This blog post is intended to go out as a reply particularly addressing those of our users who have been complaining about how PeoplePerHour.com promotes cheap labour (or “slave labour” to quote a few of our more fiery users) and how it is mistakenly claimed to favour non-UK freelancers who set cheaper fees.
As some of you may have seen, we have recently launched a section on our site called PPH Economy which reveals a lot of live data from our users, and which clearly shows who amongst our users are the winning bidders. The data speaks for itself.
A few facts:
- A mere 6.8% of bids are awarded to the lowest bidder whilst 91.2% of bids are awarded to the mid-range bidders
- 87.8% of awarded bidders are 5* freelancers
- More than 80% of winning bidders are from the UK
- 80% of our clients are also in the U.K
- Our map shows the average hourly rate per county – you will find that the majority of counties are well above the £20/hour rate
The main reason we have gone to the extent of producing PPH Economy is because we hope that in this way we can gain the trust of our users by putting it all out there.
We believe there is enough evidence to show that PeoplePerHour.com’s clients go for quality rather than lower rates. The majority of our clients are in fact successful entrepreneurs who have gone through a lot of efforts to establish their business – the point being that they wouldn’t jeopardize these efforts by accepting freelancers who don’t believe in their own skills enough to demand a reasonable fee for their work, and who haven’t gone through the trouble of building up a good profile with feedback portraying their quality above everything else.
In other words, if you believe in your skill and talent – don’t set your fees too low, and concentrate on building up your profile, feedback and reputation through intelligent, regular bidding and hard work. The stats are still on your side. And stats don’t lie.
I’m a newbie who has had some success but am still at the keeping an open mind stage.
It’s true that there are some ridiculously low priced jobs posted – we were laughing incredulously about some at last night’s PPH meet up.
However, you don’t have to bid for them and you can also use the comment facility to (anonymously) alert the client that he or she has priced them wrongly. I’ve done the latter and it has (once) resulted in the rate per hour being doubled.
As with any deal offered anywhere – if it’s too good to be true – it probably isn’t. If it’s a bad deal – you’ve no obligation to take it.
So far that seems fair enough to me.
Other stats I would like to see are:
1. Number of projects posted v projects awarded
2. Number of projects posted v projects time expired and never awarded
3. Number of projects posted v projects cancelled
Can anyone from PPH help me out here?
Thanks
Hi,
I’d like to echo David’s post. It takes time to understand and work out how to best fulfil a user’s requirement.
I’d like to know whether I win, lose or if the project is cancelled.
Chris
Good article.
Think you actually doused my anger over couple of issues I was having. I write this from the perspective of a graphic designer.
I happen to think the problem lies with the freelancers themselves, or certainly the quality of freelancers allowed to register.
The site doesn’t favour non-UK freelancers who set cheaper fees, more that its the fools who take work at ludicrously low prices, perpetuating the notion with employers, that we freelance as a ‘hobby’.
The fact above, that a mere 6.8% of jobs are awarded to the lowest bidder may be correct from a factual POV, however, I would lay money on the fact that anyone bidding at the higher, more credible echelons, will be discounted without review.
Its human nature to get what you can at the lowest cost, we as freelancers just have to be wise and ignore the ‘jokers’. After all, they are only getting what they pay for and unfortunately, without a viable idea for a ‘union of graphic designers’, we will always lose out to a kid with an Apple Mac in his bedroom.
I would also like to say that some of the comments left with employers are occasionally on the sinister side – this is doing nothing for our reputation. Give PPH a chance and don’t react with venom at every opp.
Thanks again for an interesting overview.
Steve
With over 200 bids over 3 years and not a SINGLE BID accepted, with all of them pitched in the right price zone I am totally & utterly cheesed off with this site!
Is it for real, I ask myself? There is no problem for me getting work from a couple of other sites I am registered with, nor from my own website, so what on earth is the problem with PPH ?? And another thing, nobody really gives a reason for the rejected bids, even though there is a box to check for those that require this information.
I have decided to give it till the end of this year, and if I dont get any bids accepted I shall deregister on 1.1.2012 – after all my time is FAR TOO VALUABLE to spend composing bids that are never considered!!!
Hi John, sorry to hear this. Wh ydon’t you head over to our forum as others are discussing this and giving advice http://www.peopleperhour.com/forum/topics/index
If you like I can call you to give some tips and go through your profile.
Jonathan
Hullo Jonathan, I am warmed up by your charitable disposition.One rare model in this forum where people tend to portray the “self-centred” instincts in humans.I need Tips from you on how to make Success of my Freelance ventures.I am working from Nigeria with the often chaotic patterns of living but I will keep on and prove myself with Grace.Lots of love
Hi Grace, can you post a link to your profile? Thanks, Jonathan
Freelancers not only need to know how to find clients, they need to know how to find good clients! The most recruited by me is good feedback persons and they are with a good portfolio.
If someone recommend him i also give him more chance.
Thanks for this great post, i will back again for reading new articles from you
by
http://yoursinfo.com
Is there any work being done to educate potential clients in how best to brief (including pricing) and give feedback? It’s difficult enough for those who’ve been trained and worked their way up through ‘proper’ marketing departments. It’s no surprise that so many entrepreneurs who have an idea and ambition but no relevant experience don’t have a clue what the suppliers need to know or indeed what’s involved. Too many jobs are the equivalent of getting an apprentice labourer to botch the architect’s role and sling up a high-rise building. OK, it’s cheap – but it will fall down and have been a waste of time and whatever budget there is. And the number of ‘I have lots of ideas for books, films and TV programmes, I just need someone to write them’ postings is influencing perceptions of your brand… Of course, they should be ignored; the reality is that they ARE attracting bids, albeit from hobbyists and wannabes. Could these not be screened out or separated in some way? (Perhaps I could amend my settings so I don’t see the more laughable postings. Whether or not I can, I feel my questions are still pertinent.)
Some people make me chuckle. As PPH stats show less than 20% of winning bids go to the cheapest bid so if you’re not getting bids accepted then you’re either not good enough or can’t sell yourself. It’s all well and good being a brilliant graphic designer or whatever but if you can’t sell you skills in the right way to a client then your skills will count for very little.
I work as a PA for someone on this site who is very successful. She gains lots of work as she has an excellent sales background as well as psychology qualifications making her very good at appealing to different clients in different ways. She is not the most expensive freelancer and has come in for some stick off other freelancers saying she isn’t as good as them. However she is consistently in the top 10 freelancers on PPH. As this is ranked on money earned from 5 star feedback I can only conclude that she is better than the rest. She may win bids by being more affordable but she always get 5 star feedback. The fact that she consistently gets in the top 10 clearly shows that she has a better business head that these other freelancers who claim to be better than her and she knows exactly how to sell herself
@Jon – there are many ways that can help educate our users to make the best of our service. If you’d like to learn some tips on bidding, please go to this page:
http://blog.peopleperhour.com/employment/freelancer-success-story-how-to-reach-the-top-and-stay-there/
As for the jobs, yes, there are both low and high budget ones on the site. However, we’ve introduced a new feature where you (as freelancer) can choose the budget range for the jobs you want to look at. If you’re not happy to look at low-budget jobs you can change it in your settings and focus on the ones you’d be interested in.
You can find more information about that here:
http://blog.peopleperhour.com/blogroll/new-feature-alert/
There is a big demand for both types of jobs so as long there is demand there is supply…
Have a look at our PPH Forum too! Loads of interesting topics on that!