Elance Lessons: Bidding Selectively

I talked recently about the gamble I took on bidding on freelance writing jobs on Elance. I've only been using the site for three months but it seems that I'm a bit of gambler that way because I've not just rolled the dice but I just had to also learn about folding 'em and knowing when to walk away. I've learned some things this month that will change the way I bid on Elance in the future.

A few times in my writing career so far, I've had to walk away from clients because of various reasons such as not being suitable for their project, personality conflicts, finding their demands unrealistic, payment problems, and finding the pay to be unworthy of the effort required. I don't take ending relationships lightly but I am trying to remember that as a self-employed individual I get the benefit of deciding what I want to work on and of deciding who I want to work with. With Elance, this can get tricky. Why? The feedback mechanism. Once you accept a job, the buyer can have a big impact on your reputation so my new advice to myself is to be sure I really want to do the job before bidding.

Elance Feedback Scores

Part of the big appeal to buyers on Elance is the ability to get detailed history about providers. They can see how many projects you've worked on, what categories those projects are in, how much it costs the buyer to do business with you and they can see what others thought of your work. So, this means that as a provider on this job bidding site, you want stellar reviews from clients. I've already taken a few lower paying jobs that would help me build a positive reputation on the site but because my stats are still low due to being new to the site, one bad review could ruin all my hard work. I've seen a writer friend of mine have stellar reviews with five stars and a single bad review from a difficult buyer has made her score plummet.

Due to recent events, I've learned that if I want to use this freelance job bidding site, I have to be very choosy about providers I deal with, otherwise a bad review could ruin my ability to make money. I'm currently crossing my fingers that a buyer I've just dealt with won't hit 2 stars out of five because I've had to bow out of a project.

Bowing Out Of Elance Projects

This week I've come to the realisation that a project I've been working on is just not profitable and no longer enjoyable. I expected about 3-4 hours of work so priced it out accordingly. The project subject looked like an enjoyable one and one a topic I have a lot of experience in. The description made it appear like it would be easy money and good for my portfolio. I made two mistakes, though.

1. I didn't take into account the fact that the buyer was new and probably not real familiar with Elance policies. As a provider, I now realise that I should look for history with a buyer before I accept a project. Other providers can leave feedback too!
2. I didn't notice at first that the buyer, who invited me to bid on their project, didn't specify the project as escrow. That meant I was taking a financial risk by doing the project and would have to just hope they'd pay me.

Reading Reviews of Buyers

So, as much as I know how valuable reviews of my services are, I'm now going to seriously consider the feedback scores and history of the buyers I deal with before bidding and accepting a job.

• Do they have feedback scores that are positive?
  
• What kind of feedback have they left for other providers they've dealt with?
  
• And, does the project have an Escrow symbol?

Here's what happened to me recently, prompting this blog post:
Almost a month after a particular job, a project was still on my to-do list. The buyer didn't seem satisfied and has requested multiple rewrites. I understand the client has a vision for the finished product and it's a ghostwriting project so they should feel my writing style fits their voice but for some reason we've had trouble effectively communicating. This isn't something that typically happens to me with clients but I need to realise that not everyone is suited to work together and not everyone will love my writing style the first time I try to turn their vision into a written product.

This buyer isn't very quick to respond so this was dragging out well beyond the anticipated project scope and creating scheduling difficulties for me. So, because it didn't look like it'd end any time soon or end well so I finally decided to cut my losses and discount the project rate so I can bow out and move on. Hopefully my efforts will make this just 'go away' and hopefully the buyer chooses to ignore the feedback feature on the site. I did remark in my updated terms that we would choose to NOT leave negative feedback for one another. If they do, I'll be sure to defend myself in the hopes it doesn't hurt my ability to attract future buyers. I feel comfortable that I have made more than reasonable efforts to deliver what my bid was for but at this point if I have no desire to read over and revise my words again. I've definitely lost money and sadly, I've lost passion for the project. Passion is an essential ingredient for great writing ( in my humble opinion).

Things can go wrong even if you do your due diligence and investigate up front but I now know that I'll be a little more careful in future and hope that translates into a positive experience with this bidding site.

Instead of just feeling bad that I had a difficult experience and lost money, instead I'll take my own advice and learn from the experience. As I always say, "If you can't earn from it, make sure you learn from it."

Check out Elance here.

2009 Writing Goals: Staying Afloat As A Freelance Writer During A "Recession"

I last talked about 2009 writing goals and here's a continuation of that post. Because this year is a difficult year for the economy, here's what I'm doing for the moment as work has been a bit less of a veritable smorgasbord and this has required some tweaking of goals and approaches.

