Elance is by far the most effective freelance website that I have worked on. It was once the world’s largest marketplace but now some other websites like Freelancer.com and Fiverr.com are among the top names. Elance will stay effective as the quality of the service providers and seriousness of the buyers is far better compared to other websites. You can make as much money as you want on Elance but the beginners face a lot of problems and always ask me the tips and tricks to win a job. I am putting the top 10 questions frequently asked in this post and I hope these Elance tips will solve problems for many.
1. Elance Profile Name: Choose a creative name and avoid putting your name as your profile name. Remember that profile name is different than your username and it is displayed at the top of your profile. Display your own picture in the thumbnail if you are a free member or if you have an individual/professional account. Only small and large businesses are allowed to display their logos in thumbnails. You can make a simple logo or record a 1 minute video and put it in place of the profile picture. Recently Elance introduced a feature which allows you to verify your identity. It is a simple procedure so take some time out and verify yourself. I have seen increase in business I get since Elance put verification seal after my name.
2. Portfolio: My experience is mainly in Writing and Translation category and I mostly get the questions from the beginners related to this category as it is hard for them to build a portfolio as they have no presence online. But building a portfolio is very simple. You can write 2 or 3 articles and submit them to some article directory like Ezinearticles.com and wait for their acceptance. Once they are accepted, you can take their screenshot and upload in your portfolio. Beginners willing to work in Web and Programming and Design and Multimedia category can make some templates or logos and upload in their portfolio. A strong portfolio is necessary to get the buyer’s attention.
3. Skill Tests: People do not pay attention to this area of their profile and always give me examples that top elancers do not have a single “orange bar” in their skill test area. Well they are experienced or lucky or God knows what, you are a beginner and no way near to their standards. You need to take skill tests to demonstrate your skill and ability and get the buyer’s attention. It also gives a positive signal to the buyer that you are hard working and care about your profile.
4. Job Search: There are over 1200 jobs available in top 3 categories and these numbers never drop down but you cannot secure all the jobs in your chosen category and you cannot possess the skills required to do all the jobs. Search for the jobs that you are confident of doing in a professional and timely manner.
5. Buyer History: I am seeing a lot of non-serious buyers these days on Elance and I have more than 30 jobs in “my jobs” tab that are not awarded to anybody and their proposal submission period has already lapsed. Take some time and visit the buyers profile page to view his/her history. You can get the information like the job award ratio, total purchased till today, feedback left and the number of providers hired. This little research will save your time and may save your connects too.
6. Job proposal: Needless to say, it is the most important thing and the client/buyer may immediately decline your job proposal if he does not find adequate information in it. Remember that Elance does not allow you to send private messages to the clients and your job proposal is the only way to interact with the buyer at the beginning. Make sure that you make the most of this opportunity and do not waste your “connect.” If you see that enough information is not given in the job description then ask probing question in the job proposal but do not force the buyer to respond to your message. Show your interest and relevant skills and experience that you posses to complete the job.
7. Pricing: There is no hard and fast rule of pricing the job and it is entirely up to the provider to decide how much should be charged. It depends on the difficulty of the job and the effort you will have to put in to complete it. For example; 10 articles on weight loss niche may not be too much costly but 10 articles on medical research will take a lot of time and effort to complete so their price will be high. But as a beginner, you may not be able to charge like the experienced providers. If you charge too low then the buyer may think that you are a sub-standard provider and want the job badly. If you bid too high then he may neglect your bid as you do not have any experience to show. I have seen providers face a lot of problems if they bid too low and win the job. They are not motivated enough to complete the job in time because the reward is too low.
8. Delivery Times: Like pricing, delivery time is also entirely dependent on the difficulty of the job. You need to evaluate the amount of research, programming, and designing you will have to do complete a job. The “over promise and under deliver” strategy will not help you at all on Elance. You need to understand that time is money on the Internet and you need to do the work in time and be in good terms with the buyer.
