Deborah Woehr

Deb Ng at Freelance Writing Jobs wrote a good piece about freelance bidding sites, called Are Bidding Sites Worth It?. I started to post a comment, but it was turning a bit long. So, I will post it here. My perspective is a bit unique because I used Elance both to gain writing assignments and to post projects.

I signed up for both Guru and Elance back in 2003 and had a mixed experience. My very first assignment involved writing a resume for a man who was trying to get a promotion within his company. He was working overseas at the time, so his wife posted the project. I earned $50 and a glowing review. Not bad for my first assignment. The next assignment caught me by surprise. I came home from work one day to find my phone ringing. It was a client who had found me on Elance and hired me for a ghostwriting project, simply because I had included my phone number in my profile. The last Elance client wanted me to compile and rewrite the works of other writers for his ebook. I wound up walking away from that project because of ethics and payment issues. I also canceled my subscriptions to Elance and Guru.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I posted a couple of projects on Elance and found some great writers for an article assignment. While everyone else paid pennies, I paid the writers $65 for a 1,200-word article. While that wasn’t great pay (compared to the money you would get for publishing at, say, The New Yorker), the writers I hired respected me and did their best to write good articles. One of them wrote a series of articles for the website I was working on, while another wrote a press release for that website. That website is long gone, but the experience of working with these writers was an enjoyable education on what it’s like to be a freelance writer as well as an editor.

Writers appreciate clients who:

1. Have clear ideas about their projects and how they want them executed.
2. Are level-headed and realistic about their goals for the project.
3. Pay on time.

Clients appreciate writers who:

1. Are professional. For example, I had one bidder whose post dripped with a bad attitude. Needless to say, I didn’t hire her.
2. Are honest about their abilities.
3. Show a genuine interest in the assignment.
4. Produce original, quality work on time and within their budget.

Those were the first things I learned, some by experience and often by reading the complaints in the provider reviews and job postings. Plagiarism was (and may still be) a major issue with clients. Payment, communication, and contract issues were chief complaints among the writers.

Are Bidding Sites Worth the Bother?

Most of you would say no, and I would have to agree. The subscription prices alone have kept me away. You have to wade through miles of crappy assignments before you find a client that’s willing to pay for quality writing. Landing an assignment was difficult back in 2003. Now, I’m hearing that it’s even harder because job posters expect you to have a feedback rating before they’ll consider hiring you. If I’m going to use Elance or Guru for anything, it’s to generate ideas for writing samples and book covers.

I’ve found that I’ve had more success networking through blogging than I’ve ever had with bidding sites. How about you?