Anybody ever try elance.com?

I stumbled upon the site elance.com -- maybe through and SportsJournalists.com ad -- where they match up freelancers with people looking for work.

You have to bid against other people for jobs (editing and writing and other types of things) and you only get so many (unless you pay more) and elance gets 4-6 percent.

Some of the jobs seem pretty interesting and maybe worth your while. Some seemed like they would be very easy.

Others are kind of funny (write a wiki page for my company, do SEO articles with lots of search keywords, write about cow tipping).

Some are insulting -- $1 for a 300-word article, people wanting you to work for $3 an hour, etc.

Wondering if anyone had any experience good or bad?

 

The idea that everyone with a computer and an opinion can write will keep most of these gigs in the "insulting" pay range.

 

That's why I've just glanced. If they were decent rates I wouldn't mind sitting at hope typing for a few extra bucks each month. But it's not worth the trouble.

 

Another concept which accelerates the "race to the bottom", though the client is free to reject the lowest asking price if he's uneasy about the abilities of the potential executor.