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Ask HN: Impressions on elance

8 points by sentinel ↗ HN
I heard a couple of things about elance as a good website where you can find freelance jobs. I would like to get the opinion of the HN community regarding this before actually making an investment in this website.

Have you worked with it? Does it pay on time? How are the clients? How are the projects? Are there other websites you have worked on that are better than elance? etc. Any information would be great.

Cheers!

7 comments

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pjy04
odesk.com is another source
noahc
In my very limited experience with both, I've found oDesk.com to be a bit easier to use and seems to have better jobs.

However, be prepared to pay your dues working for up to half of what you'd like at first.

One bad thing about oDesk is they have all these dumb tests you can take and some people expect you to have passed them.

Either way on both sites a lot of people want you to work for less than 5 dollars an hour.

ahoyhere
Sorry dude, but these places are ghettos. If you have to go to the ghetto, make it your highest priority that you don't stay there. Do the work and try to build your portfolio.

Better yet, create interesting side projects and ship / OSS them. Indirectly, Twistori brought in more consulting work for me than antyhing else I ever did.

pjy04
yeah, try to network and work for free to build your portfolio. try some local non-profits that need help
damoncali
I can't see why anyone in the US does those jobs - they just don't pay enough. You're better off making a good website and firing up the AdWords. Better yet, just hammer away at in person networking events to land some real contracts for real money. It's hard work, but the hourly rate has got to be 10-20x.

If you need a portfolio, just build some stuff. It doesn't have to be commercially successful for you to show it off to clients - it just has to look good and work. You may even make some cash in the process.

oomkiller
Steer clear! They are awash with inexpensive overseas labor, so it's near impossible to compete. AND, They are almost always filled with people that want something for nothing.
[dead] RACNicole
Hi, this is Nicole from vWorker.com (formerly known as Rentacoder.com). vWorker.com is a 10 year old online employment marketplace as well -- providing access to programming, writing, illustration, even data entry jobs. But the services available at Elance could limit success as described here: http://bit.ly/9z03Fn.

You should give vWorker a serious look. vWorker employers select the lowest bidder only 19% of the time, (see http://bit.ly/av0S4R for details) so some workers earn $50,000 and more (enterprise business projects are priced at $50,000(USD) and above).

By providing quality work and remaining dedicated to your skill, you'll soon attract high paying buyers without you having to make any bids.

Nicole