Buyer Request observations

[myskillsforsale]

You will find the most inane pricing schemes on Buyers Request. Often, buyers who use Buyers Request are either:

1. Looking for something niche and want people to come to them (generally reasonable in price)
2. Lazy and don’t want to research the gigs they buy (probably cheap, too)
3. Cheap, knowing that custom offers from Buyers Request is cheaper than buying from someone’s gig page. These buyers are readily recognized by statements like “Don’t offer if you can’t do it in the budget.”
4. Manipulative (aka, bad). These are recognized by things like: “this is a great opportunity for a new seller” or “I promise to review you well if you do a good job.”

I’ve seen buyers put $5 for 2000 words+ of writing + rights and get plenty of responses. Sellers (especially desperate ones) will bid on anything. It’s irksome. You can’t compete with the guy who will remove the background from 20 pictures for $5. Cheap buyers probably don’t care about quality (unless they’re buyers who want cheap and high quality, which is the worst kind of buyer and you should run away from them) and so providing quality instead of quantity won’t win.

Make sure you’re writing great offers and you have samples of your own work. Sometimes people who are great at their gigs aren’t great at writing about it.

You have to be persuasive. Explain what you do and how you do it well (example: I do voice recording; I state what equipment I use and what I do with edits). Clearly, you speak English – make sure your write perfect English, as that is a HUGE asset on this site. You can also say things like “Feel free to contact me with any questions; I’d like to understand your project fully so I can tailor my work to your preferences.” Or something like that.