Today, I read the latest newsletter from my favorite place for finding online freelance writing work – Elance. The newsletter had interesting information about the current state of freelance employment, and the news is encouraging especially considering the dismal state of employment in general. Freelance business is booming and, in total, Elance contractors earned 43 million dollars in the first quarter of financial year 2012 – the strongest quarterly earnings to date.
What are these contractors doing to earn all of that money? The skills that were in highest demand during the first quarter of 2012 were information technology and graphic design. Job postings in the Creative sector, including graphic design, writing and translation, and multimedia services accounted for a full forty two percent of job postings. While these were the top skills that were in demand, there are always jobs listed for many, many different types of skills and specialties within each particular type of skill set (think smartphone app development, Linux programming, and manuscript editing).
What does that mean for you? Whether you are a freelance home – based professional looking for another resource for finding jobs or an office based worker wondering if you could start “this freelance thing” as a sideline and develop it into a full time occupation when you are ready to make the transition to full time home based work, Elance could be a valuable resource for you. There are membership costs associated with bidding on most types of jobs, and if you do complete work through the site you pay a fee on your earnings. My experience has been that the fees are well worth it. In return for your membership and earning fees, you get access to a huge selection of jobs to bid on and a safe online work environment where you can get help if you encounter a problem client or have difficulty getting paid. The site is easy to use and you can get started very quickly. All you have to do is visit Elance, set up a contractor profile, browse through the available jobs and bid away. Depending upon when bidding closes for the jobs that you are interested in, it is possible that you could have your first assignment underway by later this evening.
Please be advised that although I am a member of Elance, Elance has given me nothing of value in exchange for mentioning their web site here.
Photo by msxo on morguefile.com.