With December's still numbers coming down the pipe, some may say that the race of 2009 is too early to call.  But if you ask me, I'll tell it to you straight: PHP is the number 1 most in-demand skill for online work for all of 2009.

The Elance Work Index, which ranks the hottest 100 skills in today’s online labor market, revealed that for the third month in a row PHP (Personal Home Page Tools) captures the number one spot on the Index, confirming the theory that PHP-skilled professionals as the most sought after independent workers online today.

Elance is also expanding its skill testing platform to augment Elance’s existing 250 tests with new “Code Tests” that give technical experts in top programming languages like PHP a way to demonstrate their expertise in writing and debugging actual computer code. To launch the new PHP Code Test, Elance is sponsoring a 14 day “code-off” in PHP for its pool of skilled PHP providers – offering $250 and a full-year premium membership to each of the coders who score in the Top 10 for PHP programming. The PHP “code-off” begins now and ends at Noon PST on November 30, 2009.

The November Elance Work Index highlights several emerging trends:

 

• Language Translation – For the first time, specific language translation skills have appeared in the Top 100 with Spanish Translation at #77, French Translation at #83 and German Translation at #88. Italian, Swedish and others are also knocking on the door to enter the Index. If all jobs requiring Translation skills were combined, Translation would appear in the Top 10 list for the first time.
• Illustration – As designs and stock photos become more ubiquitous, companies appear to be increasingly in the market for distinct imagery. We noticed that Custom Illustration popped 27 spots to #18, while Cartoon vaulted 43 spots to #41. Graphic Design clung to its Top 10 placement and Animation moved up 12 places to #37. All and all, great news for those with the right skills.
  
  

Today, Elance is adding a new and advanced type of Skill Test to our lineup that takes the assessment of one’s computer coding skill to the next level. These new types of tests, which we call "Code Tests", require you to demonstrate your code-writing skills in leading computer programming languages. We are initially releasing Code Tests for PHP and SQL, with many more languages to follow in the coming months.

To celebrate the launch of our new Code Test platform, we’re setting out to find the best, fastest, and most efficient coders out there on the ‘net. That’s why we’re hosting the first ever Elance “Code-Off” in PHP – the longtime number one skill in demand according to the Elance Work Index. The prize? $250 in cash and one year of premium membership on Elance (valued at $120) to the top 10
performing PHP programmers.

The new Code Tests are timed tests that require the test taker to work with actual code to solve a problem. Each test is made up of 10 questions with a time limit for completing the entire test and a recommended time for each question. The test taker will not only be required to solve the problem in the allotted time, but the code is scored based on how concisely written and how efficiently it uses system resources.

The PHP “code-off” begins now and ends on Noon PST, November 30, 2009 with the winners announced here on the Elance blog on December 1, 2009. To enter, simply complete the PHP Code Test on Elance before November 30, 2009.

Ready? Set. Code!

PRIZES:

10 winners will receive $250 in cash and one year of premium membership on Elance, valued at $120.

LINKS:
Code Test: PHP
Code Test: SQL
All Skill Test Page

When we speak to the most active Elance users, we often hear comments about a common theme. Clients say: “Help me stay organized in making payments.” While providers ask: “Help me collect payments for the work I deliver.”

We’ve listened, and are now releasing some new features to address these requests.

Improvements To Fixed Price Payments



Elance’s Escrow payments system builds trust between clients and providers who work together online. We’ve now added "Pay for Results" functionality to Elance Escrow to ensure that providers get paid on time for work completed, while making sure clients retain control in paying only for verifiable results delivered.

On Elance, clients are already able to safely release payment from escrow as they review and approve the work. The updated process helps clients and providers exchange payment on a timely basis. When milestones are marked complete in the weekly status report, the escrow release request is issued automatically to the client. Clients have up to 15 days to review and approve the work and release payment. In the event that a client does not take any action by day 30, the milestone is deemed to be approved and funds are released from escrow.

When it comes to getting work done, we all know how valuable it is to get input from multiple parties along the way. With this in mind, we’ve made some major improvements to the Elance Workroom that will allow you to invite whomever you want, whenever you want to collaborate with you in your workroom.

Here are a few really exciting new features that we’re very pleased to release:

Workroom Team Collaboration

Employers on Elance have long been asking for the ability to set up “company” accounts with the ability to add multiple team members and assign them role-based permissions. Effective immediately, employers can now add as many people as they want to their account and assign them roles such as Account Administrator, Manager, and Staff.

For example, imagine that you decide that you want to hire someone on Elance, want to participate in the hiring and payment process, but want to delegate the management of the work-in-process to someone else on your team. Quite easily done.

This means that you no longer have to share your log-in credentials with colleagues who are helping you manage your Elance jobs. Further, you can control the access of each team-member with permissions – for example, you may not want some people to be able to see or touch any of the payment activities.

With teams (a free feature), employers will have the best of all worlds – visibility into all work in process, while being able to delegate tasks and activities to colleagues as needed.

Invite A Guest To Your Workroom

We are also introducing a new workroom "guest" role to invite a client or colleague to a specific workroom with limited permissions and temporary access, for example to get feedback on a particular design or object.

Say you are a client working with a designer who has uploaded some mockups in your workroom. You want to show them to a colleague or partner and get their feedback. You can now invite them as a “guest” (whether they are registered on Elance or not), and they can join the workroom, view files, and leave their own comments for all parties to see. Guest user access automatically expires after the time period you set. You’re in control.

Many professionals, freelancers, mom-and-pop operations, and large-scale businesses are seeing the global landscape of work change right before their eyes. With just over two weeks remaining in the contest, we’re continuing to hear inspiring stories of everyone who’s knows, feels, believes, and lives by The New Way To Work.

First, we have a truly inspirational story from Julie Trade Levitch, a marketing copywriter and technical writing provider on Elance. Here’s several excerpts – check out the full story at Stay-At-Home Mom Starts A Global Business - Vator.TV: 

On January 3, 2007, my husband was very unexpectedly laid off along with many others in his office. He was given one week's pay and told to clean out his desk. He lost his job, his salary, and our family's health benefits. Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come.

After one fitful night of sleep full of worry, I woke up in the wee hours and began searching for projects on Elance. I responded to one in particular for a company that was looking for someone to write a white paper. I had a background in marketing and technical writing, so I decided to bid. I was awarded the project, and the pay was good! It was a mid-sized software company based in Hong Kong.