Writerly Musings

Thursday, July 27, 2006

My opinion on Bidding Sites

There has been a great amount of debate over the value of freelance bidding sites such as Rent A Coder or Elance to writers. Not only are tempers soaring over the prospect of paying fees for these services, but also there is some degree of ill will directed at the many clients who expect quality work for wages that seem insultingly low.

In response to the argument about fees, I see it as this. We all know that time is money. If I were to have to find 20 jobs to bid on elsewhere, it would take a significant amount of time, I would still have to apply for these jobs and there would still be some degree of competition. I get a list from Rent a Coder every morning. It is waiting for me with my morning tea each and every morning of at least 15 or so positions that I am qualified for, no fuss, no wasted time sorting through countless job boards or posted ads trying to find the few that I am either qualified for or interested in.

In addition to the fact that all the jobs are in one convenient location and perhaps my favorite feature of Rent A Coder, is that RAC has the buyer place the funds into an escrow account to be paid upon completion and acceptance by the buyer. This means that a third party guarantees the funds—unless you fail to meet your obligation to the buyer, you will receive funds for the work you’ve done in a timely manner. This beats, hands down, sending continuous reminder emails to a client in hopes of actually getting paid by that client.

I absolutely hate the collections process, even more than that; I hate not getting paid for my hard work. The fact that I have never once had that worry with Rent a Coder is well worth the 15% that I give up on each project.

As to the argument of bidding against others who offer to work for next to nothing—this would be true on or off these bidding sites. If someone has advertised a position, you can bet there are those that will offer to do it for less just to get the work. Writing is a highly competitive field, particularly web content writing. We all bring different talents and skills to the table and should feel comfortable asking what we think we are worth.

Make your offer and stand your ground. Sometimes you will win the bid even though your bid was higher than others based on previous ratings or the quality of your sample. I have come to understand that this is a global marketplace and we are competing with people who have different standards of living. What may seem wildly unacceptable to me may feed a family somewhere else for a month. We have to keep that in mind and understand that money is what almost everyone is looking for. Those who are hiring writers want the best possible articles and content they can get for the lowest amount they can get away with paying. Consider, that they may be struggling to pay the bills or just starting out as well.

Don’t be insulted by those who offer peanuts just move on to the next one. Life is too short to waste the effort required to work up an indignant rage. The truth is that no matter how much or little we are working for, the chances are that there is someone that is hungry enough to do it for less. You just have to maintain your standards and integrity in the hopes that they, along with your stellar clips, will be enough to land you the position you seek.

Posted by Andrea :: 2:34 PM :: 1 Comments:

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