I don’t normally rant about things, but today, I have to.
I have been frustrated with elance for awhile. I think that it is absolutely ludicrous to charge people to find freelance work. I can understand charging the company to list the job (like craigslist does) but I can not for the life of me get why a website would charge the person looking for work to find that work. Anyway, I gave up on elance awhile ago.
So what made me finally decide to talk about it?
Freelanceswitch. I saw it mentioned on twitter today and took a look at it. It looks great, the new design is well done and the layout is clean. But the service/idea seriously ticked me off again. It is 100% free for people to post jobs, but the freelancers have to pay to submit their info for the job. They have quite a few great job listings on there, including one for a creative graphic designer and a blogger. Both of which I would be great for, and both of which I would be happy to submit my information – if there was no fee! I know that the $7 subscription doesn’t seem like much (and it really isn’t) but it’s the principle. I see absolutely zero reason to pay to submit my resume and experience. I posed my thoughts on twitter and surprise surprise, no response from the creator (@freelancesw). But I did get a few from my other followers. Most agreed that it was silly to pay to send in your information. Only one response was in agreement with the charge: @msmamet response was that it was used “to keep listers from getting all the “Hello, I represent a offshore firm that can do all those things ” emails?”
One problem, I have used elance when I was working my last ‘corporate’ job and we still got more of those emails than I could count. So it doesn’t really work then does it? Plus, those companies expect to pay, they can afford it, and usually have multiple people monitoring the boards at all times. Yes, it sucks, but why should I (and other freelancers) be penalized for their shady behavior?
For those who are looking to hire someone for freelance design or writing work – may I suggest a couple ways that may get you better results?
- Ask your network – linkedin, twitter, blog readers, friends, etc… Ask them for a suggestion of someone to work with. It is always better to work with a recommendation than a random person you know nothing about.
- Use a smaller website: elance is so overloaded with jobs that yours may get lost in the shuffle – plus it has been taken over by a lot of offshore companies who offer their services for everything. Why not trying a local job site (here in Orange County, I recommend OCjobtalk) or a site that has a smaller group on it, but a more concentrated group of talented individuals?
Anyway, I am just a little frustrated because I would love to offer my services for those looking for a creative designer, blog manager or copywriter…but I refuse to pay to submit my work.
What are your thoughts for paying to submit a proposal for services?
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Kirsten
I agree. I completely gave up on Elance about six months ago. I felt like I was being scammed. Yes, there are people that make money there, but I’d make a better return on investment by buying a good pair of walking shoes and making doing door-to-door cold calls.
Nice article, Kirsten.
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You are exactly right in that they are feeding off their own users in a way that just seems a little sleazy. I think everything will head the way of smaller, more private more like-minded, it just works better. We have had a great couple of days with OCJobTalk (people getting work, new members) and you just added to it! Thanks so much! Steve Averill
It’s hot and humid here in Stockholm and I love a good a rant! Yes, me too. I kicked Elance into touch after one month’s trial. It wasn’t just the cost but also the culture and attitude of people posting jobs.
Had the same response to Freelanceswitch ten minutes ago whilst reading about V.3.
Personally, I think local work is easier to get and through contacts and networking. Plus my blog seems to attract customers too. More than Elance and Co did.
If you’ve got great blog SEO you don’t need to be on Elance.
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I would assume there are more freelancers looking for work because they (and maybe their significant others) have lost their job or the work isn’t coming in like it used to.
Seems backwards to make the people who need money pay money.
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