You Need Not Bid Low To Land That FIRST Freelance Assignment!

It is astonishing that there are many newbie freelancers out there who bid completely ridiculous rates, simply to land that first freelance job on freelance job sites like Elance, oDesk, Freelancer, etc.

Mind you, this includes professionals who come into the freelance arena with years of experience behind them.

Somehow, somewhere along the way, they have been told that they need to place very low bids in order for clients to give them that much needed break, which will effectively pave the way for their entry into the coveted world of online freelancing.

Honestly, reality could not have been further from the truth.

I as an Indian freelancer, without any high flying Ivy League college degrees or work experience in any of the Fortune 500 companies, never really felt the need to bid so low, so if you are an individual who is entering  the freelance space with years of professional experience behind you, or a college degree from one of the most reputed institutes around, and so on, you need to be all the more realistic with regard to the budgets you quote.

Additionally, you need to bear in mind the fact that while these freelance job sites are filled to the brim with very low paying jobs, there are some good quality jobs with realistic pay scales as well. Those are precisely the kind of jobs that you need to target. An excellent instance would be eBook / Book projects where I have observed the pay scales to be particularly realistic, in line with the kind of compensation that one could expect in the "real world".

Also, there are many companies or businesses working with freelancers directly, and they are more than happy to pay realistically. In most cases, price erosion on the better quality freelance sites (only Elance really, remaining are pretty much run of the mill) takes place primarily because of sub-contracting. So if X lands a job, whether on the same freelance site, some other site, or in the "real world", he or she in turn sub-contracts it on any of the common freelance sites, for much lower, pocketing the margin in between.

It is these aspects which I summarized in the following video, also showcased on my freelancing specific YouTube channel:

As a novice in the realm of online freelancing via these freelance job sites, it is imperative that you remain alert to these dynamics. You do not want your professional credence, your reputation as an individual or business that has always functioned with incredible integrity, to be compromised in anyway.

Keeping these aspects in mind, I would reiterate my assertion about not bidding low, even if you do not have any prior feedback or work history on any of these freelance sites. Remember that sooner or later, you will get a job which respects your professional background and pays you commensurately, in spite of not having any prior feedback or experience on these sites.

Anyone advising you otherwise, especially with regard to bidding very low just to bag that first job or two, is really giving you WRONG advise.

Never Ever Force Yourself To Work At Unrealistic Client-Stated Budgets

On freelance sites like Elance as well as others, I have very often noticed that even when clients state budgets which are completely ridiculous to say the least, freelancers actually go ahead and bid on such jobs, at the budget quoted by these clients.

This is in spite of the fact that heart of hearts, the freelancers know very well that the budget they are quoting is in no way commensurate to the time and effort that they would be expending on the said task.

As a hypothetical example, let us consider a job which seeks 5 different iterations for a corporate logo that a new business in town is seeking for itself. Now, this business has specified a budget of $100 at $20 for each iteration of the logo - this may seem audacious, ridiculous and laughable to you but fact of the matter is that such job postings also see a lot of bids being placed from freelance contractors, including ones from developed markets like the US or the UK!

Another instance would be a job posting which seeks out say 20 articles of 500 words each, and intends to pay a total of $50, which works out to a sub-slave wage $2.50 per article (if you think this is as bad as things can get, believe me you aren't seen nothing yet, since there are contractors actually bidding by the droves on "artical jobs" (article spelt that way on purpose) which pay a $ or less for each article as well!!

A lot of this undercutting and bargain basement pricing - as quoted by clients, is in fact the doing of contractors themselves. Essentially, somewhere they have come to this (outright false) misconception that the only way they can really win jobs is by quoting totally unrealistic bids which are farfetched from reality, from real world prices, which we pay for items around us.

These are thoughts which I have shared in the video below, which can also be seen on my freelancing specific YouTube channel.

Through this article, I wish to raise awareness about the fact that you NEED NOT & SHOULD NOT bid unrealistically, only to win jobs on freelance sites. Even as an Indian in the Writing & Translation category on Elance, who has to face a multitude of challenges along the way in trying to win jobs, especially but not limited to all kinds of biases against Indian and South Asian freelance writers about their presumed lack of nativity to the English language - which of course is yet another classic instance of complete misconception as I highlighted in this blog post, I have never resorted to this sort of despicable underbidding.

