Our first experience with elance.com
Posted on
February 01, 2007 by
dc
You have probably heard about elance.com. Very briefly, elance.com is an outsourcing site with a big pool of freelance programmers, web and graphic designers, writers, illustrators and more.
We have a travel website that is hosted with a ready-site/hosting company and it's due to expire in a week's time. Due to the inflexibility of the site template and scripting, we are planning to migrate all the information of our website to our own hosting. We do not want to be tied down with a high hosting fee every year. As we are both not familiar with HTML and any other web programming stuff, we decide to hire a freelance programmer to get the job done. And my husband decides to give elance.com a go.
My husband placed a bid yesterday and today, he had already 12 bids in his mailbox. We went through the bids and were amazed at how online freelancers market themselves. The pitching messages were professional with portfolios attached with bidders coming from US, India, Pakistan and UK. We were quoted within a range of $350 - $2000 - imagine that.
One of the bidders took the trouble to complete the job even before he was awarded - so much for unique marketing! We are impressed by his initiative in taking the extra step to prove to us his professionalism and capability. We are almost 85% sold!
While we await for 2 more days to the bid expiry date, I will update you on who gets the job!
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Hi – I have been an elancer since 2003 and really believe it is the way of the future as far as business services are concerned. You can get very high quality work at a very reasonable price. I have been amazed at some of the bios I read – very qualified people. Most of the elancers I know are stay-at-home professionals who had it with commuting or just wanted to spend more time being a Mom to their kids and not a Mother to their boss (me!). Like anything new, there is always hesitation and concern. Personally I think the reviews are critical to success. People are desperate to get reviewed so they will practically work for free at first in order to get going…just like when you start any business. Hope you have a good experience.
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:50 amHello, I’ve been an Elancer for twice as long as Heidi has and I have to beg to differ with both you and her. First off, providers who take “the trouble to complete the job even before [it] was awarded” are providing what is called free mockups, which are vehemently frowned upon in the creative realm. Basically, this provider is giving away his time with no guarantee of ever being paid for it. BIG no, no. Second, what Heidi says is only partially true. Yes, there are always newbies who will sell themselves for next to nothing in exchange for a good feedback review. But ask yourself, “Why?” If they’re really good at what they do, there are projects to be had at fair prices elsewhere. When you’re truly good at what you do, there’s no need to sell yourself short. I think if you really compare the $2000 bidders’ portfolios with the $350 bidders’ portfolios, you’ll see a startling difference. As with anything in life, you get what you pay for on Elance. Elance is NOT the place to get “very high quality work at a very reasonable price.” It’s the place to find very high quality work from professionals who value themselves and their skills enough to charge a professional rate.
February 5th, 2007 at 3:34 am