A few popular sites today are generally Elance and oDesk. From the homepage, you might think that these two sites are generally pretty similar. After just about all, they both state that there's guaranteed work with guaranteed payment. A freelancer's dream come true, right?
Let's compare the two:
Elance Guarantees both Hourly and Predetermined Price Work
Just about all fixed price projects on Elance use escrow. Escrow is pretty direct to the point and it's safe for both buyer and the company. The buyer funds the account and they release it when that project is completed. If a celebrity they forget to release the funds, they are automatically released 30 days later. It might take some time, but you're guaranteed charge.
Elance is in addition able to guarantee their hourly projects too. This is done with the provider using Tracker using Work View. Essentially Work View takes screenshots when you work on a undertaking and hours billed must correspond. Your hours are also automatically paid when timesheets are sent, unless a client pinpoints certain hours as not being associated with the project.
I don't typically work on an hourly basis; it's still good to learn that your hourly work is guaranteed. And due to the fact 99% of my projects use escrow, I like keeping the security of escrow.
oDesk Just Guarantees Hourly Work
Although oDesk does guarantee that you will receive payment for hourly work (and it is tracked in a corresponding fashion to Elance), they will don't have escrow. This makes oDesk ideal for providers who do use an hourly basis, but if you ever work on a project by project basis, there's no escrow system to guarantee your payment.
Communicating through Elance
Elance offers a number of tools to assist you in communicating with your clients as well as ensuring that the job flows smoothly. Once you are awarded a project, you get access to a Private Message Board with Real time Chat, File Sharing using Version Control, Project Words with Milestones and Comments, Status Reports and Timesheets, Autopay with hourly projects and Escrow with regard to fixed price projects.
All of these tools allow you to help document the project and all details with it. You can discuss the project prior to the award and after over the private message board; business terms are then setup with the necessary milestones together with escrow is funded. In the entire process, everything is documented so you can refer back to any messages to ensure you're both on a single page.
Communicating through oDesk
oDesk offers the Work Diary, which tracks the quality of time you spend working on a project, but that's about this. You don't have the many tools that Elance offers you to help you work. In fact, there's not a private message table. Communication must occur as a result of personal email, telephone and chat, whichever the company and buyer agree when. In some ways this is easier, however, emails can usually get lost or go to SPAM boxes, chats get turned off and phone calls can be missed. And there's no communal workspace where all the communications are tracked. There's ample opportunity for miscommunication here.
Top quality of Projects
As a provider, the last thing you want to do is spend hours communicating which includes a potential buyer, who may not even have considerably of potential. Emails, message or calls, and chats all take time that one could be spending on your current projects or looking with regard to serious projects. One way that Elance assures quality projects is just by testing the committal level of buyers. They do this by charging a $10 activation fee so that the buyer has the best form of payment to pay for providers for the operate they perform. This has to be completed before the customer can post any projects.
On oDesk, buyers can post several projects as they want and communicate with all of the providers that they want and never even award a single project. They advertise that it's "free to create jobs and interview installers, " but that's not necessarily a very important thing. There's nothing worse than talking with a great deal of buyers who are just testing the waters and never result in a paying project.
Issued, there is nothing that requires a buyer to prize a project on Elance, nevertheless it seems to attract a higher quality buyer and better projects.
Another clue of quality of jobs are the budgets allowed by both websites. Elance has the least possible bid of $50, while oDesk actually comes with a estimated budget level involving $5! odesk review, Elance Vs ODesk Review - A Freelancer's Perspective, odesk reviewAs an employer oDesk is a good place to outsource any extra work you may have.
Let's compare the two:
Elance Guarantees both Hourly and Predetermined Price Work
Just about all fixed price projects on Elance use escrow. Escrow is pretty direct to the point and it's safe for both buyer and the company. The buyer funds the account and they release it when that project is completed. If a celebrity they forget to release the funds, they are automatically released 30 days later. It might take some time, but you're guaranteed charge.
Elance is in addition able to guarantee their hourly projects too. This is done with the provider using Tracker using Work View. Essentially Work View takes screenshots when you work on a undertaking and hours billed must correspond. Your hours are also automatically paid when timesheets are sent, unless a client pinpoints certain hours as not being associated with the project.
I don't typically work on an hourly basis; it's still good to learn that your hourly work is guaranteed. And due to the fact 99% of my projects use escrow, I like keeping the security of escrow.
oDesk Just Guarantees Hourly Work
Although oDesk does guarantee that you will receive payment for hourly work (and it is tracked in a corresponding fashion to Elance), they will don't have escrow. This makes oDesk ideal for providers who do use an hourly basis, but if you ever work on a project by project basis, there's no escrow system to guarantee your payment.
Communicating through Elance
Elance offers a number of tools to assist you in communicating with your clients as well as ensuring that the job flows smoothly. Once you are awarded a project, you get access to a Private Message Board with Real time Chat, File Sharing using Version Control, Project Words with Milestones and Comments, Status Reports and Timesheets, Autopay with hourly projects and Escrow with regard to fixed price projects.
All of these tools allow you to help document the project and all details with it. You can discuss the project prior to the award and after over the private message board; business terms are then setup with the necessary milestones together with escrow is funded. In the entire process, everything is documented so you can refer back to any messages to ensure you're both on a single page.
Communicating through oDesk
oDesk offers the Work Diary, which tracks the quality of time you spend working on a project, but that's about this. You don't have the many tools that Elance offers you to help you work. In fact, there's not a private message table. Communication must occur as a result of personal email, telephone and chat, whichever the company and buyer agree when. In some ways this is easier, however, emails can usually get lost or go to SPAM boxes, chats get turned off and phone calls can be missed. And there's no communal workspace where all the communications are tracked. There's ample opportunity for miscommunication here.
Top quality of Projects
As a provider, the last thing you want to do is spend hours communicating which includes a potential buyer, who may not even have considerably of potential. Emails, message or calls, and chats all take time that one could be spending on your current projects or looking with regard to serious projects. One way that Elance assures quality projects is just by testing the committal level of buyers. They do this by charging a $10 activation fee so that the buyer has the best form of payment to pay for providers for the operate they perform. This has to be completed before the customer can post any projects.
On oDesk, buyers can post several projects as they want and communicate with all of the providers that they want and never even award a single project. They advertise that it's "free to create jobs and interview installers, " but that's not necessarily a very important thing. There's nothing worse than talking with a great deal of buyers who are just testing the waters and never result in a paying project.
Issued, there is nothing that requires a buyer to prize a project on Elance, nevertheless it seems to attract a higher quality buyer and better projects.
Another clue of quality of jobs are the budgets allowed by both websites. Elance has the least possible bid of $50, while oDesk actually comes with a estimated budget level involving $5! odesk review, Elance Vs ODesk Review - A Freelancer's Perspective, odesk reviewAs an employer oDesk is a good place to outsource any extra work you may have.