My Review: Elance.com Isn’t a Scam But…..
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Good luck making any real money.
As a freelance worker, you sign up for free and you are limited to submitting 10 proposals per month. You can also buy additional connects (job proposals) with a paid membership through the month if you find you need more. You can upgrade to the Professional ($10/ 25 proposals per month) Small Business ($20/ 40 proposals per month) or Large Business ($40/ 60 proposals per month). I chose the Professional, as with the basic free plan you cannot add connects during the month.
First of all…I’ve probably submitted over 50 proposals and I got 3 jobs from it after 2 months into the search for a great work at home job only to find out I found out I was competing with HUNDREDS of big companies with loads of job experience on eLance from third world countries where they only charge $2 an hour.
I mostly applied or made proposals on writing jobs and jobs that consist of customer service and I am actually working a job right now for a gentleman in NJ who owns a cleaning business and a landscaping company. I am being paid $10 per hour.
Awesome right?
Um…No. It’s $10 an hour on the phone. I am realizing that the hassle of making sure I am always available for his phone calls from 8am-5pm just isn’t worth the money I’m being paid…or not being paid. I have yet to be compensated for my work as of yet and I’ve been answering the phone for him for about 2 months now. He probably hasn’t paid me because there isn’t enough to pay. I’ve answered about 50 calls, at 1-3 minutes on the phone. So that averages about $20 – give or take – over 2 months being available FT Mon-Fri. NOT WORKING OUT.
The sad fact is that real writing jobs along with other coveted work on Elance.com gets outsourced overseas; making it difficult for US-based freelancers to compete or work for much lower pay. For example, a graphic designer such as myself would charge about $150 – $200 to design a logo for a business whereas the freelancers on Elance.com based in the Phillipines are only charging $2o-$30 for the same logo. It’s a no brainer for the employee and the winner of the proposal is making a killing (in their world).
Is it worth it? Maybe if you’re so broke and you can live on third world salary. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.
I just answered an invite for a virtual assistant job from yesterday but I am pretty much wasting my time by even responding because there were 18 invites; most to the Philipines and the pay rate was $5-10.hr. My chances of landing the job is about 10% and my chances of making 10/hr is lower.
If you decide to work on eLance, you may want to check out http://www.freelancersunion.org/retirement/index.html. You’ll need it. LOL
I wish eLance would divide their website up to restrict countries working for other countries. THEN eLance would be a great job source.
But it’s only my wish… one that won’t come true.
Updated 08/26/2011
I have had a lot of feedback on this post, it is also the most popular post on my blog.
Thank you to all the people who have responded and gave me your advice on this subject.
Lately I have discovered that when I win a bid on eLance, I will work for that person for maybe a week or two and then the work declines and then eventually I get nothing from them. I have done virtual assistance jobs. I think I am going to look into WordPress jobs as someone suggested.
Please don’t be offended about my 3rd world country comment. It is just what Americans call other countries that are very far away. But the fact remains, most of the 3rd world countries are bidding so low that us Americans cannot make the money we need to survive in our country. The cost of living is way higher here than in other countries.
Just my 2 cents.
Update 5/21/2012
I haven’t received an email from eLance for a year and just as I was approving a comment and replying to it, I get a notification from eLance:
Hello Cara,
Since you last visited Elance, we’ve grown our global talent pool to over 1.4 million freelance contractors – all available on-demand to work on virtually any project, large or small.
Come back to Elance today and gain instant access to great talent:
Programmers (134,000)
Designers (102,000)
Writers (124,000)
Admins (99,000)
Marketers (32,000)
Engineers (50,000)
Finance (25,000)
Mobile Developers (10,000)
We’ve also made Elance faster, safer and easier to use than ever before.
Let us help you find the right talent to get your project done. Post a job now, and get candidates today.
How discouraging…just signed up for oDesk. I’m sure it’s the same nonsense.
It really was upsetting to see the potential there and have it taken away by such competition
After a few of the bids I put in have been declined, I’m guessing somebody overseas did the jobs for $2/hr. Frustrating.
On Odesk or eLance? That is frustrating. I know.
