Elance
Having spent over $90,000 on Elance over the past few years I consider myself somewhat of an authority on using this site as a customer (not provider) and what to look out for when hiring a freelance professional.
Elance is a site where you can hire a freelancer by the hour or by the project. Unless you can do everything yourself then you will find yourself needing help from time to time but your job may not have enough work for a full time employee (or you might not want to hire one). This is where sites such as Elance.com come in.
Here you can hire professionals from programmers to book editors, ghostwriters, grapic design, voiceover experts, virtual assistants and many other categories. I’ve even posted some pretty random stuff on there and had an expert in that category step forward.
I don’t have the room in this post to cover all my hiring tips and advice but do check out each providers feedback rating, amount of jobs done and portfolio. Most bids will come from India and Pakistan but don’t necessarily go for the cheapest because it could cost you more in the long run.
Also, avoid the cut-and-paste bids which are from providers and companies who clearly never took the time to read your job post in detail and are just hoping to get a response from somebody.
Have fun
Paul Browning
9 Comments
I have had great success with Elance. It is a very efficient way to get things done. Sometimes the best work comes from the small time people. I agree with the copy and paste avoidance. You can usually tell when you are dealing with an authentic person.
Elance gives you a much broader scope of experience with which to work. It is essential if you do not want to be stuck with the grunt work.
I am working on Elance as a freelancer for a couple of years now and I am very satisfied with this website. Legit, promptly answer inquiries, and you’ll going to find a lot of good and long-term clients.
I am a housewife with 3 kids and I work on Elance. I love Elance and I never had any problem with the clients I worked with. They pay on-time, too! Just got to be careful on choosing your clients.
Same here, Patricia! I am a housewife,too. I also think you have to have a good working experience in Elance to be able to get jobs faster. There’s lots of competition in Elance.
Thank you for this article, Paul. I am going to try my luck in Elance now.
Hi Paul, thank you for the pieces of advise. I have just landed a job in Elance yesterday. Now I am a working housewife.
I can’t believe working at home can be possible. Thanks Paul. I’ll create an account in Elance!
I have been a member since 2012 and I’ve had a couple of jobs and long-term clients, too. I think the downside of it is that they can just terminate the contract anytime. You can find jobs fast but lose them fast too.