I just got my first job on Elance.

It's not much money, but it's a start. So yeah, I'm thinking now that perhaps I need to divide some more time to these freelancing sites and earn a bit more dough!

Congrats on the job, Na! I was thinking: I really like this swapping idea of yours, but let's say I'd make a dress (and I sure need some more practise on that- I am about to finish my first doll dress and it was rock hard to do!) and I'd like you to make, say, clouds for my little theatre. But wouldn't the cost for shipping worldwide eat up very much of the savings? I remember my husband getting a rare Oldfield- box from Australia. The shipment was almost as much as the box itself...

Yeah, that's one thing that did stop me from asking in the first place. It would cost me just as much to ship materials as it would just to pay for a custom made dress on Etsy.

Of course, you could easily get around that by only doing trades with people in your own area. Or only do a trade with someone prohibitively overseas when the items weigh less or are small - therefore lowering the cost of shipping to something more reasonable.

Hey Na, congratulations!

The "who pays for shipping" could be a negotiable item in the swap. Each swap is unique, and would need different parameters.

So, you build a profile of what you are offering to swap (video editing, puppet building, script editing, web services, etc) and what things you want to swap for (custom sewing, scrapbooking, someone to organize your recipes, a homemade cross stitch sampler, etc.)

When someone submits a swap, it would be as simple as having a some check boxes; who provides materials, who pays for shipping (if applicable), how long turn around is, what you're willing to swap in return (or choose from the services you've offered)

Let's say I need video editing done,  and I'm willing to swap you custom sewing in return (something you've said you're interested in). I send you a swap offer: I'll provide materials for the video editing, there's no shipping on materials to you, so we skip that box; and I offer to do your custom sewing, (or another swap I have listed) plus I offer to provide materials to make the garment, and ask you to pay for shipping to you.

You get the swap offer and either accept it as it is, or offer a counter offer. You have a piece of fabric you'd like to use, so you counter my offer by saying you'll provide materials.

Once the swap is accepted, the site charges both sides a service fee,  and helps both sides keep track of their projects.  Once the projects are done each swapper rates the other in a feedback score.

Okay,  now it's time to go have coffee.

Yes but WHO provides the coffee? And who pays for the shipping on said coffee? Inquiring minds want to know! For now I'm going to go and sip my self provided and shipped green tea.

@DrMegan

That sounds all well and good in theory, but the complicated bit is the website terms and conditions. The more convoluted or option-y the process provided to the artists, the more you have potential problems down the road in terms of cancellations, disputes, refunds, etc. As the site admin, you have to police the system and the more complicated the system the harder it is to police.

Which is why I suppose, so many of the swap sites I've seen are limited by geography or method of swap.

I do like the idea, but from the website admin's POV there's a fine line between providing a service and providing a mess that costs you more time/money to run and gets you into legal issues. There's actually a lot more behind developing a sales platform than you might think.

Plus from a user POV, do you want to spend weeks negotiating on a swap? Most people would give up, save their money for something else, or look for an easier exchange to do. People are lazy and want things now!

However, somewhere in your suggestion may lie the compromise. Maybe it needs to be more rigid: whoever wants a physical item must pay or organise for shipping/materials. But I think the issue there is also value. You may want something that costs $50 total, but the other person needs a skill that costs you $100. How do you ensure the swap is a fair exchange?

This is what I mean about tricky. What if the swap occurs in that above situation and I decide that although I got what I want I'm not happy that I didn't get an even-value exchange? What happens if someone decides after all that that they spent more than they got (even if it's a misunderstood value of time or labour) and they start a dispute?

... There's all sorts of potential loopholes in a swap system so finding the right way to do it would be necessary before jumping in.

Though I do agree wholeheartedly that some method is doable and worth signing up for.

I think we just found out why money was invented...

I have the perfect solution for the issue of when the fee would be payed for the swap. There isn't one!   I personally would use the swap meet section of the site as a community building resource. Everyone loves something that is free.  How many of you would have joined Puppets and Stuff if there had been a fee?  How many of you opted to not pay the membership fee over at Puppet Hub this year?   I actually think the Adsense system would be perfect as a revenue builder for the swap meet area of Streetlance which in the long run may make more money then fees on trades. I think one of the things folks like about a swap or barter is that money is not involved. Yes I know shipping would be monies out but I don't think people connect that with the actual deal really. I think a fee would kind of tarnish the concept so to speak.

I think there's ways around the cash value issue, when you create your listing, list the approximate cash value of the item. If you're offering something of a set value, like a blouse from your summer collection, list it as $45 USD. If you're listening a more open ended service, offer "Sewing, $15/hr + materials". This way, you can try to keep the cash value roughly equal.

You could add an artificial time limit on the swap negotiating to keep things moving. Like, after a swap has been offered, both parties have 72 hours to complete negotiations, unless both sides indicate that they want more time to negotiate. A large, multi part project might take some time to hammer out.

Plus, you use the community to keep people honest. Everyone has a swap score, like your eBay seller rating. If there's a dispute, ask high rated community members to act as first level mediators to resolve the issue (something that bumps your swap score as the mediator). If it needs to be escalated, there's site staff to assist.

And to a certain level, there's always going to be a little caveat swap-tor, swapper beware.

Adsense may make more sense instead of charging for swaps... However when you think about it, the money-making model for these freelance sites is built into fees when money is exchanged between client/contractor.

Without a high level of activity on Streetlance, you'd be getting very little indeed from Adsense. And even then, you dilute interest if there are too many ads on the site.

The other thing with freelancer sites I've noticed is they have different membership packages. The one I'm currently signed up with only allows me to provide services under one category (which I choose) and apply to 15 ads per month. If I pay about $10 or so p/month - I'm on the free membership now - I can use different categories and apply to more jobs.

I know that artists may not like this idea, especially for those of us who are multi-talented, but for the site admins it makes more sense because they get more bite of the apple for most transactions.

Say Streetlance has a swap area and a pitch/want area. If you earn nothing on the swap area but Adsense, then it's fairly easy for people to avoid paying fees altogether and simply use the swap area: the site admins are left holding the bag and hoping they get more than a few bucks of ad earns p/month.

I do agree that from an artist's POV swaps should be free. That doesn't mean it would be viable from the site admin's POV though.

@DrMegan I think a time limit on swaps would probably be a good thing. If I were setting this all up on a website, there would be lots of automated reminders to keep it all running, but it would be fairly easy to do and so long as terms & conditions seemed logical it would work out great.

Ratings & feedback seem to be the only thing that people have come up with for keeping sales platforms going. Obviously mediators are required... but the thing is you have to have clear rules in order for mediators to stick by and members to follow. In order to do that, it's best to have a simple method of making a transaction. I guarantee you will think of everything and someone will find a loophole... and site admins need to cover themselves somehow, which is why it's important to ensure everything makes sense from a legal standpoint.

Caveat emptor is pretty much standard on any sales platform site anyway.