Existing Clients

I'm doing work for my existing client base (although on a smaller scale) and trying to keep them very happy with me so that I don't lose any clients. This has meant trimming the writing team a little and only using people I can rely on so that I don't jeopardize any currently stable relationships. I'm also writing more and subbing out a little less. I'm doing some risk management, too to ensure I don't have any big problems with a few slow payers who might disappear. I've seen a few clients slow down their payment cycle which puts me in a tough position so I'm trying to watch money very closely.

Job Bidding:

I'm quoting a bit lower than my usual rates to try to build my profile on Elance. So far, so good. Elance is a huge source of potential income but it's also a big source of competition so I'm continuing self-promotions efforts and SEO and promotion for my own website as well. I know writers earning six figures a year with job bidding sites so I'm investing $20 a month in a membership and seeing how it goes. I'm in month 2 and doing ok with some repeat business and one client who liked my first job enough to pay me almost double for a follow-up project. One-off clients are not my ultimate goal but can be good gap fillers for slow times and might build some more repeat business and referrals.

Client Queries:

If a potential client finds me, I'm quoting higher than I do on a bidding sites because they found me and saw something they liked on my website and so I have nothing to lose but I'm not quoting quite as high as I might have quoted six months ago--- or as high as I think I could be quoting because things have gone from feast to near famine for a lot of writers I know. I'm also offering some introductory rates to some new clients with potential for increases later on to protect myself.

Writer Evolution:

You have to evolve in order to stay alive in this industry so you're not writing at the same rates year after year or having to drop your pants and write for a penny a word when you're a ten year veteran because there is SO much competition. I'm trying to learn and spend time listening to successful people. I'm also trying to balance between writing for others and building my own online empire. I'm working on building value for existing clients as well so that they get more from me than they do from other writers.

This might be a year of transition for me instead of complete evolution as I decide which direction I want to take my business in. My desire in evolving means transitioning to more of my own work such as my blogs and internet marketing and writing what I want to write instead of having to write 30 articles on tire rubber so I can buy groceries.

Whatever I have to do, I definitely take comfort in knowing I can make enough money doing this that I don't have to go back to that rat race I ran from. The trick is, not letting *this* turn into just another rat race.

This might be a year of late nights and lower paying gigs to ride out the storm but I'm determined to make sure I also find a way to grow and evolve and continue to love my job.

2009 Goals: A Year of Transition?

Happy New Year. I know, I'm over a week late and haven't posted much lately but it's been an interesting month or so. Most years I'm ready well before December 31 with my list of goals and aspirations for a new year but here I am a week in to the new year still defining what I want this year to be about. Why? I think 2009 is going to be a bit of a roller coaster ride so instead of making firm plans, I'm bracing myself to be able to think and react quickly on my feet.

Right now is the time most writers are working on their designated resolutions. For me, I'm not really there at the moment because I'm kind of riding out a storm. Business has dwindled a little. This is happening to a lot of writers I know. A lot of the content factories are laying writers off or reducing quotas. Some of the clients are expecting more work for the same money as they try to survive in their own business. A lot of writers who do this for a full-time income are feeling the pinch.

A lot of the chatter around the online water coolers I frequent state that people are writing more and earning less because they're finding some of the pickings to be slim and writing for less than their normal rates so that they can pay their bills. Some are transitioning to part-time freelancing and grabbing non-writing jobs while they feel they can still get jobs. A lot of people are scared.

As the available gigs dwindle, the competition increases and as that happens, rates tend to drop. When I started doing this almost 3 years ago people the veterans I considered to be my mentors were talking about the rates that they used to get before they got a lot of competition. My rates have steadily climbed in three years but now today, I'm bidding for jobs on places like Elance for lower rates than I typically charge.

Am I going backwards instead of forward? I don't think so. I'm hunting for work to keep things afloat and need diversify and develop more income streams. This might mean taking a dip in income so that I can survive. I think that's part of being an entrepreneur. I don't think of myself as taking a pay cut. I think I'm striving to save my business from extinction.

Places like Elance are a crap shoot but I need to make sure I don't put all my eggs in one basket in this day and age and I know writers earning good money through bidding sites so between Elance and some repeat client work I'm doing ok for the time being. I'm not ready to set monetary goals for 2009 yet other than to continue to trudge forward but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about the future.

A goal I'd have liked to have set this year was to achieve more balance in my life. I want to write more for me and for my own projects and start to take weekends off. I'd also like to take the first vacation I've had in several years while still raising my rates. I'm not sure if that's going to happen but that doesn't mean I'm failing. The thing about setting realistic goals as a self-employed person is that you don't have to consider yourself a failure if you don't reach all your goals. Not all goals need to have a dollar figure attached. If you can identify early that you need to be flexible in what your goals and plans are, you can have a better chance of riding out a storm without sinking into the depths of despair because you're earning less.

This post got a bit long so stay tuned for part two where I'll get into detail about how I'm planning on riding out the storm.
Cheers to your writing success in 2009!

Dana