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Elance shutting down, whats your backup plan?

by ireshsl
83 replies
I think that you all know Elance will shut down soon and it will merge with Upwork. So have you got any backup plan (ex: good alternative website for Elance) guys ?.
#elance #freelance #odesk #upwork
  • Profile picture of the author eKing
    I primarily use Freelancer and I imagine many users will flock to Upwork so there will be a lot of demand on there too. I'm sure many will also continue to use other websites such as Fiverr as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryan2008
    Here are some alternatives to e-lance.

    Guru.com
    odesk.com
    http://getafreelancer.com/
    http://www.scriptlance.com/
    GoFreelance | Just another WordPress site
    Find Freelance Jobs & Freelancers - iFreelance.com
    http://www.project4hire.com/
    http://www.rentacoder.com/
    htttp://www.upwork.com
    ScriptLance.com
    GetaCoder.com
    www.seoclerks.com
    www.fiverr.com

    Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author totalprocessing.net
    I find it funny that Freelancer.com owns this board. There seems to be a lot of recommendations other than freelancer. Is there a reason for this?
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  • Profile picture of the author ghost209
    why are you worried? Nothing will change.

    Elance and Odesk simply merged and decided to funnel all their efforts to a new site ' Upwork.com '

    If you have an account on Elance and have lots of reviews etc.Your portfolio / reviews / etc will be transferred over to the new site. And business will continue as usual.

    If anything you should be excited. Everyone from Elance.com and Odesk.com will be sent to Upwork.com .. Which means more jobs and more opportunities than ever. Not only that, Upwork has already received tons of buzz / press, which means alot of new people will be checking it out too.
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    • Profile picture of the author JonSofen
      Originally Posted by ghost209 View Post

      why are you worried? Nothing will change.

      Elance and Odesk simply merged and decided to funnel all their efforts to a new site ' Upwork.com '

      If you have an account on Elance and have lots of reviews etc.Your portfolio / reviews / etc will be transferred over to the new site. And business will continue as usual.

      If anything you should be excited. Everyone from Elance.com and Odesk.com will be sent to Upwork.com .. Which means more jobs and more opportunities than ever. Not only that, Upwork has already received tons of buzz / press, which means alot of new people will be checking it out too.
      Disagree. I think this is really going to water down the market because oDesk was always known as a place to hire freelancers for dirt cheap. All they're doing is bringing even more cheapo buyers to the platform.
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      • Profile picture of the author anupamrekha
        Originally Posted by JonSofen View Post

        Disagree. I think this is really going to water down the market because oDesk was always known as a place to hire freelancers for dirt cheap. All they're doing is bringing even more cheapo buyers to the platform.

        I strongly disagree with JonSofen

        I have been at elance for 10 years and at odesk for 5 year. Elance is an insult to freelancers. Odesk always had the grace.

        elance is like when you are hungry you run to a cheap restaurant, eat and forget.

        odesk - a bit tough for 1 to 2 small projects when you get adjusted, do small fixed price jobs. but when you work on hourly projects it was so predictable safe for both buyer and seller.

        why rush to every other guy. simply find some one who is good for the kind of work - and develop a relationship! that is how regular jobs were, yo work in a company for at least 1 year. is it not?
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        • Profile picture of the author JonSofen
          Originally Posted by anupamrekha View Post

          I strongly disagree with JonSofen

          I have been at elance for 10 years and at odesk for 5 year. Elance is an insult to freelancers. Odesk always had the grace.

          elance is like when you are hungry you run to a cheap restaurant, eat and forget.

          odesk - a bit tough for 1 to 2 small projects when you get adjusted, do small fixed price jobs. but when you work on hourly projects it was so predictable safe for both buyer and seller.

          why rush to every other guy. simply find some one who is good for the kind of work - and develop a relationship! that is how regular jobs were, yo work in a company for at least 1 year. is it not?
          Elance always had more cheapos than reasonable clients, but until recently it really wasn't difficult to find clients that are willing to pay well, at least for writers. Sure, you have to dig a bit to find these clients, but they were out there. It wasn't that hard to get $50-$75, and sometimes $100 for 400-500 words of content on Elance. Now, you'd be lucky to get $1, which is why I no longer use Elance, or any other freelance site.
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        • Profile picture of the author Repitech
          Originally Posted by anupamrekha View Post

