Any golden rules for creating a successful bid on sites such as Elance and Guru?

Question

Anyone had any success with similar freelancing sites? How did you break into the market without any previous feedback for buyers to go on?

Answer 1

I recomend you start with reading this article:

How To Use Contract Work Sites to Break Into Freelancing

It has some good points on how you should start using freelancing sites.

Answer 2

How did you break into the market without any previous feedback for buyers to go on?

If existing bids are anything to go on, broken English and a stunningly low rate (like $1000 for an Amazon.com feature-complete clone). I tend to avoid the freelancing sites for that reason.

Answer 3

Hi. I have been using oDesk for over a year now. It's great for both professionals starting in the area as well for those already in the market by now!

You register in it, fill all information about your expertise and navigate through a list of posted jobs and candidate yourself to the position. They also control the interviewing process between professionals and the companies, and provide several tests like Brainbench to confirm knowledge of the parts. This way you can prove yours skills and have a good start. I am very satisfied and I highly recommend it for a start work as freelancer.

The jobs you execute via oDesk are added to your expertise list, so it is always increasing only helping you. If you mess things up with one client they give you a bad feedback and you can always justify the problems, so they stay logged for whoever interests about your work. So you don't have to worry about one mistake or another, since, if you are a good professional your feedback will answer it for you.

One important info. They taxes you 10% of each earnings. But it worth it in the long run...

(I have previously posted about oDesk at this question, this answer is a remake of that one to enhance the features you asked, like starting as freelance. As I said, I can't recommend enough)

Answer 4

DO NOT use rentacoder.com. I had bad experiences with them. Not the site's fault but the coders who hang out there are of poor quality.

A coder bailed out on me in the middle of a project and wasted a month of my time. Another coder canceled within 24 hours after getting the full source code of my application which needed conversion.

Plus coders which deliver code which didn't meet the clear requirements I gave them. I am a developer myself and I gave them clear instructions.

What frustrated me is that I picked coders with high ratings. I only had one good experience so your mileage may vary, but all in all the quality of work done by coders is pretty bad. I think these coders are beginners, inexperienced and cheap ones who bid on anything and try to do do anything.

I would try more professional sites like eLance.

Answer 5

peopleperhour.com have a blog with some advice to answer this question. e.g.

• Top bidding tips to win more business
• Increase your chances of winning work with effective bids