Tips on Winning a Bid in Content Writing Projects at Freelancer.com

Winning a bid is not easy. The competition is tough specially when you're a newbie. There are a lot of highly-skilled freelance writers who already gained a lot of reviews and good feedback so it's hard to get noticed. But everybody starts as a newbie. I am a newbie too once but now I got two reviews with both 5-star ratings (not bad at all I guess).

Let's get back to business. The objective is to make your bid and profile look good. Both are important because those are the only things you got to prove yourself. Accomplishing it will surely increase your chances on getting hired even though you have no reputation yet.

First impressions last. And your bid will be the face you will show to the employer. Make sure you make it interesting and professional, not just "Please see PM."

• Make it brief, clear, and straight to the point. Employers are busy and only have seconds to spare reading your bid. Assuming that you don't have any reviews yet, the employer won't even waste time reading your long speech. State your intentions and tell what you can do in 2-3 sentences. You can also add a tagline as an intro to stand out.

• Know your rate. Employers will always look for a good freelancer with a lower pay. Assuming you don't have reviews yet, be contented with $1 per 400 word article for the meantime. Scale your bid with the other bidders, not too high, not too low. Build up your reputation and by then you can already raise the pay.
• Show your best sample. Send in the PM or personal message what you think is the best article you have written so far. Some employers require an on-the-spot sample with a topic on their own choosing. Double-check the article before sending it in.
• Create a milestone request. It is the most secure way of transacting in Freelancer. Both you and the employer will be protected if ever one would back out. Always request a milestone depending on the percentage you prefer. But never set it too high.

These are just some basic ways to improve your bid. You can also sponsor or highlight your bid by paying at least $1 to get your bid noticed.

What the employer see is what you are. After seeing your bid, they will most definitely look at your profile. You should polish it before you present it.

• Get a good display picture. Do not stick with the default pic, be unique. Upload the logo of your company/business or your own professional-looking photo. This will add to your reputation. I myself trust employers more if they have good display pics.
• Write an unabridged 'about me'. Exhaust all what you got. Write about your writing experience, how many you can write in a day, your rate, payment methods, a little personal information, a link to your Hubpages profile, everything that you think is relevant and would impress the employer. Be aware though that posting contact information is a violation of Freelancer's terms.
• Fill up your credentials. Show off those diplomas, certificates and awards, professional licenses, and references which would prove that you know what you're doing.

• Take exams. There are currently three free exams which you can take. These are the Practice Exam, Freelancer Orientation, and Employer Orientation. I recommend to take and pass both the Practice Exam and Freelancer Orientation to further orient yourself to the site. A badge will also show in your profile when you finish the Freelancer Orientation exam. There are also paid exams which you could take by paying $5. Having a badge on Writing & Content will boost your chances of getting hired.

These are just some basic ways to improve your profile's appearance. You can go ahead and upgrade to gold membership ($24.95/mo.) in order to access the portofolio feature and display some of your works. It also has other benefits as well.

For me it's very important to have a good bid and profile because these are the only ways you can show the employer that you are worth hiring. I suppose these tips also apply on other categories or even in other outsourcing sites.

Just always remember to do what is right because it is right. Do not in any way trick, cheat, scam, or swindle your employer because it's unprofessional and also not cool.

Thanks for reading and have fun bidding!