Writers- Have you tried writing on Elance?

Australia
September 1, 2008 7:52am CST
I started writing on Elance a few months ago, and I have been getting some contracts. The site's a bit daunting at first, you actually have to do a test to join. The last thing I wanted to do after a day's work was a test, but I stuck with it, and somehow got 95% on the test, not trying particularly hard, just giving what I thought were the right answers. The writing jobs are in a category called Writing and Translation, strangely enough, and you pay a low subscription fee which buys you some "contacts" which are the rights to bid on jobs. Pretty cheap, really, because a few bucks buys you say 30 bids, and some of the jobs are worth thousands. The contracts are real contracts, and you, as what's called a Provider, agree with the Buyer to provide a service. Sounds difficult, but it's not. Payment is through your credit card for subscription and you receive payments the same way. They also have a thing called "escrow", which involves Elance holding the money for one of the parties, pending completion. That adds a bit of security for writers, because at least you've got someone to complain to, not some deadbeat buyer, like normal freelance work. You get a personal page, where you can advertise your services, and that's organized into workrooms, special pages for each project. The payment side of things is pretty acceptable, no great fuss, but takes a bit of getting used to when you start. This is the link http://www.elance.com/p/landing/buyer.html Check it out, see what you think.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@elsoft12 (1821)
• India
1 Sep 08
Yea..Its a good site.By the way,please donot post links,your discussion will be deleted.May be your aware of it,you have already past 1000.
@Ravenladyj (22904)
• United States
1 Sep 08
Posting links is fine, its posting REFERAL links thats not accepted as far as I'm aware...
• Australia
1 Sep 08
Oh, that's new. I haven't been on the site for a while. We used to be able to do that. It's not to my page, just to Elance main page.
@elsoft12 (1821)
• India
1 Sep 08
You can have the links in your profile page,so that people can have a look at them.Doesnt Elance have referal scheme,better check it out,may be they have one and you can be benefitted as well,helping others.
@Ravenladyj (22904)
• United States
1 Sep 08
Cool thanks for the link and info..I'll have to check it out as soon as i have the time! I've been thinking for some time now that I'd like to get into writing for pay but havent had the chance as of yet to actually do any decent research etc etc...Sooo..thanks again for the link
• Australia
1 Sep 08
Ravenladyj- This is about as good and reliable as it gets. Well worth the look, anyway, as a good introduction to the online freelance work. I've been doing this sort of work for quite a while now, and it's worth learning. I've been lucky and only hit one semi-deadbeat in the process, but it's nice to know there's a site backing you up if you need it. Not, incidentally, that there haven't been a few incidents, but the risk factor is a lot lower.
@babostwick (2036)
• United States
1 Sep 08
I have not tried it but I have done freelance work on another site. I'll have to give the site a bit of a look and how the site operates directly. Thanks for sharing this site. I will have to really look into it to see if I can do well with it. Maybe not just writing but possibly other projects. Thanks again.