Do you make people PROVE themselves?

It's a two-way thing. If you allow yourself to be manipulated into quite possibly supplying people with a free service, even if they insist it's only to "test", you deserve to be taken for a ride.

Would you go to a shop and say "let me have my first bag of groceries for free, and if I like them, I'll come back and use you again?" Of course you wouldn't.

No more should you even consider working for people who expect something for nothing. It's your livelihood for goodness sake. Tell them where to go.

Once you do one thing for free you prove your value to be $0.

People who play that game move on to new suckers and never pay.

It's all very true......

I pay fair prices to people, whether it's Elance, in person or through any other of my social business efforts.

I've been given work at a quality I couldn't have even begged for, and I'm sure it's because I didn't ever try to take them for a ride.

Good to see other here sharing the same thought process.

i always just hire new(ish) developers to do smaller jobs for smaller money. that seems to work best for me.

i do usually let people know that i will likely have more work as that is a motivator for some developers to spend just a little extra time making sure i am satisfied since they know this job is not likely to be just a one off job.

this way i am not actually asking for much if any extra value for what i pay for. but those of us who hire developers get burned too.

hell, i just lost $150 to a fellow warrior who took the money and just never delivered the service. i guess the developer thought they were more entitled to my money than i was since i got a sad story about how tough times where from her.

i guess the one thing i have learned to live by is that whether i am hiring or delivering work for someone else, i never put more time or money at risk than i am willing (not wanting) to lose.

that way i can always leave the transaction either satisfied or having learned / re-affirmed a lesson and not actually hold grudges or let the event interfere with my life.

Well, there is balance, of course, and people should not ask for so much as a test, but the buyer also needs to do some due diligence.

Oh, how many times I wished I had seen more samples of someones work or only purchased a very small package. I had wasted a lot of money on shoddy work because the one sample they showed was the very best and it went rapidly down hill from there.

I have had some experience with this from their side myself. My offline biz has had several companies promise the world for their monthly fee. All we have ever gotten for our money is nearly nothing. When I say nearly, I mean, there were some changes to our site, but nothing that ever picked up even 1 new customer. It really dosen't take too many of those before you feel very cheated. Never a refund of course. You may be posting about something entirely different. I am speaking of SEO stuff primarily for our websight. Since then we researched it ouself and have only us to blame failure. It has worked well so far and I can't see how we won't get better and better. I have however, told IMers that "want to help our internet advertising" show me what you can do, if it draws more customers I would be stupid to not use their service.

I agree with everything that has been said. People think that if you offer them lots of work they will discount their prices when the reality is that the same amount of work needs to be done per article/job, whether it's 100 articles or 10 articles.

I have knocked back work from people who seem to think that they can pay peanuts and expect brilliant work. I would rather not earn money than earn it that way.

While I agree with all thee above responses, people will always want something for nothing.

I find it hard asking questions here at times, just in concern that for all the help I've received I can return the favor someday. There too, I'm still getting my 'sea legs' here, and fitting the ship with the proper navigation and tools for safe sailing.

Therefore, I have been more concerned with proving to myself I am worthy of the voyage before inviting passengers onboard, so to speak. Definitely don't want a mutiny on my hands, that's for sure.

Getting back to the topic, this is one of the exact reasons I have 'postponed' offering services, not in fear that the clients will want something for nothing (because that I have no time for) but instead, in asking oneself; would my efforts produce results for another as I would command for myself.

I think is a two-way street.

Honestly, if you are 'skilled' in your field, there should be no reason to allow others to 'debunk' you from protecting and preserving your livelihood.

Aside from typical antics to attract opt-ins, or maybe in establishing those first few reviews for a mutual benefit, when it comes to providing services that deliver, I believe in the age old adage; "You can't short change integrity!"

If they don't like the price, send em' packing.

All the Best,

Art

I am in no way referring to the OP, but here are my thoughts...

Firstly, tendering for freelance work would have to be a numbers game. So the more you bid, eventually you'll get more work.

Don't offer free work.

make sure you have a portfolio with good samples.

Make sure you read the proposal and explain your understanding of it in your bid.

