Elance v Upwork - no contest for me, Elance wins by a mile

[Fergus M]

*shrugs* It may not be a lost cause, but I don't see it providing a major part of my business. I'll bring my current <2 years Elance clients here if I have to, but I just can't be bothered searching for new work on here; there are so few decent writing jobs and the bidding process is so clunky and annoying. Then factor in the slow and expensive withdrawal system, which is completely unacceptable. I'm working to build up the work I get off platform and it's going much better than I expected, so that's the direction I'm going in. Without a radical rebuild this site just isn't going to replace Elance.

[Jean S]

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@fergus M wrote:

 Without a radical rebuild this site just isn't going to replace Elance.

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This site is not meant to replace Elance. 

You were invited to join, if you desired, and would be allowed to forgo all the "newbie" practicalities. 

No one is making you stay. You have choices. Readers of the forums know you don't like Upwork and don't want to be here, but this site is not here to "replace" Elance.

[Fergus M]

"You were invited to join, if you desired"

No Jean. We were told we had to move here if we wanted to keep working with our existing clients. It's not quite the same.

[Calee A]

"No one is making you stay. You have choices."

That is true. No one is making me stay with Upwork, But if I want to take my three years of solid Elance reputation with me, then I don't have a choice there. 

[Jean S]

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@Yoko M wrote:

It is very difficult to find jobs that match my specifications with the current search engine, as you mentioned. I get a lot of errors while browsing through the site and completing certain functions as well.

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Once you learn all the ins and outs of searching here and modifying the search results you'll find it much easier. 

I can now pull up dozens of good paying writing jobs in a matter of minutes. It took some experimenting but I now find it very easy. I can search by country for writing jobs and combine it with a lot of other options.

I'm glad to hear you've done well so far with invitations. That's great and a very positive experience for you.

[Jon M]

Yes but YOKO you are in Japan and are willing to work for $24 an hour. That is minimum wage here in the west.

[Fergus M]

I agree 100%, Rachel. Hopefully Wassim's right about the quality of work improving as Elance clients move over, and I know some do intend to, but the platform itself needs a lot of work done. The features that need to be added have been discussed endlessly, then there's the payment structure. Upwork have already said they have no plans to reduce the 10% fee, but they could get rid of the withdrawal fees and the absurd six-day hold; that would help.

[Mr M]

anyone(clients)  who will join on upwork from Elance they will start behaving like upwork clients

So dont think that you will get the same rates on both sides

[Daniel C]

The clients are a reflection of the contractors.  If the contractors didn't bid or accept low rates, then the clients would be forced to pay higher rates.  It attracts the wrong type of people.  

Personally, I make more on Upwork than I ever did on Elance.  There are good clients out there.  They send private invitations most of the time.

There are a lot of low quality workers who somehow have 4.5+ star ratings.  They take too many hours and produce unusable results.  The JS seems like a vaid solution to this problem.  

[Fergus M]

Personally I've come round to the view that free accounts should be done away with. That would clear out a lot of the lowballers and raise the proportion of serious freelancers who charged proper rates. If someone isn't making enough from freelancing that they can't afford $10 - which can be written off as a business expense anyway - they shouldn't be on the platform.