Like many people, I have found freelance writing to be an excellent way to earn extra income. There are a lot of websites which have been established to help freelance writers source their materials. It was important to me to be sure, especially if using a site that requires a payment that I chose one that made me feel confident in that I would receive the best value for the service I was seeking as well as provide a secure venue for me to receive my payment for completed projects. Money was a factor in my decision, but most important was the value of the service provided and my peace of mind.
After reviewing a few alternatives for displaying my writings and, sharing my unique talent, skills and abilities, I chose elance.com as my primary source for securing jobs that utilize these skills because, after careful consideration, I believe it is the very best option to achieve my goal, which is to obtain freelancing jobs with businesses or individuals with a need for the type of original writings that I produce and ensure a safe, secure way to obtain payments for completed assignments.
While doing my research I discovered some key features that were very important to me.
1. Guarantees. Elance offers providers a way to guarantee payment for their work, for both “fixed price” and “hourly” jobs. For fixed price assignments, which is mainly how I work, you have the option to require your client place funds in an Escrow account, this ensures the buyer has the money set aside and that you will get paid for your completed work.
2. Timely Payment. For hourly work, there’s an Auto-pay system, which if enabled, ensures you will get paid automatically for time spent working and timesheets delivered.
3. Value. I had to be sure that if I would be paying any amount of money for a membership site to find work, quite frankly, it absolutely needed to be secure, successful and profitable. I needed assurance that once complete, I would be compensated for my time and effort. In other words, I honestly had zero dollars to risk and needed to make sure that every penny spent, was well worth the investment. I had every confidence in my ability to provide quality content, I needed to have equal confidence in the avenue of which I would choose to market my talent, secure jobs and get paid.
I first signed up with a free account on Elance.com in February of 2009, shortly thereafter, I became overwhelmed with family responsibilities and had to put my freelancing desires on hold. I returned to Elance in April 2010, upon reviewing some job postings, I quickly made the decision to move forward and go “all in” by signing up for a professional account, which requires a minimal payment of ten dollars a month.
With your membership, whether free or paid, you have immediate access to tens of thousands of buyers looking for a writer to help them complete a vast array of jobs with as many different topics as you could hope for as a freelancer.
Overall, Elance offers the best features that I was able to confirm from my free basic account in the beginning and since upgrading my membership, updating my profile and securing jobs, Elance continues to have my vote as the best site for freelancing.