Guru.com Puts Freelancers to Work

Site joins contractors and employers, but still needs some work of its own.

Alexandra Barrett, special to PC World

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You've thought about quitting your nine-to-five gig and living the glamorous freelancing life. The advent of the Web, cheap office equipment, and high-speed Internet access has made that dream a reality for many people. So what's holding you back? Are you worried that you won't actually be able to find any work?

Enter Guru.com, a new site designed to help freelancers find work.

Launched last week, Guru.com is the latest attempt at matching up independent "gurus" with potential employers, at no cost to the freelancer. The site features job boards, a search facility, an area for posting bios, as well as articles and message forums targeted at freelancers and their concerns.

Setting up an account and your profile is easy. In your public profile, you can display as little as your name and contact information, or go whole hog with a full recount of past work experience, skills, rates of pay, and references. Guru.com simplified this process, which I have found tedious at other freelance sites.

Guru.com excels at providing tips for freelancers, such as how to file estimated quarterly taxes, and also offers pep talks.

The RunYourBiz section features channels that cover legal and lifestyle issues, small-business technology, tax, and finance. Each of these channels includes advice columns and message boards. There's also a channel for potential employers called "SmartHire" that covers topics such as setting rates and legal issues.

Still Needs Work

Of course, the real appeal of any such site is going to be the number and the quality of the leads it generates. Unfortunately, on that count, Guru.com has a long way to go.

The site claims to have signed on more than 4000 hiring companies, but that number was not reflected by the quality of my search results. Of course, those results could be skewed by my search criteria, and a search for a position such as a Web designer may yield better results.

Nor will Guru.com's search engine be of any real help ferreting out any hidden leads. This rather limited tool lets you search by keyword or browse by category. The ability to do more refined searches would come in handy, and the site does say that an advanced search engine is in the works.

If you're an employer looking for an independent contractor, however, you will probably have great luck at Guru.com, as the site has already signed more than 50,000 of us, at a rate of 5000 per week. Posting a gig is easy--simply fill out a Web form, promise to pay Guru.com, and you're in business.

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