Freelance & Paid Blogging Sites - A Review

Like a lot of Americans, I’ve been feeling the pinch of the crazy economy. So in an effort to counter balance that, I decided to look into freelance writing and paid ad blog posting. I signed up for a bunch of sites and services and below are my reviews of them. Please let me know if you have had any experiences with these services too!

Freelance Sites
Elance – It offers 8 categories (all with sub-categories) for freelance positions. There is a bid system for the freelancers looking for jobs but I’m not sure how it works yet. It’s a long registering process including watching some tutorials and then taking a quiz, which I just recently did, so I haven’t had the chance yet to bid with my new quiz certification. You cannot bid on projects until you have passed the quiz. This, however, seems to be the best site of all the ones mentioned in this blog posting and the one I will be sticking with the most.

iFreelance – This one is a little odd because there are no posting dates, so it’s hard to see what’s new. I haven’t even read any of the postings. It doesn't look like a lot of new jobs are posted but there are a lot of bids for each job.

Guru – Guru seems to offer the highest quality job postings, however, in order to bid for most of the positions (I would say 95% of them) you have to have a paid membership. I’ve been using this now for about 2 weeks and have yet to see one posting that I could apply for (I don’t have a paid membership). I’ll remain persistent though because there are a lot of offerings on this site.

Paid Ad writing or Pay per Posting Sites
Bloggerwave – I hate this site. I’ve been registered for an entire month with no job offerings, no response from Customer Service, nothing. The site is bare bones and there seems to not be a whole lot going on with it. STAY AWAY!

Squidoo – I still don’t fully understand Squidoo, but somehow you can earn money from it. It’s set up like a regular blog where you can type out posts. It comes with a bunch of other things like an eBay section that you can have on your blog (or Lens as they call it). I wish this site came with step by step directions though because I’ve been registered for about a month and just found out 2 days ago that you are supposed to hit “Publish” after you’ve posted new information. There’s a lot going on with this site and I’m still not sure how you earn money. It’s pretty neat looking and there’s a lot to do on it and the way they word things is pretty funny.

PayPerPost – What seems to be a reputable company, they always answer my emails, but I have yet to receive an opportunity that wasn’t already full. Although a few opportunities come in each day there aren’t any open spots by the time I get to them.

Blogsvertise – Another one I would stay away from. I’ve been registered for a month now and have not received one single opportunity. I can’t see any of the open opportunities even if they are filled or unavailable to me (most sites allow you to at least see what all is out there even if you can’t apply for it). They have only answered 1 of my 3 emails.

To summarize, I will stick with the freelance sites and services and probably give up on the pay per posting advertising.

I need advice! Has anyone had any experiences with sites like these even if they aren’t mentioned? Have you made any money freelancing or posting paid ads?

“Basically, I'm for anything that gets you through the night - be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels.” – Frank Sinatra
So may the prayers, tranquilizers and JD be with you and see you next time.
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