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Elance Still My Flavor Of The Month
By admin | September 25, 2007
Ok now I know you are probably sick of hearing about how great I think Elance is especially considering the fact that my last three posts have been about Elance but I promise this is the last one for a while. September has been a busy month for Elance and they have introduced some really great features.
I’ve told you about the Water Cooler, Elance Chat, Elance Call, and Elance University, but there is still more.
Elance have been working very hard this month to ensure that us ghostwriters get the best experience possible when we subscribe to Elance so here is a quick rundown of some of the new features you can expect to find.
Improved Search Results
You can now decide whether or not to bid on projects directly from the search results. From here you can view the buyers history and read project descriptions without having to click through. This makes finding work a lot easier and much quicker too.
Find interesting work faster than ever
Fast project search. The redesigned search results page now provides you with project details and buyer information. There are also additional search filters such as hourly rate jobs.
Added Bidding Privacy - Stopping Others Knowing What You Have Bid
I know that we all do it, look at what everyone else has bid before placing our own bids. Well you can say goodbye to this now because Elance have made sealed bidding the default selection on all new projects posted. I’m not sure whether this is a good or bad thing but I am swaying towards good. No no one else will know how much you have bid for a project which means that buyers will get realistic bids for their projects it also eliminates the bidding wars that have been going on. Yes I guess I am in favor of this one.
More qualified buyers
New buyers to Elance are now required to pay an initial $10 deposit prior to posting a project. This is great and it ensures that our bids are sent to buyers that really are looking to have work done and not just seeing how much their projects might cost. I hate when you spend the time to bid on jobs only to find that the bidding ends and the buyer doesn’t choose anyone for the job. Well now they will have to otherwise they will lose their $10 deposit. Way to go Elance on this one. I am definitely in favor.
You can also view the buyer’s history and feedback on all their projects. This is great and it means that you can now check to see if it is worth bidding on a project. I know I have been unfortunate enough to work with clients that I had to chase for payment and I have also left feedback reflecting this. At least now other ghostwriters will be able to see this and know what type of client they are dealing with up front.
Other Elance Features
PayPal for escrow projects. PayPal is now available as a payment option for escrow projects, giving you one additional way to structure payment terms with your buyers.
New traffic for active providers. Active providers are featured on the new buyer homepage, one of the most visible pages on Elance. Be sure to update your provider profile picture and description to get the most out of this promotional opportunity.
RSS feeds for search results. With RSS feeds, providers can get automated updates on their internet browser with links to specific search results that interest them. This means you learn about new projects without having to visit Elance and do a search for projects.
Videos on provider profiles. Elance have added the ability for you to place a short video on your provider profile. This is a great way to connect with potential buyers. To participate, just describe your services, skills, or whatever you’d like to highlight in a video, upload the video on www.youtube.com, and paste the YouTube URL into your provider profile page. The video will appear where the static photo currently appears. Wow Elance really is embracing the whole web 2.0 thing. Still not sure whether I would like a video of myself on Elance but this is something that I might look into.
Looks like Elance is making sure that they stay on top. What do you think?
Elance, Elance Call, Elance Chat, Elance videos, freelance writer, ghostwriters, ghostwriting job, new features on Elance
Topics: General |