When I was looking for writing jobs, friends told me about elance, then I check them out. I’d be working for peanuts and writing, as it is, takes up a lot of time.
But I find when I want technical work done, like creating a website or a squeeze page and don’t have the time or patience to do it, I can hire someone on odesk who’s within my budget. As a small biz, I couldn’t afford to hire me to do that so I’m glad there’s an odesk where I can get the job done in the price range I can afford, and not have to pass off that cost to my clients.
It’s not just elance or odesk. For me, it’s social media. My clients think they can do the job themselves so they don’t want to pay me what I know my skills are worth (I’m a book publicist).
We’re going to have to learn to work smarter to make money in the new economy.
I agree, as a business owner…eLance is a great tool to get the job done. But as a worker…I despise it! Lol
It sure does!Try flexjobs.com see what they have to offer.
I’ve been on Elance for about two years and don’t really agree with the review of it here. I have found there to be jobs that are generally slightly higher in price than those I have found on oDesk (though I didn’t spend much time on oDesk, so maybe it is just an impression). Also, when it comes to writing in specific, I have found that English speaking writers have a big advantage over most overseas writers. I have had both the experience of being beat out by lower bids from non-native speakers and having clients come back to me later when the project ended up a mess. I have have also noticed that when it comes to writers many clients simply prefer writers from the English speaking part of the world–often stating that they will only accept bids from American natives.
The key is getting past the first few jobs. Then things open up a bit. It’s not great pay, but you can get a steady $10 to $15 if you are good, and I have noticed that some providers/contractors get more regularly–check out the profiles for Benjamin Gran and Ajadedidealist. Both do fairly well. Neither by the way is me.
Thanks for your review
Hi there,
Am from your so called, 3rd world countries, India (but i don’t believe it). I have entirely different experience with elance.
I charge $8 per hour, which gives me $7.3 after deducting elance fee. Am there since march and pretty running my family just with that. earning minimum 1300 to 2000$ per month.
As per me, what happened to you was, the category you selected. It was an unskilled category. those works anyone with english and internet knowledge can do. So the big may go that low. If you go to good works such as programming, wordpress, graphics etc, i never seen anyone quoting less than 5$ an hour. Moreover you can take fixed price job as well.
regards
WibZ
Thanks for the information! Will try wordpress category…
Thanks for doing this review! I’ve been looking into the Elance route as supplemental (on-the-side) income (I’m a recent college grad and I work part-time). I’m more into the portfolio-building part than the side-hustle, but I forgot to factor the competition part in until I read this post (hits self on head).
Good read.
You’re welcome! I wish you much success in your new future!
Elance is tricky sometimes -> http://i.imgur.com/nQy6I.jpg
LOL That’s funny
How many sad, desperate companies actually think a talented U.S.-based programmer will work for $1 an hour?
Well, the whole point with the boards is that there are lots of talented programmer outside of the US who are happy to work for peanuts.
If you see it from the outsourcers’ perspective, then that is a great opportunity which may even save them from going out of business during recession. So they are not sad…
We freelancers based in e.g. the US, Europe and Australia are the sad ones. You guys in the US even has it easier because your living costs and taxes are low compared to Europe and Australia.
(sorry: have, not has…)
Thanks very much for this hands-on, detailed review, that is very useful. I bid for projects on freelance boards similar to O’Desk in the past – much lower than what I thought the work was worth – and didn’t get them. I guess they went to overseas company that charged $2/hour.
I have also been doing online research for an overseas outsourcer which found my details through a freelance board. I did get paid as promised, but late (without apologies), and the hourly pay rate and payment terms were substandard in the first place. The work was pure sweatshop where I was constantly chased for output via the phone. I made about $300 for several days of intensive work, and couldn’t work the following days because I felt completely drained and slept all the time. Not worth it.
Great job on your detailed report! I started working on Elance in 2009 and yes the competition is unbelievable!! One of the things I’ve learned by listening to some of my US clients is that they hired outside the US and won’t do it again due to some of the problems they encountered. I tell them you get what you pay for in most cases. If your willing to pay a fair wage (to anyone), the person you hire to do the work will be happy and happy people usually do a good job.
