Why Freelance Marketplaces Messed with My Freelancing Qi
I am officially deactivated. For the past six months, I’ve had a profile set up on ifreelance.com. Before then, I have never used any freelance marketplaces to field-in work. I had a contracting job for over a year with a VC company out of Washington. When the contract dried up, I signed up.
Having a profile up on ifreelance worked out well, overall. However, I began to notice the different types of buyers out there, and wasn’t left with the best impression in the end. (Side note: I will say that ifreelance is one of the better marketplaces around. Inexpensive and they don’t take a chunk of your earnings on awarded projects.)
Types of Buyers: The Chicken, the Fox and the Wolf
The Chicken
The chicken low-balls on the budget, is cryptic in the description and broods over the few service providers who actually do bid on the project. Because of these traits, the chicken brings out the worst in service providers (messes with their Qi), managing to offend more than a few who then lose their professional face and heckle the project, the budget and the chicken.
These projects generally end with a big red Project Canceled notice. Waste of everyone’s time.
The Fox
The Fox is a sly buyer who sneaks up on you with a grand scheme up its sleeve. Indeed, the project usually is a scheme.
These buyers request bidders set up a profile on their website and start posting before you submit a bid. They run websites that “pay” by splitting the portions of the Google AdSense shares with submitters. We’re talking pennies per post.
In the end, the sly fox gets a handful of posts AND takes half of your AdSense earnings. The fox is simply looking for a way to a) drive traffic to their site and b) attract free posts writers to their site.
I’ve been hooked in by the fox before. I set up a profile, rocked out eight posts and made 5 bucks. Woo. The editor emailed me, raved about my writing and told me to keep it up.
I thought this would be a good time to ask her about the ifreelance project they submitted. I wanted to know more about the project, so I could gauge my bidding process. Her reply left much to be desired:
“I really love your work, and I encourage you to keep submitting, regardless of the position.”
Red flag, anyone? Messed with my Qi and I stopped writing articles of interest on their website. Lose-lose situation.
The Wolf
We like the wolf. These buyers show stamina: when sniffing out a service provider, wolves are fast, they post up their fully-detailed project, a realistic budget and they award within a few days. The wolf engages in conversation with the bidders and answer queries promptly. The wolf is just as stellar as a client. Prompt feedback; prompt pay. Try and keep the wolf around as a future client as well.
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In short: Step around the chicken; don’t turn your back to the fox.
When it comes to the wolf: When the wolves come around the competition is hot. Bid on the projects the best you can, addressing the project description in your bid.
