Bidding for projects

I am working for a company that, according to my extensive research, is located in the US and not a scam. The issue is that I'm required to look at a project board and bid on the essays I'd like to write. I'm bidding what I believe are fairly standard rates for writers in the US (about $8 to $10 dollars per page for undergraduate work and $11 or $12 for graduate work), but only winning 1 in 10 of the projects. I'm writing less than 5 pages a week.

What is the best way to increase my success rate? Are my bids actually too high to win more work? I don't want to work for peanuts, but I need to win more projects. I've applied with, and been accepted by, several other companies, but they seem to have either no work, or what they do have isn't something I can write (e.g., an engineering dissertation). FYI: English is my native language, I am a US citizen, and I have a master's degree in a social science field.

If you've got a degree in the social sciences, I'd suggest you improve your present level of expertise - by trying to write in as many areas of social sciences as possible. It will also be appropriate to try your hands in other fields. However, you should work only on those projects you're sure you're good at.

Working with companies requires a lot of patience. The most important thing is your reputation. Once you develop it, client will come to you and your work will increase. However, if you are too worried to earn more at this stage, I am afraid to say that instead of the clients coming to you, you might be faced with a lot of revisions.

It isn't uncommon for new writers in companies to do their time when it comes to getting orders.

You still have to prove your writing quality and writer reliability to the company.

It isn't really about the amount that you are bidding for but more of a seniority requirement.

As a company attached writer who just hit the boards, you can expect the administrators of that company to assign you the crumbs because they do not know you yet. You can bid the starting price every time and it won't make a difference.

My advice to you is this: choose to bid on simple orders at first. The more experienced writers will not bid on the simple orders because those go for peanuts as far as they are concerned and their time writing for the company has booted them up the writing ladder that allows them to see the more complex and more high priced orders first.

You may also want to consider the number of bids that already exist on a particular paper. If it appears to be a popular topic with more than 5 bids on it already, you should move on and find another order with lower writers bidding. You may have a better chance of receiving that order assignment.

As a newbie to the company, the other posters are correct -- you simply have to do the time and work it will take to show the quality of your writing. For now, bid reasonably and accept anything you can do. Give it your all and don't miss a deadline.

I understand you want to make more money, but when starting out companies and customers look at the quality and work to get to know you. When you produce great work on time, you will get requests and build your clientele within the company. From experience, the writers who produce quality and are always on schedule often get moved to the top of the "selection/assignment" pool quicker. :)

The first question I'd ask in this case is whether or not you've asked any questions. ;-) Have you asked your contact person why you're not getting more work? Have you asked if those rates you're bidding are in the same neighborhood as the company is prepared to pay? Have you asked about other issues that may be affecting your workload? I'd start there, because the answer might be relatively simple.

Next, I'd ask you how many fields in which you can write. For example, if you cannot take on business-related topics, then that's a huge chunk of work you're never going to get. If it is the case that you only take on relatively few areas (e.g. those in the social sciences), you might wish to consider broadening your horizons, so to speak.

I'd also ask about large projects. You cannot do an engineering dissertation (which I understand completely), but can you complete an English dissertation? Particularly at this time of year, it's important to be able to take on larger projects, as there are fewer small ones.

Having said all of this, if you are just starting out, it really can be slim pickings for some time. Just be patient and prove, over time, that you can meet both requirements and deadlines. Excellent academic writers -- native English speaking academic writers with strong writing skills and the ability to meet deadlines -- are extremely rare. Once you show that you really can do the job, you should have lots of work. I wish you well!

I agree with what has been said here. It's crucial to be patient when starting out with new platforms, especially if you're working on a marketplace "bidding" system because the competitiveness is high. Not to mention the fact that these long-term clients may have already picked out their desired writers whom they would love to work for them. The key is building a reputation and ensuring that you are placing your best foot forward at all costs. This will take a long time - but the benefits in the long-run would serve you wondrously.

Additionally, I also agree that you could ask the management or the support team of the platform regarding your bidding. I had encountered an instance wherein I had also struggled with achieving bids at a new(er) platform. That being said, I contacted my referral within the company and asked how I could turn this around. What they had done was provide me with an extensive input on how I interact with clients, how the clients have been used to interact with, and what forms of interactions have reaped the optimal results for everyone in consideration. I had applied this; and a week later, my bidding success rate improved dramatically from nearly just 1 per day to 5-10.

If you trust this system and the company, there's no harm.

Best of luck in your endeavors. I know it can be excruciating at times.

I could imagine that bidding on projects might be a way for new writers to get their feet wet with some business, but not experienced writers whose work is at the high end of the quality range for this type of work.

I also can imagine that having the bidding process gives new writers more in-depth perspective on the field itself. It teaches a lot about how much patience truly is required for the field of essay writing, considering that you do need to have to build your reputation and career in long periods of time.

Newbie writers have this misconception that they can start earning big bucks the minute they are accepted by a writing company. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every new writer needs to understand that when they are employed by a writing company, they start at the bottom of the writers pile. The pittance payments are a given. When it comes to earning at a writing company, the new writers need to understand that it isn't the CPP that will give them the earnings they desire, it is the amount of work that they do. If they keep bidding on lower projects, they will eventually start building up their work file. The HR department will keep close tabs on writers who work on low priced papers but deliver quality products. Those are the writers who slowly find themselves being assigned to higher priced papers. It may take some time but patience will eventually pay off for these writers. Just like any regular job, the rank and file employees need to wait their turn to climb the ladder of success. Remember, being a company affiliated writer is not the same as being a freelance writer. So the income for those types of writers will be more difficult to earn when compared to the true independent writers.

I had no expectations whatsoever of earning big bucks doing this when I first started. Frankly, I didn't think it was even possible to write enough projects to actually earn a living from doing just this and I was very pleasantly surprised the first time I earned the equivalent of a full month's salary from just writing these types of projects.