INDUSTRY INSIGHTS YOUR PEERS ARE READING
The Freelancers Union and Elance - oDesk released a study showing that 34% of the American workforce freelances in some form. According to the study, 53 million Americans said they engaged in some form of freelance work in the past year. The study breaks these folks into 5 segments: "Independent Contractors" (40%, or 21.1 million) don’t have a traditional employer and do freelance, temporary or supplemental work on a project-to-project basis. Moonlighters” (27 percent, or 14.3 MORE
GigaOm's Women make up the majority of online freelancers, study says covers research from Zinnov showing that women comprise 55% of the workers on online talent sites like Elance and oDesk. MORE
The rapid growth of "gig" and peer to peer commerce sites - think TaskRabbit, Gigwalk, Fiverr, Airbnb, Uber, Etsy, Elance, etc. - There's no doubt the traditional career path of staying with a single company, or a small number of employers, and rising through the ranks until you retire is no longer viable for most people. One option that's becoming increasingly common is the portfolio career. Based on our research, this comes in two broad flavors: 1. MORE
Instead of offering talent buyers a large number of potential hires like an Elance or oDesk does, it connects buyer and sellers of talent based on personal connections and recommendations. Coworks is a new online talent marketplace with a twist. MORE
Online work arrangement platform (OWAP) is Andrew's fancy term for online talent marketplaces like Elance-oDesk, Freelancer.com, etc. MORE
There's a growing view that the way economic statistics are collected and analyzed fails to reflect the economic and jobs impact of independent work - especially independent work created by new economy companies like Airbnb, Etsy and Elance. Elance's monthly jobs report aims to supplement the monthly Bureau of Labor statistics employment report which, according to Elance, "does not fully capture independent workers due to outdated reporting standards." MORE
The media is also surprised that most of this growth came from off-line activities instead of online platforms like Uber and Elance. Fusion's Harvard economist: All net U.S. MORE
If programming isn’t for you and you still want out, my offhand suggestion is to look into freelancing or consulting with your current skill set (at sites like Odesk or Elance). Do you hate your job? Do you want a career change for whatever reason? MORE
Think of them as a specialized Elance or oDesk that connects independent consultants with buyers. According to well known innovation and strategy guru Clayton Christensen, the consulting industry is on the cusp of disruption. Key quote from his Harvard Business Review article on this topic : We have come to the conclusion that the same forces that disrupted so many businesses, from steel to publishing, are starting to reshape the world of consulting. MORE
India is the second largest player in freelancing after the US, according to Elance, an online service that connects freelancers to projects, with average earnings of about $15 per hour and rising. MORE
There are several interesting new data points on the increasing use of online talent marketplaces like Elance-oDesk, Freelancer.com, etc. work reports from Elance-oDesk, which recently merged. MORE
According to Elance, 25% of their global freelancers are side giggers and the percentage is even higher for their U.S. We've been spending a lot of time looking at side gigs. These are 2nd (or even 3rd) jobs or side businesses started by people to augment their regular employment or activity. Most people, of course, use side gigs to earn money. MORE
Online talent marketplaces such as Freelancer.com, Elance - oDesk, and others. According to a new report from MBO Partners - Independent Workers and the On-Demand Economy - about 2.7 MORE
Last week Upwork (the entity formerly known and Elance and oDesk) announced two new products: Upwork Pro targets mid-market firms and provides access to to pre-screened, top-rated professional freelancers that meet the specific needs of the hiring firm. Spend Matters' PwC Launches its Online Talent Exchange to Join the Independent Workforce Platform Economy covers a new initiative by the consulting and accounting giant, the PwC Talent Exchange. MORE
The ubiquity of businesses such as Elance, Angie’s List, and Fiverr makes finding reasonably-priced freelancers and contractors to delegate to much easier. Sometimes we spend an inordinate amount of time talking about our ideas, dreams, and aspirations. It is easy to content ourselves with simply having lofty ideas, not realizing their sheer abundance. MORE
Good examples of this include the growth of talent marketplaces like eLance and oDesk and the ability to contractually access world class business infrastructure through services like Amazon's AWS. Scott Shane's post Should We Count Non-Employer Businesses? raises a number of interesting questions related to the fact that a growing share of U.S. small businesses don't have employees. He wonders whether or not these businesses should count as small businesses. MORE
