I’m Alex Yoon, a member of the internal team here at Elance, and I came across your blog post discussing ElanceEnergy and felt that I should reach out and clarify a few things that would help answer questions that you and your readers may have.

As the commenter “Salma” mentioned, Elance Energy is an entrant into our The New Way To Work contest and does not have a formal relationship with Elance of any kind. Branding issues aside, if Wesley Asbell chooses to find his contractors or freelancers through Craigslist or other formats, that’s his choice and is completely independent to Elance, but we here at Elance stand by and use skilled professionals in our Provider Network on a daily basis to fulfill a wide variety of tasks, ranging from writing, programming, customer support, quality assurance, and more.

The article is based on the belief that Elance Energy and Elance are one in the same or is a part of our business when it’s not true. If you could please correct the article as soon as possible to reflect this, we here at Elance would greatly appreciate it.

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As you all may or may not know, I post jobs here weekly. But I’m more than just a human version of Monster.com–I’ve got dreams and aspirations. I’ve got a sense of humor too. And I do a biweekly column in which I talk about humorous aspects of blogging, freelancing, and all that.

Yesterday, my dual capacity here on AFW ended up colliding. Let me show you this little ad I found on Craigslist. I’m copying the full text in case this is taken down.

Seeking a freelance writer or blogger to write content for our websites. We run and develop numerous websites to help promote existing companies. We are working to expand the content on our social profiles, websites, and create blogs for www.ElanceEnergy.com and ElanceTag (www.elancenergy.com/tag.html). More jobs will follow as we are rapidly growing. We need writer within the next week. Please send your resume, work examples, and rate. Feel free to add your info and content to our twitter page and facebook group. Looking for a telecommuter that is quick and has great writing skills. Compensation: $20 – $70 based on experience.

Did you see who that’s for? Elance.com, one of the biggest freelance bidding sites out there. What in the heck are they doing on Craigslist, trolling for people to create content? This is bad. This is potentially really bad. Maybe this is only some sort of promotional thing to do some branding for Elance, but I’m not convinced–the ad was only placed in the San Francisco Craigslist, and having been tricked by the bait-and-switch before, they usually don’t ask for samples.

To summarize: Elance is not even using their own service to find writers.

To illustrate my point a little better, let’s think of what this would be like in other industries:

• Ford executives driving Toyotas
• Coca-Cola employees drinking Pepsi
• A temp agency using another temp agency to staff their receptionist position
• Eating fried chicken with Jillian Michaels
• Philip Morris executives not smoking (oh wait)

Again, to summarize: Elance is using Craigslist to find a writer rather than using their own site–which they talk about being really super awesome–to find one. On top of THAT, they misspelled the URL of the site they want you to write for. And now, gentle readers, I am going to lay down with a wet cloth on my head. I officially have a headache from trying to figure out what the hell they were thinking.