how can i tell a REAL Expert?

Number of thanks has absolutely nothing to do with level of expertise.

The best way to see if someone knows what they're talking about is to interact with them and see what they say and do every day. Watch for signs of BS - for example, all the SEO experts who claim they can guarantee 1st spot in the ranking or can get you ranked within hours.

Well, if its SEO, then you should ask to see a lot of web properties highly ranked and then verify that it is from their efforts (not just one or two; everybody gets lucky once in awhile). Also, make sure that at least some of it is recent work and includes them working with the new Algo changes over the past few months. Anything that has been ranked 6 months ago or more, has very little bearing on whether they can rank something in todays environment.

Give these guys and ladies a try.

If they can get your website on page 1 within a time frame as promised then you know that they know what they are talking about.

Most people will never get remotely close to the "real experts" simply because they are not prepared to spend that kind of money; it is always best to break down your projects to manageable bites and then gauge the quality of their work as they deliver their milestone reports. This way you won't pay the full amount to someone that is just trying their luck.

I feel your pain, been dealing with this for years. The best solution is to test them with a very small job. Even a small $50 investment will tell you a LOT about the person. And, if you can connect with them via Facebook or Google +, you can find out a lot about them from just looking at their profile.

Check out this article, tells you how I use social media to filter outsourcers:

Hire Better People with Mind-Reading Technology | V.I.B.E.

Finally, ask for recommendations from other Warriors. Ask who they use, ask your Facebook friends. Don't depend on what you see on Elance, too many ways to "fool the system" when it comes to that.

BTW, if you'd like, PM me. I manage a social media marketing and content marketing team.

References you can verify/communicate with.

A realistic guarantee. For example, for SEO, they'll keep trying for x amount of time until you are on page one for agreed upon keywords. (Note it's page one, not number one -
I don't think anyone can guarantee number one. And there are other appearance/language factors which compel people to click your link v. your competitors.)

Trust your gut.

Working with you to determine the best solution for your situation, project, and budget.

Never fully reliably, perhaps, but verifiable, independent recommendations are a huge help (I don't mean just "testimonials": I mean people to whom you can send an email yourself. Not easy, but it's sometimes possible to do this. Or people you yourself know and trust who have used the provider/service).

In the case of SEO, particularly, where there are real risks and dangers attached, you need to be very careful not to use any providers/services who might use automated mass-backlinking software, since so many Warriors and others have had their sites heavily penalized by Google (Penguin update) for having done this, and have even been told openly by Google that that was the reason.

It's one approach. Forgive me for sounding like a skepchick, but I think that's exactly what many of the people who've got into trouble have done. Maybe their gut was a little inflamed or ulcerated, or something?

If you want safe SEO then try seopartner.com

I highly recommend it.

Look for recommendations from reputable sources. Ask to contact one of their clients if possible. Look for those that show proof of their results. Elance can be a very low caliber place, but there are some gems amongst them. Again, don't rely on ratings (unless they're bad), but the results they show you in their portfolio. Ask for screencaps of client feedback, sales, Google results...

But again, it's mostly reviews that will be your best friend. Hopefully it's okay to give recommendations here, but if people have been in the game for a long time, that can be a good indicator. My favorite resources for affiliate marketing and SEO are Affiloblueprint by Mark Ling and The Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner. The people that are true experts often aren't the ones that shout the loudest, but keep a humble, laid-back profile.

On elance and odesk...if you are considering someone for a longterm gig, test them. When I was hiring newswriters for one of my sites, I made them write sample articles on the topic I provided. I also mentioned that I was going to do this in my job posting. So basically, use what you know to test your potential hires.

With Google these days identifying the difference between someone with real expertise and someone who did fast Google hunting can be a challenge. You need to treat this process as if you are an employer and are interviewing someone for an employment position. The questions you ask should be designed as open ended and should help you in yrou search.

I do two things for this, depending on how we are communicating. (I understand this might not apply to how you are finding talent, simply what I have done before)

One, I try to get the person on the phone/Skype. Ask your questions directly over a voice to voice call. If the person is an expert on their subject matter, there will be no delay in response, and the response will be specific. For larger projects, a voice call is not an unrealistic expectation.

Two, if over email, I try to ask questions that are not easily answered by Google (such as this, "Describe the biggest challenge you had to overcome on your last project." or similar). AND, when they do answer I Google the same question to see if the answer I was given was from the first page. Yes that takes a bit of time, but you can usually tell if you were simply given a rehash of the info found in a Google search.

HTH.

Hi

I prefer to know the ins/outs myself. Stick with what you know.

Regards

Only by putting a soldier in the filed will you know how well he really fights.

Ratings, reviews, thanks, all of that stuff really means nothing.

It's only the work the person does that matters.