BUT…..I made a decision that I would have to place bids on some of the jobs that didn’t pay as much just to build up a presence on Elance and it worked, but I like Alixalex felt drained and wanted to sleep all the time. It finally made a difference and I have 4 long term clients that pay at least $10 per hour……The story gets better…..
I decided to get married in 2010 and he has total custody of his (our) daughter, I had been single over 20 years at that point and my daughter was around 24. Needless to say, there were major adjustments for everyone especially me and everything I had been working toward on Elance went down the drain quickly. Not only did I have to build my presence on Elance back up, I had to start at the lower paying jobs and build back up. A year later I can honestly say I am back where I was before I got married, just added my oldest as a helper on my Elance account and it works great for the family.
Hope this helps, what is awesome about you is that you are an excellent writer and if you stick with it (Elance), I’m pretty sure it will pick up and people will be coming to you
)
Thank you so much for your comment!!!
hi. i am from the Philippines and i just find your post mentioning our country a bit offensive but thanks for an informative post. the reason why we charge lower is because a dollar from you guys is already 50 pesos for us.. and a lot of us are unemployed so we accept projects like this.
you may wanna visit mys site too. http://www.athenatria.com thanks!
and by the way, its not a third world salary,its just that a dollar from you guys is equivalent to 50php. so ihope you understand why we accept that.
I TOTALLY understand, It just sucks for us Americans.
hahaha. i was even happy to get $9 dollars you know
Hello Photographess.
I just want to let know that I have quoted you (:this post) in my post Does online freelance work pay off? (for saying no), as well as one of your commenters. Thanks for writing a good post.
Mados.
Thank you!
Wow. Everything’s outsourced now. EVERYTHING.
Yep… I don’t even mess with eLance anymore unless I get an invite.
Sad…
Well, just judging by the way you write and the categories in which you chose to bid for work, I’m not surprised you didn’t get a lot of high paying work. Freelancing isn’t about deciding to be a customer service agent, or proofreader or editor, writing an anonymous proposal and then expecting people to hire you right away. I don’t know any skilled job that works that way.
When I first approached freelancing I gave myself a few months to get the feel for what worked and what did not work in project selection and proposal design, and to find a niche that both played to my individual strengths and was also in demand. It took some trial and error. I communicated with a lot of clients in the initial ‘question and clarification’ stage to get a feel for what they wanted. I was honest with myself and with the client about what I could realistically accomplish (for instance I would have immediately nixed the idea of being on call for 8 or 9 hours a day, since that doesn’t work with my schedule) and what made me stand out from the “lowball bidders”.
It took a while to really find my place and establish some good work experience. I would often read the forum posts in which a new person would think they wanted some extra money, sign up with an account, write a bio and then start bidding on everything from proofreading to writing funny blog posts about deodorant and on day 5 start posting that no one would hire them because they were American and charged a reasonable wage. People would always tell them to find their niche, find their special area of expertise, MAKE themselves worth their bid… I’m not sure the scattershot approach really works well.
I’ve also hired out some creative writing and graphic design work on elance so now I’ve seen the process from both sides. You wouldn’t believe the proposals you get and the sense of entitlement that comes through in them! I wanted help with a logo, and psychology undergrads who had their specialties listed as “technical writing” and had no portfolio or example work would submit proposals saying they were artistic logo experts. Or I’d get a cut & paste form proposal that had nothing to do with logos, essentially saying, “Hi I’m a PhD MD copywriting aromatherapist with so many ideas for you!”
It takes work to develop a business, and freelancing is a business. It takes time, patience, hard work and a lot of effort. I get the feeling some people think freelance means easy money. It doesn’t. It’s a business.
This blog doesn’t have anything to do with my bids on eLance.
I have also hired contractors from eLance so I know both sides as well.
This blog isn’t a business. It’s…my blog. I don’t point anyone here as my portfolio. LOL
But thank you anyway for your input and advice
Couldnt agree more with this post.
