I have been an Elance Premier Provider for 6 months now. I’ve met some great buyers who have been a dream to work with, but I’ve also found that Elance is very buyer friendly and does little to protect its buyers. I get stressed out too much over buyers who are obviously trying to scam me out of money. I love Elance and their open, free market allowing me to express my writing through client’s work, but it is a very stressful outlet. I am a Premier Provider, and I work very hard.

Elance has amassed a large amount of buyers who are trying to scam providers out of work. This is a fact I have realized. I am also a provider on Rent-a-Coder, and I honestly feel that site, even though it is considered the lowest place for writers, have fewer buyers trying to scam providers. I don’t know what to make of the situation since there are a lot of advantages that make Elance a better place for making money, but for honest clients, Rent-a-Coder is the place to be.

Overall, I think it’s best for freelance writers to mix work between Elance and RAC. iFreelance and oDesk are jokes. I signed up for oDesk and their format sucks and their providers and writing fees are a joke. I hope one day we writers find a better way to market our services. I welcome and hope someone creates an escrow service that incorporates Elance’s positive aspects with RAC’s provider services. If some visionary can create that wonderful mix, I think he or she will have the perfect website for freelancing.