Elance Blog

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:

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:

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:

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?