Many web-based freelancers dabble with the bidding sites. In case you’re not familiar with them, freelance bidding sites allow for people with projects to post a job description while freelancers, writers, programmers, designers, and virtual assistants, can bid on each project. In the beginning bidding sites were great places to get work, now they’re places where the lowest price prevails, regardless of quality.
I think my biggest problem with bidding sites is that they drive down the rates. I see writers offering themselves for fifty cents an article and Virtual Assistants charging $25 for a day’s worth of work. Are we so desperate to earn money we’re willing to settle for less than slave wages? I don’t know of anyone who would flip burgers for such a paltry sum, but yet many will happily accept next to nothing to get a proverbial foot in the door.
I don’t use bidding sites at all anymore. Not unless I want to write a page for only a dollar or two, and I don’t. If you’re looking for experience, you can check them out if you like. Personally, I’m not so sure they’re the way to go.
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I remember checking out a few of these also. I was shocked at the horrid number of typos and just lousy writing in the project descriptions alone. What scares me is that often the folks offering to do the work didn't do much better in their attempts to get the job. Perhaps I'm judgemental, but it just made me wonder: if a potential employer couldn't even coherently describe what they wanted from me, could I count on them to pay me as agreed? Or would there be critical decimal point typos on my check as well? ;-)
Posted by: Melonie K. (Workerette.com) | May 23, 2007 5:02 PM | Permalink to Comment