Socialance launches free competitor to the Elance brigade – Get an invite here

New startup Socialance is joining the cavalcade of sites that ‘connect freelancers and employers’ alongside oDesk, Elance, or Freelancer. But the difference, says 23 year old founder Guillermo Vigil, is that this is is more like a hybrid of Elance and LinkedIn, in that it hooks into social networks, therefore resolving the ‘trust’ issue. It’s also free. We have 500 invites to give away to TechCrunch readers to kick the types, so grab them here.

Socialance tries to look after its members by dividing projects into milestones which have to be funded (one at a time) and the money is kept in escrow, so they (with any luck) get paid if they deliver what the employer asked – although admittedly most other competitors offer this service. A “news feed”-like experience has that familiar social network feel to it.

Another difference with its competitors is that the site is completely free and will take no % of each project.

For a one-man band startup it’s not a bad effort, and the attraction of free may well help it get some traction.