9. Escrow and Milestone Payments: Elance has a clear policy that you should not start work unless the buyer has deposited the agreed amount in escrow. Usually milestones are set up for larger jobs and even for the trial jobs. Once the job is awarded to you, carefully review the terms and milestones that the buyer has setup for you and ask the buyer to fund the first milestone or the full amount if there is only one milestone. Do not accept the job blindly in excitement as you may have to regret your decision in the end.
10. Job Completion, Feedback and Recommendation: Upload the complete project in the workroom and consistently talk to the buyer and keep them updated with the progress during the project. Buyers love to communicate but try to communicate through the workroom as it will help you in future, if a dispute arises. Ask the buyer to review the job and do show your willingness to make corrections if the buyer is not happy with the work. if you feel that you have done a great job and the buyer seemed happy, but has not left the feedback, then send a friendly reminder. If you are in good terms with the buyer then ask him/her to recommend you to other buyers on Elance.
Your feedback and profile is what keeps you going on Elance so make sure you do everything to make it look great and fresh. Buyers look for long term relationships on Elance and if you have the skill and ability, you will see a lot of repeat projects rolling in.
I hope I have answered all your basic questions regarding Elance and you can start working right away using these Elance tips. If you still find it difficult to move forward then buy my freelance course and I will help you further. Leave the comments below if you like this article or have some questions in mind.
About Usman
Hi. I want to say thank you for this article. I’m a beginning freelancer and found some great tips in it
A couple things, though:
1. In your first tip, you suggest using something other than your own name as your profile name/display name. You might want to mention that eLance only allows you to customize that if you have a business membership as opposed to individual.
2. With a ‘Business Basic’ (free membership), you can customize your display name but can’t show your education. Would you recommend mentioning it in your overview then, like I did?
3. Since I’m just starting out, I don’t have a lot of related employment experience. But I did work with the public in customer service for 6 years. Would it be worth sacrificing the customized profile name to be able to display that work experience?
4. Is 6 portfolio pieces too many?
Thanks!
Hi!
Thanks for the comment. This article was written a few months back and Elance keeps changing its policies almost every week.
Answers to your question
1 and 2) I do not have a Business account as I do not find time to consume all the 40 connects. I buy $10 individual/professional account and I have custom name in my profile. I just checked your profile and your profile name “Stories that Sell” is custom name I guess and as I see you are not a paying Elance member. I have to update myself with current Elance policy on this.
3. You can demonstrate your experience in your profile and in portfolio. What I think about profile name and the tagline under it is that it shows how creative and how professional you are.
4. Portfolio should be an instant killer no matter how many pieces you have in it. It should just make the buyer go click the contact button above and send you a job invitation.
I hope it helps
Hi Ted,
I see from your elance that you decided to go with a business profile. I’m actually looking to make a move to elance and have been looking at the basic individual and business profiles to better understand what difference other than the name and what impact latter on would the either have and which will be better.
I’m in the same dilemma as you were, I’m an individual looking to setup a new profile. From your experience, what do you say which of the two is better suited? Is there a significant difference like advantage or disadvantage to either? Does a business profile make the client uncomfortable as they are mostly looking to hire individuals? Other than the “Team” tab, is there much difference between the two profile types? Can one bid, win project, get paid etc with the business profile just like an individual profile or does one have to create separate team members for that to take effect properly.
Hope to hear from you soon as I really have to get things rolling extremely quickly.
thank you for providing this tips for us freelancers, I have had a hard time creating such profiles to get a homebased job. I eventually found Staff.com which is also similar to Elance, very easy to create a profile with and successfully landed a full time job.
AOA!!! m asking abt to how i can make my work very imperessive? n how i can fullfill the requirements of buyer’s???????
WOS
What sort of work you do? if you tell me what you do on Elance then I can tell you steps you need to take to improve yourself.
i am a begner tell me how to sent proposal on elance
Thanks for nice article Its really help me please give me any other information about elance bid proposal. I am 7+ year experienced webdesigner and webdeveloper. wants to start freelancing on elance with my team. my elance url is “https://www.elance.com/s/webngraphics/” and my site is “http://www.webgraphicsblog.com” please share me your valuable experience with elance.
