Photo Credit: Chris Benson

Why Freelancers Should Avoid Bidding Sites

Austin L. Church
Sep 1, 2018 · 4 min read

This may rub some of you the wrong way. I hope you’ll hear me out.

I recommend that you avoid bidding sites and content mills.

This may seem like strange advice to give, considering the purpose of this short guide is to help you get more clients, not to avoid them.

Even so, I don’t believe that using bidding sites to get projects is a long-term business growth strategy. Here is my thinking:

  • You will not get paid to write proposals and submit them.
  • You may spend more time bidding for jobs than you spend working.
  • You will often be asked to work for pennies. Once you factor in revisions, communication, and project management, you will barely beat minimum wage.
  • Many clients will “blow scope.” They’ll ask you to do extra work outside of the original agreement — longer articles than initially requested or more rounds of revisions. You will have to negotiate extra pay, and some clients will refuse. After all, the reason they used the site in the first place was because they wanted “cheap.”
  • Any time spent on proposals and low-paying clients is time not spent on finding more valuable clients elsewhere.

To drive home that last point, let me walk you through some quick math.

Let’s say you have 100 hours. A client on one of the bidding sites agrees to pay you $15 an hour to write blog posts. “Better than nothing,” you think. You work 100 hours and make $1500.

Or let’s say that rather than respond to jobs on bidding sites, you spent 80 hours prospecting. You finally find one client willing to pay you $300 per blog post. You write five blog posts. Each one takes you four hours. You make $1500.

Which $1500 aligns with your long-term goals?

Even if you burn the same amount of time and make the same amount of money in both scenarios, the second one is better. Rather than build your business on top of someone else’s platform, you are building out your own network and client base.

Here’s what it comes down to:

I cannot wholeheartedly recommend pursuing gigs on Upwork and similar freelance marketplaces because you simply cannot build a sustainable business if you’re only getting paid $15 an hour.

Bidding sites present clients with thousands of options. If you were in their shoes, what would you do? You’d probably look for a “good enough” option at a low price. This fierce competition inspires a race to the bottom in terms of price.

So if you don’t want your services to become a cheap commodity, then you must build your own client base. Your clients will pay higher prices because they value quality and trust you to do a good job. They’ll stick with you even if you raise your rates from time to time.

Of course, there’s an exception to every rule. You may be able to lasso that rare amazing client on Upwork who will pay your highest rates, ask for very few edits, and show reasonableness and kindness through the process.

But the best clients, the BEST, will come from people who are already acquainted with your work.

With that said, I know I won’t convince all of you. If you simply can’t help yourself, you can check out the content mills and bidding sites below. Just don’t say I never did anything for you.

…But there are better ways.

What are those better ways? Well, if you’re interested in finding out more about growing your freelance business, then you should get my guide, “Get Better Freelance Clients.”

It’s got a 29-day action plan that will tell you exactly what to do, step by step.

I gathered up all of the strategies and tactics that helped me ramp up my freelance business and consistently earn $100,000+.

→ Then, I organized them all in roughly chronological order.

→ Then, I added clear instructions for each step.

→ Then, I added templates and other resources so that there’s zero guesswork.

When life is crazy — my wife and I have three kids, so yeah — you may realistically only be able to work on your business, not in your business, about 15 minutes per day.

You must make the most of that business development and marketing time!

So the key is focusing on what you can do (not on what you can’t) and finishing one small, specific action each day.

Today, that one specific action is getting Get Better Freelance Clients — 29-Day Action Plan.

Get the guide. →

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Austin L. Church

Written by

Husband & Father. Writer & Freelance Coach @ AustinLChurch.com. Brand Strategist @ Balernum.com. Love Jesus, Megan, Salem, Theo, Ellis & you. You’re ready. Go!

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