          I strongly disagree with JonSofen

          I have been at elance for 10 years and at odesk for 5 year. Elance is an insult to freelancers. Odesk always had the grace.

          elance is like when you are hungry you run to a cheap restaurant, eat and forget.

          odesk - a bit tough for 1 to 2 small projects when you get adjusted, do small fixed price jobs. but when you work on hourly projects it was so predictable safe for both buyer and seller.

          why rush to every other guy. simply find some one who is good for the kind of work - and develop a relationship! that is how regular jobs were, yo work in a company for at least 1 year. is it not?
          I think you may have lost your mind. Elance appeals to a much higher-quality audience ($25-50 per hour), while Odesk appeals to lower-budget, third-world dregs ($0.50-3.00 per hour lol). This merger will only hurt Elance, and will drive all of the REAL freelancers away from both Odesk and Elance. It's going to turn into a third-world-country cesspool of $1 per hour jobs lol. Bye bye.

          P.S. For everyone screaming about how great Freelancer is, that's the worst of all. If you think $0.50-3.00 per hour is bad, sign up for Freelancer. You can easily make $0.25 per hour, IF the client decides to pay. It's very sad, and you will be VERY underpaid. Check out my blog post: Elance And Odesk: The Massive Failure Of Upwork

          Elance And Odesk: The Massive Failure Of UpworkrepiTech Technology Blog
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          • Profile picture of the author Andrea W
            I just hate Elance becoming Upwork, we are losing quality jobs, the platform is horrible and their fees and conditions are worse. Anyone feeling as me, not wanting to see Elance vanish, sign this petition, let´s hope they listen to us

            https://www.change.org/p/give-freela...b_ref=Default:
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        • Profile picture of the author Chris-
          Originally Posted by anupamrekha View Post

          odesk - a bit tough for 1 to 2 small projects when you get adjusted, do small fixed price jobs. but when you work on hourly projects it was so predictable safe for both buyer and seller.
          I've used oDesk for many years, and had mostly good experience, BUT they recently forced me to pay for a job where I received zero value, and where the dispute was expressly forbidden by their own rules. I hired a programmer to write software, stating specifically in the job description that the software must work on all windows computers. The software never worked on my windows computer, so I said I would not pay because the job description was not met. At that time, oDesk specifically stated that disputes were NOT allowed on fixed-price jobs (which mine was), but they ignored their own rule, and allowed the programmer to dispute the job by saying that since the software worked on his computer I must pay. oDesk forced me to pay half the amount, in direct violation of their own stated rules, and in obvious violation of the concept of a job-description.

          So no, I do NOT trust UpWork fully, from my experience. Now, I make sure to break the job into small milestones where possible, so only a small amount of money is in escrow at any time. I'll continue to use them, and most of my experience with them has been successful, but I want others to be aware of the dangers from the fact that they choose to ignore their own rules and ignore the concept of a job-description, in my experience.

          Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author SobeDragon
      Originally Posted by ghost209 View Post

      why are you worried? Nothing will change.

      If you have an account on Elance and have lots of reviews etc.Your portfolio / reviews / etc will be transferred over to the new site. And business will continue as usual.
      I merged my account over the other day, and it wasn't a completely smooth process for me.

      After posting a job on Upwork, I had a candidate message me saying she was interested in the job, but was somewhat hesitant because of my feedback. That was odd to me, because as a client of Elance, my feedback was positive and favorable.

      On Upwork, it made it seem like I never gave out feedback or consistently gave out poor ratings (3/5 stars, for example). Comments that I gave and received were also left out. I would be leery of working for myself as well.

      I had to update my job posting to include a link to my Elance profile to show candidates my true profile.

      I am still adjusting to Upwork's interface, but judging them based solely off of that, it falls in comparison to Elance. I'm sure they will continue to make changes, but for now I don't like it.

      It's the minor details for me, like the ability to sort candidates by bid level or feedback rating, that I already miss.

      With that said, I never got around to using other sites such as Freelancer in the past. Though, I think it may be time.
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      • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
        Originally Posted by SobeDragon View Post

        I merged my account over the other day, and it wasn't a completely smooth process for me.

