Guru.com and Elance.com are two big freelancing sites. They’re not for everyone, admittedly, but if you want a central place to let jobs come to you, these are leading sites to use. We’ve watched for a few years as Elance stayed current with the times and although Guru.com boasted a lot of jobs, it lagged behind Elance in terms of bells and whistles. (For example, Elance has a stronger community, regular helpful newsletters, Elance University, and a faster adoption of social media).

But we have been really happy to see Guru.com make big strides by creating Guru Answers. Guru Answers is basically a forum-style site on Guru.com where employers can post questions about projects and these questions can be answered by freelancers. The questions range from early-stage questions to ‘what now?’ questions. An early-stage question would be “What kind of code should I have my site designed with?”. A ‘what now?’ question would be “How do I get more of the right kind of freelancer to bid on my project?”

This is a good move by Guru.com for a few reasons:

First, it helps the employer to feel an enhanced sense of value from Guru.com as freelancers offer free advice and guidance to help employers plan their project. Employers who perceive this value will be more likely to post the project on Guru.com and hire a freelancer from there. This helps avoid the all-too-common situation of employers posting at all job boards but hiring their niece’s boyfriend to build their website.

Second, it helps the employer create realistic projects. In some of the questions we’ve seen so far, employers wondered why no one was bidding on their job and answers helped to point out criteria that freelancers have when bidding, which helps the employer to fix his or her project. One example was when an employer said “I invited hundreds of freelancers but barely got any bids.” To which the freelancers pointed out that they often ignore bids with more than 20 or 30 bids on them; or other freelancers pointed out that that projects that are too small aren’t worth the time to bid on. These are important considerations for employers looking to hire professionals.

Third, it gives freelancers another way to connect with employers – to demonstrate their expertise and to get involved early in the project. We know of one freelancer who has acquired two jobs in the past month simply by answering questions on Guru Answers. It’s a way for freelancers to “jump the line” and get their name planted in the mind of the employer so that when the project is posted, the employer will recognize the high value freelancer who connected with them early.

Guru Answers isn’t perfect. The sorting and searching mechanisms are fairly rudimentary. And, because it’s new, there aren’t a lot of questions posted yet. But this is a good move by Guru.com and can help to make a big difference for freelancers on Guru who want to win more projects.

Guru was lagging behind Elance but it’s making strides to catch up: It’s now on Facebook and Twitter, a blog is coming soon. We’ve been bugging them for more user-training tools. We’re hoping to see Guru catch up and bypass Elance to offer employers and freelancers the ultimate solution.

The infinite monkey theorem says that a single monkey tapping away on a typewriter for an infinite length of time will eventually type out the entire works of Shakespeare.

I’m sure Shakespeare wouldn’t like to hear that. And neither would anyone else who writes for a living. (“What? You mean to tell me that I charge for my writing when someone who has a monkey plus a lot of time can get their writing done, too?”).

There’s one thing we’ve learned here at FreelanceWeekly about monkeys and typewriters: When those monkeys leave their dumber chimpanzee cousins to fill in while the monkeys themselves sip margaritas and snorkel off of a catamaran, the work doesn’t necessarily get done. Last week, we were “Freelance Not-So-Weekly”. Sorry about that. We’ve sent the chimps packing.

To make it up to you, I want to give you a list of reasons why freelancing is awesome. This may sound like a funny list for one freelancer to give to another freelancer, but I find it’s helpful to revisit this list from time to time… when the work goes from enjoyable to frustrating, or when a customer gives some particularly critical feedback.

Why become a freelancer #1: There’s no boss. The only boss is you. And your customers. And your spouse and kids. But all of those bosses put together are still dramatically better than working for Mr. Don’t-Screw-Up-Or-It’s-Your-Job-On-The-Line.

Why become a freelancer #2: The customers are your customers. At a day job, customers come and go. It’s no big deal. But in your business, every customer is an asset. Your business is worth so much more because one more person said “yes”.

Why become a freelancer #3: Coworkers. Ah, coworkers. I don’t know about you but half of my coworkers drove me crazy in my real job. The gossip, the romances, the competitiveness. Actually, it’s not really that different from grade school. Or high school. Or college. (And, according to my grandfather, the retirement home is exactly the same). Freelancing is the one and only escape route from that.

Why become a freelancer #4: It’s all about you. Yeah, it’s all about serving your customers but they are relying on you to be the awesome freelancer that you are. If you suck, they suffer. But since you don’t suck, it’s good for them and they respect, trust, admire, and rely on you.

