Elance Survival Guide
First of all, what the hell is elance? Elance.com is a virtual marketplace for finding freelancers who’ll do all kinds of work for you. From webdesign through proofreading, ghostwriting, programming or even some legal stuff, it’s a useful place for finding relatively cheap workforce. You’ll have to be careful though - the quality of the work varies a lot!
Here are some tips for surviving elance:
1. Be as accurate when writing a project description as possible. Mention every little detail - service providers should know what EXACTLY they apply for.
2. For a $25 deposit (which is refunded after you select a service provider) you can create an “Elance Select” project, which attracts more and better service providers. (Note: the budget of your project will have to be at least $250 for Select projects)
3. When setting the price of your project, look around in the marketplace for similar projects. If your bid is too small, it will attract less service providers. With a higher bid, you will have a large number of service providers to choose from (some of them might even underbid the original amount). Be careful not to overbid for the project though.
4. Each service provider is given a rating for each of his or her previous works. You should check out their history, and choose only from the providers who have at least a 4.7 or 4.8 rating. Anyone with lesser rating can be too risky.
5. Service providers who are experts in their specialty but who are new to elance can be a good choice. They want to establish their elance reputation with good ratings, and they’ll usually charge less and work better. Be sure to check out some samples of their previous work (before elance).
6. Always request some samples of the service providers previous work. If possible, send a private message to every possible service provider who seems to qualify for the project, ask them to do a short custom sample for you, and make your decision based on their sample work. Some of the providers will do free samples, while others might request a small fee.
6. Be sure to sign a legally binding contract with the provider (copyright ownership, non-disclosure, non-competition), especially if you are hiring a ghostwriter. Many writers tend to steal content or write articles by rewording others, so you should be legally protected. If you are sued, you can sue the provider as well. (In the worst case, of course)
Click here to go to elance.com!
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