How to Make Money (Selling Your Writing) On Elance
Do you write? Can you string together words and sentences - like
this? Would you like to make a few extra bucks (maybe more...)
without the hassles of a traditional job? You would? Then
welcome to the wonderful world of freelance writing on Elance.
-- What is Elance?
Elance is a website forum, a marketplace that allows people from
all over the world to actively participate in buying and selling
their products and services. As a freelance writer you can offer
your writing services with very little effort on your part. If
you can surf the web, use email and generally communicate in
English (yup, it's the principal language used on Elance) then
you are pretty much good to go.
-- How Does It Work?
It's quite simple; Elance is a subscription based website that
charges you a small fee to become a member. At the time of
writing basic monthly subscriptions begin at $30. Once you're
registered you can browse all the active (open) projects and bid
on the ones that interest you. As a member you can even set up a
personal store front (profile) and showcase your products and
services to potential buyers (and it's not unusual to get direct
enquiries from buyers this way.)
-- If Your Bid Is Chosen
If your bid is selected you will get the chance to decide if you
want to proceed with the project or not. If you decide to go
ahead then you and the buyer enter into an agreement (Elance
provides templates and samples at no charge.) You provide the
services to the buyer and the buyer pays you what they promised
- simple.
Elance gets a small commission on all projects that are awarded.
But don't worry, there is no cost to you for winning projects -
that's the buyers responsibility and the buyer will be billed
directly (it doesn't even come out of the agreed project
payments!)
-- So How Much Work Is Available To You?
That's a good question; after all if you are going to spend at
least $30 a month on a basic subscription, you really need to
figure out if the subscription is worth it. The number of open
projects varies, however it's not unusual to find between 150
and 200 writing projects available at any given time.
-- And How Much Are These Projects Worth?
There are currently two types of project postings on Elance:
BASIC and SELECT. If you have only chosen a basic membership
then you can only bid on Basic projects. You will need a Select
membership to bid on the select projects.
And the reason you would buy a select membership is simple -
select projects pay more, are less likely to end without being
awarded (yes there are people on Elance who post projects to
"get a feel for the market" and have no intention of actually
awarding the project!)
So back to the main question - how much are the projects really
worth? Again, this data varies over time (I cover this and more
in my new report on www.ElanceExposed.com), however here's a
quick 'rule of thumb' that I've found to be fairly accurate: If
you multiply all the number of open projects by $250 and
multiply that again by 70% you will get a fairly good idea. For
example, 200 open projects X $250 X 70% = $35,000
-- But What About the "Big" Projects?
There are big projects on Elance, they get posted infrequently
but they are available. As you might imagine these projects are
usually posted by companies - not people - and they usually pay
5 to 10 times what a regular project pays. With this kind of
payout you can imagine the competition is quite high, however
pitching to a business is not the same as pitching to a person.
-- What About Gotchas And Other Issues?
There aren't too many. The biggest one that springs to mind is
that Elance currently does not offer a refund policy on their
subscriptions. You actually have to get on board and sign up to
get a feel for the Elance market. And to be quite frank, you
really need to give yourself a fighting chance and sign up for
three months.
If you signed up for a three month Select membership you would
currently pay $150 USD. That's not a huge amount of money, but
it is a bit steep if you find out that Elance is not for you.
-- Here Are a Few Elance Quick Facts:
+ 100,000+ potential buyers visit Elance Online every week
+ Web's #1 consulting site and top 1,000 most visited site
+ Awarded Best of the Web by Forbes (2003)
+ Reliability Certified by the Better Business Bureau
-- And Here Are a Few Neat Benefits of Using Elance:
+ Easily market yourself to a global pool of prospective
clients.
+ Pitch your services at prices you establish.
+ Make a profit as an independent consultant.
It's true, thousands of service firms and individuals take
advantage of Elance as a marketing channel. And Elance actively
supports your efforts with aggressive online and offline
marketing delivering high volumes of traffic.
-- Remember, You Can Win Work 3 Different Ways:
(1) Answer the phone after people check out your online profile
and work samples. (2) Develop pre-priced 'buy now' packages that
buyers can purchase instantly. (3) Bid on projects - many buyers
post their requirements directly online.
-- Conclusions
Before you dive into Elance you might want to do some digging on
the Internet to get a feel for what others have experienced. For
instance you might want to find out more about the bid success
ratios, the real differences between Basic and Select projects,
how many projects will pay you more than $1,500 and so forth.
You can make money on Elance if you know what you are doing, and
quite frankly all it takes is a little time and patience. Good
luck, and happy bidding!
About the author:
James Burchill is a freelance writer and consultant. When he's
not "Helping People Sell More Stuff, And Make More Money" he's
creating and publishing new and valuable information products -
his latest (http://www.ElanceExposed.com) is a surprising new
case study uncovering the key metrics to successfully buying or
selling your writing services on Elance.
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