Elance is one of the many internet virtual marketplaces that allows freelancers and outsourcing companies to come together to work on projects. It is based in California and has been on the web since 1999. Elance allows a business to post a job opening and invites freelance workers who believe they have the requisite skills for the job to make a bid. The company charges a $10 fee to each business to post a job and also takes a small portion of what gets paid to contractors.

What does Elance offer?

• A talent pool of over 100,000 freelance contractors, some of whom are the best in the world at what they do
• Enables providers to create profiles which showcase their talents
• Various plans, including a free membership
• Easy access to thousands of jobs, no more sifting through the classifieds
• Job opportunities for various skill sets including programmers and writers
• If you successfully complete a contract you will not be messed around. Elance ensures that all contractors and employers are treated fairly
• Posting or applying for a job is quick and easy
• You can link it to your bank account and transfer money as you see fit
• Elance allows companies and providers to communicate quickly and effectively

Elance Pros

• An incredible amount of choice for employers and providers
• The ability to choose between paying for a membership or taking a free one with slightly less privileges
• Guaranteed payment once an assignment is completed
• Having a good profile entices clients to you
• The jobs pay pretty well

Elance Cons

Although it offers a great service, the level of competition means that you have to be persistent if you want to get constant work. Really there is little else to complain about. The employer has to pay a $10 start up fee but that’s a drop in the ocean and ‘free’ sites make this money up by taking a much higher percentage than Elance does.

Generally speaking, Elance tends to attract employers with a higher budget than the free sites. This is good news for those who are tired of having to compete with workers from nations with a lower cost of living. Someone living in the United States for example is not going to be able to work for $3 an hour. While there are one or two projects of this nature knocking around on the site, it is generally a site where employers with big budgets are looking for quality freelancers.

Should You Use Elance?

Once you have paid the $10, employers can post as many jobs as they choose meaning that their potential income is limited only by their business savvy. While there are options to pay for membership, there is also a free option which gives you less marketplace connects than the paid versions but still gives you a chance to make money. We freelancers live on the edge financially sometimes and the last thing we need to do is pay money and not receive jobs. Thankfully, Elance is one of the best virtual marketplaces online. If you take the time to craft a top notch profile, Elance will repay anything you invest many times over.

Along the way to becoming a successful internet marketer, there comes a point where you can’t do everything yourself. You just have to many sites to run, or too many ppc campaigns to manage that it becomes too overwhelming for you to handle things alone. That’s where an outsourcing site like oDesk comes in. In this oDesk review, I will show you how the site works and how it will help you start scaling up your business.

To get started with oDesk, you first need to signup for a free account. Both posting jobs as an employer and getting hired as a freelancer is free on oDesk. The way they make money is to take an extra 10% off every payment. So if you have a job in mind already, you can write up a short job description and post your job on the site. Or you can search for specific providers and contact freelancers that way. Either way, it’s quite simple to find candidates for your job.

Since oDesk is such a popular site, you won’t have any problems finding a number of candidates. I recently posted a blog writing job and got over 20 proposals in 10 minutes. You can look over the proposals and “interview” candidates that look like a potential match. It’s important to interview potential candidates to make sure they understand your job. I also like to ask for samples of their work so I can get a better idea if they will work out or not.

You can choose to hire workers on oDesk at an hourly or fixed-price. One of the unique benefits of oDesk is that you don’t have to “trust” your freelancers to bill you the correct number of hours. The way they handle this, is that providers have to use a special program which will take screenshots of them working (6 per hour). If they claim to be working during a certain period of time, but they’re not, then you don’t have to pay them. This is a really nice feature that’s good for both parties involved. Your freelance workers are guaranteed their payment if they do the work they say they are doing. And you’re protected as well if they aren’t.

Once the job is completely, both you and your worker leave each other feedback ratings. Like other sites of this type, it’s important to maintain a high feedback rating so freelancers will be willing to apply for your jobs.

oDesk vs Elance

The other freelance site I’ve used quite a bit in the past is Elance. There are really two main differences I’ve found as an employer at these two sites. First, payments through Elance go through an escrow service. So as an employer, you have to pay in advance, but the freelance doesn’t get paid until he’s finished the job. With oDesk, you don’t have to pay up front, and you only pay when the job is done. Any issues of non-payment are handled through oDesk’s resolution center. Although this has never happened to me, I’m sure it does happen on occasion. That’s why it’s quite important when using oDesk to make sure you check the feedback of your potential workers.

The second difference is that Elance doesn’t have this screen-capture feature that oDesk has. So I usually like to do any hourly type jobs on oDesk.

Final Thoughts

I’ve been using oDesk more recently now, and I like it quite a bit. I’ve found freelance workers to help me with all sorts of tasks like article writing, link building with SENuke, posting articles to SEOLinkVine and other important jobs that will help my business grow. Although, it takes some time to find capable workers, once you do, the time saved is well worth it. Outsourcing really is the only way to go if you want to scale up your business beyond a one man operation, so I suggest you give oDesk a shot.