In Defense of Elance

I have seen several blogs, tweets, and forum discussions of the drawbacks of working through Elance. I just want to take a moment to discuss my personal experience with the company and tell you why I continue to work with them.

I began my freelance writing career by applying to every service I could find. Demand Studios, Guru, Textbroker, Lime Exchange, Elance, and About.com were all on my list. As I began searching through the job listings, I found that Elance was the best fit for me. The other gigs were either very low pay - textbroker, lime exchange, and guru - or had very long response times - About.com.

Before you start in about the low paying jobs, know that I won't disagree. There are some low paying gigs listed there. Some buyers are looking for cheap work. Many of them say it right up front, which saves time, because I just don't bid on those jobs. I use the information that Elance provides to research the buyer before I bid. I see the ratio of jobs awarded, the type of feedback they tend to leave, and how much they have paid for other jobs. If a buyer consistently awards jobs to the lowest bidder, doesn't award jobs at all, or leaves mediocre feedback stars with "excellent" in the comments (thereby lowering a provider's rank), I don't bid.

Compare this with the average listing from freelance sites that provide gig links. Many of these are on Craigslist or other job sites. I have applied to several of these with poor results. I frequently have no response at all or vague commitments or requests for work on spec. For the most part, these jobs simply do not pan out.

With Elance, spec work is not allowed. A buyer cannot ask a provider to write up a sample based on their needs, thereby getting free work. Elance has dispute resolution and service to assist providers who have difficulty with clients or vice versa. I haven't had many issues with buyers, but when I did, Elance helped me work through the process. It was good to have a middle man to help me settle things.

Is Elance perfect? No. The fees are a little steep and I think that the current ranking system should be tweaked and should separate teams from individuals. I don't work exclusively through them, but I do continue to use their web site on a regular basis. I have learned a lot about pitching and writing proposals as well as managing client interactions and more. Elance's transparency - the ability to research the buyer before submitting a bid - is a great asset. I will continue to work with Elance and encourage other freelancers to do so as well.