A new study by the Freelancers Union and Elance-oDesk adds more information on this type of work. According A few weeks ago we reported on the trends that are leading to more workers being on fixed term contracts, which means employment relationships with their employer that terminate after a specific period of time. According to their Freelancing in America study , 5.5 MORE
Using contingent labor has gotten easier and more effective due to the growth of online talent exchanges such as Elance and oDesk, improvements in collaborative technologies for managing non-employees and growing numbers independent workers available for hire. There are simply too many people participating in online commerce sites like Etsy, Airbnb, Elance, oDesk, Uber for this not to be true. We think entrepreneurship is alive and well in America. MORE
" This is changing as sites like LinkedIn, oDesk, eLance and others provide job seekers the ability to create profiles that are widely and easily accessible. Interesting article from John Horton at oDesk on the Digitization of the Supply Side of the Labor Market. It covers the growing role labor supply sites such as LinkedIn and oDesk are playing in making job markets more efficient. MORE
You might (again, depending on how you feel about it) choose to let your VA know know that you’d like her to use offshored VAs, or people from Fiverr , or Elance , or Odesk to handle one-off, very specific projects. A new one here at VMoxie… a Pick Anastacia’s Brain question from a client! Henry wrote: I’m so confused. MORE
This community interaction mechanism is so addictive that it’s been integrated into Ebay, Amazon, Elance and many ecommerce sites for customer engagement. It seems like every week, I hear about another start-up with a bribery-based business model. Some genius decided that they can pay people to visit their web site, and that this would somehow evolve into loyalty. But sure enough, a few months later, they all vanish just as quickly as they appeared. MORE
The author calls MBO Partners a "work arrangement intermediation platform" that share traits with the online staffing firms like oDesk and Elance. The Two Sides of MBO Partners: Things May Not Always be What They Seem is an interesting article from Andrew Karpie from the Staffing Industry Analysts. It provides a detailed look at Emergent Research client MBO Partners. MORE
- Online Talent Exchanges such as Elance and oDesk. Most people think of talent agents and talent agencies only work with movie and sports stars. Wikipedia, for example, defines talent agent as "a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, film directors, musicians, models, producers, professional athletes, writers and other people in various entertainment businesses. MORE
A recent study by the Freelancers Union and Elance paints a very different picture. The Freelancers Union/Elance report says multiple job holders fall into two broad segments: Moonlighters (14.3 The Pew data comes from a BLS survey that specifically asks about 2nd "jobs" The Freelancers Union/Elance survey asks respondents a series of questions such as: Do you do any work outside of your primary position to earn additional money? MORE
Upwork (formerly known as Elance-oDesk) is featured in the report and it certainly is focusing on the creation of micro multinationals. A study recently issued by eBay reports that in the last year 190,000 U.S. MORE
Expect more niche online marketplaces like Elance and Task Rabbit to connect independent workers with the organizations looking to tap their services; more educational programs and government support for starting and operating a self-employed business; more services and tools to help manage a solopreneur business; and more coworking and solopreneur-oriented commercial workspaces. Below is our sixth annual Top 10 Small Business Trends list. MORE
Places like Craigslist , Guru.com and Elance. Sites like Guru and Elance are bidding wars, plain and simple. I recently read an article by Ryan Lee called “ The REALITY of Outsourcing and Virtual Assistants ”. He makes a great point about waiting until your business is ready for a virtual assistant rather than simply getting one because some ‘guru’ tells you to in their book(s). MORE
No doubt not by coincidence, the company that sponsored this research - Elance - recently announced a tool to help mid-sized companies do just that. Elance calls their new tool the Private Talent Cloud and it's a private version of the public Elance platform, allowing companies to create and manage their freelance talent pool. And shortly after Elance, oDesk announced their version, called Private Workplace. MORE
This industry started with generalist sites like Elance that connect a wide range of workers with people looking to hire help. One clear signal that an industry is expanding is when participants start to specifically target niche, specialized or vertical market segments. This has been happening in the gig economy for a while now, but we saw two interesting examples last week. One comes from the online talent marketplace space. MORE
