As a freelance writer who frequents the bidding sites, I am painfully aware of what the laissez-faire approach has done to the job market. There are almost no restrictions on which jobs get posted or who posts them on these sites. As result, the online freelance market is flooded with subpar jobs that are a huge waste of your time.
If you want your freelance business to be successful, you need to find the diamonds in the rough. There are a number of red flags that I pay attention to when I’m looking through Elance, Odesk, or Vworker to find new writing gigs. As soon as I see one of them, I skip past the job posting and read something else. I advise you do the same.
Never Read A Post That Says “Articles Required”
It’s gotten to the point where just seeing the word “article” makes me cringe. There are usually at least three of these kinds of postings on every page of job listings, and almost all of them are a complete waste of your time. The buyers are usually looking for bulk content at a very low price with no regard to the quality of the content you create.
Don’t allow yourself to take part in this online sweatshop! The writers who make the big bucks are the ones who promote their skills, not the ones who can feverishly spin spam at an exhausting pace. Respect yourself, learn to write like a badass, and you will be praised for your creativity.
Don’t Bid On Any Projects That Don’t Have A Specific Job Description
There is no better way to know your potential client is totally clueless than to see a vague project description. If your client doesn’t even bother to write a lengthy job description with all the details of the work you will be doing, he probably isn’t too serious about the project.
Whenever I see descriptions that are vague or lacking in content, I assume one of two things. The buyer will either cancel the project or she will be the worst person to work with once she accepts your bid. It’s a sad reality that most projects on the bidding sites will never see the light of day. Don’t waste your time on the ones that are destined for the rubbish bin.
Don’t Work With Buyers Who Have No Payment History
This leads me to my next point. The bidding sites are a giant hub of activity. New buyers and providers are constantly coming and going. Because anybody can create a profile and suffer no consequences for canceling a project, most first-time projects never make it to the funding stage.
This is tough advice to give because I want to encourage new buyers to sign up and look for the freelancer who is an ideal match for them. Unfortunately, trust should never be assumed. It has to be earned. If you are a new buyer, it is best to start with a small project and leverage its successful completion for bigger and better projects in the future.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. I will sometimes bid on a project from a new buyer if the buyer has taken the time to create a detailed description of what I will be doing. This shows me that the buyer cares about quality and is serious enough to think the project through.
Don’t Work With Buyers Who Haven’t Paid Well In The Past
One nice thing about the bidding sites is their transparency. If your buyer has a project history, I advise you to look through it. Try to find projects that are similar to the one in the job description. Buyers often purchase the same services more than once, so this is fairly likely. If you see that the buyer didn’t pay his writer a decent hourly rate on the last project, chances are he won’t be willing to cough up more money for your services the second time around.
There is an added advantage to doing this kind of research. Once you find your ideal client, you will know exactly how much to bid on the project! People like familiarity. When you market yourself as the person who can pick up where the last provider left off, you will win more projects.
In an ideal world, we would go online and legions of like-minded people would approach us with as many job opportunities as we need. Sadly, this is not so. Just like we screen out potential friends, we should screen out potential clients. Don’t waste your time with people who are unorganized and don’t respect your work. If you do, you will miss out on all of the higher paying opportunities.