Remember that each dollar gets me 50 units of my local currency (Indian Rupee) - at least at currently prevailing exchange rates, and yet, since I pay hefty sums for every little thing I purchase here (after all things are not on face value parity terms here whereby I would pay a Rupee for what you would a Dollar in the US). Rather, it is very likely that I would pay 50 Rupees (or maybe even more; a classic instance being the price of petrol - or gasoline as it is referred to in the US, which is priced higher in India than in the US) for the same item which you would pay a solitary $.

So my point is, when an Indian freelancer, even with such highly favorable exchange rates, finds it totally despicable to be bidding very low on freelance sites, what compels you as a freelancer from say the US or the UK to be bidding so low?? What will those measly pennies really get you?? Don't you want to live in such a way that you have easy access to all the good things in life?

Think about these things, the next time you look to bid unrealistically low - amounts which you know are totally unrealistic and in no way commensurate to the time and effort you will be investing on the job at hand.

An Indian Can Be A "Native English Speaker" Too!

Way too often, we hear the term "native English speaker" and invariably the notion is seemingly towards nationals of countries like the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or at the most South Africa.

So in a sense, the allusion seems towards the (presumed) "fact" that nationals of countries other than the ones mentioned above, cannot possibly be "native" to the English language.

This is really such a false notion! I cannot even imagine as to how on Earth did this presumption come along?!

After all, if I take my country, viz. India, there are millions of individuals like me who are very well versed with the English language, to an extent wherein they can read and write fluently in it, without any spelling and grammar issues. Yes, there are some idioms or phrases which a lot of Indians tend to use in a manner as though those phrases and idioms are global to the English language (which they are in fact NOT and purely an Indianized form of usage), but by and large I would say that a very large number of Indians use the English language just as well as nationals from countries I mentioned right in the beginning of this article.

Specific to freelancing, what annoys me to no end is the fact that there are bids on freelance sites which are often declined by clients purely because the freelancer in question happened to be from India, or some such perceived "non native country". This is simply outrageous as well as preposterous in my opinion. 

Nationality and nativity are really TWO DIFFERENT THINGS - and one need not necessarily be correlated to the other. This is an aspect which I had emphatically pointed out in the following video on my freelancing specific YouTube channel, which you can see below:

As you will note, this whole (outright false) assumption around nationals from countries other than the ones I mentioned right at the outset NOT being native to the English language is one which annoys me to no end - and one which I am passionate about to an extent wherein I really would like to try and change the mentality of clients around this aspect.

I want them to realize that they should not write off writers from countries like India, Pakistan among others, simply because they happen to be from these countries. India in particular has a very long "English language legacy" which has come down from the British, over a period spanning centuries.

For instance, I would like to point out that:

• Most official correspondence in India, say at a governmental or administrative level, invariably takes place in the English language.
• Students, including myself (viz. back in the day when I was a "student" in the real sense, although the learning part is of course taking place even till date, and will continue till I am alive) study and learn in the English language, almost entirely. Naturally, by the time they reach college and beyond, they are in a commanding position as far as their comprehension of and comfort with the English language is concerned.
• India has seen Booker Prize winners of the likes of Arundhati Roy, as well as a host of other prize winners in the realm of English language literature.
• The largest circulated English language daily is in fact an Indian one, The Times of India.

There are instances galore...I could simply go on and on.

Fact of the matter is that freelance websites like Elance (to a relatively lesser extent), oDesk, Freelancer, Guru, etc. see job postings with some of the most pathetic pay scales, which in turn leads to freelancers on these sites being some of the most low grade in quality. That is the reason, while it may be (perhaps is) true that English language freelance writers on these sites are not really the best quality, it does not in anyway mean that Indians as a whole are not comfortable or well versed with the English language.

If I take my own instance, if you pay me well, I will gladly work for you and provide you with the best possible quality of output, comparable with the level of output which any other freelancer in any other part of the world could provide you. If you do not pay me well, not that I will NOT provide you good quality work; just that I will work for you grudgingly, or more likely, not work with you at all...

