It's a website where freelancers all over the world can compete for jobs involving everything from design work to admin support to ghostwriting. Those doing the hiring can readily view the track records of those providing services - previous project titles, customer comments, and cumulative Elance earnings, which makes it easy to narrow your search to serious, competent, and reliable providers. When project opportunities are posted, freelancers respond with proposals. May the best proposal win!

Prepared with a relatively small project, I decided to give Elance a try. I posted my project providing quite a bit of detail as to what was required, my concerns, and my desired outcomes. I gave it a one week response window since I was in a hurry to get some action before leaving on vacation. The responses fell in too categories:

1. "I'm great!"
2. "This is how I can help you."

The Great People touted their greatness. In some cases, they also enumerated their capabilities. Their proposals were focused on themselves. Since I can readily view their track records and profiles, this accomplishes nothing more than encouraging me to review their profiles. I immediately dismissed the Great People.

The second, and smaller, group, responded directly and specifically to my requirements, concerns, and desired outcomes. They demonstrated their expertise by educating me. Their comments made it clear they understood my needs better than I did. In short, their proposals were focused on me, my project, and my desired outcomes. These were the people whose track records I reviewed with care to see which I thought would take the most care to not only do what I asked, but also take care of the things I didn't know to ask.

I won't hire the "Great People" and you shouldn't either. Hire the people determined to produce great results!

© 2011 Ann Latham. All Rights Reserved.