Madiha Yaqoob
Freelancers working on different freelance marketplaces, many make the mistake of submitting proposals to any project they feel good about.
Regardless of the complete understanding of a project and without knowing if they would be able to complete it on time while staying on budget, many freelancers are more inclined towards submitting proposals and worry about the number of bids they send out each day.
As a freelancer who has been freelancing for more than 2 decades, my advice to you is the other way around. Responding to all projects without understanding all requirements does not help you, in fact — you end up wasting your bid.
As a young freelancer, I used to make the mistake of submitting my bid to all projects and the client’s response was naturally not good. As I grew older, I realized, it is very important to only bid on the projects that completely match your expertise and you feel confident in submitting your proposal and solution to get the job done.
I would advise you to take care of the following things before you place your bid on a project
- Make sure the project completely matches your expertise.
- Make sure the client has verified his payment method.
- If a client has a previous payment history, it is better. Such clients usually pay on time. They have posted a project to hire a freelancer rather than just to get a pulse of the market rates.
Let me explain in an easy way.
Always remember, your bids are important. They cost you money so use them wisely.
I am a graphic designer. Today, I am selective about the projects I want to do. I do not bid on logo designing projects, I do not even bid on small bi-fold or tri-fold projects because they offer less budget and require hours after hours to get them done.
I only do UX/UI for websites, and mobile apps because these projects pay well and I know for sure, I will be nicely accommodated for the time I would spend getting these tasks done.
Know your game.
Always be selective about the projects you pick. You can not win all the time so choose the one that you like the most, feels the best going about it, and you sense a response from a client.
My three pieces of advice here are.
- Choose
- Feel
- Sense
Fake Vs Real Projects.
I made my freelancing life easier by doing one single favor for myself. I stopped bidding on Upwork, and Guru.com on projects that did not have a verified payment seal.
Apart from this single attribute, if you read a project in detail, if it supplies important information, you get a sense that this project is Legit, regardless of the fact that the client has not verified their payment method yet. My (F-S) has always helped me in bidding on these projects and doing better freelancing. Remember, F=feel, and S=sense.
Bids are like gun bullets, if you waste them, you end up losing the game in a battlefield
2 Liner project placements.
A client wants you to bid on their project and get a job done but does not have time to write about their requirement in detail and thinks has done a favor by supplying 2 golden lines of information.
Never bid on such projects. If you do not understand what I’ve just said, read it twice!
Projects providing contact information.
Clients are warned not to provide their contact information when they are posting a project.
If a client ignores this warning and still gives an email address to be contacted in a smart way, i.e – Hisham at Hisham dot org, I’ve figured out that such clients are hackers. They want you to email them, they give a link in an email and when you click, somehow they hack your PC.
I’ve been a victim of this, I know I am guilty but a decade back, I was young.
Don’t stoop too low for work.
A client wants MARS built for $50 within four weeks.
Never waste your bid on a project that requires a lot of work and does not have a good budget. Value your time, value your work, and do not spend energy reading such projects.
My friends, I hope these small tips will help you better understand the freelance world and also encourage you to provide value propositions to your clients.
Happy Freelancing Folks!
