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Topic: Elance
| Author | Message |
| WritingSoul | Posted – 10/15/2007 2:44:49 AM | show profile | email poster Has anyone had any luck with Elance, specifically for writing work? I'd love to hear of your experiences. Is it mostly really low paying gigs? I'm looking for some more corporate type writing work so that I can supplement my income (eg. sell out, lol). Thank you in advance. |
| Wordy McWord | Posted – 10/15/2007 10:41:20 AM | show profile elance I signed up for elance a couple of years ago and found it to be not worth the money. People seemed to want to pay pennies (sometimes literally!) for high-level writing and editing. Also, since elance is global, you will be competing with writers from countries where their currency is exchanged for less than the dollar and so can offer to work for less in dollars. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 10/15/2007 1:03:39 PM | show profile As I recall, the work went to people writing in overseas sweatshops. (There are not really such places as far as I know, but there are people working for a few bucks a week, juding by these low bids.) The result in many cases was probably similar to the egregious copy I found recently on gorgeously photographed and printed catalogs for a Chinese export company. Hysterical to read. |
| WritingSoul | Posted – 10/15/2007 2:37:00 PM | show profile | email poster OK - that sounds scary! Thank you so much for the honest feedback! Do you know anywhere else (particularly for corporate writing) where the wages are actually reasonable to high? I'd definitely avoid writing for pennies? Why bother? You can just volunteer your services for a non-profit that really needs it, or your friend's magazine if you just want the clips. |
| Canadiana | Posted – 10/16/2007 4:27:33 AM | show profile I've been considering it, too. Many people (including me) are concerned with competition from lowball bidders but an associate in Ontario told me that clients soon learn that the low-ballers are not worth those pennies and quickly turn to her for high quality (and high paying) work. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 10/16/2007 5:04:07 AM | show profile I think that's right. I really don't think I have any clients that would put up with the quality lowballers would have to crank out to make a living. Do I have clients that could pay me more? Uh, yeah ... ;) |
| Letterbox | Posted – 10/16/2007 1:47:36 PM | show profile Elance seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, it's a total sellers market and the sellers are cheap. Full of mom and pop outfits and startups and anybody willing to pay the subscription fee. For a while Elance tried to seed their stock of inexperienced bidders with established freelancers by giving them free listings. In fact, they'd put you on their site whether you wanted it or not. So you had to go to Elance and tell them to take your name off. Totally irritating. |
| Letterbox | Posted – 10/16/2007 6:33:17 PM | show profile Oops, I meant it's a buyers market. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 10/16/2007 8:22:39 PM | show profile Personally, I have no desire to compete on price so bidding sites are a waste of time for me. I want clients who are willing to pay more for higher quality. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 10/16/2007 8:54:34 PM | show profile The idea of paying for work doesn't make sense. The money should be going the opposite, to you for your writing. If you are paying, you are more invested than the "sellers" who pay nothing to list projects. So there's less chance you are fly-by-night and more of a chance they are. That's a skewed marketplace. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
