Welcome to Freelancer USA - A New Approach to Freelancing and Project Work for Creative Professionals At Freelancer USA we have discarded the traditional project bid model for a new one. Unlike other freelancer sites, based on vague bidding parameters, at Freelancer USA the Contract Provider details the specifications of their project and posts the budget for that project. Freelancers are invited submits demos, sample ideas, fully finished models or any other work to for that particular project. The Contract Provider then will award the project to the Freelancer with the work that best suits the project. We believe that this provides the Contract Provider as well as the Freelancer a more well defined relationship and alleviates miscommunication which leads to dissatisfaction from both parties. And because our projects are targeted primarily to creative professionals, our membership is smaller so, you, the freelancer, is not competing against thousands of other members for the contract. Note: To become a member of this site, you must be a resident of the USA. Register today! Negotiating the Freelance Economy - (Excerpt) by Sarah E. Needleman Monday, May 11, 2009 provided byWSJ In April 2008, Rebecca Haden lost her job when the small store she managed went out of business. A year later, she's working as many as 40 hours a week and earning much more than she did before -- even though she still doesn't have a job. Her formula? Freelancing her Web skills. Ms. Haden, of Fayetteville, Ark., is among a growing number of professionals who are making ends meet by working on a project-by-project contract basis. Even as permanent- and temp-job opportunities are shrinking, the amount of contract work to be found on freelance-jobs sites is expanding. What's more, it's moving beyond computer-programming and graphic-design gigs for small employers to include listings from larger companies and assignments in fields such as accounting, law, engineering and sales. Between January and March, employers posted 70,500 of these work-for-hire positions on Elance.com and 43,000 on Odesk.com, which represents increases of 35% and 105%, respectively, from the same period in 2008. Sologig.com, which lists remote and on-site freelance jobs, says its average monthly postings have more than doubled to around 13,500 per month in the past year. In March, there were 750 jobs listed on VirtualAssistants.com, versus 400 in March 2008. At the same time, the number of U.S. workers employed by temporary-help-services firms in March fell 27% to 1.8 million from the same month in 2008, according to the Labor Department. As the recession takes hold, more employers are using freelance workers to avoid the expenses associated with hiring permanent staff, says Fabio Rosati, chief executive officer of Mountain View, Calif.-based Elance. "The power of online work is that it's immediate, cost-effective and flexible," he says. Indeed, freelance workers are often cheaper and more flexible than temp workers, whose jobs, though short-term, tend to be full-time, subject to temp-agency fees, and bound by agency restrictions, such as limits on the permanent hiring of temps. 'I Just Do the Fun Stuff' One gig she landed introduced her to Odesk, which, like some other contract-job sites, can monitor freelancers' work. Since then, Ms. Haden says she's landed a steady supply of Web-optimization assignments through Odesk, as well as through her personal Web site and blog. Most months, she earns more than double her previous income. Ms. Haden says the work has been fulfilling, and she has put her permanent-job search on hold indefinitely. "I get to pick and choose what I do now," she says. "And I just do the fun stuff." Many other laid-off professionals appear to be taking up freelancing, either as a new career or as a way to weather the downturn. Freelance-job sites say membership among individuals, which is free in many cases, has risen sharply. For example, Guru.com has nearly 878,000 freelance members today, up from around 760,000 a year ago. Freelance-job sites also say they're seeing more midsize and large employers posting assignments, and the jobs have expanded into more business functions, such as finance, manufacturing and law. For example, roughly 1,700 new jobs were added to the sales and marketing category on Elance in March, a 50% increase from a year ago. That's led to new types of contract workers, too. Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.