        After posting a job on Upwork, I had a candidate message me saying she was interested in the job, but was somewhat hesitant because of my feedback. That was odd to me, because as a client of Elance, my feedback was positive and favorable.

        On Upwork, it made it seem like I never gave out feedback or consistently gave out poor ratings (3/5 stars, for example). Comments that I gave and received were also left out. I would be leery of working for myself as well.

        I had to update my job posting to include a link to my Elance profile to show candidates my true profile.

        I am still adjusting to Upwork's interface, but judging them based solely off of that, it falls in comparison to Elance. I'm sure they will continue to make changes, but for now I don't like it.

        It's the minor details for me, like the ability to sort candidates by bid level or feedback rating, that I already miss.

        With that said, I never got around to using other sites such as Freelancer in the past. Though, I think it may be time.
        This is how I feel as well.

        I just posted my first job on Upwork just to get the feel of the new site. And I didn't like the experience.

        For one, they didn't allow me to leave out a budget dollar amount from my project. On Elance, I would always leave the budget number blank because I discovered that it leads freelancers to bid lower prices. When you put a dollar amount in as your maximum budget, they almost always bid the full amount instead of low balling to win your bid.

        Secondly, after I posted the job there was a page full of "suggested freelancers" for me to hire specifically for that job. The only problem was that none of them even offered the service I was hiring for! I posted a job solely about article writing and it was suggesting that I hire graphic designers and web developers for the job. Whatever idiot programmed that "suggested" feature needs to be fired.

        Whoever was in charge of the Elance-oDesk merger really made a bad decision. Why close down two sites that work perfectly and have millions of $$$'s in name recognition alone, just to create a hybrid site that doesn't even have all the functionality of the past sites?
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    • Profile picture of the author webmarketer
      Originally Posted by ghost209 View Post

      why are you worried? Nothing will change.

      Elance and Odesk simply merged and decided to funnel all their efforts to a new site ' Upwork.com '

      If you have an account on Elance and have lots of reviews etc.Your portfolio / reviews / etc will be transferred over to the new site. And business will continue as usual.

      If anything you should be excited. Everyone from Elance.com and Odesk.com will be sent to Upwork.com .. Which means more jobs and more opportunities than ever. Not only that, Upwork has already received tons of buzz / press, which means alot of new people will be checking it out too.
      This. No doomsday.
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  • Profile picture of the author JonSofen
    Originally Posted by ireshsl View Post

    I think that you all know Elance will shut down soon and it will merge with Upwork. So have you got any backup plan (ex: good alternative website for Elance) guys ?.
    I've used Elance since 2010. Have a couple hundred jobs to my name but very disappointed with that company. Used to be a great freelance site. Now it's a joke. Nothing but low-ballers. I checked out Upwork and there's no way I'm wasting my time on there.

    Looks like you can request $5 gigs? Ridiculous. Elance went downhill a couple years ago when they basically turned the site into a job board for the lowest of the low bidders. Most of the quality clients ditched that place. I still pick up a job here and there on Elance but it's usually a waste of time to even bother searching for gigs there. It's a real shame. They should be ashamed and embarrassed for what they did to a solid freelance website.

    What will I do in the future? Pretty much the same thing I've been doing for the past year or so. I have mostly moved off of freelance sites to find work because the new era of freelance websites isn't worth the time. Elance is the only one I've ever used but just from talking to other freelancers and doing a bit of research on the other freelance boards, they're all now what Elance has become. Mostly just people wanting to pay no more than $5 for an article. The best way to find clients is on your own, either via your own website or directly contacting website owners, offering them a proposal of how you can improve their site/blog. That's where the money is at.
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    • Profile picture of the author lifeofwade
      Originally Posted by JonSofen View Post

      I've used Elance since 2010. Have a couple hundred jobs to my name but very disappointed with that company. Used to be a great freelance site. Now it's a joke. Nothing but low-ballers. I checked out Upwork and there's no way I'm wasting my time on there.

      Looks like you can request $5 gigs? Ridiculous. Elance went downhill a couple years ago when they basically turned the site into a job board for the lowest of the low bidders. Most of the quality clients ditched that place. I still pick up a job here and there on Elance but it's usually a waste of time to even bother searching for gigs there. It's a real shame. They should be ashamed and embarrassed for what they did to a solid freelance website.

