Is eLance Worth the Time?

It has been a while since I posted and now that I am on spring break and will be taking a lighter courseload next semester, I will be updating far more frequently. So, let's get to business. eLance is the topic of today's post. eLance is a bidding site for freelancers. It is great for writers and those with other media-related talents, such as design. A few months ago a fellow freelancer was sharing her successes with the site and this prompted me to give it a try. It took me 2 days and 4 bids to land my first assignment/contract there. The client I worked with was great. They provided precise and concise guidelines that made the 10-article project very easy to complete. This client also worked with me to ensure that the pay was fair for both of us. She asked me how long it would take me to complete the project and allowed me to set the deadline. I gave her a 48-hour deadline and spent 2 days working on the project. I sent the articles over as I completed them and the entire process went very smoothly. It took this client about 24 hours to review the articles and make sure that I met all guidelines. She sent me a message thanking me for my work and the money was released for me to "claim" and have sent to PayPal.

I almost thought this was too good to be true since my working with this client -- my first eLance client -- went so smoothly and was just flawless. So, I decided it was time to hunt down another project to bid on. I bid on 3 more projects and scored 1 of them. This project went equally as smoothly. The first client I had through eLance has become a regular client. I work with her on a weekly basis. The second client I picked up has sent me more work. My work with the second client is not weekly or as regular, but I have had 8 projects since the first one I completed for him.

Now, eLance is not all rainbow-sprinkled ponies. There are a lot of folks on there who want a lot of work for pretty much nothing. Because of this, I often have to really dig to find the gems, but the gems are definitely there. I am very happy that I took the advice of a friend and fellow freelancer and gave eLance a try. This site has become a regular part of my freelance client list. It certainly takes work, dedication and patience to get started with eLance and make it work, but it is definitely a viable source of work and income.

I will be posting more about eLance as I do more work there, learn more and figure out tips and tricks to be more successful there. However, for now, I just wanted everyone to know that eLance is a legit site where you can make some money. Also, I just have the free membership and do pretty well with that. To start out, I recommend just using the free membership to get used to things and get your first few gigs. Then, once you start to find success there and get into your rhythm, I think the membership would be worth it. For now, I am sticking with the free membership, but if I find some time to do more work there, I would certainly buy some more bids.