Ideal Payout For Transcription Work

Over the years, especially in recent times, I have observed the payout rates for transcription work going below what can even be considered as bargain basement wages.

As an instance, I find a lot of contractors regularly putting in bids on freelance sites where they are willing to work on say an hour of audio at JUST $10, $20 or maybe even $30.

These are simply abysmal rates in my opinion.

After all, the whole notion that transcribing an hour of audio translates to an hour of effort is just SO WRONG...transcribing an hour's worth of audio takes way more than just an hour of effort.

In my personal and honest opinion, even when the audio is crystal clear and the accent is clearly comprehensible, it still takes 3 to 4 hours to actually do a thorough job on any transcription assignment. When there are challenges such as: 

x poor quality of audio, 

x incomprehensible accents, 

x multiple speakers, 

x time stamps to be put in at regular, specific/non-specific intervals 

(example of specific = every minute ; example of non-specific = each time a particular person speaks), 

the overall effort and time involved in doing a thorough job on such a transcription assignment increases significantly, sometimes going up to as much as 5 to 6 hours or even more for an hour of audio.

To be charging as little as $10 to say $30 for an hour of audio - as has become the norm on common freelance sites, is simply appalling and abysmal. And to see American freelancers working at such rates is well....I can only shake my head in disbelief!

I had gathered these thoughts of mine together and expressed them in a video which I posted to my freelance YouTube channel, which can be seen below:

As you will see in the video, my idea of what can possibly be considered as ideal payout for transcription work would be in the range of $50 for every effort hour. So if transcribing an hour of audio takes you 4 hours, you should ideally be paid at least $200, assuming that the audio is clear and there are no other issues.

Where there are issues in the audio, akin to the ones I mentioned in bullet points above, the payout should go up incrementally in the range of at least $250 to $300.

Some may say that these are very high wages, but I disagree; at the end of the day, $200 or $300 is NOT a lot of money; even here in India, that is in the range of 10,000 to 15,000 Rupees at current exchange rates, which I am honestly telling you, is NOT a lot of money in India. Therefore, under no circumstances should $200 or $300 be construed as a lot of money.

The reason payouts for transcription work have gone down so much is because the freelancers themselves have brought the rates down by willingly (and foolishly) working at sub-par wages. If contractors / freelancers would be willing to work at such trashy rates, obviously clients would be more than happy to exploit them!

To all freelancers out there, I fervently appeal - life is NOT about working relentlessly. Rather, it is about "working" as less as possible, deriving maximum value out of it (which can only happen with quality wages) and then utilizing the time that is available for all the beautiful things that life has given around us - our family, nature, traveling, cooking, going to the movies, eating out, going on long drives, etc. etc.

If you spend all your time typing away, typing away...frantically and obstinately, when will you actually get to LIVE LIFE?

Think about these things, the next time your fingers move towards those $10 / $20 / $30 figures, when quoting for an hour's worth of audio which needs to be transcribed...

NEVER Bid Low on Freelance Projects!

An aspect which has anguished me to no end for a long time now, is to do with the low bids which are placed on freelance projects, particularly by newbie freelancers.

Remember - and just ingrain this in your mind somewhere...

You DO NOT compete on price, you compete on value...

Therefore, even if you are a complete novice as far as freelance sites like Elance, oDesk, Freelancer, etc. are  concerned, it does not in anyway mean that you should resort to bottom feeding. Rather, you MUST compete on the (presumably) UNIQUE value which you are able to offer to clients.

• Maybe you are blessed with a unique skill set of your own
• Maybe you are uniquely placed to deliver on the said project within a time frame that others would find very hard to match up to
• Maybe you have years and years of experience behind you

It can be any number of these factors...

What matters is that you realize the importance of bidding realistically - and indeed the fact that you are NOT on any of the said freelance sites merely to win projects at any cost, but rather to make a living. 

