How to Create a Bid on Elance and Service Provider Directories

It took me about a month to win my first bid on elance.com and I remember how excited I was, and how much work that first project was when I first got it. A lot of newbies to elance and other service provider directories tend to get discouraged and give up after ten, fifteen, even twenty or more bids on different projects and not winning a single one. Sure it takes a long time to win those first bids, but it may be that you aren't creating a bid that attracts those project buyers. Buyers can be picky and they have a lot of help from websites and online tips sites in looking for the best person for their project so you need a solid bid to catch their eyes.

Some providers like to create a standardized bid for bidding on projects, but this can come across as highly impersonal and generalized and be a big turn off for buyers. If you do choose to use a general bid write it so you can specify it to each project description you bid on.

Project buyers are looking for very specific elements in a winning bid. It's best to try and hit all of the following points in each of your bids:

1. Briefly restate the project, even in a quick phrase to indicate you've read the project description.
2. Mention your experience. Even if you have no experience freelancing, talk about an interest in the project topic, such as gardening, and mention how long you've been writing in general.
3. State your price. Most buyers are looking for a project price rather than a per word or hourly rate. Keep that in mind and estimate.
4. How long the project will take. Buyers like an idea of how long it will take you to complete the project.

Feedback

Buyers also look at your feedback on service provider sites like elance. The more feedback you have the better a reputation and the more likely you are to complete a project to the buyer's satisfaction. Buyers will also look at how much you've earned if its visible, as well as your profile, education, credits and perhaps most important of all the portfolio of samples. You are very well off indeed if you can create a few short samples of good article writing, search engine optimization, code writing, etc. depending on your area so they can get an idea of your writing style.