The website Guru.com is one of the largest marketplaces for outsourcing. This marketplace also deals in freelancing. Many companies are facilitated to get freelance workers to get good commission as well. It was founded in Pittsburgh in the year 1998. The initial name was emoonlighter.com. The founders of this company are Jon and James Slavet. The main aim of the company is to achieve success for its members. Enough time is devoted for further enhancements which improves the experience of user as well as ensures good reliability. Guru gives businesses with optimum opportunity to find several talented freelancers far and wide. The selection process of getting good freelancers is very easy as well as reliable.

Guru relies on the largest marketplace for online pool of talent. It is very easy to hire, find and manage affordable freelancers. Posting any project is simple and easy. Right freelancers will be available from a huge bunch of talent. The teams of your desktop can be managed and Project Management tools collaborate with ease and simplicity. The payment is fast and simple once the project is complete.

Official Website:

The official website of www.guru.com enables you to provide exceptionally wonderful hiring from 222 specialties and a powerful punch can be obtained through them. This site will give you crucial information you wanted to take. It can be related to any project of any category like Engineering, Networking and Systems of telephone, CAD, Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management. Employers can hire specialized people like freelancers, graphic designers and writers. Freelancers can search the job of their choice related to skills, locations etc. Registration in this website is mandatory.

This website enables you to find the freelancing work online and all over the world. You just have to create a profile and win projects. After winning, proposals should be created which compel employers to hire the person. Completion of a project is very quick as well as simple once you do it. The option of guaranteed payment protection is even offered by the hirers.

People Associated with It (Inventors and the Company Who Made It):

Guru.com was formed in 1999 in San Francisco. This company was led by James as well as Jon Slavet which raised $3M as part of angel funding and again $16M in a full venture which was undertaken by Grey-lock Partners along with August Capital. According to Paul Saffo Guru.com is a company which uses internet to give new types of services where individuals bargain directly with Potential Employers. This was said in an interview of May 2000. In the year 2002 Guru developed the technology of smart match which matches resumes as well as other information related to job applicants. Profiling system of every candidate through industrial techniques as well as organizational psychology was created to understand the suitability of a particular candidate. Company was taken up in month of December 2002 by Unicru which is a software company of Portland. The technology of Guru.com as well as staff remained with Unicru. The focus was the software part, which was intended to help big employers hire and assess job applicants.

Pros:

Guru.com has many pros. One of them is that it has smart savvy employers as well as fabulous talented people. The process of finding both of them is very simple. It can be experienced free of cost. Guru.com recommends suitable projects to meet with qualified freelancers. One can always compare important facts like earnings, jobs per bids etc. Through Guru you are free to manage your project the way you like. An agreement with a freelancer is made after defining milestones and other tasks. Communication is possible through discussions and documents can also be shared without coming out of Guru.com. Transaction is safe with Guru. It is a secure and an approved form of service. Audrey Scott, one of the co-founders of unconcerned market is very happy with being a freelancer, its results and the guidelines of Guru.com. Now he is so happy that he is recommending Guru.com to everyone. There are millions of employers who are using its services. They simply cannot stop praising it. Anyone loving Guru may submit the name, company, title, URL, photo along with a brief quote about the experience on Guru.com.

Cons:

As regards disadvantages, Guru.com has a very high fees. It has got a confusing site interface. The restrictions of basic membership are 10 bids in 30 days. It has got options of limited payment. Guru.com receives a percentage of payment. This percentage is higher in case you have a free membership. Guru.com does not allow you to see other bidders. Their bidding options cannot be seen. Bidding sites provide a significant quantity of jobs which are described in vague terms. Guru.com is one such site. Best jobs are offered to paid members initially. Many employers are unrated.As a result their past is unknown.

Features:

This site has some good features which make it even more popular all over the world. It helps you to get the right talent. The global pool is containing 350000 Gurus. Getting the ideal specialist in the field of business, technical or creative is possible under a single roof. Another feature of Guru is controlling the management of your project. Employers can create an agreement with freelancer by defining milestones as well as tasks. Communication is also possible via Discussions tab and sharing documents without leaving Guru. It is very similar to an in-house project, without bearing the overhead.