* Rolls Eyes * Ok, then please remove my post from your page and just don’t visit my blog. I’m not the only American who uses that term. Look it up on urbandictionary.com or Wikipedia. Cya…
I find the part about Americans seeing other countries far away a bit offensive. Like most people here have stated, the conversion rate of a dollar to other countries is quite high and able to provide sustainable living, hence the competitive bid rates on eLance. The truth is, world power or not, jobs are being snatched from American on a daily basis, and online jobs are no different. Instead of complaining, Americans need to get off their asses and get busy!
As I said before, my “third world country” comment is just slang that us lazy Americans use for countries that are far away. Thanks for your comment
Photographess, your excuses are as offensive, if not slightly more offensive, than the original statements.
Ok whatever
Thanks, Photographess…
Your year-old article here saved me from signing up with Elance. Actually, I looked at the “Terms of Service” page there, with 13 PDF files of stuff one has to agree with before registering, and that was plenty to turn me off.
To say it’s harder for a freelancer to do business today than before is a gross understatement. I’ve found the thing that has worked for me is narrowing my talents to a narrower market… from a graphic design generalist to a book cover designer. I don’t turn away other work that may come my way, but my focus is on the publishing industry primarily. It’s something to consider for anyone in any field really, who’s struggling for work.
The best to you and thanks again.
Thanks for greeting with me. It’s hard to get *some* people to understand what I’m trying to say. Thanks again!
Agreeing. Sorry about that, damnyouautocorrect.com lol
“Third world country” has nothing to do with distance from the United States. The term is an outdated one used to describe countries that are underdeveloped in comparison with countries like the United States, United Kingdom, etc… I can’t believe you actually think it is used to describe “countries that are far away” and don’t know what the term actually means.
Lol
I can’t believe you don’t know that the younger generation uses the term to describe far away countries. Jeesh. Rolls eyes.
To start off, great post. It definitely helps people put things into perspective that Elance is not just going to be a money-maker for someone right off the bat. I have seen all too many sites that act as if it is just so easy to sign up to sites like e-lance and instantly start making some quick money part-time. It’s good to see the honesty here
.
Just like any other business, it takes a lot of time to build yourself up on Elance. As others have stated, a good portion of how often you’ll get jobs is building your reputation on the site. This can be quite difficult in the start, as there are many contractors on Elance that just don’t leave feedback after jobs are finished.
I can definitely say, there is a lot of competition out there for jobs. Most jobs I apply for end up having at least 15-25 proposals before someone is hired. Some of the prices are also unreasonably low, at least compared to what typical US pay is. When you add up how much time you spend submitting proposals, on top of the work itself, you realize that doing the small jobs is simply not worth it. It’s the niche markets you have to target, where there is less competition because more skill is required. Also, the long-term jobs, where they want it to be an ongoing project. That is where the real money is, but of course, it still takes a long, long time to get there.
Oh, and Cocomarumba, I am at a loss as to how you think us having a higher cost of living makes us “lazy”? If you want to try and attack Americans and say you’re taking our jobs, you might want to learn to write proper grammar first. You have no place to take offense when the writer of this post used the proper terminology; used by not only Americans, but the world. “Third world country” isn’t slander, it’s a definition based on economic status. If you don’t like living in a third world country, then move. After all, you’re taking all of our jobs, right? So, you can afford it
.
Anyway, good luck to anyone wishing to make a living off Elance. Find a niche, bid low until you establish your reputation, and work your way up from there. Be patient, and it just might happen.
Lol! High five!!!
I am a freelancer on Elance. And here are my thoughts about it. The Writing section is the best section to be in. (especially if you can “ghostwrite books.”) It seems to be the easiest to “get your foot in the doo”r and be paid average rates.in the beginning.”I would rate Graphic design next. The worst is the Admin section. It’s repetitive work, researching on the internet (things like I need a list of all the vacant lots in the U.S.) Yes, that was one job posted. Many are like that. It doesn’t take skill or thought except for having the resources to locate such large categories of data. Since it doesn’t take skill, or thought I’ll say 95% go to the cheapest bidder. The other 5% will go to the bidders with the most jobs already done. Elance used to have a min. fixed rate of $50 for a job which is why I signed up there. In the last few months they have lowered their rates to $20 fixed rate and $3 hourly rate. The thought on that, directly from Elance is, by doing that, it will bring in more clients. It has, but those clients are looking for “cheap” labor. And there are hundreds, if not thousands willing to work for that. I am in the Admin section. In the entire 12 months I have been on there, I have received only 3 jobs. One good thing about Elance is that the jobs come in real fast. Every 2 or 3 minutes there are 2 to 3 new jobs being listed. Do not think that once you become a member, you will get a lot of jobs since you are competing with THOUSANDS of other freelancers with the majority of them being from India and for whatever reason, they are the ones who bid “lowballer” rates.