Why become a freelancer #5: Daytime television. If you want to watch daytime television, you can. You don’t have to record “As the World Turns” and watch it when the kids are in bed. And if daytime television isn’t your thing, there are lots of other interests that you might have that you can do when you want (as long as you get your work done, of course).

On good days (which are many; and the longer you’re in the business the better it gets), I LOVE being a freelancer. And on my bad days, when it feels like things are crumbling all around, I just remember this: My worst day as a freelancer is better than my best day as an employee.

It cannot be stressed enough, the importance of knowing your body and being aware of any changes that may occur. This applies to men as well as women. So far in 2009, there have been 192,370 new cases of women with breast cancer and 1,910 cases of men diagnosed. All women should have a yearly exam performed by their physician. Unless qualifying factors of genetics, or other health issues warrant earlier screening, yearly mammograms should be done beginning at 40 years of age. A mammogram does not hurt, or leave any marks, as many believe. It is a bit awkward situating yourself in the machine, but it really isn’t as bad as you may have heard. The importance of the procedure far outweighs any brief discomfort you may feel, and it could be a large factor in saving your life. Early detection is the key for a successful treatment program of any illness.

You can contact the Center for Disease control to find a provider of free or low cost mammograms in your area. The phone number is 888-842-6355 or you can visit their website at www.cdc.gov. Many other websites offer information and links to various drug assistance programs. The Shirley Mae Breast Cancer Assistance Fund is a foundation set up in 2000 by Roy Goldberg in honor of his mother, Shirley Mae. 100% of all donations the foundation receives are used for assistance towards diagnosed breast cancer patients. Cancercare.org is another resource for medication assistance. There are many available programs out there and a one stop visit to the site of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, nbcam.org, has a listing of several of those programs.

Strides are being made every day in the field. New treatment options are constantly available and research is never ending. The most common cancer in US women, breast cancer, has seen a steady decline of deaths related to the disease since 1990, so progress is definitely being made.

New laws and rights have been implemented to protect patients that have been diagnosed with breast cancer. So even if you have a previous condition related to breast cancer or ongoing doctors’ care, any health insurance obtained will apply to the care and treatment of the disease.

So my friends, take time this month to do something for you. Be aware of your body. Schedule your mammogram. Tell your friends. Take care of yourself and the ones you love.

With a free membership, your profile and expertise is posted for all potential clients to view. Some of the clients may not even be members of the site, as it is open for anyone on the World Wide Web to view. Setting up your profile and account is very simple, just create a unique user name using a valid email and build your profile. What can be simpler than that?

Here’s how it works… The person with a job, posts their job on the board. They list all the specifics of the task and how much they are willing to pay. The jobs are then “won” on a bidding system. All correspondence and payments are handled through the site. If you don’t have a PayPal account, the site offers a free online fund account that allows you to have a secure place for all payments receivable.

A small commission is paid, both by the buyer and the provider (you). Once you’ve won a project or received your payment, getafreelancer.com holds 10% or $5.00, whichever is greater. A finders fee, you could call it. This is how you are able to utilize their service with no money out of pocket.

The site does offer an upgraded Gold membership. With this membership, you pay a flat monthly rate of $12.00. There are no commission fees taken from your compensation and your Gold member status is clearly noted on your profile. Many buyers look specifically for Gold members when hiring for projects.

All interactions are offered the opportunity to rate their experience with the other party at the conclusion of the project. The rating system is based on a 10 point scale. It allows buyers to see which freelancers have been productive and pleasant to work with; perhaps persuading them to contact you directly for a job, versus posting it for bidding. It also allows freelancers to see the buyers that are serious and legitimate with their work offers.

All in all, this site is fun to dig around in. It clearly shows all the categories with current job postings. It can virtually eliminate some of your costly advertising expenses yet allow you to expand your client base. When using a tool such as this site, your days of wondering where your next client will come from will soon be gone.

Ok, you’ve done it. You have taken a big step and become a freelancer. Maybe your decision was influenced by downsizing or micromanagement at your previous job. Maybe your decision was influenced by an epiphany concerning your career or personal life.  Whatever the reason, you have done it. You are now a bonafide freelancer.

Free from the corporate world, you may have trepidations about those little things that are now missing. Things like health benefits, dental benefits and retirement plans. Never fear fellow freelancer, just because you don’t have an overbearing supervisor breathing down your neck, doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the security offered in the corporate world. Check out Freelancers Union. They are your voice. They are your friends. They are your guardian angel.  Ok, so maybe that’s a little melodramatic, but it sure is nice to know there is someone out there that has your back.  They have the resources needed to allow you to affordably continue some of the benefits you may have sacrificed when you waved goodbye to the 9 to 5 shackles.

