Elance

Do you use it?

[one_mind]

Hi,

I just finished my 5th rentacoder project and am now considering using elance.

Is it worth the subscription fee or is there just too much competition for it to be profitable?

Any experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[etechsupport]

I think GAF with gold membership could also help you to get more project.

[jtara]

GAF? Wazzat?

[Animated]

your competitions will be foreign bidders such as from India who would work for really cheap slave wages, so if you can go against them when you bid for a job there, sure you can give it a try;)

[one_mind]

Yes, i have heard alot of people say that about rentacoder but it is not totally true. YOu get what you pay for and all that :)

[pixeltierra]

I don't use Elance, mostly because I have plenty of work at the moment, but I've definitely got the free account and have "lurked" for about 2 years checking out projects. I can't say if india is undercutting everyone but I could see why if they were. I've seen some pretty good work from them.

I have asked some friends of mine to go in for the fees for a year but no one has bitten.

A lot of job posters want real good work real fast for cheap. But some of them are actually good work, but since the good ones seem restricted to general viewing.

I'd be interested in hearing others' experience with elance

[Harry]

Elance is great for a buyer, but bad for a seller. Some people charge almost nothing for work - which makes anyone they can bargain a great output from you for next to nothing...

We stopped it as the Elance crowd doesn't value the reliability and quality and prefers to go for cheaper alternatives.

We get approach all the time by buyers who desperatrly want what we offer, but are not willing to pay the proper price. In the end they always ask one of the cheap source to copy stuff from us...

[Stores]

Personally, I probably wouldn't go down that road. I got burnt a few times on Elance and had no recorse...lost about $1500 total.

One thing to keep in mind is that like anything, you definitely get what you pay for on elance. If a bid seems too good to be true, unless you are extremely lucky, it generally is.

The premium service providers can be decent, but keep in mind the volume of work they are doing and how much of a priority you are to them.

[pixeltierra]

Stores: you seem to be coming from the buyers perspective. I think one_mind is coming from the seller's (service provider's) perspective.

Are there premium buyers on elance?

[pixeltierra]

Stores: you seem to be coming from the buyers perspective. I think one_mind is coming from the seller's (service provider's) perspective.

Are there premium buyers on elance?

[epithet]

Do you think this rentacoder thingy is attractive to most business enthusiasts?

[one_mind]

Yes,

In the past only big companies could outsource to poor countries - think Nike, ect and every major brand with asian manufacturing plants.

Online outsourcing makes it possible for the little guys to cash in on the weaker economies of the planet.

I have finished some fair sized jobs through rentacoder so it still is possible to make decent money but the asian competition is fierce.

[Stores]

Stores: you seem to be coming from the buyers perspective. I think one_mind is coming from the seller's (service provider's) perspective.

DOH! :)

[Tapolyai]

I have used eLance a couple of times for writing jobs (articles, press releases), never over $500.

I am considering eLance for some non-English articles, but wondering how to go about verification.