Elance , for example, has been around for well over a decade. There's a growing number of online marketplaces designed to connect people who are willing to pay for small tasks to be done with people willing to do them. Think of them as eBay's for chores, small jobs and other personal and business tasks. MORE
This ecosystem includes a wide range of firm types, including: Talent marketplaces : firms like Elance , Odesk and Freelancer.com that connect independent workers with those interested in hiring them. The growth of the independent workforce (freelancers, temps, self-employed, etc.) has also led to a growing ecosystem of companies supporting independent workers and the firms that hire them. MORE
Another discussion was with an associate who said he saw freelance projects on Elance with bids of $50 for sales letters and $5 for blog posts. Today’s post is a killer, and it comes to us from none other than Dean Rieck , a copywriter I respect for his straightforward attitude and damned smart advice. He’s put together a ton of both in this posts – and it’s all about the money. Enjoy! A couple of recent conversations got me thinking about setting fees for copywriters. MORE
Freelancer management systems are different from online staffing platforms such as Elance, Odesk and Freelancer.com in that they go beyond just facilitating one-to-one engagements between indidviaul buyers and sellers of freelance talent. Several organizations currently provide freelancer management systems including MBO Partners , Work Market , Elance-oDesk and On Force. MORE
Online staffing firms and marketplaces like Elance, oDesk and Freelancer.com continue to report substantial growth in jobs posted, jobs placed and money paid to service providers. Elance recently reported that over $750 million has been spent on its platform and they are over 3 million registered freelancers. MORE
Which begs the question, how ethical is it to take advantage of a situation like the one at Fancy Hands, Fiverr, Guru, Elance and other services that so many have turned to for extremely low cost virtual services? MORE
If you’re working on a freelancing platform like Upwork, Elance or Freelancer , your feedback will be easily visible on your profile so all potential clients will see it before hiring you. Freelancing offers a whole new world of opportunities. MORE
Do use sites like Elance. MORE
Larry: Off topic slightly, but are the oDesks and eLances of the world hurting VAs and the rates they can charge? S olopreneurs frequently ask me questions about virtual assistants. I turned to Amy Wright, CEO of AmyWright.biz for answers. Amy Wright. MORE
Online talent marketplaces like Elance and oDesk have seen substantial growth over the past couple of years. Fiverr , the online marketplace for people to buy and sell services for $5, recently announced a new platform to better support the "gig economy" The new platform includes a visually oriented design scheme as well as a number of new analytical tools that allow gig sellers to better manage their Fiverr related business activities. MORE
A couple of related indicators of this are: - Firms like Elance , oDesk and MBO Partners - leaders in providing independent workers - have decent numbers of traditional employees. The Forbes article In the Future, Nobody Will Have Jobs summarizes the growing view that traditional jobs are going the way of the dinosaurs, replaced by an array of contract workers and automation. MORE
I’m familiar with Elance but a colleague who had a similar project told me that she’d had great success with oDesk - so that’s where I started. MORE
The best known of the firms in this industry are probably oDesk and Elance. A wide variety of talent can be hired at oDesk or Elance, everything from computer programmers to virtual assistants to writers. According to Staffing Industry Analysts , the online staffing industry is now about a $1billion dollar industry that's growing at "double-digit" rates. MORE
Accountants, web designers and marketing people can be hired online at places like ODesk and Elance. Starting a small business is hard. And in today’s economy, getting the most for your money often equates to the creative distribution of your financial resources. MORE
With a few hundred dollars and some hours spent on Elance, you can easily program and design your own marketing tool. MORE
Elance Related Topics 
Small Business Labs
JUNE 18, 2014
There are several interesting new data points on the increasing use of online talent marketplaces like Elance-oDesk, Freelancer.com, etc. work reports from Elance-oDesk, which recently merged.
Small Business Labs
OCTOBER 2, 2013
No doubt not by coincidence, the company that sponsored this research - Elance - recently announced a tool to help mid-sized companies do just that. Elance calls their new tool the Private Talent Cloud and it's a private version of the public Elance platform, allowing companies to create and manage their freelance talent pool. And shortly after Elance, oDesk announced their version, called Private Workplace.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
Online work arrangement platform (OWAP) is Andrew's fancy term for online talent marketplaces like Elance-oDesk, Freelancer.com, etc.