There are group rates on health insurance and dental benefits. They lobby on YOUR behalf for tax breaks and fair tax laws. Unemployment compensation is virtually unheard of in the freelancing world, you have to either sue or just walk away with a loss. Freelancers Union says NO MORE.

The union was founded in 1995 by Sara Horowitz, a former Labor Lawyer. The home page of the site has so much useful information that I almost forgot I was supposed to be writing a blog about it. I didn’t want to leave. Ah, the beauty of freelancing, I can go back to the site whenever I want. But I digress.

Joining the union is simple and free. First they ask for a valid email address. Immediately after entering the email, they send you a link to sign up. They ask for the basic personal information such as address and contact info.  Then there is a section to set up your password. After that, you can select which, if any, subscription offers you would like. If you do not select any, they assure you that you will only be contacted no more than four times in the course of a year. It’s nice to know you won’t be bombarded with a bunch of unwanted email after you join. They have you fill out some brief demographics about yourself and your chosen field. Then, last but not least, you are invited to create a public profile for the sites’ yellow pages. The yellow pages open the doors for many opportunities within the site amongst the members. I can easily see this site quickly becoming one of my ‘go to’ sites.

This freelance placement site offers a huge benefit by listing their agents directly on the site. For instance, in the Online Marketing area within the Services link, one will find listings of specialists qualified to screen and place freelance experts. A photo and explanation of the Specialist’s qualifications and coverage locale is an added benefit I haven’t seen before on other freelance placement sites.

In order to register for placement opportunities at aquent.us, locate the agent specializing in your area of expertise and simply send the agent your qualifications through the “Register Now” link located on the bottom of their page.

In my opinion, aquent.us is a very professional and helpful site for those qualified in a wide array of freelance expertise.

His website, WritingCareer.com, provides many free articles, resources, recommendations, and career guides to help educate people about different writing careers and different types of writing.

One of WritingCareer’s many features includes a freelance jobs database which allows writers to browse through current freelance writing jobs. Many of these writing gigs are for freelance copywriting, magazine writing, SEO writing, and public relations work. WritingCareer also offers a section of downloadable Career Guides that cover different writing careers; a section of free career-related articles which introduce readers to different writing careers and what to expect; and a giant resource section of career-related websites.

In addition to the vast array of freelance writing opportunities, the site offers writing contests, events, podcasts geared toward learning to make money freelancing, copyright information and helpful ebooks to further your knowledge in your freelance writing career.

All in all, writingcareer.com is a great site if you’re a freelance writer looking for a ton of open freelance job opportunities.

Calendar Wiz
http://www.calendarwiz.com/

Freelance Weekly Rating:  3 Stars

About:  This site calls itself the online calendar people.  Their site is hosted on a Cisco Certified network with a 99.9% uptime rate!  They have a complete data center with full redundancy to three different locations.

Set Up: Upon registering, you will need to choose a name for your calendar, enter your full name, choose a screen name and password and accept the terms and licensing agreements.  All setup is web based with no software to install on your computer.  They offer a 30 day free trial and their pricing structure is as follows:

Calendar Wiz Basic:
$8.00/month or $88.00/year           3 Categories     25 users       Unlimited visitors
Calendar Wiz Standard:
$14.00/month or $154.00/year        8 Categories     50 users       Unlimited visitors
Calendar Wiz Professional:
$25.00/month or $249.00/year      100 Categories   100 users     Unlimited visitors

Navigation:  The site itself is well laid out and very pleasing to the eye.  This calendar is fully interactive, available via the web from anywhere in the world 24 hours a day.  It has all the standard features including email reminders, broadcasting to all users, public and private categories and single or repeating options.  Setup can be configured based on one user or multiple users and those users can be assigned different permission levels depending on your privacy needs.  There are many predefined templates that will help you get started, a full range of palette tools available and is completely customizable to fit your business needs.

Sharing:  The calendar you create is fully linkable into your web page, blog or intranet.  There are import and export functions that can carry data to and from most common applications including Outlook, Excel and Palm.

Customer Service: There is a wealth of knowledge in the support section of the site including recent articles, email support, fully searchable knowledge base and phone support.

Recommendation:  Due to its “mirror” type redundancy backup system, reasonable pricing, fully featured capability and online support I highly recommend Calendar Wiz!

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Web Calendar Pro

http://www.web-calendar-pro.com/

Freelance Weekly Rating:  2 Stars

About:  Services for this web based calendar are provided by MitroDat and is configured to your needs using a standard software license type structure.   They offer a host of scripting services including online calendar needs.