And this living CANNOT be made at bargain basement prices, when costs of things around us continue to zoom upwards at a scorching pace. If I look at the prices of everyday items around me here in India, they have simply skyrocketed within a relatively short span of time. The price of petrol (or gasoline as Americans refer to it) has more than doubled in India over what it used to sell at, just a few years ago. Ditto with housing prices; metros like Delhi and Mumbai have some of the highest real estate prices in the world and there is seemingly no abetment in their prices, round the corner anytime soon.

In such a scenario, to bid unrealistically low and then try and win projects on freelance sites is nothing short of a SIN in my opinion.

These are thoughts which I had shared in a video on my freelance YouTube channel, which you can see below:

I sincerely hope that in the times to come, freelancers on these freelance sites will gradually realize their folly and bid realistically. That is when the entire freelancing experience will be a much more positive one for the entire freelance community.

Otherwise, we will only languish in this entire spectrum, feeding on crumbs which will not do good to any of us...

That is NOT what we want, do we?!

Why Bid Below Client Budgets?

Its been a BIG mystery for me - for long, as to why on Earth do many contractors on freelance sites, persistently choose to bid below even what the client has stated is his or her budget?

Please understand my point here...I am not referring to project postings where say the client may have specified a budget range of "Less than $500" or something on those lines, where a $200 bid would as much be within the client specified budget range as would be $499.

Rather, I am alluding towards those projects where the client points out - in a prized little nugget of sorts within his or her project description, that the budget for the concerned project is $100 or say $250, or any other SPECIFIC figure. 

In instances like the above, why even bid $99 or $249 respectively?

What makes you think that bidding below client budget - when the EXACT budgetary figure for the project has been specified, will help you bag that project?

Sure, for some of you, maybe the specified budgetary figure may be more than what you typically work at - or over and above what you think would be "good enough" a compensation for the time and effort involved in completing that job, but my point is - in such a scenario, does extra cash hurt?

I am very sure that it DOESN'T and that is exactly what drove me towards making a video on my freelancing channel on YouTube, where I "ranted" about precisely these aspects. You can check out the video below:

Remember that no matter where in the world you might be, prices of things around you are going only one way which is UP. If you reflect back on the prices of a certain set of items say 10 years ago, there is every likelihood that you are paying a significantly larger sum of money for those same items.

In such a scenario, where is the sense in bidding even below what the client has CLEARLY stated to be his or her budget?

DON'T DO THAT...EVER! YOUR SELF RESPECT IS AT STAKE HERE!

Why Do American Freelancers Bid SO Less On Freelance Sites?

As a freelancer from India, working on freelance sites like Elance for a considerably long period of time now, I really can't help but wonder as to why on Earth do American freelancers in particular charge so low rates for the work that they deliver on these sites?

I mean working long hours, researching and then developing content...these are all activities or processes that take up so much time. Then to be paid what I can only refer to as absolute peanuts is something which is simply beyond my ability to fathom.

This is particularly true in light of what is presumably a very high cost of living in the US. As a freelancer from India, where each Dollar gets me about 50 units of local currency (the Indian Rupee), sometimes these projects seem fairly OK for a person in my part of the world, but the same project certainly DOES NOT seem OK for an American to be working on at the same rate, or worse, at a much lower rate!

These are some thoughts which I shared in a recent video I posted to my YouTube channel that you can see below:

My primary point of contention is that when these American freelancers charge so less, freelancers in my part of the world are compelled to charge even low rates!

Further, what is the sense in charging so less when prices around the world are only going one way, which is up?? In fact, I can say with complete assertion that this whole belief that India is very inexpensive on all fronts is very wrong. For instance, the same car makes and models end up costing twice as much in India as they do in the US. Real estate is another sector where prices are much, much higher in India than in the US.

Also, another important factor that a lot of people out there seem to forget completely has to do with lifestyle choices which we individually make in our respective lives. Yes, there are many people in my country who live on $100, $200, or maybe $300 a month, but that is either a choice which they have consciously made for themselves or because of a variety of factors, like lack of education in particular, or the absence of opportunities, they are compelled to live and "manage" in so less...that is something I am neither willing or able to do.

I hope that someday a sense of reality creeps in wherein people realize that it really does not make any sense at all for American freelancers (in particular) as well as other freelancers from the "Western" world to be working at so low rates.