Freelance Sprout explores the case for freelance bidding sites, citing a common problem:
The reason many established writers turn up their noses at freelance bidding sites is because there is a tendency for people to list projects on these sites looking for an awful lot of work for very little money. It can be hard for American writers (or Australian, British, etc) to compete with service providers from lower-income countries if the buyer is only looking for the “lowest bid”.
I also agree with the article’s conclusion:
Using the bidding sites as a stepping stone to gain experience and client references can go a long way in securing better contracts down the line; and completing projects successfully will also give a new freelance confidence to start applying for higher paying or more elaborate projects.
On my end, however, I also see freelance bidding sites as a representation of competition in action. What some freelancers may fail to realize is that the quality of work is always determined by the amount of money involved.
Clients who are willing to pay so little for so much are obviously not in it for the quality. Projects that come to mind are so-called SEO Copywriting projects, where there is less emphasis on writing sensible articles and more focus on just stringing the right keywords together.
Freelancers who are game for these kind of projects are there to make as much money as possible. This trend may be alarming to those who spend the time to make their output good, but the reality is that “sweatshop” workers aren’t necessarily threatening to quality advocates.
That’s because “cheapskate” clients who accept the low bids are obviously signing up for relatively weak quality work. And freelancers who work themselves thin for meager returns will eventually see that they will be going nowhere, and will eventually withdraw from the game completely or focus on maximizing their efforts.
On the other hand, on the “quality” track, you’ve got clients who really need quality output, and who understand that they will have to pay for it. The challenge then is how to attract their attention.
The apparent competition between those who underbid for the sake of quality, and their opposite counterparts, doesn’t really exist in my opinion. That’s because both groups exist in pratically different competitive environments.
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