Before we get into it, THIS GUY did it first and inspired me to try my own angle.

I don’t often head to freelance marketplaces like Elance or Guru for gigs, but every now and then I check in to see if there’s anything worth chasing. And while I usually end up depressed over the industry-destroying nature of it all, I’m also a man who appreciates open commerce. And money. After reading Daniel’s experience hacking Elance, I decided to follow suit and see if I could unearth any additional tricks and tips to help me stand out and win business with minimal effort. Below are the results.

First, I set up a fake buyer profile on both Elance and Guru and launched my project, entitled “Marketing Strategy & Brand Review”. The overall intention is to learn about my competition and the intricacies of the bidding process for each site.

My project description on Guru

A few notes on the project set-up:

Like Daniel, I created the project to reflect an offer that I would go after personally, as a freelancer

I chose a fixed budget so I could test where the average quote would fall

I specifically called out the need for experience, for a strong command of the English language, and for an individual, NOT an agency

Observation: Elance’s price range options are much wider than Guru’s ($1,000-$5,000 vs. $2,500-$5,000 for this particular project). Observation: Guru automatically sets the “skills required” tags based on keywords used in your project description. This can be a bad thing, though, as tags were added for skills/descriptors even when I specifically called out that I didn’t want them.

I then sat back and waited for the proposals to come in. Within the first 60 minutes, there were 11 on Elance and 2 on Guru, and 24 and 16 total, respectively, after a full day.

Elance

Much more information was provided to new job posters on Elance than on Guru. The onboarding process is quite detailed, and included elements like a “Talent Trends” section, which shows average hourly rates for various skill sets. You are also presented with the screen below, as soon as you submit your job, which I imagine is a great place to be as a freelancer.

Elance’s post-project recommendations

Here’s what you see when reviewing submitted proposals (seller-specific information blocked out by yours truly — I don’t want to put anyone on blast here).

Elance “view proposals”

Avatar, name, country, hourly rate, skill category Earnings, ratings, portfolio link This example is a sponsored proposal, so it has the appropriate tag and orange/camel border color around it The proposal wording, about 5-6 sentences (followed by an option to expand and read more) Attachments (resumes, portfolio examples, etc.)

And here are two drop-down menus for choosing how to organize the list of proposals.

Elance “view by” drop- down menus

Not much is surprising in the the proposal view, as it is designed for a quick scan and to highlight main differentiators among bidders.

Observation: The view defaults to “latest submit date”, with sponsored proposals at the top regardless of submit date. BUT, the sponsored proposals do not remain pinned to the top of the list in ANY other view option. And, oddly, that includes when you hit “Submit Date (Latest)”. That’s right, in the default “Submit Date (Latest)” view when you first open your proposals page, the sponsored proposals are up top, but not if you hit the same button again. The fact that the sponsored proposals do not stay pinned to the top of the list in all views greatly reduces their impact. Observation: When you view proposals from lowest bid to highest, the proposals with no price included show up first.

I set my project cost between $1,000 and $5,000 and received 24 total proposals. The average bid received was $1,947. Over half of the bids were under that number, and five bids didn’t include a cost at all.

Mean and median for Elance

Guru

On Guru, the only real onboarding I received is the call-out below, which references both Premium bids (of which I received none) and the Recommendation score, which has major implications for freelancers and job posters.

Guru’s onboarding call-out

Here’s what you see when reviewing submitted proposals

Guru “view proposals”

Avatar, name, portfolio link The Guru Recommendation number, which we’ll discuss in a minute Total amount of money earned through Guru Star ratings The proposal wording, about 4-5 sentences (followed by the option to expand the quote) Bid amount

And here’s the drop-down menu for choosing how to organize the list of proposals.

Guru “view by” drop-down menu

Observation: Guru organizes proposals according to Recommendation number by default. From what I understand, Premium proposals are pinned to the top and remain there regardless of view. The freelancers who had the most amount of earnings and the highest star ratings were the #1 and #2 bids (not surprising). Interestingly, the #3 and #4 bids had no money earned and no star ratings yet, but were both ranked ahead of someone who had earned some money (minimal) and had full star ratings. Observation: Proposals with no price quotes (referenced as “placeholder” in the system) show up at the very bottom of the lists in both “Estimated Cost ($$$-$)” and “Estimated Cost ($-$$$)”.

I set my project cost between $2,500 and $5,000 and received 16 total proposals. The average bid received was below the proposed minimum, at $2,445. Five bids were under $2,500 and four were right at it. The top three Recommended freelancers all submitted bids at or below the minimum amount.

