Elance Blog

Carla White is an advocate of daily expressions of gratitude and began keeping a gratitude journal last year. She believes that reflecting on her day and jotting down all the thing things she is thankful for has changed her life dramatically – for the better.

Wanting the world to share in her experience, Carla took the concept of a gratitude journal into the iPhone/iTouch world and created a new application available in the iTunes Apps store today – Gratitude.

Hiring a full-time designer to join your staff may not be in the cards this year, but making sure your website, brochures, business cards, and other marketing materials are up-to-date and well-designed should be on your must-do list in 2009.

Want to know the top five pieces of marketing material you should keep current and professionally designed? We asked experts in the design field – experienced designers on Elance – for their top picks of materials every business needs to make pop, and here’s what they said:

Guest Contributor Shannon Newton is back, and he's sharing his expertise about video production and what you can do to successfully manage your next video project within your budget:

Pretend you want to build a nice, second story deck for your home. If this deck was your video and you had a specific budget to spend on it, where would your money go? I took a look and based on my experience, here's what I found:

We asked Barry Moltz, a widely recognized expert on small businesses, for tips on how small businesses can thrive in today’s economy. Barry’s tips are based on his hands-on experience as a small business owner and his research as a professor and published author. So whether you’re a provider on Elance or a employer, you’re sure to get a lot out of these tips:

I often joke that the original title of my first book was: “The Worst They Can Do is Eat You! Surviving Your Business during Tough Times”. That title seems very appropriate today as we head into a very tough part of the economic cycle.

How do we survive and thrive in 2009? Check out these 10 tips:

Since joining Elance, Stephen Black (BigTex34) has successfully completed 21 projects while keeping an impressive 100% feedback score.

We spoke with Stephen about the types of projects he bids on, how he competes, and how he maintains 100% feedback. Here’s what we learned:

Do you still dream of being your own boss and following your passion - despite the current economic environment? Jeff Novich, founder of VocabSushi, shares the story of how he launched his new business during one of the most uncertain economic times in U.S. history, and just in time for 2009.

Read on for Jeff’s story:

The holidays are upon us – a chance to rest, relax, and spend time with family and friends. But how can you fit in the fun when you’ve got your business to run? That’s where Elancers come in. Elancers can help your business stay on track and even get a jump on the competition during the holidays.

Below is a list of projects you can hire an elancer to help you stay productive:

Elance provider and graphic artist Jon Tucker discovered Elance in June of this year, and despite the current state of the economy, he successfully launched his design company – Alabama Design Studios (A.D.S.).

What’s his secret? It’s simple, Jon provides his clients with a combination of high quality work and frequent communication.

Frustrated with his full-time office job, Jon decided he needed a change. “Between childcare, gas, car expenses and other miscellaneous costs - I was spending about $25,000 dollars a year to keep my full-time office job,” Jon said. “I knew that if I could find a way to work for myself from home, I would eliminate a large amount of my expenses – and as a plus – get to spend more time at home with my children.”

While some people have been conducting remote work for years, others are very new to this idea. Last week we received a request for tips on conducting business on Elance. So, we've put together the following tools and tips for great results when managing remote work on Elance:

Meet Abbas Ali Khan, a talented Elance provider and motion graphics expert. Abbas shares his thoughts on the boom in the motion graphics industry, and the success he’s experienced by working on Elance.

Abbas has a background in static graphics design, but was always interested in animation. It was a natural transition for him to move into motion graphics. He believes that like any other form of art, animation is a great way to express your feelings and ideas. “I’ve had 15 years of experience working in design and animation. I believe that where a picture is worth a thousand words, animation is worth a thousand pictures,” he said.

Monita Mohan, an Elance provider in the Admin Support and Web & Programming categories, has maintained a home office in her Bay Area home for more than 15 years. Recently, I sat down with Monita to learn her work-at-home secrets.

From the physical workspace to the psychological and family aspects of working from home, Monita shares how she’s become a work-at-home pro:

Providers on Elance come from all over the world and from a wide range of industries. Today we're highlighting three newly hired providers: Xander Bennett, Maria Fernanda Cassias and Ross Glenn, who hail from Australia, Brazil and South Africa.

We launched several changes to the website today, including:

• Enhanced visibility for Teams from provider profile pages
• Simplified Business Terms process for employers and providers
• Change in hold time for payments made by employers to providers

Teams
Teams, launched earlier this year, is a new way for Elance providers to organize as a team and work together, making it easy for multiple individuals to work together and manage jobs within one provider account.

As an Elance provider, you quickly become aware of the popular skills requested by clients. You may have all the skills you need for the work you want to do, but could you be missing out on something? Is there room for you to expand your knowledge and open up new job types?

In most cases, a website content management system (CMS) is not just an option for success of a website, it’s a requirement. Two of the more popular CMS choices around today are Drupal and Joomla.

But how do you make sure your CMS system is configured properly for search engine marketing (SEO)?

Read below for a short SEO to-do list that will help draw traffic to your Drupal or Joomla website.

Barack Obama and John McCain differed on many things – social issues, economics, foreign policy and more. One of the things that also differentiated their campaigns was their use of technology. What can your business learn from how two politicians, in the most closely watched contest in most of our lifetimes, used technology?

Traditionally, Republicans have led Democrats in the use of technology to reach and organize local organizers to drive “get out the vote” campaigns. However, in this election, according to all “Monday morning pundits” one of the reasons the Obama campaign was able to rally an army of volunteers and voters was due to its superior use of technology.

What about your business? Are you investing in the right technology and strategically using it to maximize productivity in your business?

Here are some technologies you should be investing in and planning to maximize for 2009:

Your profile, portfolio, credentials, references, and feedback establish your credibility and showcase your skills - but, in most cases the first (and possibly the last) impression you make on a potential client will be through your bid proposal.

Whether you submit a proposal on one job or 100 jobs, you’re only looking for one outcome: to be hired. Here are some ways to make every proposal count:

It’s an understatement to say that the current economic slowdown has created some uncertainty about the future.

To manage this uncertainty, small business owners are probably taking rational steps to protect their business, such as trimming excess expenses and eliminating unnecessary spending.

However, cost-cutting isn’t the only strategy survival – rather, businesses can also focus on maintaining current revenues and priming the pump for future revenues.

But how can a small business do this?

Do you want to increase sales? Yes? Well, you’re not alone. In all likelihood, you’re limited by the amount of time you can spend finding, targeting, and building relationships with prospective customers. Give yourself – or your sales team – a boost by hiring an elancer to do your legwork so you can connect with your customers.

Showing your customers that you care and value their business is more important now than ever. But how can you do this credibly, and genuinely? The key is to have a reason to communicate (other than just simple appreciation). 

Read on for a few effective ways you can show your customers you care: