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    • Wed Feb 18, 2009

    Rightsourcing As Important As Ever

    For a recent episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I cornered Brad Porteus, Chief Marketing Officer at Elance in between sessions at the Small Business Summit in NYC.

    As most know Elance is an online marketplace that allows you to bring projects to designers, programmers, writers, you name it, and request bids to complete the work. Of course the flip side of that is true if you are designer, programmer or writer looking for work.

    I’ve been an Elance user for a number of years and I’ve had great experiences with Elance and some not so great, and in both cases it was my fault. As with any project, the more communication the better. When trying to find a service provider that you may never meet face to face this is even more relevant. Because a computer interface makes is so easy to find people willing to bid on your work, it’s easy to get lazy and pick someone based solely on price or on a misunderstanding of your needs.

    In any face to face situation you do your homework and make sure you’ve have a good fit, with references, right? I think you must view the hiring of someone on Elance the same way. Do that and you’ll find some tremendously professional resources that knock out projects the right way.

    iLinc Web and Video ConferencingThis episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by iLinc – Web and Video Conferencing that’s easy to use, affordable and powerful enough to make your online meetings really come alive.

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    Posted by: John Jantsch on Feb 18, 09 | 3:03 pm
    Category: Marketing Strategy | Tags: , ,

    Comments
    « Share Your Story Get a Grant from Intuit | Home | Adding Social Features to Your Web Site »
    • I have used Elance before too. I was offering article writing services. The competition there is too high. Most of them willing to write it for free as they only charge the transaction fees from the customer and chance to get feedback count. I think the best place that we can find workers is from webmaster forums. And, 100% agree with you on communication wise. The more communication we have with the seller, the better our satisfactory level will be.
    • I have come across Elance before while searching for php scripts. If Atniz's comment is true, it sounds like it could be a great place to hire someone to write things that are over my head. I also agree about the webmaster forums. It is amazing how much help you can get from a good forum.
    • In my experience with ELance, there are a lot of good resources out there. But sometimes, you have to weed through a lot of nonsense to find them. Very useful for young entrepreneurs who are new to the space and looking for some "cheap" help. More services like this ought to sprout up as more startups begin to develop.
    • I know about Elance but I've never used it. I find the idea of bidding for business a bit off-putting; there is always someone willing to do the work cheap (whether or not they are capable). I recognize that in the 'normal' bid process I do the same thing - I just find I can tell my story (present my value; my unique differentiation) better. But, I'll go back and have another look after listening to Brad's discussion.
    • I am an avid user of Elance. For a small business it is an effective way to add resources which I could not afford to keep on staff fulltime. Like all business interactions you need to be crystal clear on what you want before you put out a bid. This allows for better bidding. Like all things in life, I found I often get what I pay for. Part of the double edge sword is you receive international bids. I just keep that in mind when submitting a project request. If an intimate understanding of the US is required, I take that in to account when reviewing overseas bids. My biggest issue is getting the same resource to bid more than once. Some of my best providers seem to trickle off of Elance after a few months. I hope this is not indicative of an underlying retention issue for the site.
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