Your entire profile’s star ratings or feedback score in Elance is calculated on the basis of your individual job’s weight against other jobs. The time-frame of the jobs should be within the past 12 months. The feedback score for one job is based on the weight of each six criteria that clients leave the feedback on. It may sound complicated but it is a simple formula that the freelancing site uses.
If you are a Freelancer in Elance.com, you know the importance of the star ratings. Your average job rating for the particular category is displayed when you apply for a job. It is not only displayed in your profile but it is also shown when you submit a proposal. Job providers use that metric to identify whether or not a freelancer is trustable. Hence, it is necessary to keep the feedback score high.
How the Average Score is Actually Calculated
The score is the average of all the job ratings weighed by their total earnings for the past 12 months. It means that ratings of jobs with high earnings have higher impact while jobs with low earnings have lower impact. It is just a simple weighted average method.
A simple example:
You have 2 job ratings within the past 12 months.
You got 4 stars for one job and 5 stars for the other.
How much will your star rating be?
It is certainly not 4.5 which happens to be the simple average (4+5)/2 = 4.5
You will have to look at the earnings of those individual jobs.
So if Job 1 with 4 stars has $100 paid and Job 2 with 5 stars has $200 paid, we can calculate the rating as:
Total Earning = 100 + 200 = 300.
Rating = (100/300 X 4) + (200/300 X 5) = 4.66
4.66 rounded gives 4.7 so your star reputation in Elance would show 4.7 stars.
This is just a simple example as there are usually more than two jobs for the past 12 month’s work in Elance. You can use the same formula to calculate the ratings for as many jobs as you want. Just remember to calculate the weight of each job to the total earnings and multiply it to the rating you get for it. Then do the same for all the other rated jobs and add them up.
Notes:
- Even if a job is marked complete and if you are still getting paid for it, the ratings might change as the total earning and its weight changes.
- Jobs without ratings do not impact your feedback score. So their earnings do not add to the weight.
- You can ask for ratings even if the job is in progress. You can do it as soon as you receive the first payment.
- After a client provides feedback, it is not immediately shown in your profile. Only after the next payment is made or if the job is ended, the rating shows up alongside your job history.
- For a single job, the rating is based on five categories:
- Quality of work (30%)
- Responsiveness (20%)
- Professionalism (15%)
- Subject matter expertise (15%)
- Adherence to schedule (10%)
- Adherence to cost (10%)
Each of the above criteria has weights assigned to them. The rating for an individual job is based on such weights and how the client rates in each criterion. See it officially explained by Elance here.
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