Jobs to Avoid on Bid Sites
I was lucky when I first started working with bid sites because I mostly had a pretty good instinctive flair for avoiding the same sorts of jobs that tend to trip up most people when they begin. Now, most of what I tell you will pertain to writing jobs, but I suspect that some of the principles that I'm about to teach you will carry other to over types. That's because a lot of times what I'm reading is the tone of the work order as much as anything else about it. Here are the warning signs I look for that tells me to steer clear. It's not perfect--I've still had a bad client or two--but the system I've devised works pretty decently all the same.
1. You must be able to do back flips. And you must have a PhD. And you must be able to demonstrate that you are practically perfect in every way.
Detailed job postings with clear qualifications and expectations are good things, don't get me wrong. But sometimes you come across a buyer who has clearly been burned...a lot. Or, conversely, they are trying to set up impossible standards so they don't have to pay you later. If you read through a laundry list of unreasonable expectations, then you're out for trouble. One of my favorites is the one that says you must never ever misspell or typo a word. Of course you proofread and you try to eliminate them but I guarantee nobody is 100% perfect. Why stress yourself out unnecessarily?
2. This is an easy job if you know what you're doing.
I will rarely bid on a post that includes these words unless, in my estimation, it really is an easy job and I'm just trying to pick up some back end money. Usually, this means two things. It means, number one, that the buyer thinks he should pay $5 for $50 worth of work. It also means the buyer has zero respect for myself, my profession, or the work I put into it. None of these are good signs. Writers get it more than, say, web designers because people think that anyone who can type can write. When in fact, writing, and writing well, demands a lot more than simply putting words on a page. However, if you get it for some of the web design, programming, or other professions, which I will admit are probably harder than writing, don't walk, just RUN.
3. I will be checking to make sure you have done this work yourself.
In the writing world, this always means "copyscape." However I'm sure with any design or creative work you'll run into some equivalent statement. I don't work with anyone who goes in deciding, from the beginning, that I'm out to cheat them. My professional reputation is paramount for me. Anyone who doubts me to the point that they're going to be insulting right from the beginning is not going to work with me.
4. Payment on delivery, nothing up front, don't even ask, ever!
Translation: I don't really have the money for this job, and even if I get it into escrow I'm going to take my sweet time about releasing the escrow because I want to see if I can get out of using escrow somehow. I may well fund the escrow with a payment source I know will ultimately be returned and time the deadline so that you get to find out after the fact. It's not that you should never take a paid-on-delivery job. I take plenty of them, though the 30% up front I require of newer clients and bigger jobs is always sweeter for the cash flow. However, someone who is already worried about the dread day where they'll have to pay you for your work is not a client you want to take on.
5. The Great Two Line Job Description
My favorite was:
ebook need
That was it. The whole job description. Which was only one line, but you get the point. You don't want to take a job like this because you don't know if you're qualified for it or not. I mostly write on marketing and business topics, with the occasional foray into spirituality. I've done one or two health related books, though guiltily because my brownie time seems to match my gym time to arrive at a steady weight which Shall Not Be Moved. If someone shoves a relationship topic at me, though, I flounder and fail, because I'm unlucky in love and I'm not very romantic in any case. My idea of romance is to look at a man and say, directly, "I think you're really cute and I'd like to pursue a relationship. How's that work for you?" If he says he doesn't feel that way about me I move on, if he does, great. The two relationship books I ended up with were like pulling teeth. So what if Mr. Ebook Need had needed a book about relationships, or about reprogramming computers, or about replacing car parts? I'd have been up you-know-what creek, that's what, and we'd have both been unhappy.
6. My minimum bid is $50! Don't bid if you won't take $50!
Your minimum bid is $50 for your 500 articles project? How nice for you. Don't undercut yourself or sell yourself short. "Working from home" is not the same as making a living from home. You want to make a living from home. Therefore, you do not want to work for $1 an hour. If you're a writer, let me warn you from experience that writing 50 articles on the same topic in two weeks is tedious, writing 100 in 2 weeks is torture, and I can't even imagine 500 of them because I've never reached that level of masochism. I set a per article rate of $10-$15 and I stick to it. People pay it. If you're good at what you do, people will pay you a reasonable going rate for that too. Working at home is business. It is not this fabulous gift that you're being given, so wonderful that a few mere pennies should more than compensate for your time and trouble. Screw that, man, you've got rent or a mortgage and, in the immortal words of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, "A powerful need to eat sometime this month."
7. Generally Negative Tone
It's sometimes hard to predict how you come across in a text based medium, so I will make allowances. That said, if someone comes across with a generally negative or mean tone, I take a pass. I don't take well to negative or mean tones anyway. If I have to deal with them every time I deal with a client, I'm going to be unhappy. I don't know of many people who really like to work with a negative or mean tone, but everyone has a different tolerance.
8. 72 Bids
By the time there are 20 bids you're already potentially burning a bid to try for a project. At 20, I wouldn't waste a bid unless I was super qualified. It's not that there's too much competition exactly. I want you to believe in yourself and your skills. It's that most buyers don't look much past the first 3 unless those first 3 are totally unsuitable. If there were 20 bids from brand new providers then I might do it, but again only if I really really wanted the job. By 30 bids I won't try under any circumstances. The buyer is just too spoiled for choice to make it worth my money. Since I pay for bids I'm paying to bid, if that makes sense. By 40, 50, 60, or 70 bids that buyer is just looking for quotes and all 70 people have wasted their time. I try to be one of the first 3 bidders on jobs, which has increased my success rate. Therefore I sort jobs by bids given. My favorite number to see in that case is zero.
9. Buyer posts a lot of jobs but actually buys none of them.
You can check a buyer's stats and you should. If the buyer posts a lot of jobs but doesn't buy a lot then it means that he's a shopper. He gets a lot of quotes. You're statistically likely to be wasting your bid if you try to work with this buyer. Again, you can take the chance if it's really something you want to do, or if you've got bids to burn that month, but you should be aware. Sometimes it means that the buyer posts the bid to six or seven bid sites and then makes a choice across those sites. Either way, it does not entirely mean good things for you when it comes to making a business decision about whether or not you're going to offer your services.
Don't be tempted to think like an employee. Bid sites are a two way street. In employee mode you're going to want to leap at every job you can to show the new "bosses" that you are worthy of raises and promotions. Think like an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur recognizes that "clients" aren't the goal--the "RIGHT clients" are the goal.
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