I am starting a professional writing service and have found elance.com, a ebay-type site where freelancers bid on prospective jobs. Has anyone used this? What was your experience? What other types of sites can I access for locating projects?
#1. "RE: Any background on elance.com" In response to Reply # 0
About four years ago I used elance and found it very hard to get awarded a job. Then they started charging what I think are exhorbitant fees. In working with a client, who had used elance for a web site and had major problems like paying a lot up front $35,000 for a web site and never getting any thing from it, I found out that most of the awarded projects in fact go to elance people (And they are mostly in India). In other words they use it as a front.
I use guru.com and have found the site to be more honest. You still can't prevent people posting bull ####, like asking for help with major projects and thinking they can get the work done for free, but it is a more honest site. It does cost money, at least that is voluntary in that you don't have to pay the fees to get better placement in getting jobs. It is a crowded site full of real professional free lancers, so if you not that, you may not find it of much use, or any site like it for that matter.