There is a movement in most industries to get an online presence and start selling goods online. In fact, for those businesses that aren’t online, they are missing out on millions of potential customers. As more and more businesses get online and start to develop a web presence, there has been a boom in several areas that are being filled by freelancers.

Freelance work provides highly skilled workers for specific projects for businesses that may not have the resources to hire someone permanently. This gives both sides a win-win scenario, as businesses get exactly what they need, and freelancers get work doing what they love. For those that are getting into the freelance business, there are three areas that are booming with work right now on sites like Elance.

What is Elance?

Elance is the largest freelance site online today and offers thousands of highly skilled jobs and workers. Businesses can post jobs here and freelancers bid on them. Freelancers can post their profile here, showcasing their skills, and the bid on projects. Once a freelancer is selected for a project, they begin work and the business approves the work. When both parties are happy, payment is rendered for the services. It’s a fairly simple process, yet provides highly skilled workers without the full-time cost for a business. Millions of dollars are spent and made every year on Elance.

Booming Areas

Like I mentioned already, there are three extremely hot areas on Elance right now that are simply brimming with work. Here are the three biggest areas on Elance that anyone with the right skills can find work in:

Boom #1: Writing

With the massive amount of businesses getting online, they need websites designed and articles, blogs, and guides created. So where do they turn if they cannot write what they need – to freelance writers. Right now on Elance, there are over 2300 job postings in the writing category. These jobs range from blogs to articles, web copy to sales pages, brochures to ebooks, proofreading titles to typesetting them and literally everything in between. For those who speak more than one language, there are always translation jobs on here as well. I have worked in this area on Elance for several years and in the freelance writing field for over 13 years. There are always new and exciting project to take on for those that have a talent for writing. No matter what you’re familiar with, what your writing style is, or what type of translations you can do, you will always find great work on Elance that pays well.

Boom #2: Design and Multimedia

If writing isn’t your thing, check out the massive amount of jobs on Elance under Design and Multimedia. This ranges from anything web design related to logos and other creative artwork. Businesses need banner ads created, photos edited, stationery designs, animations for games and other online projects, voice work, etc. There is a massive amount of different types of work that you can find under this category on Elance. Right now, you’ll easily find over 3500 projects in this category. While I am not a design whiz, I have done a fair amount of projects in this area too that revolved around game videos, voice work, and even some book layout design. These projects are geared toward creative works, and those who are good with artwork and digital designs can always find tons of work in this area.

Boom #3: IT & Programming

This area is by far the largest one on Elance and the current amount of projects listed here is well over 7500. These range from web programming to software application design, project management to testing, blog programming to system administrators and anything else IT or programming related. The amount of work here ranges from under $500 to well into the thousands, depending on the project. Those with skills in any computer language can easily find projects here that fit what they can do. I’ve never worked personally in this area, but I have worked with other freelancers that have. This category is a very lucrative one for those with computer programming or IT skills and it always pays to brush up on the latest trends. I’ve started taking HTML courses and a CCNA training course so that I can work more in this area on Elance as well.

Staying With The Boom

If you are a freelancer or interested in jumping in on Elance, I would recommend that you test your skills with their software first. When you create a profile, it will take you through tons of different skill sets and you can easily show off your skills there for potential employers and clients to see. This is a great way to find out what category you will fit best in as a freelancer as well.

There is so much money to be made on Elance with different freelancing projects and it’s a great way to jump start an online career in several areas. With the amount of work that you will find on Elance, you can easily work as much or as little as you would like and earn as much as a full time salary without ever leaving your house.

After working for over 13 years as a freelance ghostwriter, Mandi Weems has started teaching other budding writers the ropes and how to make a living as a freelancer. With all of the multi-level projects that are found around the web, especially on Elance, she also knows the importance of keeping your skills fresh and learning new ones. She loves http://www.ecourseclassroom.com for learning any type of new skill online.

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(Source: smallbizdiamonds.com)