10 Great bidding tips for winning a freelancing job

Now that you have decided to work as a freelance coder in freelancing websites, the next thing you have to learn is how to write a winning and successful bid request to impress the job poster or buyer. Most buyers in these freelancing websites will get at least 30 to 50 bids for their freelancing jobs. Hence they pick and choose a lot. You have to win your way through steep competition. But with what? Of course with your bid request writing skills. I have put together a different article for graphic designers. Find it here : 8 FREE tips on writing winning bidding proposals for graphic design projects.
In this article I have put together an excellent list of things to keep in mind for writing the winning or killer bid request for a coding project. Please remember that all the points are equally important and they are not in order of their importance.

Tip 1 : Personalize your bidding pitch for every freelancing job

Always make it a point to address the buyer by his or her screen name. This will help you to actually reach out to him and make him understand that you are addressing only HIM. It will personalize your bidding pitch and make you a ‘humane’ freelancer.

Tip 2 : Start talking about the freelance job in question immediately

Get to the point fast. People generally don’t tend to read much on screen. Start talking about the project requirements immediately. When the buyer has about 30 or 50 bids on his table he will try to scan them fast and pick the best coder. So don’t keep writing a 4 paragraph profile before talking about the job. Rather talk about the job in question at  the beginning and then you can put your tall claims.

Tip 3 : Read the attachment (if any) with the freelancing job bid

Many times you will find that the buyer has appended an attachment with the bid request. Before bidding you need to read the attachment thoroughly for two reasons.
Firstly if you mention some information from the attachment in your bidding pitch then rest assured that buyer will be impressed by your professionalism in spite of you being a freelance coder.
Secondly, what if you don’t read the attachment and bid for the freelance job and the buyer consequently accepts your bid. After the buyer selects your freelance bid, you find that there are many things in the attached file which you did not take note of while quoting the price of the job. Most freelancing websites will not let you refuse the job after 24 hours have passed. Now say for some reason you could not check your email in the last 24 hours and your bid got selected.
Hence you shall have no other alternative but to work for peanuts. So before bidding for a freelance job going through the attachment is very important.

Tip 4 : Quote sentences from the bid request itself

It really helps to land up in a freelancing job when you just quote points from the bid request itself. In my experience I have seen that sometimes even copy pasting the requirement line works wonders. It makes your employer feel that you have read the bid document well and not just pasting a standardized response. But NEVER copy and paste the whole bid request. This does more harm than good. Just quote relevant sentences.

Tip 5 : Ask intelligent questions about the freelancing job in question

Asking relevant questions about the freelancing job conveys great sense of professionalism to your prospective employer. Say a prospective employer posts a requirement for an ecommerce website. Immediately you ask questions about payment gateway integration and tax calculations or coupon codes.

Ecommerce websites generally have more than one payment gateways integrated in them. So ask the prospect whether he likes multiple payment gateways or one? Ask him if he plans to charge VAT or any other taxes. Ask him about shipping charges and discount coupon codes etc.
Also ask questions if you feel that you need more information to carry out the project. Clear all hazy areas out.
This will make the employer believe that you know your job and make him feel that you have past experience building ecommerce websites.

Tip 6 : Show him related work samples

When proving your credentials for the freelancing job, try to show your prospective employer what related jobs you have done in the past. If you are posting a bid for an ASP .net work then do not show a website built in PHP to prove your credentials. An ecommerce website against an ecommerce website. If you do not have a related project then show him projects which closely resemble the freelance assignment in question. Also follow tip :5 i.e. ask intelligent questions about the freelance job in question.

Tip 7 : If you are a new freelancer then offer competitive rates

A new freelancer always has the toughest hurdle to cross : making his first mark. Like a young cub a new freelancer has to make the first kill and it’s always difficult. One good technique would be to under-cut your competitors with competitive rates for the first freelancing job you are bidding for. Nothing lures the buyer more than a low bid.

Tip 8 : Provide actual references and credentials

If you are new on a freelancing website then try to offer actual references from countries like United States and United Kingdom with contact details, phone numbers and email IDs of your past clients. If your prospective employer sees actual human references then he will feel confident to employ you as his freelancer of choice.  Again be sure to take the permission of the person whose contact details you are providing else it may work towards your disadvantage.

Tip 9 : Try to be amongst the first bidders for the freelancing project

There is a common saying “early bird catches the worm”. Likewise if you can bid on a project as soon as it is posted, then you increase your chance of winning that freelancing project by as much as 30%. This is a proven fact. So when browsing projects on any freelancing website try to bid on the recently posted projects first.

Tip 10 : Following up with your buyer

If you see your buyer non-responsive after some time then do send him or her an informal email asking about the status of the freelancing job. This will tell him that you are really interested to carry out the job. Even if the freelancing job has been postponed for some reason he will surely let you know. He will also remember you and next time the project goes ahead you will be the first one to hear from him.

Summary

So the above 10 tips were your best bet of winning a freelancing job. Also remember to quote a price and a timeline for every job. If there is a hazy area of the bid do ask for clarification and mention that your quote and timeline will depend on the buyer’s response.
So now you are armed with every detail you should know for winning a freelance job. Happy freelancing!