Small Business Labs
AUGUST 28, 2013
Online staffing firms and marketplaces like Elance, oDesk and Freelancer.com continue to report substantial growth in jobs posted, jobs placed and money paid to service providers. Elance recently reported that over $750 million has been spent on its platform and they are over 3 million registered freelancers.
Small Business Labs
APRIL 23, 2015
Online talent marketplaces such as Freelancer.com, Elance - oDesk, and others. According to a new report from MBO Partners - Independent Workers and the On-Demand Economy - about 2.7
Small Business Labs
OCTOBER 29, 2014
Freelancer management systems are different from online staffing platforms such as Elance, Odesk and Freelancer.com in that they go beyond just facilitating one-to-one engagements between indidviaul buyers and sellers of freelance talent. Several organizations currently provide freelancer management systems including MBO Partners , Work Market , Elance-oDesk and On Force.
Dumb Little Man
AUGUST 5, 2013
If programming isn’t for you and you still want out, my offhand suggestion is to look into freelancing or consulting with your current skill set (at sites like Odesk or Elance). Do you hate your job? Do you want a career change for whatever reason?
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
A new study by the Freelancers Union and Elance-oDesk adds more information on this type of work. According A few weeks ago we reported on the trends that are leading to more workers being on fixed term contracts, which means employment relationships with their employer that terminate after a specific period of time. According to their Freelancing in America study , 5.5
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 9, 2014
A recent study by the Freelancers Union and Elance paints a very different picture. The Freelancers Union/Elance report says multiple job holders fall into two broad segments: Moonlighters (14.3 The Pew data comes from a BLS survey that specifically asks about 2nd "jobs" The Freelancers Union/Elance survey asks respondents a series of questions such as: Do you do any work outside of your primary position to earn additional money?
Small Business Labs
OCTOBER 30, 2012
The best known of the firms in this industry are probably oDesk and Elance. A wide variety of talent can be hired at oDesk or Elance, everything from computer programmers to virtual assistants to writers. According to Staffing Industry Analysts , the online staffing industry is now about a $1billion dollar industry that's growing at "double-digit" rates.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 8, 2014
The Freelancers Union and Elance - oDesk released a study showing that 34% of the American workforce freelances in some form. According to the study, 53 million Americans said they engaged in some form of freelance work in the past year. The study breaks these folks into 5 segments: "Independent Contractors" (40%, or 21.1 million) don’t have a traditional employer and do freelance, temporary or supplemental work on a project-to-project basis. Moonlighters” (27 percent, or 14.3
Small Business Labs
MAY 23, 2013
Instead of offering talent buyers a large number of potential hires like an Elance or oDesk does, it connects buyer and sellers of talent based on personal connections and recommendations. Coworks is a new online talent marketplace with a twist.
Small Business Labs
JULY 7, 2015
Upwork (formerly known as Elance-oDesk) is featured in the report and it certainly is focusing on the creation of micro multinationals. A study recently issued by eBay reports that in the last year 190,000 U.S.
Small Business Labs
APRIL 24, 2013
This ecosystem includes a wide range of firm types, including: Talent marketplaces : firms like Elance , Odesk and Freelancer.com that connect independent workers with those interested in hiring them. The growth of the independent workforce (freelancers, temps, self-employed, etc.) has also led to a growing ecosystem of companies supporting independent workers and the firms that hire them.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 4, 2013
The author calls MBO Partners a "work arrangement intermediation platform" that share traits with the online staffing firms like oDesk and Elance. The Two Sides of MBO Partners: Things May Not Always be What They Seem is an interesting article from Andrew Karpie from the Staffing Industry Analysts. It provides a detailed look at Emergent Research client MBO Partners.
Small Business Labs
NOVEMBER 5, 2013
Think of them as a specialized Elance or oDesk that connects independent consultants with buyers. According to well known innovation and strategy guru Clayton Christensen, the consulting industry is on the cusp of disruption. Key quote from his Harvard Business Review article on this topic : We have come to the conclusion that the same forces that disrupted so many businesses, from steel to publishing, are starting to reshape the world of consulting.
