By Jim McKenzie Smith, an EO Portland member

Elance and UpWork, online staffing platforms, have become increasingly popular for small to medium size businesses; they’re easy to use, convenient for posting jobs, and I’ve found affordable talent to fill positions. The contractor can be anywhere in the world, thanks to cloud-based services, and other business owners can post feedback ratings and reviews of the contractors. It’s a great way to hire locally or internationally for a variety of positions. Some of the jobs I’ve advertised include: QA/Usability Engineer, Software Developer, Graphic Design, Data Entry, Blog Writing, SEO, PPC, and Online Research.

Having posted many jobs through these, here are eight tips I can offer: