Regarding overseas vs. U.S. seller…there are sellers on the site from the U.S. who are competitive. As a matter of fact, the U.S. is always in the top 3 countries for sellers on the site…month after month (See http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/misc/About/default.asp#LatestStatsOnRAC for current stats).

The top writer on the site is the #2 seller on RAC. The seller has completed over 1200 with prices varying and she is in the US.

http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/SoftwareCoders/showBioInfo.asp?lngAuthorId=1151754

Yes some buyers have unrealistic expectations of huge software/writing projects for almost nothing. However these expectations are quickly brought down to earth by the system. If a buyer is asking for too low a price, they receive no bidders and must raise their price on a re-bid. If they ask for too much, they get flooded and realize they can lower it. It is self-adjusting marketplace, resulting in a fair price on each transaction.

To get a job the most important thing to do is to demonstrate that you have the ability to do the job and you know what you are talking about. Buyers want to see that the seller took time to read the requirements as well.
So after reading the bid request, present your credentials, but also ask intelligent questions of the buyer pertaining to their project.

Nothing turns off a buyer more than a “canned” reply that looks like it was posted on 100 other projects…they want to know that you are interested and excited to work on their project.

Finally, many buyers are interested in quality and the assurance that the coder can get it done. So if you can convey that to a buyer then you have a better chance of getting a job.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact one of our facilitators.

Rod Smith
Rentacoder.com

My experience with both RAC and Elance has been favorable. $1 an article is a thing of the very distant pass, and I’ve substantially increased my rates to earn a decent living. I’ve also earned repeat customers by proving quality work always pays off for the buyer.

One note: If you want to continue to support low freelance writing rates, by all means, continue to work at less than $15 an article (which still isn’t even in the recommended writer pay scale of either Canada or the U.S. By continuing to accept these rates, buyers know they can get writers to work at low cost.

If you’re going to write for a living, walk the walk and talk the talk. Be a professional with rates that are equal to that position. By putting your foot down and refusing low paying work, you actually help maintain higher rates for writers.

For more info, feel free to visit our writers rates category on our blog. There is plenty of advice to help with the situation for those struggling for better pay.

And it really gets my goat.

There are some of us whose work is very good and we are trying to make a living out of it. Those people make it harder for us and basically degrade our work and the whole theory and reputation behind freelancing.

I think those bidding sites are designed to gip the writer, and I’ll stick with alternative methods. Besides, it’s like you said: there’s soo many people competing on those bidding sites, that it’s almost like they are an easy out. I think you’re better off kicking butt searching for actual jobs.

So here’s my experience: my main client that I got from elance pays me about 60 an hour! It’s daydream education charts and I basically edit curriculum materials so that they can intro them to an audience in the US (they are UK based). From them, since I got the job, I’ve made over 2 thousand. I can’t remember WHEN I got it, but it must have been after I got back from Mexico- so since August to now- a couple of months 2 thousand.

Today I proofread a business proposal in under 5 hours for 300 bucks.

Last week I proofread this mortgage brokers ebook – 10 pages for 200 bucks.

So, what’s the deal? Why so different. First of all, I spend less than a minute figuring out if this is one of “those” crappy $2 an hour jobs.

Seocnd, I target only very specific jobs in very specific niches (marketing and education). I get 90% of jobs I bid for on elance. But I don’t bid for a whole lot. I never bid on anything that bores me and I never deal with any project that’s under 200 bucks.

Another niche I mainly deal with editing and proofreading jobs on elance.

So maybe you have to stay in your niche (education, marketing). Also bypass the content crap. Also give it more than a week! I can go two weeks or sometimes more without seeing jobs I want.

Now, I’ve also got decent jobs and ongoing clients from Debs board. Also fron Sunoasis, Gawker, Journalism jobs, etc.

Today I was 500 dollars short of my monthly goal. That’s it. That’s because I don’t discount anything and spend about 2 hours a week trolling ALL the job sites, including elance.

Hell, I have a local outlet that pays me $300 for 600 words!

These sites don’t want quality, they want quantity. And they want it as cheap as possible.

Stick with Deb’s site. It’s already helped me land a gig with a national trade publication.

It is obvious that many things about bidding sites are bad – people looking to pay $1 per article, etc. But I don’t think we should write them off completely.

Like some people have said, they searched through the sludge and found some gems. If you’re just starting out as a freelance writer (which I am), these sites can be useful.

I just started using getafreelancer. I found someone willing to pay me $10 per blog post. (It’s not $800 per month, but it’s not bad, either.) Because of this good experience, I’m willing to try it out again.

I don’t plan to use bidding sites forever, but as a way to get started and get a few repeat clients, I think they can be a helpful tool for writers.

I must admit though, I would be thrilled to find a couple of blogging jobs that pay $2000 a month. Maybe I should go take a look again.