      What will I do in the future? Pretty much the same thing I've been doing for the past year or so. I have mostly moved off of freelance sites to find work because the new era of freelance websites isn't worth the time. Elance is the only one I've ever used but just from talking to other freelancers and doing a bit of research on the other freelance boards, they're all now what Elance has become. Mostly just people wanting to pay no more than $5 for an article. The best way to find clients is on your own, either via your own website or directly contacting website owners, offering them a proposal of how you can improve their site/blog. That's where the money is at.
      You are right, most of these websites have become content mills. Looking back, Elance, Fiverr were good places to earn money as a freelancer but right now, its depressing to see offers you get.

      I simply bought a guide for freelancers and have clients come to me directly, sometimes I cold-pitch.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Freelancer baby!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author mentat47
    I use both Elance and Upwork. Elance has better quality work than Upwork, but so far I've moved all my clients away from either of those platforms. So, it won't impact any of my current business, but it might impact my ability to get any new business.
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  • Profile picture of the author marguerite
    Just as I was thinking about joining them.... I'm alreay on Upwork anyway and I'm using Freelancer to. I actually find Upwork to be better than freelancer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Highway55
    If you've been in business for a little while either you've learned some coding on your own, or you already have some freelance contacts that you can go back to. But Elance closing doesn't change anything... I use freelancer, now, before that rentacoder (which freelancer bought) ... it's really not a big deal in my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author ssenterprse
    Originally Posted by ireshsl View Post

    I think that you all know Elance will shut down soon and it will merge with Upwork. So have you got any backup plan (ex: good alternative website for Elance) guys ?.
    There is no problem. We all know the Odesk name has been changed to Upwork. At the same way Elance name is going to be changed to Upwork. That means Odesk & Elance contracted to be a a name "UPWORK". One Odesk user can access to the upwork by using this odesk ID & Pass. Even his all details with the Previous work history & feedback also in the Upwork. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author jazbo
    What a bizarre thread.

    Elance is becoming upwork. Everything is transferring across.

    There is no need to do anything.
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    • Profile picture of the author ireshsl
      Originally Posted by jazbo View Post

      What a bizarre thread.

      Elance is becoming upwork. Everything is transferring across.

      There is no need to do anything.
      X is becoming Y + (Ideas + Action) = Success
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  • Profile picture of the author NataliaF
    Just keep using it as Upwork. There is one more resource that I started using and I adore it: peopleperhour.com. It allows you to bid and post your ad offers. I hope it helps
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    I have a whole virtual team on elance, and I do not know why people are stressing,

    They sent an email today, saying do not panic, nothing is really going to be that much different, just the name change. upwork.com

    as said no need to panic, it actually a great site, and you can still get quality workers there.
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  • Profile picture of the author kencalhn
    jon, good poker site, I play in Vegas often, usually B or PH; good articles you wrote on beginner-friendly rooms; I'm on 2+2 too

    -k
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  • Profile picture of the author @tjr
    I was thinking of reverting to hunter/gatherer instincts.
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  • Profile picture of the author eugenedm
    Yeah, I don't think there's a problem.... Just use the new system........
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  • Profile picture of the author MayWJans
    Originally Posted by ireshsl View Post

    I think that you all know Elance will shut down soon and it will merge with Upwork. So have you got any backup plan (ex: good alternative website for Elance) guys ?.
    Hmmm, Elance shutting down is news to me. I remember years back when a similar "lance" site shut down or merged. It was called Scriptlance and was the first site of its kind that I had used.
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  • Profile picture of the author HelpingYouBeAnExpert
    Just ignore it is my advice but that is not what most will like ??
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  • Profile picture of the author SandraGenJobs
    A lot of changes made recently, I think it would be smart to have a backup plan. Yes, the system is the same, but only for now. You never know what they're gonna change n the future.
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  • Profile picture of the author linuspersson
    Banned
    upwork.com is my backup plan.
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  • Profile picture of the author najminrahmankoly
    I think you are wrong. As far as I know the Elance name is going to change as Odesk. Both of these Freelancing site name will be "UPWORK". One use will be able to login to the new site by using the same ID & PASSWORD as before. So there is no problem. beside the UPWORK, you can use the Fiverr, Freelancer, vworker or, something like this. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author onegoodman
    First, I think it is a shame that these two sites joined together, they used to be better separately , since they announced the merge they both went down hill from there.

