Job boards and bidding

It is not easy to bid and win projects in job boards, free or otherwise.

This I have discovered in this past month. In the free job boards, it is even worse as competition is stiff and more often than not, some bidders' rates are so low it is hard to compete with them.

In paid job boards, competition is equally stiff but not as bad and there are also bidders whose rates are so low, you wonder how they could actually make a living with those rates.

Another thing I found out is that it is very difficult for new freelancers like me as we do not have any positive feedback from other employers yet. Many of the employers preferred those who have positive feedback and of course, also the lowest rate.

With this conditions, it is very difficult to break into the market. I noticed many new freelancers lowered their rates in order to win some projects so that they could get feedbacks at last and perhaps, be able to get more customers in future.

I have contemplated that but I could not bring myself to it. I am of the opinion that I should not lower my rates just to get a project when the amount of time and energy put into it cost more than the quoted rate. It does not make good business sense.

In situations like this, it reminds me of a very wise advise from the shoe fashion guru, Jimmy Choo, whom I interviewed a few years back.

"We must always set a standard and pricing for our masterpieces and never lower it no matter how much you needed the money."

The reason is simple, he had said that if the price was lowered, you lose your integrity and customers will expect you to lower it again in future. It would be very difficult to bring the price back up without losing customers.

Not surprisingly, Jimmy Choo was practically broke trying to sell his handmade shoes in the beginning because he placed a very high price for his shoes and were not getting any customers. He only had his big break when his shoes were showcased in a women's magazine and the rest is history.

Despite being world-renowned for his beautifully crafted shoes, Jimmy Choo remembered his poor background and remained a humble, nice and polite man. Even now, he is very friendly and courteous to everyone he meets.

But I digress. To get back to the point of bidding and rates, I decided to follow Jimmy Choo's advise. Considering where he is now in the fashion industry, I am sure he is not wrong about setting a standard for our work and never lowering it just because we needed the money.

So, I shall steadfastly stick to my usual rates and continue bidding till I get my break!

Thursday Thirteen The Tenth!

13 things to look out for when searching of work at home opportunities

The past few weeks, I have been browsing through hundreds (if not thousands) of sites to do research on work at home opportunities. After clicking on one too many ads proclaiming that it is a 'legitimate' work at home opportunity, I have learned a lot about online scams. So I have come up with a list of the top 13 lines these scam sites liked to use to draw unsuspecting people in.

1) 'Make $200 - $3000 and more per day!' - we all know it is never that easy to make so much money.

2) 'Simple online surveys. $ 5 - $75 each or more' - online surveys are not all that profitable.

3) 'Part-time work, $150 an hour' - again, if it is that easy to make that kind of money, there would be a lot of millionaires in this world.

4) 'This is not a scam but a legitimate work at home business' - if it is really legitimate why announce it and insist that it is not really a scam?

5) 'Start making money in just 15 minutes' - Might as well go buy a lottery ticket if you have money to throw away.

6) 'Not earning money with clickbank? We will pay you more' - and we will cheat you of your hard-earned money so that we can become rich! (between the lines)

7) 'Steps to making millions in a short time' - such as coming up with scam-sites like ours...(between the lines)

8) 'Top ten secrets to making money online' - this is often offered free and once you click on that link, they will offer you some information which can easily be found with proper research online and lure you into purchasing some other e-book with similar sounding and tempting names such as 'Make a million dollars now', etc.

9) 'Earning money easily online, increase your profits' - and give us your money so that we will earn the easy money. (between the lines)

10) 'Fire your boss and earn immediate income' - don't do it because you may never see the promised 'immediate' income.

11) 'Double and triple your investments in days' - need I say more?

12) 'Make money just by reading emails' - HAH! A good one. Paid emails are not all it's made out to be and yes, you may get a few bucks or so but that's it. No millions rolling into your account just because you read some measly emails.

13) 'Free money making website' - nothing is free in this world. EVERYTHING comes with a cost so wise up.

So there it is. There are thousands of variations to the lines I mentioned and I could not possibly mention all of it. Even the lines I mentioned are not exact words from any scam sites, just the gist of the lines used by scam sites. So do be careful when in search of the pot of gold under the rainbow. It is better to wake up and remember that there is no pot of gold no matter what you were told.


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Make money fast!

Don't ever trust flashing ads with titles like this. More often than not it is a scam!

In my search for work at home opportunities, I have come across a lot of sites with similar themes ranging from ' easy money by spending only an hour a day online' or 'earn between $200 - $700' each day just by filling out forms' or 'become a millionaire by cashing in on this XXX system' or something like that.

These sites often offer very tempting deals with discounts and offers and even a money back guarantee. They promise earnings beyond your dreams ranging from a few hundred dollars a day to millions per month. Tempting as it may sound to just fill in surveys or enter data and make loads of cash, remember not to fall for it as there is no such thing as free money.

Trust me on this. Do not ever fall for any of their tempting offers.

I took a chance and subscribed to one of these and found that it is nothing but a scam with only a list of survey sites to sign in to. Most of these survey sites do not even pay cash. Some offer special draws and the prizes may not even be cash while some which do pay cash, pay less than $10! The surveys are not even that frequent!

There are also plenty of sites selling ebooks which purportedly teach you how to get around the affiliates system and earn thousands by applying the system. Though I have not actually tried it, I believe it is also another scam. The only person making thousands is the person selling the ebook and duping others to pay between $20 an $120 to download the ebook.

So, I have come to a conclusion that all those flashing ads with tempting headlines are mostly scams.

The only legitimate way of earning an income is to do freelance work online, joining good affiliates programs, joining good pay per click ads program such as Google Adsense, taking part in free online blog writing sites which offer minimal payments for each blog entry and some of the pay per post programs.

I have decided to stick to offering freelance writing services. I have since found several online job boards and have put in bids for freelance jobs. Although I have yet to get any jobs, I am certain I will be able to get to a day when I can earn enough doing freelancing work to be able to quit my day job.

So, if you need any writing job done (which includes articles, blogging, features, short stories, fiction, creative writing), feel free to contact me and I will forward you a quote.