The Golden Pencil: The Freelance Writer’s Resource

Why I’m Leary of Bidding for Freelance Writers

by Anne Wayman on September 9th, 2005

Once again, someone in my forum posted a link to an article on MSN - Where to Find Freelance Work Online by Amod Puranik of Entrepreneur.com. In it he lists sites like Elance and Guru.

The model of all this sites is employers post writing (and other) jobs and writers bid against each other to get the job. Some of the sites even show the bids.

The effect is to drive the price down… often way, way down.

I’ve gotten a small amount of work from some of these sites, and I don’t eleminate them entirely from my constant marketing, but I won’t suck into bidding low just to get a gig. It doesn’t work for me, and I suspect, over the long run, it doesn’t work for many.

Instead, I think a better approach is to look for work through the lists I post and on your own. A good place to start is Where I Search. But you also need to look locally, in your own market.

Another great approach is the way Peter Bowerman outlines finding corporate writing - his angle is mostly local too.

Don’t sell yourself short!

Write well, often, and charge what your worth.

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POSTED IN: Freelance Writing Jobs