Small Business Labs
MAY 27, 2014
Using contingent labor has gotten easier and more effective due to the growth of online talent exchanges such as Elance and oDesk, improvements in collaborative technologies for managing non-employees and growing numbers independent workers available for hire. There are simply too many people participating in online commerce sites like Etsy, Airbnb, Elance, oDesk, Uber for this not to be true. We think entrepreneurship is alive and well in America.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 27, 2013
Online talent marketplaces like Elance and oDesk have seen substantial growth over the past couple of years. Fiverr , the online marketplace for people to buy and sell services for $5, recently announced a new platform to better support the "gig economy" The new platform includes a visually oriented design scheme as well as a number of new analytical tools that allow gig sellers to better manage their Fiverr related business activities.
Small Business Labs
APRIL 21, 2015
India is the second largest player in freelancing after the US, according to Elance, an online service that connects freelancers to projects, with average earnings of about $15 per hour and rising.
Small Business Labs
APRIL 16, 2012
GigaOm's Women make up the majority of online freelancers, study says covers research from Zinnov showing that women comprise 55% of the workers on online talent sites like Elance and oDesk.
Small Business Labs
AUGUST 21, 2012
" This is changing as sites like LinkedIn, oDesk, eLance and others provide job seekers the ability to create profiles that are widely and easily accessible. Interesting article from John Horton at oDesk on the Digitization of the Supply Side of the Labor Market. It covers the growing role labor supply sites such as LinkedIn and oDesk are playing in making job markets more efficient.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 30, 2016
This industry started with generalist sites like Elance that connect a wide range of workers with people looking to hire help. One clear signal that an industry is expanding is when participants start to specifically target niche, specialized or vertical market segments. This has been happening in the gig economy for a while now, but we saw two interesting examples last week. One comes from the online talent marketplace space.
Tips From T. Marie
JULY 18, 2011
Places like Craigslist , Guru.com and Elance. Sites like Guru and Elance are bidding wars, plain and simple. I recently read an article by Ryan Lee called “ The REALITY of Outsourcing and Virtual Assistants ”. He makes a great point about waiting until your business is ready for a virtual assistant rather than simply getting one because some ‘guru’ tells you to in their book(s).
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
- Online Talent Exchanges such as Elance and oDesk. Most people think of talent agents and talent agencies only work with movie and sports stars. Wikipedia, for example, defines talent agent as "a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, film directors, musicians, models, producers, professional athletes, writers and other people in various entertainment businesses.
Small Business Labs
DECEMBER 9, 2013
The rapid growth of "gig" and peer to peer commerce sites - think TaskRabbit, Gigwalk, Fiverr, Airbnb, Uber, Etsy, Elance, etc. - There's no doubt the traditional career path of staying with a single company, or a small number of employers, and rising through the ranks until you retire is no longer viable for most people. One option that's becoming increasingly common is the portfolio career. Based on our research, this comes in two broad flavors: 1.
Tips From T. Marie
MARCH 26, 2015
Which begs the question, how ethical is it to take advantage of a situation like the one at Fancy Hands, Fiverr, Guru, Elance and other services that so many have turned to for extremely low cost virtual services?
Small Business Labs
FEBRUARY 23, 2016
Last week Upwork (the entity formerly known and Elance and oDesk) announced two new products: Upwork Pro targets mid-market firms and provides access to to pre-screened, top-rated professional freelancers that meet the specific needs of the hiring firm. Spend Matters' PwC Launches its Online Talent Exchange to Join the Independent Workforce Platform Economy covers a new initiative by the consulting and accounting giant, the PwC Talent Exchange.
Small Business Labs
APRIL 5, 2016
The media is also surprised that most of this growth came from off-line activities instead of online platforms like Uber and Elance. Fusion's Harvard economist: All net U.S.
Small Business Labs
OCTOBER 17, 2012
A couple of related indicators of this are: - Firms like Elance , oDesk and MBO Partners - leaders in providing independent workers - have decent numbers of traditional employees. The Forbes article In the Future, Nobody Will Have Jobs summarizes the growing view that traditional jobs are going the way of the dinosaurs, replaced by an array of contract workers and automation.
