The Search Sort

As you search for contractors, you’ll notice a long menu on the left side of the main screen. This is a treasure chest of wonderful tools for narrowing down your contractor search. The purpose of searching for contractors isn’t to narrow your selection to the one best individual or business for the job. Rather, you want to create a short list of those you will specifically invite to submit a proposal. And keep in mind when sorting that a short list doesn’t have to be short. It’s all relative. Don’t think you need to choose only a set few contractors to invite. You can make your short list as long as you like. The idea is to identify those specific individuals or businesses you feel might be best and invite them.

Over time, you’ll learn which search filters are more applicable to you and what you’re looking for. But I’ll run through the most important so you get the idea.

Categories and Tested Skills

On the top of the left menu, choose which category you want to search within. Click on subcategories to further narrow your results.

Tested skills are based on tests Elance contractors have taken to determine where they rank in that skill compared to other Elancers. Over 300 skill tests have been designed by Elance and taking them is completely voluntary. Beware, the contractor can post the actual result from the test, or post a “self-rated” score. The latter is of questionable value as it’s the contractor posting an imaginary result.

Location

You can also narrow your search by location, as shown in Figure 10.2. For those clients who want to meet face-to-face with their contractor, or for those who only want contractors from certain global geographic regions, this is your go-to spot.

Figure 10.2: Elance provides several different ways to search for contractors.

If you believe the best IT services come out of India, you can narrow this here. Perhaps you have a document written in English that you want translated into Mandarin Chinese. Choose Eastern Asia from the drop-down menu, and the system will only bring up contractors from that area.

Features like this truly underline how effective the global workplace is. No longer are we strictly bound by borders and languages. Your specific project can be done by a talented freelancer from most anywhere in the world. Keep this in mind as you create your short list of contractors.

CYBER SNAGS

In order for a contractor to designate himself from a specific location, business must be conducted from the country specified in the sign up process. However, that doesn’t prevent the contractor from farming out the business to other regions of the world. If you’re unsure, ask where and by whom the work actually gets done. Elance is working to close these technological loopholes.

You can also search for contractors within a fixed-mile radius of where you live. If you’re not completely ready for hiring that talented logo designer from the Ukraine, narrow your location search results to within where you can drive and meet for a coffee. The choice is yours.

Feedback

This is one of the most useful sort tools. Feedback refers to what other clients have said about this specific contractor’s service. Using the five-star rating system, Elance allows you to sort for those with the highest average rating (as you can see back in Figure 10.2).

At first flush, this seems like a no-brainer. Of course you want to sort by those with the highest ratings! But remember that this may place contractors with fewer, albeit perfect, rankings higher up the list. The more projects a contractor takes on, the more likelihood that he will eventually receive lower ratings. It’s just the way it works. So an excellent contractor may appear lower down the line simply because he had more time to get beaten up in the real world.

Reviews, Hourly Rates, and Groups

These final parameters have their uses. The Reviews option allows you to include only those contractors with a set number of reviews into your search results. This eliminates new or relatively new contractors. Remember, some of the best opportunities lay with hardworking newcomers who want to prove their stuff. But if that’s not what you want, you can filter it out here.

Hourly Rates are just that. You can search for contractors that provide services with certain hourly rates.

The Groups filter sorts for those contractors who belong to Elance groups. These are alliances sponsored by companies or organizations and have certain membership requirements. They are voluntary to join and over 80 exist. The eligibility is determined by the sponsor, not Elance.