enough to be a premier freelancer, pick.im gives you the option to be a “bootstrap” freelancer instead.