Small Business Labs
APRIL 2, 2014
According to Elance, 25% of their global freelancers are side giggers and the percentage is even higher for their U.S. We've been spending a lot of time looking at side gigs. These are 2nd (or even 3rd) jobs or side businesses started by people to augment their regular employment or activity. Most people, of course, use side gigs to earn money.
Dumb Little Man
JUNE 28, 2016
If you’re working on a freelancing platform like Upwork, Elance or Freelancer , your feedback will be easily visible on your profile so all potential clients will see it before hiring you. Freelancing offers a whole new world of opportunities.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 27, 2012
Good examples of this include the growth of talent marketplaces like eLance and oDesk and the ability to contractually access world class business infrastructure through services like Amazon's AWS. Scott Shane's post Should We Count Non-Employer Businesses? raises a number of interesting questions related to the fact that a growing share of U.S. small businesses don't have employees. He wonders whether or not these businesses should count as small businesses.
The Solopreneur Life
AUGUST 28, 2012
Larry: Off topic slightly, but are the oDesks and eLances of the world hurting VAs and the rates they can charge? S olopreneurs frequently ask me questions about virtual assistants. I turned to Amy Wright, CEO of AmyWright.biz for answers. Amy Wright.
Small Business Labs
DECEMBER 1, 2011
Elance , for example, has been around for well over a decade. There's a growing number of online marketplaces designed to connect people who are willing to pay for small tasks to be done with people willing to do them. Think of them as eBay's for chores, small jobs and other personal and business tasks.
Small Business Labs
JANUARY 15, 2013
Expect more niche online marketplaces like Elance and Task Rabbit to connect independent workers with the organizations looking to tap their services; more educational programs and government support for starting and operating a self-employed business; more services and tools to help manage a solopreneur business; and more coworking and solopreneur-oriented commercial workspaces. Below is our sixth annual Top 10 Small Business Trends list.
Small Business CEO
JUNE 1, 2012
Accountants, web designers and marketing people can be hired online at places like ODesk and Elance. Starting a small business is hard. And in today’s economy, getting the most for your money often equates to the creative distribution of your financial resources.
Virtual Moxie
APRIL 9, 2012
You might (again, depending on how you feel about it) choose to let your VA know know that you’d like her to use offshored VAs, or people from Fiverr , or Elance , or Odesk to handle one-off, very specific projects. A new one here at VMoxie… a Pick Anastacia’s Brain question from a client! Henry wrote: I’m so confused.
Andrea Kalli
SEPTEMBER 9, 2010
With a few hundred dollars and some hours spent on Elance, you can easily program and design your own marketing tool.
Make or Break Moments
JULY 19, 2010
I’m familiar with Elance but a colleague who had a similar project told me that she’d had great success with oDesk - so that’s where I started.
Dumb Little Man
FEBRUARY 12, 2012
The ubiquity of businesses such as Elance, Angie’s List, and Fiverr makes finding reasonably-priced freelancers and contractors to delegate to much easier. Sometimes we spend an inordinate amount of time talking about our ideas, dreams, and aspirations. It is easy to content ourselves with simply having lofty ideas, not realizing their sheer abundance.
Men With Pens
FEBRUARY 18, 2010
Another discussion was with an associate who said he saw freelance projects on Elance with bids of $50 for sales letters and $5 for blog posts. Today’s post is a killer, and it comes to us from none other than Dean Rieck , a copywriter I respect for his straightforward attitude and damned smart advice. He’s put together a ton of both in this posts – and it’s all about the money. Enjoy! A couple of recent conversations got me thinking about setting fees for copywriters.
Small Business CEO
APRIL 27, 2010
This community interaction mechanism is so addictive that it’s been integrated into Ebay, Amazon, Elance and many ecommerce sites for customer engagement. It seems like every week, I hear about another start-up with a bribery-based business model. Some genius decided that they can pay people to visit their web site, and that this would somehow evolve into loyalty. But sure enough, a few months later, they all vanish just as quickly as they appeared.
Men With Pens
JULY 7, 2010
Do use sites like Elance.
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