    Freelancer is not your best alternative, there are a lot of freelancer websites but they have their own issues. I guess you will want to keep any eye, on that, but joining few of the other should be a start
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  • Profile picture of the author MMartin89
    Why would you need an alternative? Even after they would be merge, you would still have all the data, details and freelancers on that platform..
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    • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
      Originally Posted by MMartin89 View Post

      Why would you need an alternative? Even after they would be merge, you would still have all the data, details and freelancers on that platform..
      I started using Upwork recently to post a job and so far it is vastly inferior to Elance for hiring freelancers.

      For some reason, they built Upwork.com to be a complete copy of how Elance.com works, except worse with some functionality of the site actually removed (example: you can't rate each provider who has bid on your project, then sort them all by ratings - you can do this on Elance and it's very useful when dozens of providers have bid on your project).

      The Upwork hiring experience is literally just an inferior version of the Elance hiring experience. I will definitely be considering alternative sites to use in the future.
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      • Profile picture of the author SobeDragon
        Originally Posted by Curtis2011 View Post

        The Upwork hiring experience is literally just an inferior version of the Elance hiring experience. I will definitely be considering alternative sites to use in the future.
        Yes.

        In a perfect world, "Upwork" would have been renaming Elance, leaving it as is, and having them swallow up Odesk.

        One of you millionaires out there should buy out the Elance infrastructure and start up "The Warrior Forum Freelancer Site."
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        • Profile picture of the author @tjr
          Originally Posted by SobeDragon View Post

          "The Warrior Forum Freelancer Site."
          Freelancer beat you to it, or at least they're trying like hell.
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          • Profile picture of the author James Druman
            Originally Posted by JonSofen View Post

            I've used Elance since 2010. Have a couple hundred jobs to my name but very disappointed with that company. Used to be a great freelance site. Now it's a joke. Nothing but low-ballers. I checked out Upwork and there's no way I'm wasting my time on there.

            Looks like you can request $5 gigs? Ridiculous. Elance went downhill a couple years ago when they basically turned the site into a job board for the lowest of the low bidders. Most of the quality clients ditched that place. I still pick up a job here and there on Elance but it's usually a waste of time to even bother searching for gigs there. It's a real shame. They should be ashamed and embarrassed for what they did to a solid freelance website.

            What will I do in the future? Pretty much the same thing I've been doing for the past year or so. I have mostly moved off of freelance sites to find work because the new era of freelance websites isn't worth the time. Elance is the only one I've ever used but just from talking to other freelancers and doing a bit of research on the other freelance boards, they're all now what Elance has become. Mostly just people wanting to pay no more than $5 for an article. The best way to find clients is on your own, either via your own website or directly contacting website owners, offering them a proposal of how you can improve their site/blog. That's where the money is at.
            Originally Posted by anupamrekha View Post

            I strongly disagree with JonSofen

            I have been at elance for 10 years and at odesk for 5 year. Elance is an insult to freelancers. Odesk always had the grace.

            elance is like when you are hungry you run to a cheap restaurant, eat and forget.

            odesk - a bit tough for 1 to 2 small projects when you get adjusted, do small fixed price jobs. but when you work on hourly projects it was so predictable safe for both buyer and seller.

            why rush to every other guy. simply find some one who is good for the kind of work - and develop a relationship! that is how regular jobs were, yo work in a company for at least 1 year. is it not?
            Originally Posted by JonSofen View Post

            Elance always had more cheapos than reasonable clients, but until recently it really wasn't difficult to find clients that are willing to pay well, at least for writers. Sure, you have to dig a bit to find these clients, but they were out there. It wasn't that hard to get $50-$75, and sometimes $100 for 400-500 words of content on Elance. Now, you'd be lucky to get $1, which is why I no longer use Elance, or any other freelance site.
            No offense, but you guys are simply wrong.

            People have been saying this stuff about Elance as long as I've been in business (8 or 9 years, I believe?). I've never listened to it and to this very day I still get a steady stream of clients whenever I want them off the site for $50 - $100 per billable hour.

            Yes, that doesn't include time spent bidding and marketing, but it usually doesn't take many jobs to to get a few long-term clients that keep me busy for a while. And in any case, whether or not that's a good rate is besides the point - it's still a lot better picture than your posts are painting.

