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Like I said before, if you want to win the good projects on Elance and make some real money (not just for peanuts), the first thing you need to know is how to choose your battles. Just bid on projects worth bidding on, or at least can turn into a project worth bidding on (some buyers don’t know how to come up with a useful brief, but sometimes you can help).
That being said, below are some types o projects you DON’T want to bid on. In fact, you should run like crazy when you see posts similar to these.
I made some comments too, so if you are a client looking to hire me, you might want to read this posts first. Don’ take it personally… it’s for your own good. 
- “I have many projects for you, so bid accordingly” - What does “bid accordingly mean”? I know what it means… means you want me to work for peanuts, don’t you? In this case, let’s not hide behind fancy words and false promises. Just say “I’m looking for cheap work and don’t care about image, so if you do this one for a nickel, there’s more where that came from”. I think I’ll say pass!
- “I need a clone of the following website” - You also don’t care a lot about image and I have a feeling you expect this to cost you close to nothing. After all, you provided all the “creative input”, right? I just “did some HTML”. No, I don’t think I want to be associated with plagiarism and cheap work. No thanks!
- “I want blue rounded corners with a 2px white border” - Wow, I’m amazed! You seem to know so much about web graphics. I’m sure we’ll get along great and you will be able to help me with a thing or two. I always love to hear a good Photoshop tip from one of my clients. NOT!!! Sorry, my friend, but this is not the kind of brief I expect from clients. I expect the kind of “tell me your needs, your goals, your expectations” kind of brief. Throw in a site structure, the website content and maybe some style preferences and we’re good to go. Give me too much design related details and I know for sure that you’ll make my life miserable in the next couple of weeks.
- “I need a website for my company” - That’s good to know. I was afraid you’re gonna need me to build you a space shuttle or something. Duuhh! Of course you need a website! After all, your project is listed under Website Design & Development. To such a project description, my estimate can only be this: it will cost between $500 and $50000 and it will take between 3 and 365 days to complete. Come on! Give me something to work with. This is the exact opposite of point 3.
- “We had a good designer who designed themes in WordPress for $150 each. That is a comfortable price point for us” - Can I have his number? I have a job for him! Now seriously… even free themes are worth more than that. But I guess it’s true what they say: you get what you pay for. Sorry, but I’m more “comfortable” with clients who appreciate my work.
And a little bonus: 2 more quotes, with no comment. I think they fall into the funny / weird category:
- A client’s idea for a blog header: “Animation of a mechanic opening the hood of a car to check out the engine”
- A client’s request: “I am looking for someone that would be prepared to come to my home for a few hours - to go through the basics of Wordpress with me”
Take care and bid wisely!
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[...] particular project. There is a lot of information about what to do and not to do on Elance, like, Elance Tips: Top 5 Projects You Should Run Away From, hopefully I picked a good [...]
7 Comments
Thanks for the list, I just started bidding on Elance and sometimes it is hard to weed through everything.
Ok, so how is anyone suppose to ask you anything without the risk of you judging their request as stupid or cheap or idiotic?? You assume that people who need websites know what they cost and know what they need - now that is a cheap idea!
Greg, I always encourage my clients (or even future clients) to ask questions and I’m always more than happy to answer them. At the same time, I also ask questions, because I want to make sure I have all the facts.
I think you are missing the point. I’m not judging anyone, just trying to make people understand that every web design project needs a brief.
Trust me, most Elance projects have a 2 line description. You can’t give a price / time estimate based on that. That is why I’m encouraging people to avoid such projects, in order to avoid more complications.
Each of these (5) points are so nicely said, and so true. Great article for the Elance newbies. Be careful for #3 - the single biggest waste of time, least profitable, least enjoyable experience and blood-pressure increasing scenario ever.
Adrian, I hear you….I have the same problem in many of the projects that I work on in the “real world” sometimes clients simply don’t know what they want.
Either they are micro-managing to the point where you can’t make any money, or they start off too broad and then you can’t make any money because you under-estimated.
great list! i unfortunately work for a company that deals regularly with the #4 “i need a website for my company”. and if that isn’t bad enough, once we get past the whole ok… what type of website, etc. etc. our clients slam us with “can’t you just make us a site and when we have content we will get it to you”. or the classic, “we want an e-commerce site but we don’t know what we are selling yet”.
-no wonder i’m looking for another job :0)
Yeah, the “just build us something, we’ll provide content later” line is famous too.