If you are a freelance writer, chances are you have spent some time perusing the job opportunities available to you on freelance writing bid sites. These websites, including those like elance.com, freelancer.com, ifreelance.com, and others, typically require you to set up an account and some require a fee to use their sites. Some freelance writers swear by these sites while others sweat at them. The fact is that bid sites are a great way for freelance writers, experienced or not, to find hundreds of job opportunities in one location and a convenient place for you to apply to jobs you are interested in. Perhaps one of the reasons there are such mixed reviews on these sites is that some freelance writers quite simply don’t understand fully how to use the opportunity such sites present to them to their fullest potential.

Low-ball Bids. Many freelance writers frequent the job boards at bid sites, and so for many job opportunities, there is a considerable amount of competition. With this competition for jobs, some freelance writers feel forced to low-ball their bids in an effort to get a paying gig. However, you need to keep in mind that while there are some potential clients posting job opportunities who do want to find the lowest offer, there are other potential clients who actually are looking for quality work from a quality writer, and they understand that you quite simply need to pay for this level of work. You absolutely have every opportunity to low-ball your bids, and you likely can stay really busy doing this. However, if you want to work for clients who value your work and expect quality results from you, place a bid that you think is fair. I personally can attest that I have gotten many jobs based on how I sell myself in my job proposal and not by submitting the lowest bid.

The Proposal. If you don’t want to win jobs based on the lowest bid, your other option is to win jobs based on your experience, qualifications, and abilities. To do this, you need to be very selective about which jobs you bid on. Choose jobs that you have a special connection to, and this may be jobs that require you to write about a topic that you have personal or professional experience in or that you quite simply feel passionately about. You absolutely do not want to copy and paste the same proposal over and over for each job you bid on. Instead, create a customized proposal for each job, which details your interest in the job, experience, and so forth. The proposal should be written in such a way that it sells you specifically as the most viable candidate for that specific job.

Recurring Clients. You can spend a considerable amount of your time submitting bid after bid on these websites, and when you are perusing job boards and applying for jobs, you quite simply are not making money. Ideally, you want to get to a point where you are spending less time bidding on jobs and more time working on paying assignments. The best way to do this is to find recurring clients, or clients who will ask you to work on project after project without the need to bid on more work. In the best case scenario, you will build up a great group of clients to work for, and you will not have to use bid sites to find work on a regular basis. Using bid sites in this fashion is perhaps the best and fastest way to creating a relatively stable regular income for yourself as a freelance writer.

Using some of these strategies will help you to get more use out of bid sites, and these strategies can ultimately help you to make more money as a freelance writer.