            I'm not saying it's the ideal place to do biz - it can be a headache filtering out the garbage and there are other, perhaps more superior ways to get clients. I can also see why you get the impression you do and why the site frustrates you.

            But the general opinion of the freelance community is misguided; this platform has always has been and remains my bread and butter.

            I haven't decided how I'll respond to the changes. As some members mentioned above, it will probably not change as much as people think; however, when you depend on the site for your livelihood (probably silly to not diversify the first place) it'd be crazy to not have a backup plan just in case.

            Pretty late getting started on mine as I've been spending too much time on the beaches in Cambodia, but I'm planning to ramp it up on some alternative marketing channels this month just in case.

            I do think Elance undermines their freelancers far too often and will suffer for it in the future. If they don't change their approach, I foresee a competitor stepping in to fill the gap and surprised it hasn't happened on a larger scale already.
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  • Profile picture of the author kencalhn
    i *really* miss Scriptlance, it was great for hiring coders
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  • Profile picture of the author RaymondPreble
    Backup plan is pretty simple bud, will start using upwork!
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  • Profile picture of the author sameon
    If Elance do merge with Upwork, then I'll have to turn to Freelancer.com and People per hour if I want to find a new client.
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  • Profile picture of the author RayAcevedo
    I have used elance and freelancer.com as well so I still would be left with one platform, but there are plenty other platforms around
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  • Profile picture of the author netcomi
    Wow interesting but I wonder why
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  • Profile picture of the author Repitech
    If you, (like me), are worried about freelancer life after the merger (and you SHOULD be), then read my latest blog post titled: "Elance and Odesk: The Massive Failure of Upwork." This is a 100% truthful blog post, but all comments and opinions are encouraged. Elance targets higher-quality freelancers, while Odesk targets low-budget employees. There are MANY other differences! Check it out:

    Elance And Odesk: The Massive Failure Of UpworkrepiTech Technology Blog
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  • Profile picture of the author Ross Petal
    The secret is to diversify and select other Business Models with the experience you have acquired during the years. Besides there are so many similar sites which Ryan has kindly given you.
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  • Profile picture of the author TexasSteve
    Merger doesn't mean shutdown. If that were the case then why pay money for it? All that happens is a shift of ownership/management.
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  • Profile picture of the author armaniaryanna
    Actually the Elance is going to rename only. One Elance use will be able to logging on the UPWORK. The previous Odesk & Elance merge to UPWORK. So there is no problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author DollarShark
    upwork is the real deal!
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  • Profile picture of the author kuone
    Start another alternative to Elance guys. This is an opportunity to replace a formal great.
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  • Profile picture of the author kimwillis
    I've been using Odesk, now Upwork for years. Works fine for me - some of my Upwork contractors have been with me more than 2 years.
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  • Profile picture of the author CruxisKnight
    Can we just talk for a minute about how awful sounding the name "Upwork" is? Am I the only one that feels like they're trying too hard with the name?
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  • Profile picture of the author kazimuhith
    Elance and odesk has merged into Upwork ... get into Upwork..
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  • Profile picture of the author Nisip
    Banned
    I would definitely avoid upwork, there are a lot of red flags with it
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrew S
    Not a big fan of the Upwork messaging system as it is now, they have made a ton of changes to the original odesk interface and it mostly blows. I don't understand why companies try to fix what isn't broken.

    How a multimillion dollar company can get something like messaging so wrong in 2015 is beyond me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kate Luella
    I used both odesk and elance for a couple of years, then odesk didn't address a fake developer who charged me for work he couldnt & didn't do. So they red flagged my account. Fine, I moved all to elance. I like elance to hire, but sometimes the standard of developers is not high enough, so freelancer has better bidders (for me anyway) so I went with freelancer a few times.

    I value work view for obvious reasons - but you can still work view a developer whose not working - right! yep. Anyway, after hiring for the same tasks over and over for a few years, I know a good and competent developer within hours of hiring him/her by the progress of the work.

    So I can't use elance, wont use odesk - I guess I have to use freelancer - I don't like their monthly fee, who likes fees anyway... !!

    K
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  • Profile picture of the author leilani
    Thanks for the update.

