While we could have covered the $800 from our emergency savings,  I decided to try to make up the difference with some freelance work. I went to Elance and found two jobs that met my criteria and I applied for them both. One month later I deposited $730 into my checking account. Here are the steps that I took to make money fast.

1. Determine your criteria for a freelance job.
I had several criteria in mind when I started looking for a freelance gig. First, I needed to to have a reasonable chance of winning the job with a $800 bid. Second, the timeline for the work needed to fit within my window of availability which was the month of May. Third, I wanted a fixed fee job rather than an hourly job. Oh, and most importantly, I wanted a job that was tax or accounting related since that is a type of work that I can do quickly and well.

2. Sort through the available jobs.
You can search Elance using some of your criteria to help narrow the possible jobs. I did a search for jobs in Finance & Management that are fixed fee jobs with a budget over $500.

Elance.com job search

Once I did this I looked at the details of each job to see if I had the necessary qualifications. Equally important to me was to figure out which jobs I would enjoy and which job providers  were actually willing to pay for quality work.

3.  Place your bids.
I considered several questions when was placing my bids. First, what did my gut tell me was a fair price for the work. Second, what would my employer have charged a client for doing this work. Third, what would my employer have paid me for doing this work.  And fourth, how much was my competition charging.

The project that I bid on was the preparation of two federal tax forms related to foreign businesses. This was specialty work that I had done before  and my gut told me that a fair price was somewhere between $750 and $1,000. I estimated that my employer would have charged around $1350 and would have paid me $ 375 to do the work. I was the first to bid on the project, but if you mouse over the number in the bid column (see above) you can see the  lowest, highest, and average bid amounts.

4. Do the work and get paid
After you’ve been hired for a job both parties will agree on the timeline and you’ll get to work. Once the work is completed, the other party will release your payment. (It’s been held in escrow until now). You have the choice of receiving your payment as a paper check, a direct deposit to your bank account, a direct deposit to your Paypal account, or a prepaid debit card.

Some other things to consider:

• If you need to net $800 from your freelance work, then you’ll need to earn $875. Elance deducts 6.75% to 8.75% of your earnings as their fee for hooking you up with work. Be sure to take this into consideration when you’re placing your bid.
• Elance is a great way to make money fast as long as you can wait a few weeks to get the cash.  The bidding process can take a couple of weeks, and then it may take you  a few days to do the work, and the employer a few days to approve the work and release the funds.
• If you’re not as choosy about the jobs, then you can probably speed up the money-making process. I was very particular about which jobs I would take and how much I was paid for my service, and as a result about 6 weeks elapsed from the moment that I realized I would need more money and the moment I actually received the money.
• Take some time to look at the types of freelance jobs on the site and how much competition there is for the jobs. You may be able to identify a niche area that pays well, has little competition, and for which you could learn to do relatively easily.

Please feel free to share your experiences as a freelancer in the comments, or ask any questions that you may have. John and I have both hired people through Elance so we have some perspective from the other side as well.

Elance is a fantastic place to head to if you are looking to make some quick money. They have a huge marketplace of people looking to hire and sell services of just about any type. Many of the jobs are technologically-oriented, but no matter your background or experience, you can just about always find some sort of freelance job there that matches your skills and interests.

Here are some of the categories of jobs being posted:

Programming

Design

Writing

Administrative Support

Sales and Marketing

Legal

Probably the most important thing to know about finding freelance work on Elance is that there is a good bit of competition for most jobs – especially jobs that don’t require a specialized skill set. Having some experience or a degree in the field you’re looking for work in will definitely help, but you can find work in a completely new field if you stick to it.

Here are some ways to set yourself apart from the competion:

Once you have a job, the list of things to do is pretty obvious: do high quality work, come in at or below your budget, and do things when you say you’ll do them. Two things, though, that I do want to mention in particular. First off, make sure to send regular status updates. It’s a bit disorienting for an employer to send someone he’s never met a job to do, and then not be able to call or walk to their office to see how they’re doing. Make sure that your employer always knows how the project is going and what you’re currently working on. Secondly, if you have any questions on the project, always (always, always!) ask for clarification before you proceed. Your employer will always prefer for you to ask some follow-up questions than do the work incorrectly.

Now, go forth and make some cash!