How did elance (www.elance.com) attract service providers and buyers
during the start up phase? We are trying idenify how elance got
providers and buyers to sign up to the service and get insights into
their marketing strategy

<According to BusinessWeek Online, the team behind elance planned the
launch of a test site for 4th July. However they had no freelancers to
post on the site so on 30th June they began calling and emailing
friends, family, tech-oriented fraternities and net-messaging boards.
The launch of the full site was planned for August 31st. To get
projects they called just about everyone they could think of to
persuade them to post projects on the site. Initially they posted four
of their own projects on the site. It took four days to find their
first project from outside the company. The client had heard of their
service through a news story. At this time they were offering a free
service. For full details of the start up see
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_23/b3684045.htm

Elance placed stories in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal
Interactive, Wired News, Associated Press, CNET's News.com, Virginia
Pilot, and MSNBC.http://www.four-corners.com/acco.htm

New York Times article published December 1, 1999.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B10FC3A5B0C728CDDAB0994D1494D81

Cnet article published December 6, 1999.
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-233948.html?legacy=cnet

News.com article published December 1, 1999
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-233779.html?legacy=cnet

elance was listed as a new site for the week on Net stuff
http://www.monitor.ca/monitor/issues/vol7iss4/netstuff.html

On 5th March elance was featured in a New York Times article.
http://www.l-cc.com/article_archive/archive_freelance.htm

Wall Street Journal article.
http://www.startupjournal.com/howto/soundadvice/200005240900-clark.html

One of elances marketing strategies is to use elance html email
designed by barely average.com see
http://www.barelyaverage.com/portfolio/emails_site.html
http://www.barelyaverage.com/portfolio/html_emails/or/or_sept.html
http://www.barelyaverage.com/portfolio/html_emails/dogs_final/dogs_final.html

elance and egain – elance got ahead of the competition by offering
features on its site that were not offered by its competitors. See
http://www.crmadvocate.com/casestudy/egain/elance_42.pdf

elance currently has a policy of trying to land big clients. They
recently landed Federal Express.
http://www.line56.com/articles/default.asp?NewsID=4093

elance has eliminated a former competitor by acquiring CascadeWorks
http://www.line56.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=4455


elance aims to break even by 2002
http://specials.ft.com/ftit/march2001/FT3UBTCYWJC.html

Like many other people, I first became aware of elance via the
websites aimed at freelance writers. Elance was often listed as a
link. However I didn’t sign up for their services as I had read some
bad reviews and saw that there were ridiculously low bids for many of
the projects. One elance user found a link on Working Home Mum.
http://www.homeworkingmom.com/testimonials.html

Freelancers who found elance through an internet search.
http://www.telework101.com/norris.htm
http://www.elance.com/c/static/main/displayhtml.pl?file=hl_arch_full2.html



<Additional links:>

<elance starts charging for its services from September 25, 2000.>
<http://www.computerbrainsbank.com/607_web_hosting_designing_cntrs/us1.html>

<Complaints about elance>
<http://www.writersweekly.com/warnings/elance.html>

<Founder of elance charged with fraud>
<http://www.vnunet.com/News/1119683>


<Search strategy:>

<"elance"  news "1998">
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22elance%22++news+%221998%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=40&sa=N>

<"elance"  srini anumolu>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22elance%22++srini+anumolu>

<"elance"  "msnbc" 1998>
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22elance%22++%22msnbc%22+1998&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N>

<"found elance">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22found+elance%22+>

<Hope this helps.>

As a former elance.com service provider, I was among the first to sign
up.

At that time, everything was free, and there were "bonuses" and
freebies to sign up looking for someone to do the job. There is no
question some very good free-lance talent without a lot of experience
behind them would bid on jobs on elance.

And underbid on elance, and some people were so desparate for the
work, they would give it away, such as designing a logo for $5 or a
website for $50, and the like.

It was later that elance started charging providers for the privilege
of bidding on a job, and very often, those looking for a particular
service are still going with the low bidders. Sometimes it works out
well for them, sometimes not. But for some of the prices, the price is
worth it to try it out.

There have been times when elance sort of balanced on the edge, but
have so far managed to stay alive - it seems to have found its niche
... but it doesn't attract a lot of the big dollar customers seeking
work, either.

Serenata

Thanks for the "comment" seranta. Can you recall how you heard about
elance in the first place? Take care, Paul