I've thought about this idea and 3 things should help:
1. we'll have a min. hourly rate of $40/hr.
2. by making it phone-based, we will be filtering out most non-US programmers
3. we intend to charge $2-5/lead once we get traction. This will probably make it unaffordable for folks that only compete on price.
I really don't want to attract elance/rentacoder-type audience which only cares about cost. My experience as a freelancer AND client has shown that you get what you pay for. I'd like higher end clients to match with higher quality coders.
2. by making it phone-based, we will be filtering out most non-US programmers
I think you underestimate the capacities of non-US programmers. The international shops (ie. the coders from India and Singapore who can charge a fraction of what a US programmer would need to) usually have access to great VOIP and 24/7 availability.
1. we'll have a min. hourly rate of $40/hr.
2. by making it phone-based, we will be filtering out most non-US programmers
3. we intend to charge $2-5/lead once we get traction. This will probably make it unaffordable for folks that only compete on price.
I really don't want to attract elance/rentacoder-type audience which only cares about cost. My experience as a freelancer AND client has shown that you get what you pay for. I'd like higher end clients to match with higher quality coders.