Thanks!
Yours faithfully!
Nextgen Webgraphics
I’m new to elance and I have a Bachelors in Computer information systesm. I’ve been doing data analyst work for about 15years. Could you inbox me some tips to get me notice on elance?
nothing is new
I already know about those things 
so it will be more better if you provide some new tips like..how to get more invitation from client etc. etc.
Hi
This topic is covered in my freelance course. I am writing an ebook which will be available soon.
Is it allowed to post urls in Elance profile? Like personal urls for other Freelance sites where you’ve already built a strong reputation?
Thank you
No, you cannot put your personal URL’s or your profile URLs of other freelance websites in job proposals or your Elance profile. However, you can post links like URLs of websites you have made or articles you have written for others.
I think somebody mentioned here about “Staff.com”. I actually had a good time putting my resume there and was hired within a week. Thanks! Such a cool site other than Elance and Odesk.
AOA, Can you help to prepare impressive profile on Elance? I shall be very thankful to you.
I desire to serve at Elance as Data Entry and Admin Support.
Hi
Yes, I can help you in creating Elance profile.
Can you help to prepare profile on Elance?
I tend to work at Elance as Data Entry and Admin Support.
Thanks so much for all the info! I’m newer to Elance and seeking work as writer, photographer/digital imaging. Do you charge for looking at a profile and offering tips?
Thanks Sherry
Hi
yes, I do charge for Elance profile consultation. I can give recommendations and can help you in building your portfolio.
ASLM O ALIKUM, i want do data entry job on ELANCE, please help me about that, thanks
Very informative and useful article. I am new to freelance and not yet started properly.
hi,nice tips , whats that elance account
Nice article, very informative indeed. Somehow elance never worked for me. I spent weeks placing bids and didn’t win a single one. Then I switched to Rent-a-coder (now Vworker.com). I have successfully done close to 200 projects (all related to writing) with over 10,000 articles and 20 books in the last 4 years. I still place my bids and win projects on Vworker, but never on elance. What am I doing wrong on elance?
Hi; i happy to see the great tips about elance beginners and i also want to join this for earning purpose and spend a good life
Thanks………..
AOA Usman.
In order to work at Elance as typist, I want to create my profile. Would you be kind enough to help build my profile. I’ll pay the charges? I’m an english translator, have 14 years admin/office experience, vector graphic designer, very fast & accurate urdu/english typist. As a beginner i’ll start as typist, naturally to build confidence at Elance, + u know these typing jobs are easier to complete.
Thanks.
Waslam,
I can certainly help you in building your profile at Elance.
I’m a new user to Elance – I have a small conversion program I’d like someone to write, so I posted the job on Elance. I’m shocked at the number of people who say, “I can do the job. Here is my portfolio” or some such. “I have a company, and I can do the job” etc. I deliberately left some details out. An experienced programmer will catch that, and ask me about it. I got eight replies, and rejected five as “not qualified” based on their generic response. Why both responding if you aren’t even going to take the time to seriously consider the proposal?
Sadly, not everybody is a professional at Elance. This is why I stressed that people make sound profiles on Elance and let buyers see their skills and show them why they should hire them. The 8 proposals you got must not be of quality and must not be from professionals. Did you check out their profiles and their work history?
awesome,,thanks 4 the information, this is the infos that im looking for
Dear Usman,
I would like to contact you for building my personal profile on Elance and information about other similar legitimate websites for freelance work.
Kindly how I can contact you for this and your consultancy fee,
Regards,
Rehana.
Since social media is a real craze nowadays, how do i share my elance profile on my facebook/twitter/linkedin profile?
I cant see any share button unlike freelancer.
You can copy your profile link and share it on facebook, twitter an linkedin. There are also like and tweet buttons on your Elance profile. Ask people to like your profile and tweet as well.
Elance just held their first meet up in my city and so I want to check it out. Thanks for the tips!
Is there a way, I can buy a elance profile which is sort of fully configured and loaded?