Making Elance work

I've been pitching for new business on Elance recently. It's been quite a steep learning curve - more what not to do than how to do it - but I was awarded my first project yesterday. The client is in New York, I'm in Scotland, so I would never have met him except via an agency like Elance.

A lot of people say you can't make money on Elance, but I've had good reports from others - one copywriter, Angie Dixon, who makes $5,000 per month on Elance, has even written a book on how to do it. You can find out more at www.ElanceSuccess.com. She tells you exactly how she achieved her level of success and how you can turn it on and off like a tap (faucet) if you need extra work or get too busy. It's an easy read, and the tips are easy to put into practice.

Angie recommends starting by writing articles, but so many of those jobs are really badly paid ($10 for 500 words is typical). So I stuck with what I know, writing web content, which pays much better. The success tips are the same, whatever sort of writing you enjoy - and there are employers looking for ghost writers, short story writers, writers of questions for English language courses, bloggers, technical writers, translators, you name it.

Being on Elance is also, of course, another way of getting "known" to search engines, and pushing your website a bit further up the rankings with extra links. And speaking of links, I highly recommend LinkedIn, the business social-networking site. Whatever line of business you're in there's probably a group for it, and the amount of expertise you can link into is huge: it's a really great resource, and you never know who you're going to meet there.

If you've found this useful, please let me know (or even if you haven't!).

Happy writing and I wish you health, wealth and vitality.