Does anyone here gain business from Elance. It appears to be well marketing but do people buy from it, and is it worth the subscription fee?

Heya Tamba,

I've been looking into signing up with elance as well, but the problem is that you have 2 kinds of subscriptions, a cheap one for US$20,- (or something like that) but then you always get listed at the bottom and receive no exposure, or you pay US$150,- but then it seems hard to be sure to earn those 150 back every month (and then you still have to get another job to make profit from it..).

If i were you, i'd try looknig for customers elsewhere, like you are doing here on WHT on the related offers and requests forums, as you get to keep all the money you earn and don't have the hassle of a subscription fee and no percentage goes to a third party.

Nico V.

I used to use Elance when I did freelancing work (right when Elance started). I got a couple of projects through it, but once it grew it got harder and harder to find work, so I eventually gave up. I find a lot of these "off-shore" based web dev companies, ones located in India etc. got a friend to post a project on Elance, they would then bid and win the project, and in return their friend would give them a 5 star rating... so the rating system became next to useless.

Regards
Matt

You should email the people at Elance and tell them if people are cheating the system. It spoils it for the rest of us.

I have used products similar to Elance in the UK and I found them to be a big hairy rip off. I'd like to find some that are not. It's nice to do business directly online, considering the profession we are all in.

I agree that it's not fair at all for the legitimate businesses, but i also think this kind of system won't work if it gets too large. Try searching for a similar system in the UK or even in your region inside the UK, you won't get huge projects, but at least there won't be such a large base of cheating companies and cheating companies can be filtered easily.

That's what I am saying. I have used a company in the UK who charged me just under £1K and they didn't deliver one sale. I quoted for over 70 jobs and nothing. I am now suing them you will be pleased to know.

If anyone know's a reputable company in the UK, please let me know.

http://www.tightbriefs.com is run by a couple of people whom I know - and it is fully recommended, however they concentrate on just web development and graphics.

Regards
Matt

Thanks for the info. I've already signed up.

However, there is only one contract on there and that has been suspended. What volume of work goes through the site normally?