I have looked at this and also at guru.com

Seems like a good way to idea to make some extra cash, but all the jobs I'm interested in have lots of bidders which makes me think that there are too many jobs for too few people. That said, you look at the protfolios of some of the bidders and many look like a load of crap.

I know what you mean about the £, though. Not great really. Although I feel that lots of folk who need work done have no idea what it entails and just offer <$500 automatically

 

Nope

 

I've bid on a couple of projects on Elance without any success yet. I agree with the other poster regarding the large number of bids on per project basis. The chances of your proposal being accepted are not very good in my mind. I have also looked at the details about the actual bidders for many of the projects, and quite a few of them are from places such as India and other similar countries. I have nothing against people from any country in the world, other than the fact that many of these folks propose doing these projects for outrageously low costs. The organization that wants the work done should be basing their choice of provider upon the provider's capabilities, and not focusing so much on price. This is of course just my opinion.

 

There are too many people from china and russia that will do the work for 6 or 7 US/hr. Don't waste your time.
Too many companies are outsourcing there design/drafting work to china or russia. Keep your chin up though. I have a feeling that things will pick up within the next 6 months.

 

I've bid on Elance with success in some projects. For many people (like me), Elance is a chance to make extra money. I worked hard for two clients from USA, trough Elance first and directly after.

 

I have win some small projects through Elance,
but scared with most projects there.
Typically, someone post a project as said " I need to build a prototype" but without any
detailed description and drawing, how can we bid ??
yes, most clients there care much more about PRICE, they like
to set the budget as " less than $500" but don't know how complex it will be.

Regarding "GURU", most time you will have 20-40 competitors when you bid on a project.
crazy.

 

I used a now-defunct site, ProSavvy (which became eWork). I got some good stuff there. However, too many potential clients do not want "engineering." They want the benefit of solid engineering practice and experience, but want to pay graphic design rates. After all, "its just a drawing." I haven't gotten into elance or guru yet.

 

Not only have I done jobs I am the 900 lb gorilla on Elance. I have held either the top or second ranked position in terms of six month earnings since going full time in 2007. I earn about 30-50% of my total income directly through Elance.

It is a tough market to break into. I have been freelancing using the internet as my primary marketing resource since 1993 when I was a Wizop on CompuServe.

Niel

 

I've used Elance and Guru for over a year now. I've made over 10k on Elance and about 2k on Guru in the last 6 months or so. Small side jobs that are a few hours and interesting to work on. Elance just changed and updated their project structure, much more realistic to real job styles, Prebid, NDA, Bid, Award, Milestones, Completion. I recommend it for folks that want to work remotely. I opened up a post here for the same style of work, but I guess no one has that type of work to post.

Terry