Freelancing has become the new business of the 21st century. Most web designers, web developers, software programmers and IT engineers are all looking to start working from their own office or outsourcing their skills – and it’s very popular all over the web. There’s tons and tons of websites out there for freelancing: eLance, ScriptLance, etc etc.

However, one of the most popular and recently rising job boards has to be Rent A Coder. Offering premium services for both web development and software programming, Rent a Coder has a huge database of freelancers willing to work on your projects at the drop of a hat. I got a great inside interview with RentACoder’s founder Ian Ippolito, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

How did you come up with the idea of Rent a Coder, and where did the unique name come from?

I was the webmaster of a site called Planet Source Code, which was one of the first sites to allow programmers to upload and exchange source code (which are the building blocks of programs). Many of the users asked me to help them with their programming and offered to pay me to do it, but I found myself saying “No, I’m sorry, I’m too busy”. After saying it one too many times I decided to create a website that would allow people to hire other programmers to do jobs for them.

Today Rent a Coder still hosts mostly programming jobs, but we’ve grown to encompass writing, design and many other things that are way beyond what I originally envisioned.

The “Rent” in rent a coder signifies the temporary nature of the relationship between the buyer and the programmer (as opposed to Monster.com where the buyer is making a permanent employee out of the programmer).

How was RentACoder started originally? Were you working with others at the time to complete the site?

I already had Planet Source Code running from my house with 2 employees helping me, so the infrastructure was already there. I am a programmer so I wrote the first version of the site myself on a plane while on an overseas trip.

What is one thing that draws users to your site as opposed to other Freelancing Services?

There are so many, I will just talk about the primary ones. If readers are interested in all the reasons and/or more details, I’ll give a link they can get the info from.

Buyers: Being forced to choose the wrong payment model can result in a botched project, lost money or both. We are the only site where the buyer can choose the best payment model for each job. We are also the only one with 7 day a week phone support and requirements wizards.

Additional things are at: http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/DotNet/misc/CompetitorInformation/WhyRentACoder_ForBuyers.aspx

Sellers: There are no monthly subscription fees, bid # limits, or initial testing requirements like at competitor sites. Additionally, both payment models have unique protections that guarantee that coders who complete their contracts get paid.

Additionally things are at: http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/DotNet/misc/CompetitorInformation/WhyRentACoder_ForSellers.aspx

The design for Rent a Coder is very simple and yet easy to navigate and use. How did you come up with the design, and was it a lot process to go from idea to site creation?

We are actually going through a redesign right now, but the current design (from 2001) was inspired by Planet Source Code. I found that many people at that time didn’t have browsers to support “fancy” elements like drop down menus, etc. so the menu structure was kept very simple (links). This simplicity had the side effect of taking up a bit of space and today’s browsers are more sophisticated. So the new version will be a bit more complicated on the back end, but will enable the page to look simpler to the end users.

Many people develop their ideas in isolation, take a long time to do it and then make a grand unveiling that may or may not be in tune with what is effective and their users truly want. I’m a big believer in iterative development in which you take an idea and quickly bring a rough version to fruition, get feedback, and then tweak it over and over. This not only gets the site out quicker, but also makes it more likely that the final product will be a better fit with the end users.

Aside from making money through freelance projects, does RentaCoder have any secondary advertising or monetization streams?

No. We used to show ads, but received complaints, so now projects are the only revenue stream.

How easy is it for freelancers to sign up and start working on paying projects?

Since there are no signup fees, bid limits or initial testing requirements, it’s very easy for a freelancer to get started. I tell new sellers that the key is to be a good communicator. If they listen to the client, communicate well and ask intelligent questions (to show they are as interested in the project as the buyer is), they will win projects. I also recommend taking a few of the free certification test to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Are there any updates or new features being added to the site in the near future?

We recently came out with the safe pay-for-time option that allows sellers to be guaranteed to be paid for each hour they work, which was an exciting addition. We’ll be expanding that beyond Windows into Linux and Mac within a few weeks.

We also introduced several hundred more free certifications that sellers can take (and buyers can use to filter bidders on), that will allow the top performing sellers to make themselves known more easily to buyers.

Where can you see Rent a Coder going within the next year or two? And what are your opinions on some of the similar rival sites such as Scriptlance and eLance?

We will be changing our name in 2010 to something more appropriate to the way we’ve grown and encompassed more than just programming. We’ll also be rolling out more requirements wizards to help buyers in certain industries create better postings, and tools to connect the best sellers with the right buyers.

It’s good to have competitors, because they spur a company to be the best it can be. Elance and Scriptlance have improved over the years on one-half of the payment models (an arbitration protected pay-for-deliverables bidding model). But they still don’t make it as all-inclusive as they could.

Elance requires parties to pay $199-$399 for arbitration, which make it prohibitive to smaller sized projects. Scriptlance’s arbitration is free, however it can only be done 30 days from the project start, which make it a problem for larger sized projects. There are many more differences, but users who want to learn about them can find the information at the site links I gave earlier.

If you had any advice for someone starting their own freelancing job board, what would it be?

It’s important to study the competition, but simply copying what another company or person has done rarely results in success. It’s better instead to solve a problem that the others don’t yet, or have chosen not to. That plus hard work and dedication are the keys to being successful.