    Took a look at the new website at Upwork.com and it looks promising for outsourcing work. Like their subheadline: "Find freelancers to tackle any job, any size, any time"

    I've used Elance in the past and found it satisfactory for my purpose.

    I am going to use their service to see what it is like.

    Thanks again.

    Leilani
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    • Profile picture of the author JeanSutherland
      I've used Odesk/Upwork for 8 years now. As a writer I bill out at $40-$50 an hour. $3 an hour jobs...I don't even bother looking at them. They are for people in poor countries and clients usually get what they pay for.

      Frankly I'm hoping every Elancer goes somewhere else, other than Upwork. All they've done on Upwork is lower the normal working rates with low bids. The race to the bottom with Elancers is truly stunning.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    When I worked through Elance, I made excellent money. I wasn't a low ball bidder and had a quality portfolio to back it up. I would give UpWork a try and see how it compares. After all, they are just merging the sites they own to make one.

    As for Freelancer, gave them a try long ago and got such ridiculously low offers for work, that I left that site in a hurry.
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  • Profile picture of the author iVlog
    Don't understand the strategy of purchasing a thriving & well known brand, & then dismantling it ...
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    iVlog
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by iVlog View Post

      Don't understand the strategy of purchasing a thriving & well known brand, & then dismantling it ...
      ... uhmmm just take a look at Warrior Forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillBlanchard
    Is it still cheap jobs and expensive withdrawal fees with most of these?
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  • Profile picture of the author SandMan2
    you should try this too as elance is going down.

    ielance.com
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by SandMan2 View Post

      you should try this too as elance is going down.

      ielance.com
      Elance is not going down. It simply merged it's two sites and changed the name. This little Elance ripoff site won't have a long life. Elance will eat it up alive once it finds the infringement on it's domain name.

      In addition to being poorly written by people who don't speak very good English, there are no jobs in it.

      Browsing the categories:

      Programming: Sorry no projects found
      Web Design: Sorry no projects found
      Copywriting: Sorry no projects found
      Virtual Assistant: Sorry no projects found
      Logos: Sorry no projects found
      Graphic Design: Sorry no projects found

      I could go on and on, but it's obvious that the site is used by no one.
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  • Profile picture of the author Syssolution
    Following are the alternative websites:

    1. Upwork.com
    2. Peopleperhour.com
    3. Guru.com
    4. Fiverr.com
    5. Freelancer.com
    6. 99designs.com

    There are many more websites. I bid on Guru, upwork & peopleperhour as an alternative of Elance.
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  • Profile picture of the author PriscillaForts
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author SmartTim
    How is upwork doing? Upwork seems to be unknown for me
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  • Profile picture of the author leilani
    Such is life and nature. Old things die so that new things can emerge and grow. And if the emerging and growing is not enough, it will die, too. If the emerging is more than enough the new thing will grow.

    Isn't that what nature goes through?

    It should only matter to anyone only if it matters.

    My backup plan is to go to all the other suggested sites made through these posts here.

    Leilani
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  • Profile picture of the author Adam Yunker
    Hey there,

    Just curious, but I thought Elance bought oDesk and turned it into UpWork?

    Maybe not, I just thought that is what happened.

    Personally I love UpWork more than Elance because to me it's just easier to use.

    But, I like to establish connections through places online and build a lasting relationship with the people I work with, so I just use those sites for really small task that are inconvient and I just need to get out of the way.

    Just my thoughts on it...

    Have a great day!

    Adam
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Adam Yunker View Post

      Hey there,

      Just curious, but I thought Elance bought oDesk and turned it into UpWork?

      Maybe not, I just thought that is what happened.

      Adam
      elance bough odesk and they have merged odesk and elance together to form upwork.
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  • Profile picture of the author tuhinindia1971
    Originally Posted by ireshsl View Post

    I think that you all know Elance will shut down soon and it will merge with Upwork. So have you got any backup plan (ex: good alternative website for Elance) guys ?.
    It is really an easy process. To make a back up, the Elance has a great plan. In the Upwork you will found the Work History & information.


    The Elance will send an unique link to your email. You will need to click on the mail, it will redirect to the Upwork. Then you can merge the Elane with the upwork by creating a new account to the Upwork. After merging the account you will see your old Elance all data in the Upwork. Thanks a lot for your advance.
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