Odesk. = I am not a member there, but I have scanned through the jobs (basically in the Admin section) and from what I’ve seen at the time, the pay rate there, if unbelieveably low. I’ve seen jobs listed for 50 cents an hour. I may be wrong, but that is what I observed at the time. From talk I’ve heard also, from other freelancers on other sites, Odesk is at the bottom (concerning pay rates) for freelancing jobs.
Guru – is another freelancer site. I have pretty good luck on there. and have had 12 jobs in a year. I attribute it to luck in the beginning. Lucked on a job after just 2 weeks of joining, and it turned out to be a repeat customer. That helped TREMENDOUSLY in building up my feedback and stats. Because of that, I’ll say, I get about 80% of the jobs I bid on. The rates on Guru are better then on Elance. – $25 fixed rates, $5 hourly rates. The down side is that there aren’t many jobs coming in. In an hour, 1 job will be posted (in the Admin section) . There probably are more jobs coming in, in the other categories.
From the thousands (if not more) of freelancers on any of the sites, only a Small handfull make half decent enough wage amount to live on.
On the other hand, I am not sure if you noticed. Now a lot of jobs on elance began to be W9 required, which is U.S. contractors only, which frustrated me, who lived in Canada, a lot.
Re The Third World Comments, I have lived in both the Philippines and the U.S. and what many people in the Philippines don’t realize is that the quality of living, medical care, even food in your country is below the standards held in most American communities. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just that the living conditions are drastically different and therefore accepting a job for $5 or even $8 per hour is very acceptable in the Philippines. I could live there for that kind of money, but Americans who have not lived in the Philippines or India don’t really know what the conditions are like to live there. Please don’t take offense at the Third World Country references, it’s just that we live in 2 vastly different economic circumstances. In the U.S. $8 per hour is the minimum that anyone can get paid, and usually that is still less than a high school student makes just bagging groceries. I just wish we can be friendly and forgiving of the people that don’t have experience living outside the U.S. The term Third World Country maybe also outdated. Americans should perhaps change to calling countries that are far away “developing countries that are far away.”
Re Elance. Thanks for posting you review of Elance because this discussion on your blog has really helped in understanding how to start as a freelance contractor and build your way up.
That’s what I meant to say. Lol thank you for your comment!
And you’re welcome 
I think people have been taking offence unnecessarily. She has merely stated a fact and the tone is certainly not degrading.
Incidentally, I am from India, one of those third world countries Photographess is talking about. The quality of some the articles they churn out here is really bad; even for $2 an article. Granted there are quite a few good writers, but the vast majority would not recognize a good article right under their noses, because they are too busy admiring their own deplorable skills.
The key to good writing/designing is continuously reviewing your work and polishing your skills. It is a never ending process.
People here gather a team of writers; bid for really well paying ($ 30 per article) elance and freelancer.com; outsource the jobs to their teams setting a 8-10 hr deadline for 3000 words for supposedly well researched content.
They pay the writers about $1 – $2.5 per 500 words and they don’t even bother to proof read. I been writing for one such person for 9 months now. There are plenty of U.S companies too posting jobs that only pay $1/1000 words.
I find it difficult to meet deadlines because research that is supposed to take me about 15 minutes takes about 3 hrs. – LOL.
While I have working for 2 dollars, I have learnt a lot about the various niches, mostly through my own research.
If you are good at what you do, build a portfolio, avoid low paying jobs. Most good companies look for quality. I have seen some jobs awarded to people whose bids overshoot the stated budget.
