chillibreeze writer — Nishi Viswanathan

How to bid on a project and make sure you bag it!
 
(Originally part of the Chillimentor series)

With the advent of the World Wide Web, freelance writing became an extremely popular career option. 
 
If you were a freelance writer in the 90's you could rely on word-of-mouth to fetch you projects. But today, with almost every professional trying to pursue writing as an alternate career, the competition is very intense. Sites such as Elance (and a host of other sites with a similar business model) are chock full of writers from all over the world vying with each other for customers' attention.
 
Which brings us to this question:

How do you outbid the competition without offering rock bottom rates?
 
Of course, Chillibreeze is not a "Bid for projects" site. But even at Chillibreeze, each time we send out a project offer, we receive multiple responses and are faced with tough choices. We usually try to pick the best writer for the job. We must base our decision on the information available to us. All we have is your response to our offer and the profile you submitted via our form.
 
So the basic question is not how to outbid other writers, but this:
 
Whether you are responding to an offer from Chillibreeze or bidding for a project on Elance (or any other freelance marketplace), how do you draw attention to your response?

Here are a few tips to help you bag the project you want:
 
1. Focus on the project requirements:
 
Don't be in a hurry to submit your bid. Review the project requirements carefully. Your response must capture these requirements and indicate that you will be able to fulfill them.

Also, let the client know the reason you think you will be perfect for this particular project.
 
Just saying something like "I am the best travel writer you will ever see" serves no purpose. Job posters are probably thinking: 1. No one is ever good at everything 2. I don't care how good a travel writer you are if my project has to do with technical writing
 
2. Do not use a "One size fits all" profile
 
Yes, you must write a short general profile that describes your qualifications and abilities. But do not submit the same profile in response to every bid/offer. As we said before, focus on the specifics. If I post a project, I just want to know if you can do the job in question.
 
3. Yes, resumes are helpful but....
 
Clients do not have the time or energy to browse through every resume that comes their way. By sending them your resume instead of a profile, you are highly reducing your chances of getting selected.
 
4. Follow the instructions
 
This is something most writers fail to do. If as a client, I have asked for a piece of information to be included in your bid/response, I will most likely reject the bids that do not have that piece of info.
 
5. Include sample links but....
 
Again relevance is the key here. Include sample links that are relevant to the offer/project. I have seen writers including their blog URLs in their responses. Good idea. But, you might want to take this one step further by including the URL of the specific blog post you want the client to look at. Or links to articles about the subject in question.
 
6. Avoid this response like the plague
 
"I am interested. Please send me more details".
 
Usually, all the details you need are included in project offers and posts. Plus, you are losing valuable time. Let us say a client gets five smart responses and one request for details; do you think he will respond to the request for more details?
 
The client is probably thinking, "We would be happy to send you the details if you send us a few details first."
 
7. Do not bid too low
 
Chillibreeze offers include payment details and we do not have a "bidding system" but most sites do. In such cases, do not make a really low bid just to get the project. For one, the money may not be worth the effort required. Secondly, clients might underestimate writers who offer really low rates. ("If she is this cheap, she may not be that good!")
 
8. Be your own PR person: Keep in touch with your editor
 
At organizations such as Chillibreeze, remember to say an occasional "Hi!" to your contact. At Chillibreeze, that would be Nishi, our Chief Content Officer or any of our writers' managers who got in touch with you when you registered. Tell them how you are doing, whether there have been any major changes in your life, if you have any ideas for Chillibreeze or you want to refer someone to Chillibreeze.

Once in a while, we do like to get unofficial emails. We met some of you (virtually of course) for the first time more than two years ago and "meet" more than ten new writers everyday. Yes, we have your form and your resume, but we probably don't remember your entire profile.

Sometimes our project management team is looking for a writer for a particular project and our writers' manager is about to send out an offer. When you write to her, she goes, "Hey she might be good for this!"

That said, here is a word of caution! Don't involve your editor or contact in meaningless conversation - that will only put them off - but use every chance to keep in touch. Also, in order that you stay in their good books, don't bombard your editors with emails asking for more projects. Subtlety is the name of the game:)

You might be asking yourselves a few questions at this point. So let us answer them for you.
 
Why did Chillibreeze send all its writers these tips? How do they benefit by helping me work with other clients?
 
We may not benefit directly by helping our writers work with other clients and get more projects, but one of our aims is to add value to everyone we come across. We are growing by the day and we want our preferred writers to grow with us.
 
It does not matter if they continue to work with us or move on to work with other clients. We still want them to benefit from their association with us.
 
We discussed other freelance marketplaces. But, how do I apply for a project offer from Chillibreeze?
 
1. Hit "reply all" and do not change the subject line.
2. Read the project offer carefully and follow all the instructions. We might ask you to include links of previous work or attach your resume or tell us why you are suitable and so on. The bottomline is - Read the offer completely and thoroughly before you respond.
3. Speed is important too. Once you receive an offer, respond immediately. It takes just a few minutes to do so.
4. Have a pre-written profile ready. Tweak it slightly for each offer response.
5. Do not send us one-line responses such as "I want to work on this project!"
 
That is it! Responding to an offer is super easy. And getting to work on the project? We won't say it is easy but make sure you use our tips and you will be working on several projects soon.

Hopefully, these tips will help you get some interesting projects in the future. Use them, and when they work, do let us know. After all, we want you to keep in touch with us!