You'd be surprised how many bids are just auto bids where they don't even read the proposal.

When you bid, include your hours when you will be available online.

Overall, if you present the most professional way, you'll increase your success and maintain your price.

As for the freebie searchers, ignore them. Be strong and stand firm.

Sal

I usually tell the freebie-hunters, politely of course, to take a hike.

The majority of them then decide to work with me anyway, and we do good business. I always figure that it truly was a freebie they were after and it had nothing to do with wanting to make sure I was the right guy for the job.

Show them past work if they want examples. If they insist on more, tell them you're running a business, not a garage sale or charity. If that isn't good enough tell them they need to look elsewhere. Don't play their game, you'll lose every time. It's your business, play it by your rules to attract the kinds of customers you want.

From time to time I will offer clients a discount on their first article. Sometimes 25%-50% off. Normally though, I expect my samples and testimonials to speak for themselves. If that isn't enough, they likely aren't a client I will want.

"Hey... Mr. Lawn Man, feel like mowing my lawn tomorrow... I've been looking for a good landscaping company to replace the guy I've been using, but I want to make sure you guys can handle a 2 acre property, it's a lot of work. Sure, if everything looks good and is right and tight when it's done, I'll give you another 23 cuts per year at 50% of you're asking price. YES... this is a long term gig, so I really need to see if you can handle it, and since it's a bigger job you'll make more in the long run.":rolleyes:

Ha Ha Ha ... sounds like the crap I dealt with for years building pools/spa's for contractors. Always trying to beat down the price to the point, it almost wasn't worth the headaches. But after they got the idiots to do the job for free or cheaper, they'd call me to go back and fix the 'other' guys mistakes. I charged more for the repairs, then I would've for the whole job from scratch!

While, it might not be uncommon in some circles to offer a free month's service for a one year service contract or on recurring billings... as was so in the pool cleaning aspect of the swimming pool industry, it didn't work to well with the sub-contractor's (tradesmen) like myself. So, I cannot see how this type of thinking applies to an established online service (or offline for that matter) unless it's to obtain a long-term contract.

Even being new to 'this' industry, I am conscientious enough to know not to undersell my time, skills, or ability. It is a tough industry to gauge until I can build a reputation or portfolio, and even still, FREE labor IMO still = slavery.

I am a firm believer that 'giving' is good. 'Giving' quality is even better. However, charity has it's place, and shouldn't be confused with wasting someone else's time, or insulting their workmanship.

The trouble today, is everyone's so quick to jump on a dollar blowing down the road, they forget they're about to get run over!

-Art

Let your portfolio of work speak for itself.
Your potential client should be able to accurately assess
the value of your work by the samples you provide.
And customer testimonials are additional evidence of value.
Do get caught in the trap of giving away freebies.

I don't get these problems anymore, but when I freelanced on Elance, that was commonplace. In fact, Elance had a policy that the people who posted projects could not request free samples. Their listings would be deleted if they did. Many did anyway ... and if they didn't do it in the listing, they would send messages to all the bidders asking for free mockups, saying the winner would get lots of projects awarded to them.

Never happens. These people are nothing more than freebie seekers. You won't get $50,000 projects by giving samples away for free. They disappear with your samples and redo them or get them redone really cheap by someone else and you never hear from them again.

Don't give your work away. Your work should speak for itself.

Fixed that for you.

The answer is [Del]

Just something once, could be anything, and then keep using it as sample, don't give give them demos and ***t.

@JimMichael, when people try to prove themselves that means they are qualifying or selling themselves to you. That's key to salesmanship, but also in personal relationships! :-)

Have previously made samples prepared and refer interested parties to those. Tell them you don't work for free, and let that be the end of it.

I remember ordering a service from a guy before not really knowing his track record because he had none so I went out on a limb with that guy.

I mean he delivered the work but it was late on top of that. He did the job as described so I had no issues with him. Then he said since I put my trust in him he would hook the kid up with free service. I should of known he was gassing me up and all.

I hit him up for the free service and there was no one there, could you believe that.
Just goes to show can't trust every ones word these days. At least he did the paid job lol.