Mean and median for Guru

Viewing proposals as a buyer and what freelancers can learn from all this.

It was downright frightening how similarly vanilla nearly every single proposal was, on both sites

Though my buyer profile wasn’t set up the way it should have been (I mistakenly left out key personal information that freelancers could have used in proposals), there was a strong lack of personalization in 100% of the proposals

Out of 40 total pitches, only 3 directly mentioned wording I used in my project description — and even those only glossed over the “word of mouth” part

Not one freelancer addressed me by my username, while several used the “Dear Sir/Madam” cringe-worthy moniker

Most pitches read like resumes, simply listing qualifications and previous work, with no attempt to connect to the specific tasks and goals outlined in the project description

Several freelancers referenced skill sets that had nothing to do with the specific job offered

Most freelancers use their headshots for avatars, while a few used logos and a couple didn’t have one at all

Names ranged from personal first/last names to agency names to a few descriptors (e.g. “Social Media Savvy”)

Here are some tips and tricks I’ll be using based on this exercise (I’ll report back in a few weeks on win/loss results).

Assuming many projects receive more proposals than mine did, especially if they are promoted or from reputable buyers, sifting through dozens of bids can be time consuming and tiring. Obviously, demonstrating a proven record on these sites is a major bonus (high buyer feedback, good star ratings, lots of money earned, etc.), you can’t necessarily control that from Day One. I’d like to concentrate on what you can control.

I’m going to make a bet here that personal names and faces get more attention than logos and agency names. Put yourself out there. One trick I’m experimenting with is adding a short qualifier / skill descriptor to my name, since that’s one of the first things (if not, the first) that a buyer sees.

I added “Creative Marketer” in the name line

As Daniel pointed out, not one proposal came with a video, nevermind a personalized one. Why the hell not?! That’s a fantastic way to stand out, show you are committed to the project, and connect on a personal level in a process that can seem a bit robotic. I love that.

Of extreme importance, only the first few sentences of your pitch actually show up in the proposal list, and with so many to review, it’s safe to assume that’s all a buyer will see. You need to hook them right off the bat. Mention their name, call out something specific in the description, bring the video to their attention — just do it quickly.

Daniel advises you do some research and I wholeheartedly agree. One of the best ways to do this is to look at the buyer’s history, particularly their feedback for other freelancers. Any patterns of things they liked or disliked? Use that in your pitch.

If the buyer is from the U.S., it could be worth calling out that you are too, and English speaking as a first language.

Daniel’s take is to not include a quoted price in your pitch because the client “will sort you by price and be less likely to consider you”. I need to test that theory, though it certainly makes sense at first. Elance is a better site to offer no initial bid, where on Guru it could easily bite you in your ass since it’ll put you at the bottom of the list when organized by price (high or low).

Sponsored / Promoted proposals aren’t always a sure thing. On Elance, they typically cost double the amount of “Connects” as a regular proposal submission, and only three Sponsored proposals are allowed per job. But, as previously mentioned, they don’t remain at the top of the list in any other view the buyer may choose. On Guru, the Promoted proposals cost more (6 bids vs. 1 for the standard proposal), but remain pinned to the top of the page at all times.

On both sites, as a freelancer, you can see how many other sellers have made proposals and if all the sponsored / promoted spots are filled yet. On Guru, you can also see what the Recommended rankings currently are for anyone who has bid on the project. All these factors should help you decide whether you should pitch that particular project and if it’s worth a sponsored / promoted proposal.

On Guru, you can see the other applicants to gauge your competition

Because response speed is important in pitching new jobs, I’ve set up email alerts. For Elance, here’s how I did it. Go to Find Work and Search Jobs. Be as specific as you can, as the search function isn’t the best. In the example below, I used “marketing strategy” as my search term, then chose U.S. based jobs, in the Sales & Marketing category. You can get as specific as you like, including fixed vs. hourly rate and even featured posts or payment-verified buyers. I then set up a recipe in IFTTT by using the RSS feed from my search page (click the RSS button on Elance) to email me when new jobs are posted.

The basis of my IFTTT recipe for new marketing strategy job alerts

I’m sure there are more angles I’ve missed here, but this is a start. Hopefully it helps some of you gain a competitive edge. Any more tips, feel free to comment here. If you want a printable version, download it free on Slideshare.

And I’m not gonna stop you from hitting that Recommend button down there…