Alternately, you can take some of the Elance test. They are tough and if you can get a good score, it will work in your favor.
I agree with Bryan, Anthony and Jak. Building a reputation is slow wort, but, worth the effort.
Thank you for a great article Photographess.
And thank YOU for not being offended by my horrible slang
Hey Photographess, Have you checked out http://www.Staff.com this is another site for work from home job,it is similar to oDesk but for full time work only.
no, but I will now! Thanks!
Thanks, Photographess, for your informative post! Just a few comments:
1) The politically correct terms for ‘third world’ are now ‘southern’ or ‘industrializing’, versus ‘northern’ or ‘industrialized’. ‘Third world’ is offensive because it has connotations of inferiority. Another commonly-used dichotomy is developing vs. developed countries, but I think these two must be on their way out, for similar reasons (derogatory).
2) There are some countries that restrict their labor markets in the way you proposed; North Korea is one of them. The United States is dense in entrepreneurial drive and human capital – i.e. education and skills. No economy or education is more coveted in the world than American. That’s why the rest of the world uses iPhones and Windows/Mac operating systems, stays in touch via Facebook, listens to Lady Gaga, and flocks to Hollywood apocalyptic flicks. These are products of American drive, genius, and creativity. Countries that restrict the flow of labor and services fall by the wayside, while the USA plows ahead, the rest of the world be damned (I’m Canadian, by the way).
3) There are two kinds of jobs that are in demand in the USA (I lived in LA/DC for 8 years): service jobs, like cutting hair and driving taxis, because these can’t be exported; and creative/intellectual jobs, because the American system breeds them like no other place in the world. I’m sorry that you’re having a tough time competing with lower-wage freelancers – but it’s also a potential goldmine, for people like yourself, if you can leverage your knowledge of your industry, ex. connecting US buyers with lower-wage freelancers/service providers. Sometimes, in order to stay where you are, you have to keep running (as implied by Cocomarumba) – that’s the beauty and brutality of globalization.
Good luck in being nimble, Photographess!
Cheers, and apologies for being verbose~
Thanks for your awesome and informative comment as well!
I just wanted to let everyone know what we’re going through. We agree with most of your main points. We are a strategic brand definition, business planning, marketing planning and implementation resource. We are run by people with an average amount of experience in the industry of around 10 years. We have service side, client/company side and business & tech consulting expertise. We’re a “deeper toolbox,” and we have a hybrid structure, meaning that our man-hour rates are a fraction of those of larger firms.
First, Elance scolded us for putting our direct contact info into proposal letters. So we took it out, even though it’s laughable to assume that they think that they can be the “Project Police,” and prevent clients and providers from working together as they wish to. Second, they suspended our account for “User Performance” issues. What this means is as follows: “Sorry, we know you pay us $40-60+ USD a month for access to bid on projects, but you’re not winning enough of them and paying us our ridiculously high commissions, so we’re suspending you.”
They also said that we had multiple accounts (totally untrue; there was one account for the umbrella holding company of affiliate companies, and another for a specific affiliate who specialized in strategic deliverables–two separate corporate entities), and that we did not complete a job (also false–the client hired us, then hired an outside resource, and never wanted to agree to our upfront payment terms and conditions, making it a “phantom job”).
Elance will not have a civil conversation and keeps referring to a mysterious “Policy Dept.” They took our monthly bid money, suspended our account indefinitely, are holding our credits, and are now penalizing us for marking the phantom job “complete!!”
We are not going to take this crap from these half wits. We are issuing a press release, and going onto all of the complaint sites, reporting them to the BBB and US Attorney General’s office. We have been in business for far longer than they have, will do just fine without them, and will be around and successful LONG after they are gone. And, they will pay us back!
PS–Always interested in good complimentary partners and companies who may want to become part of our affiliate network of providers.
Regards,
Chuck Hirsch
Dir. of Strategy
Wovn Group
Wow. I’m sorry that happened to you. I hope things get straightened out. Sounds like Paypal problem. lOL. I cannot stand Paypal. Regardless, good luck with your business. I’d love to be a part of your team should you ever need me