Set up:  Upon agreeing to the terms and conditions, a lengthy complicated online form must be completed to including information such as your web site URL, host information, FTP information, etc.  This web based software is quite powerful for the bigger business need.  The price is formatted in a per license structure and is as follows:

Single License:
$49.95        1 Install        Unlimited number of users on one single web site
Business License
$69.95        10 Installs    Unlimited number of users on 10 different web sites
Worldwide License
$149.95        Unlimited    Unlimited users, installations and web sites
ISP License
$249.95         Script

Use of their script to sell to your clients and you  charge them for calendar usage on their web sites.

Navigation:  This calendar has all the standard features plus some pretty nifty items such as a Coming Soon section, a block for Today’s Events and complete customization branding.

Sharing:  Because this site offers many options and services, your calendar can be shared and stored on multiple levels including embedding into other sites.

Customer Service: The site has a FULL online support system with certified technicians available 24 hours a day to help you with any problem you may incur.

Recommendations:  Web Calendar Pro is one of the more powerful options I have seen.  If your business needs are on a much larger scale this is the perfect place for you!

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Keep and Share
http://www.keepandshare.com/

Freelance Weekly Rating:  2 Stars

About:  Keep and Share is owned and operated by 2 brothers that wanted to keep their family together.   It is free and currently hosts over 70,000 users.

Set up:  After registering with the site with a user name and password, setup is a simple click and type process.  It is very easy and user friendly.  There is no software needed on your computer and it is fully web based.

Navigation:  The site offers storing solutions for your files, photographs and calendars.  You can make up to nine calendars, i.e. one for children, personal or business use.  It comes with all the standard features including unlimited text, repeating entries, multiple views, etc.  You can print your calendar with a multitude of preset themes.  The calendar can also be embedded within your web site or blog.

Sharing:  Your calendar, photos and files can be shared with whomever you choose or you can set your files to private.

Customer Service: They offer a weekly resource center created by user blogs, knowledge bases and FAQ’s.  They also offer help through an email form.

Recommendation:  A simple easy solution for the individual business!  If your needs are not too extensive this site will be perfect.

What a technological world we live in!  There are so many opportunities in today’s market to reach a magnitude of new business.  As a beginning freelancer one of the first things you should consider is how to advertise your services.  Using the Internet and the following web sites you can create a reputation, a track record of your services, and word of mouth to hundreds of thousands of clients.  Let’s take a closer look a few of the bigger freelance sites and what they have to offer.

1)  Guru: http://www.guru.com

Being one of the most popular sites, you can find guru ads everywhere you go online and in most of the more popular PC magazines.  Upon entering this site you will immediately notice its multitude of subject matter.  The site is laid out beautifully, easily navigated through and provides services for the client or the freelancer.  With this site you can search through projects posted by clients needing your services, create a customized profile that markets your business and see your competition!  Setup is free and as simple as filling out a profile questionnaire.  Guru uses their SafePay Escrow or Invoicing to ensure secure payments and collect feedback statistics.  Guru has quite a variety of great things to offer!

2)  Elance: http://elance.com

This site is set up much like an auction site and allows you as the freelancer to “bid” on the projects you are interested in.  The site’s layout is relatively easy to navigate through and they offer any type of business category you can think of.  The use of an online rating system, much like Ebay’s, allows buyers and sellers to comment on each other and provide useful feedback.  Let the competition begin!

3)  All Freelance: http://allfreelancework.com

Although this site is not laid out as well as some others, it also offers a host of services for the client and the freelancer.  Registration is easy, allows photos and other documents to be uploaded into your profile and is fully customizable.  They offer chat rooms, forums, related articles, and the ability to create your own portfolio.

4)  Ework Exchange: http://eworkexchange.com

As part of the registration process for this site you are able to create virtual online resume within your skills profile.  Searching for projects is very easy and the use of a “private profile number” allows for communication with privacy.  You will receive no direct contact with anyone until you have accepted the project.

5) Ifreelance: http://www.ifreelance.com

This site like the others offers a host of categories for the client or the freelancer.   Its layout is superb, very pleasing to the eye and quite well organized.  Their use of a rating scale is a great word of mouth option and they provide real time updates on users currently online and a complete profile including messages and account status.  They offer a “featured service provider” section on the front page and posted online testimonials.  This site is sure to provide the client or the freelancer with superb service.

The services offered on these web sites are sure to get your business up and running flawlessly.   A continued relationship is sure to be created, implemented and maintained with the use of the endless amount of tools and services offered.  Good Luck!