No matter where you are working, transaction is very safe by adopting Safe Pay. After the work gets approved, payment is immediately done to the freelancer .It is very secure and possesses a win agreement for the employer as well as freelancer. Payments should be simplified. Funds for working as a freelancer are sent to Guru through check, electronic check, transferring by wire, Paypal or credit card. Translations of Foreign Exchange along with 1099 fillings are also handled by Guru.com. Guru is absolutely free. You should choose a preferred method of payment like wire transfer, check as well as e-check. Loyalty dollars of Guru are obtainable. They are given to the freelancers for future projects. It is one of the outsourcing partners.

How It works:

The work on Guru.com starts just after signing up as a freelancer or as a employer. The task of employers begins after registration. Their first step is hiring. They tend to hire from a group of vast talent of people. From such a vast pool, employers are very sure to get the right freelancer. The second step is to manage teams from the computers as well as collaborate with ease through seamless tools of Project Management. The third step for employers is the payment and that is very simple as well as fast. Employers can select web developers, copywriters, Graphic designers and Engineers for their project. Posting a project is very easy. Those who want to work as a freelancer need to create a profile. The profile should be able to tell all your strengths to the employers which showcase your portfolio. Projects which are very much in demand should be chosen. Thereafter proposals are created which forces the employers to hire you.

As a freelancer, it is very safe and convenient to work here. The projects which come up are extremely good quality and freelancers simply love to work on it. As per data, nearly 1 million users have used Guru.com to finish at least three million tasks. They have shared at least 7 million messages along with files. Nearly 150 million dollars have be created as per value.

Price:

Freelance writers sign up on Guru.com by choosing a membership level and then selling it through the front page copy as well as profile area. This site also facilitates in the uploading of many samples into particular portfolio. As far as pricing is concerned, it is dependent upon three categories. It is skill, membership type and membership term. Members get a free discount of about 50% of the monthly price by upgrading to yearly plan. Discount of 20% is available for those who want to upgrade and renew more profiles to a Guru within the same account and at the same time. You can upgrade any profile by selecting membership options for more than 2 profiles to make sure about all the selections are in a transaction of single payment. Based upon the profile, every category has separate charges. Vendors of Guru also have separate charges for every category. Charges of vendor are different for monthly and annual packages also.

Competitors:

As regards competition, oDesk and Elance are the main competitors. Elance, oDesk and Guru relate to advanced freelancing. Guru is the largest marketplace for freelancing talent. It is a leader in providing talent. It is also a leader in giving freelance services which are trustworthy. The focus of Guru is the proven-excellence as well as expert specialization. As goes the comparison, Guru.com has the higher number of projects along with their quality. Categories of projects are also very high. One could offer awesome help and support in case they feel any difficulty. Competition is limited by the bidding limit of free members.

How is it Different from the Competitors?

One of the competitors of Guru.com is Elance. Both are counted among the best auction sites for the freelance writers. To begin with let’s talk about Elance. Registration is free and the site talks about good number of projects with their quality. The membership plans are very flexible.

ODesk is another market for online work team capturing the big business model for both contractors as well as employers. Here along with registration, application for job, membership and job posting is free. This online place gives the contracts of hourly as well as fixed price. Freelancers can get a lot of categories per project. In Guru.com, you can get many things free of cost like registration, posting the projects, freelancer hiring along with payment. The fees of a project for basic member is 10%. The interface of site is much confusing as compared to its competitors.

Results:

Evaluating all the aspects of Guru will make you feel that freelancers have reached a right place for their skills. It already has 1 million registered members. It has categories of more than 220 skills. At least 50 industries are represented through this site. Annual membership taken by any member has a discount of 50%. Apart from this, 20% discount is available on upgradation of more than 1 profile. Withdrawal methods are also very simple. Guru gives ample importance to both fresher and experienced. It is a very rewarding place for both of them.

Conclusion (whether it is Worth Buying or Not):

Candidates in need of job can find it here. Employers may also feel satisfied with the desired candidates. It is one of the leading jobs for getting employment. Instant access is provided to all the qualified professionals who work online. It helps in actualizing the dreams of both the employer and employee. Hence buying the membership of Guru.com is advantageous in many ways.

Return of Investment when Buying this:

Return of investment in Guru.com is much better compared to other sites. This has a very simple reason. Everything is available at one location due to Guru.com. Precious time is saved due to it. Prior to these types of online sites people would waste much of their time in moving from one place to another. It is very convenient for both the employers and skill holders.

Coupons or Discounts (if any):

Guru.com provides you the facility of coupons or discounts to all people who are eager to work as freelancers. There are different schemes and discounts covering different class of members. Through these discounts, members will be benefited in more ways than one. These discounts may apply to basic, annual or monthly categories.