Starting out is tough. You know you want to make a career of it, but you’re not always sure where that first, or even fifth client will come from. And you’re nervous. Either you’ve quit that job and must make it work or you’re marking time and can’t take the full leap until the workload outpaces your day job.
That’s probably the biggest reason people turn to paid job listing sites. The more popular among them – eLance, Guru – require a fee for you to see the jobs. They also expect you to bid for the job, eLance holding its bidding process in full view of other bidders. Mind you, many of these sites have free listings for all, but you have to weed through tons of ones you’re not able to apply for before finding them. At least for Guru, they remind you with a “Can’t Apply” type notation on each one you pass by.
I fell for this once. I paid $74.99 for a three-month subscription to Guru. I had found one client on the free site that led to a number of smallish projects, but curiosity got to me. I paid in hopes of finding these premium listings the company touted.
Funny that word “premium.” The job listings I suddenly had access to were, well, crap. If you were looking on Craig’s List and found a job listing paying $10 an article – just like that times fifty. I was sure I was seeing the basic jobs, but a closer look revealed that no, that’s what I got for my $74.99.
I wrote the company, complaining that there were too many of these jobs that were well beneath a professional writer’s skill level. The response I expected was a promise to look into it. However, the response I received was basically this – We don’t discriminate against listers (especially since we collect their fee like everyone else’s) and there are enough writers applying that it can’t be that much of an issue.
I canceled instantly.
This coming from me, someone who used to justify right here the validity of these sites. Yes, I did score two good clients from it, but one was on the free portion. The other never turned into the huge moneymaker it should have been.
So today’s advice – don’t pay for what should be free. Job listings shouldn’t be your main focus for finding work, anyway. You should be much more pro-active, finding those clients you want to work with and convincing them they can’t do without you. And any job that requires you to bid openly against other writers creates a feeding frenzy where the only winner is the schmuck who gets hours of your talent for a dollar.
How long did you belong to the paid/bidding sites? What was your experience?
I have never paid for a listing site. I think that's crap. I go out and hustle my own work. There are plenty of well-paid jobs that list in classifieds and through organizations like Media Bistro. Not to mention looking around and seeing what local places need writers and creating a pitch to meet needs.
Years ago I joined guru thinking it would be easier to get clients. Ha! By networking locally, I would find prospects and close one out of three of them. On guru, despite about 50 customized proposals for jobs I thought I was a perfect fit for, I closed … zilch. What a waste of time. (These days, I don't network locally anymore, my closing rate is more like 2 out of 3, and most of my prospects come to me as prequalified referrals.)
I never paid for any Guru-type sites either. I looked into them, but when I found there was a fee involved, I clicked right out of there.
My Dad had a saying-even a blind hog picks up an acorn every now and then. So, while you probably can find the occasional good gig, those are the exceptions.
My foray into freelancing has been more recent. But, after 30+ years in Corporate America, I liken these sites to the Job Search firms that charge a fee. If you ever used one, didn't you find much the same – a whole lot of nothing?
I had the same experience as Eileen except with Elance.
When I first started freelancing, I spent a lot of time researching bidding sites on a writer's forum where the majority of experienced writers kept telling us newbies, "Don't do it!" But I ignored their good advice and my own nagging feeling that it was a bad idea and joined anyway.
I suspect I was bidding too high (I say this because clients would actually contact me privately asking if I would consider lowering my bid), so I quit after only a month.
I still hear experienced writers, some who are very well respected, say that it worked (or works) for them. That may be the case, but it wasn't right for me. I seemed to do much better when I went out and hustled (to quote Devon)up my own business. But that's just MY experience.
Blogger hates me today. Just swallowed up my response. Grrr…
Cathy, I love your dad's wisdom. 🙂 So true! And you're right – if they're charging a fee, they're winning, not us.
Eileen, same experience. The jobs that fit like a glove – nothing. So it forces you to apply for anything that sounds decent. Still nothing. Worse, I had a dude write and say "Your bid was three times that of everyone else's. What makes you think you'll get it?" I responded "Because this is my job, not my hobby. I get my rate easily because I deliver what's promised." Never heard from him again, but then he wasn't looking for quality, was he?
Devon, so right. The work is there. These sites try to sell the ease of it, but in the end you're better off putting the effort into real clients, not clients looking for bargains.
Same here, Kim. My experience was that I spent more time (and money) trying for jobs I never won than it was worth.
Blogger isn't liking me either. I don't feel like re-typing the whole response, so here's the shorter version.
I've only used Elance, myself. There's nothing like paying for headaches, headaches and more headaches.
I used Elance for about two years, and found two or three clients there who paid fairly well (about middle-of-the-road well, but good for me at the beginning of my career) and who turned out to be ongoing. I still work with one of them.
At the time when I was successful on Elance, I had a policy of only bidding what I felt was fair, regardless of what other writers charged–I refused to play the underbid game. I had good reviews and a solid work history on the site so I could get away with this. I was paying for an elite membership, and this did make a difference because buyers perceived it as a reflection of your quality.
Since then, Elance has changed its fee structure. I got off the site and haven't looked back, and now I'm charging a lot more than I used to charge on the site. Looking back, I think it was an OK way to start off then (I wouldn't recommend it now, with the site's changes). But I do think that staying on it for so long held me back.
I've never joined one of those sites. First, $50 or $75 is a lot of money to me, so I would never spend that without being certain I'd easily recoup the investment. And I just don't see that happening with bidding sites.
Why? Two main reasons:
1) Idiots desperate for work will always under bid the real value of the time and effort any given job requires. Let them have it.
2) There are hundreds if not thousands of other people bidding on or applying for the same job.(Some may even be qualified, too!) So instead of spending my valuable time pitching myself and my services along with thousands of other applicants/bidders, I'd rather seek out potential markets on my own and be one of the only writers they hear from on a given day. (Even when I see a promising publication in a market listing, I'll wait a while before sending a query so it won't be lost in the post-listing onslaught.)
In short: Stay above the fray or you'll be swallowed up by it.
I know I answered you both yesterday, but Blogger was eating responses like candy.
Jen, you're smart about it. Bid on what fits YOU, and bid your rate, not theirs.
Paula, I'm tattooing that on my forehead – Stay above the fray. Excellent advice!
I used Elance early in my career, and hit on one client who paid me about 80/hr for about two years. Now,t hat may be the exception, but I was quite happy with my elance experience!
Never used a paid service. My experiences with free job listing sites have left me… Well jobless. Prefer to approach potential clients directly. Only thing that's worked for me so far!
Allena, I had one like that with Guru, but only one. It lasted about a year and the jobs were irregular. Not worth paying for, I'll tell you!
I agree, Karen. Wow them and convince them their lives are incomplete without you. 🙂
I got a few editing jobs from one client on Guru & decided to pay for a membership. Wish I hadn't – I found nothing else worthwhile.
I looked at elance, but any jobs that I thought *may* be decent would require a membership & a bunch of connections or tokens or whatever they use.
Staying away from all of them as they are a complete waste of time. So frustrating!
Exactly that, Becky. Same for me with Guru – that one client made me pony up the cash. What a waste.
I'm on elance now, with the idea that it may help me get additional writing samples together, since I'm starting out and want my name out there. However, what I'm finding is that most clients give their work to the lowest bidder, usually for an extremely low amount ($55 for a 12,000 word ebook?) It's discouraging, and there seems to be no way to make anything resembling a living through these sites. The comments to "go out and get the work yourself" are great in spirit but not especially practical advice. I'm quite frustrated today.