{"id":49,"date":"2010-09-13T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/?p=49"},"modified":"2012-11-12T15:37:57","modified_gmt":"2012-11-12T19:37:57","slug":"what-freelance-writers-need-to-know-about-elance-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/day-1\/what-freelance-writers-need-to-know-about-elance-com\/","title":{"rendered":"What Freelance Writers Need To Know About Elance.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For  many freelance writers,  Elance.com is a lifesaver. There are a wide  range of websites that promise  to connect freelancer writers to actual  paying gigs. Some of these websites  offer limited job opportunities.  Others are difficult to work with.  Many freelancer writers agree that  Elance.com takes the hassle out of  finding freelance writing jobs. The  website is well-suited for freelancers  who are new to the job,  experienced freelancer writers, and those who  are looking for both  part-time and full-time opportunities. Here&#8217;s what  you need to know  about getting jobs through Elance.com.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Getting Started.<\/strong> One  of the first steps to find jobs through Elance.com is to create an  account.  Elance.com will ask you for relevant contact information,  previous job  history, credentials, and more. There is a one-time $10  fee to establish  your account, as well as an additional fee that is  charged to place  bids on jobs which will be discussed later in this  article.<\/p>\n<p>Part of  the set-up process  also involves setting up a profile page. Each time  you bid on a job,  potential employers will have the option of clicking a  link to this  page to read more about you. You can write a free  narrative on your  profile page, which many people use to explain their  background experience  in writing, their passion for the job, and what  niches they are focusing  on. You can also include your minimum pay rate  and other relevant information  on this page. The profile page may also  be used by employers who may  request that you place a bid on a certain  job.<\/p>\n<p>In  addition, there are various  tests available that will let you prove  your proficiency in certain  areas. These tests include English Basic  Skills, English Editing Skills,  Microsoft Word, Research, and more.  It&#8217;s highly suggested that you spend  some time working on creating a  great profile page as this, along with  how your bid proposals are  worded, are what employers will base their  decision to hire (or not  hire) you on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Getting Jobs.<\/strong> There  are a wide range of freelance writing jobs available on  Elance.com.  These include ghostwriting, editing, e-books and blogs,  technical writing,  creative writing, and more. Potential employers may  be looking to put  together a team of writers or may be looking for just  one writer. Others  may want someone with a significant amount of  experience with proven  writing samples while others may be going off of  the lowest bid. You  can usually get a good idea of what a potential  employer is looking  for as well as how easy (or difficult) they are to  work with by reading  the job description carefully.<\/p>\n<p>Look  for jobs that have not  already been bid to death to ensure you have the  best odds of getting  a job. Also look for jobs that you may have a  special background in  or in a topic that you know extensively to give  you an edge in the bidding  process. After you&#8217;ve found a job, the next  step is to prepare your  job proposal by placing your bid. Those who are  awarded the most jobs  on Elance.com largely have a bid that is free of  grammatical and spelling  errors, that gives the employer some  background information on their  writing experience, and tells them why  they are the best person for  the job (such as special experience you  have in the topic area.)<\/p>\n<p>With  each job that you bid  on, you will use up a certain number of  \u201cConnects.\u201d You purchase  \u201cConnects\u201d from Elance.com with a credit card,  and you may use anywhere  from one to four or more Connects for each  job. The higher amount of  Connects are used for larger jobs. You can  easily adjust the number  of Connects you pay for on a monthly basis,  which is beneficial so you  can control this fee based on your own work  schedule and how many jobs  you need to bid on in a given month.<\/p>\n<p>At  first glance, paying for  Connects may seem ridiculous, but it actually  helps to keep everyone  under the sun from bidding on jobs that you may  be very qualified for.  If you are bidding a competitive amount on jobs,  writing a great proposal,  and have some background or experience to  bring to the table, you can  usually get by with a minimum number of  bids each month. If you can  find solid work that offers long-term  income potential, you may find  that you aren&#8217;t bidding on any new jobs  for months yet are still earning  income through Elance.com<\/p>\n<p><strong>Income Potential. <\/strong> If you follow the guidelines and advice set forth in this article, and   if you can produce quality work while still meeting deadlines, you can   make a good income from Elance.com gigs. The trick for many people is   to do quality work at a fast pace. With freelance writing, you are not   getting paid by the hour, so the more work  you can complete in  a day  or week, the more income you can make. Many freelance writers  who have  been working with Elance.com for several months have no trouble  finding  all of the jobs they have time for \u2013 again, provided their  work is  good.<\/p>\n<p>Elance.com  is great for picking  up a few side jobs to supplement your regular  income. It&#8217;s also a great  starting point for beginning a full-time  freelance writing career. Income  potential available for full-time  writing can exceed several thousand  dollars per month, even more than  $5,000 or $6,000 per month once you  are established with a solid client  base. Can everyone see these kinds  of results? No, but some people may  even enjoy more income than that.  The bottom line is that you need to  work efficiently and accurately  if you want to make the most money  possible with freelance writing through  Elance.com, or through any  other freelance writing website.<\/p>\n<p>Elance.com  is among the most  popular websites for freelance writers. If you  haven&#8217;t checked it out,  you are missing out on a great resource.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For many freelance writers, Elance.com is a lifesaver. There are a wide range of websites that promise to connect freelancer writers to actual paying gigs. Some of these websites offer limited job opportunities. Others are difficult to work with. Many freelancer writers agree that Elance.com takes the hassle out of finding freelance writing jobs. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,19,20,22,21,39,11,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-day-1","category-day-2","category-day-3","category-day-4","category-day-5","category-day-6","category-day-7","category-freelance-companies","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":753,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}