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How to bid the right price, and how to convince a buyer

Vincent Murphy, Senior Programmer

I've subscribed to your site because I want to get as many projects as I can, but for this I need some good advice. Can I ask your opinion on: how to bid the right price and how to convince them that I have the "right solution" - and how I can keep a distance from con artists and hustlers?

'I', coder

Dear 'I', We've all had problems with getting contracts, especially when we are just starting. Allow me to give you a few suggestions:

1/ Bid on as many projects as you can
2/ Take the time to read the project description - and write your bid individually
3/ Don't 'copy and paste' bids as they will not help you

About selecting a price, you should look at the competition carefully. On this board putting in bids you are not serious about is not allowed and such bids are quickly removed.

If you see bids around $100 from people with good feedback on the site, you should bid lower than this - no buyer will pick you for the same price as someone with a proven track record. And maybe you will have to work for a low rate for a small project or two, but the moment you have feedback you can start increasing your price.

The key is definately to get good feedback, the faster you can get it, the faster you can start working for the money that you want. It can help to tell the buyer honestly that you are bidding low because you want to get some feedback.

Regarding Hustlers or Cons, these are very rare from buyers on a well run site. If you have your own server, you can often avoid this problem by demonstrating the script there, and then once the buyer pays up, delivering the script for his own server. Another method is to ask for a 50% deposit, however this can put off many coders if you don't have any feedback. The vast majority of Hustlers are coders, not buyers, so you have nothing to worry about.

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