Elance’s Changes: Goodbye, Freelancers?
Loud protests are already going up at the Elance Water Cooler. People aren’t happy. Some are livid. Some are sad, seeing the end of their career. Others are pissed off and suspicious of what they feel are Elance’s actions of punishing providers while favoring buyers.
Writers claimed they can no longer earn a living. It’ll just cost too much. Some quit. Graphic designers realized their fees would double, maybe even triple. Someone mentioned a 34% hike in their membership fees. This isn’t a good thing, considering that if a provider bids on all projects, they’ll win an average of less than 1 out of 7 projects.
Pretty expensive bidding, if you ask me.
There’s more. One provider plotted out fee scenarios in a beautiful math table to prove Elance’s math just doesn’t add up. Someone pointed out that it’s cheaper to have a Small Business membership plan and purchase additional bidding power over having a Large Business plan.
Huh.
Amongst the boos and criticisms, Elance is scrambling to soothe ruffled feathers. Their ever-calm, benevolent and patriarchic tone tries to placate angry providers, gently pointing out the wonderful features and benefits. Apologize? Oh hell no. Admit that what they are doing hurts providers right in the wallet? You gotta be kidding me.
Me?
I haven’t taken a decision yet on what I feel about Elance’s new membership plans. I see good things (the Premier plan; high costs of doing business weeding out low quality providers), and I see bad things (cost). I’m thinking of potential scenarios (bidding less to waste less bid “connects” and missing out on possible gigs; shrugging and paying the money, accepting that life is like that).
I’m watching, waiting, listening and reading. I’m gathering my facts and definitely keeping my emotions in check. For now. Eventually I’ll take a decision and a stand, and that’ll be the right one for me.
Your thoughts?
17 Responses to “Elance’s Changes: Goodbye, Freelancers?”
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Hey James,
I’ve never had luck with Elance to begin with and gave up. I’ve had better luck on Guru, personally. Now I’m curious to read up more on the changes they’re making to see if they’d address any of the issues I was running into…
Wow. My experience with Guru has been terrible. I did some research and checked over what other writers thought. I hear feedback such as very low wages, snotty clients who treat writers like dirt, and that it’s a generally bad place to look for jobs.
What kind of issues were you running into with Elance? Maybe I can help you out here, because we’ve had great success over there. Feel free to drop me an email if you’d prefer, but sharing experiences helps others.
Hi!
I can see why people have said that about Guru. I should revise my statement…I haven’t gotten a ton of good jobs from there, but I’ve been ultra-picky about what I’ve applied for and have landed ome nice long-term gigs. The listings on there are rather insane…they want someone with a PhD, but won’t pay more than $30 for 3000 words or somethng. You know the type.
My biggest problem with Elance was people responding to me, and then never following up or awarding the project. Happened constantly. Also, it really seemed like your rating matters, which I can totally understand…but it’s hard to build up your rating when you can’t land a project.
Vicious cycle!
Ahhh… Yes. Reviews carry a great deal of weight on Elance. Some suggest chopping prices slightly to gather up good reviews, slowly raising your prices until you’re back at your level of pricing with the backup of strong reviews.
The second issue of a lack of response or award often occurs on Elance – and on many sites. It isn’t exclusive. Some writers make sure their proposal covers all questions possible, and they drop a quick personal PM to potential clients, then leave it at that. Some do that, and then follow up a couple of days later with a, “Did you have any questions?” message.
A good idea might be to see if there is a common thread with the questions you’re asked by potential clients – see if you can’t address that before they do. Is the point a deciding factor in you getting the job over someone else? If so, you may want to revise that particular point.
If there is no common thread, no reason you can see and people just fade away… well, yeah. It happens.
This is one of the beefs about the new Elance “connects”. Since freelancers have to buy bid points, they’ll end up blowing them all in the hopes that one out of 10 clients gets in touch with them – and even that doesn’t guarantee a job.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Like Susan, I’ve had better luck on Guru.com (although I haven’t even used that service recently). My concern with the Elance news is this: can other bidding sites be far behind. I’m going to stumble this to see if I can get you more readers.
So far, from my experience with auction sites of all types and sizes, Elance definitely outpowers the rest and provides far more to freelancers than others do with increased protection.
It does have its drawbacks. Today, it’s experiencing strong protest of its fee hikes. If it weren’t for that, even its higher fees are outweighed by potential, I think.
But yeah, I’d love to hear other comments on the topic. Stumble away!
Stumbled on my end, too.
I’d love to see some more conversation around this. It affects a lot of freelancers!
You both rock
I’m Krish from Emphasize Outsourcing…We are one of the top service providers in elance since 2006 and I just like to describe elance in one word “Excellentâ€
I’ve had great success on Elance, not as a source of revenue but as an expanding, networking base of clients.People know people who know people. So, if I do a good job for this client, I usually end up with a referral or two down the line (‘member Fred?)
Anyway, many Elance buyers don’t know what to expect as far as quality services and content so if the buyer lists the project at “less than $500,” I take the time to explain why my bid is $1500.
I’m always amazed and thankful that at least some Elance buyers are willing to pay for quality. They just don’t know what quality costs, but they’re happy to be educated.
I started with Elance over 10 years and I have seem them evolve and really like the company that they are now. Although the current membership plan is more expensive than it was when it was free, I honestly don’t have a problem with the new membership fees on Elance and do believe that paying Elance surely beats traditional methods of advertising.
However with more expensive fees, I have to maximize my bids and not waste money. This forces me to be more selective with my bids/connects and I no longer waste bids on unworthy buyers and ridiculous project requests that I have no interest in. Instead I focus on those serious buyers who are willing to pay for quality services and that have a good reputation for delivering payments.
By doing this, I am able to find the “gold” and stay away from the fool’s gold and headache projects that are a big waste of my time and energy.
The over-categorization is what gets me at Elance. Someone INVITED me to a private bid, but I cannot even contact them because I am in the “Writing” category and the company erroneously put the job in “Marketing.” God forbid someone cross categories!! The world might collapse.
@Rod
I’m afraid I must agree with you. I’m not sure what’s going on behind the curtain at Elance but it’s not good. More and more bottom feeders and a management team that hates to be told its baby is ugly (don’t we all).
I used to get invited to provider council conference calls but quickly discovered that management doesn’t want the truth. (“You can’t HANDLE the truth.) They float balloons, see how providers react and move forward any way.
The site is totally buyer-centric and little consideration is paid to those who actually generate income. It’s a closed loop that doesn’t welcome dissent. Sad, too. It used to be such a good site for networking.
Thanks for the suggested alternatives.
Best,
Paul
editor@webwordslinger.com
Well, I am very new at Elance and I am just tying to read everything I can about it ’cause I would really like to work there for a long time.
Thanks for the info!