elance

[Matsuda]

Hi there, has anyone ever used elance for getting freelance work? I'd like to hear some comments from those with experience with it. I'm thinking of joining elance and see if I can get some clients but I haven't heard much about it.

http://www.djmatsuda.com

[emkaydist]

Very difficult. You'll see. There are certain service providers that command that workplace. It's like a crap shoot. I can get outside work, post it there and sell it cheap. I mean I can get guys to build flash pages for 20 bucks. You wanna compete with that? I still try on ocassion. They kill each other for work over there.

[Matsuda]

Yea, that's what I heard too. It's hard to compete on elance. There seems to be so many service providers but I think I'll try it anyways and see how it goes. Thanks for your reply

http://www.djmatsuda.com

[Mike Bailey]

As a service provider on e-lance you are going to be charged a monthly fee to submit bids.

[Egg Bramhill]

I tried elance several months ago. If I recall correctly there's no charge for entering a bid but if you'r a winner I think they levy a percentage charge. (Which is resonable I assume).

The main problems seem to be:
1. Long periods between posting a bid and closing bid date.
2. To many cowboys with ridiculously low bids.
3. Clients who post bids without real intentions of ever seriously commissioning the work.
4. Spamming of all jobs by certain bidders.
5. Insufficient info from Service requesters.
6. Bidders gain a status after so many job's completed, but it's a catch 22 situation. Only long term successfull bidders get the status. Serious clients are unwilling to give work to no- status bidders.

Give it a try tho. It's interesting as a concept.

Egg

P.S. I never got any work thru them.

[Mike Bailey]

>>"If I recall correctly there's no charge for
entering a bid"<<

Here is a section from their rules and policies,

>>"eLance Select and eLance Basic Membership Fees
eLance charges category specific monthly membership fees to be a Select provider and
charges a site-wide flat monthly membership fee to be a Basic provider. Subscription may be paid monthly, quarterly or annually, with discounts given for quarterly and annual subscriptions. Payments may be made via credit card or the User's Stored Value Account if the user has agreed to the Payment and Billing Service Terms of Use Agreement, incorporated below. The billing period begins on the date that the User registers to become a Select or Basic provider and monthly, quarterly and annual periods are calculated from the beginning of that billing period. Monthly, quarterly and annual membership fees are automatically renewed, unless cancelled by User. If a User pays by credit card, eLance will automatically charge the monthly, quarterly or
annual fee to the User's supplied credit card and You authorize Us to charge such credit card for the appropriate membership fees and amounts stated. If the User pays via the Stored Value Account, eLance will deduct the appropriate membership fee from the User's Stored Value Account each month, quarter or each year, whichever is applicable. eLance reserves the right to increase membership fees or to institute new fees at any time, upon reasonable notice posted in advance on this Site. The renewal charges will be the same as the regular membership fees as described above, unless otherwise notified in advance. Users may upgrade from Basic provider to Select provider status at any time. Select providers who wish to add an additional category, which results in a bundled package discount or any other discount, will be pro-rated for the charges to upgrade and all fees will be combined to bill upon the User's billing period.

[Matsuda]

Thanks for the info guys, I appreciated it. Looks like I'll give it some thought before signing up.

http://www.djmatsuda.com