SUBJECT: Having Your Ebook Ghostwritten Lesson 17 of 50: How Does Elance Work?

Hi {!firstname_fix},

Placing ads is free as of this writing. The
ghostwriters are the ones who pay to review the
ads. Isn't that nice? You will need to
"subscribe" however, and get some of your
information into the database in order to
advertise. This is only fair so that responders
know what they are responding to and so that
there is trust that payment will be made when the
job is completed. 

I recommend that you subscribe right away, so
that the processing can take place while you're
getting your other pre-work done (selecting a
topic for your eBook and creating your ad for
posting). 

Once you place an ad, writers will begin to post
online bids for your project. They may offer to
write your eBook for less money than the maximum
pay you stated in your ad, or they may offer to
write the eBook more quickly than you've stated
you require. Basically, they start a friendly
competition (usually friendly) to get your
business. Lots of them will be appealing. That's
because it's a buyers market - good news for you. 

Each responder will provide some background
information along with their offer. There will be
navigable links you can click on to review their
history with Elance, their portfolio, and ratings
given by some of their clients. Unsubscribed web
surfers will not have access to all the detail
that you do on the ghostwriters. Likewise, casual
surfers will not have access to all of your ad's
details either. From the bids you get, you read
up on the materials available and make a
selection.

Once you've awarded the project to a writer,
you'll work up an agreement between you and the
writer, and arrange payment through Elance. There
are agreement templates you can use on the site,
and there are recommended methods of paying also.
You may want to browse through some of this
information early on regarding scheduling and
payment, even before you place your ad, to make
sure you understand the "fine print." There's
nothing terrible there that I know of, but read
it all anyway because it's the smart thing to do. 

Payment can be made before the writing starts,
after the writing is completed, or half before
and half after the writing is completed. When you
do pay, a percentage will be taken by Elance.
This fee is currently less than 10 percent and is
considered a finder's fee. Basically, you won't
pay anything to your ghostwriter or to the
databank service until you have actually selected
a writer. 

If you're interested in outsourcing your ebook
creation, check out this offer below:

YOUR LINK HERE

To your success, 
YOUR NAME GOES HERE