For a recent episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I cornered Brad Porteus, Chief Marketing Officer at Elance in between sessions at the Small Business Summit in NYC.

As most know Elance is an online marketplace that allows you to bring projects to designers, programmers, writers, you name it, and request bids to complete the work. Of course the flip side of that is true if you are designer, programmer or writer looking for work.

I’ve been an Elance user for a number of years and I’ve had great experiences with Elance and some not so great, and in both cases it was my fault. As with any project, the more communication the better. When trying to find a service provider that you may never meet face to face this is even more relevant. Because a computer interface makes is so easy to find people willing to bid on your work, it’s easy to get lazy and pick someone based solely on price or on a misunderstanding of your needs.

In any face to face situation you do your homework and make sure you’ve have a good fit, with references, right? I think you must view the hiring of someone on Elance the same way. Do that and you’ll find some tremendously professional resources that knock out projects the right way.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by iLinc – Web and Video Conferencing that’s easy to use, affordable and powerful enough to make your online meetings really come alive.