Freelancers are often asked to do free sample for clients. Today, I
will tell you from personal experience why freelancers should never
agree to do free samples.
As I have mentioned on a number of previous occasions, I was into freelance writing before the passion to see my name among the best bloggers of India got the better of me. Not that I have left it up completely. I still do take up work, though I am extremely selective about picking up my projects, because I am now nurturing my blog like my baby.
There is immense scope for a freelancer these days- as a writer, graphic artist, logo designer, WordPress skills, website development, financial analysts, programmers, etc. If you are determined and dedicated, you can make a cool amount of money month after month as a freelancer.
But a new starter in this field can be extremely gullible because work is not too easy to come by initially and is also erratic. There might be times when you have too much work to handle and then have nothing to do for a few days.
It wasn’t easy for me too when I got started. I made some right choices and some bad decisions too, for which I had to regret. I am sharing one such bad experience with all my readers here today.
As is the norm, one has to see the various open projects at these sites. One fine morning, I saw this short requirement reading like:
I placed my bid, and resumed my work after surfing that site for a few more minutes.
After two hours, I got an email message saying,
Within 4 hours, I got another email from the same hirer saying,
Inspite of the adulation, it did seem a bit odd. I had attached tons of samples with my bid. And had already done a 500 word rewrite for them. But since the chance of getting an order for a 70,000 word rewrite was too enticing to be turned down, I thought it was worth the effort anyways. That could have meant another $7-800 in my bank account within the next week.
I thought about it for 5 minutes. But then, the lure of the lucre got the better of my judgment and I again did that sample for them. And attached it to the site, like before.
I was hoping to hear the magical words, “Congratulations! Your proposal has been accepted!” within the next 2 hours. But nothing happened.
A day passed.
Then, two more.
Soon, a week passed but there was no confirmation order from the prospective client at all.
I was furious at not getting the order. Not because it mattered- I had enough work at hand anyways. Annoyance was due to the fact that I’d done two FREE rewrites for the ‘client’.
It is not the rejection of bid or other bids getting chosen over yours that causes you a heart break.
NEVER!
Any freelancer knows how to take rejections in his /her stride.
It was the fact that I’d been gullible and been duped that was making me feel STUPID.
After 2 weeks, I was still seething from within. I was new to the
profession and had no idea about the free version of Copyscape. Not
knowing how to check whether they had used my rewrites already, I
inserted two lines of the 1st sample rewrite I had done for them at Google and pressed ENTER!
To my surprise, I saw the entire passage I had done for them LIVE on a website.
Fuming, I checked a few lines from the second rewrite as well.
Much to my chagrin, that was LIVE at the same site too!
I did feel extremely foolish for having WILLINGLY submitted free samples.
Not once.
But TWICE!
That experience, however, left me much wiser and I made up my mind never to agree for a free sample for a client ever again. I now give them enough samples of my previous works. And politely ask them to make a final choice out of those.
If a client really appreciates your work and is genuine, he will not ask you to do free samples for him. If someone is asking you for those, you have every reason to assume that he might cheat you in future and not pay you for your hard work.
While we, as freelancers, would love to get as much work as we can possibly handle, WHY render our services free of cost to cheats like these?
I actually wondered how many free rewrites that smart site owner must have got from each of those bidders, and used them all later- he probably got away smartly and got his work done from silly people like me without paying a single penny!
Don’t give in to the temptation of regular work or good prices if you feel that the prospective client is too smart for you.
Conclusion
I am sure any freelancer who has agreed to do free samples for his client has undergone through similar situations. I am sharing my experience here with you all today so that more newbie freelancers like me are not exploited my smart hirers like these.
If any of you has ever had to regret after agreeing to do free samples for client(s), please do share your experiences with us here. Let us share the bitter experiences we have gone through so that others can learn from our follies.
As I have mentioned on a number of previous occasions, I was into freelance writing before the passion to see my name among the best bloggers of India got the better of me. Not that I have left it up completely. I still do take up work, though I am extremely selective about picking up my projects, because I am now nurturing my blog like my baby.
There is immense scope for a freelancer these days- as a writer, graphic artist, logo designer, WordPress skills, website development, financial analysts, programmers, etc. If you are determined and dedicated, you can make a cool amount of money month after month as a freelancer.
But a new starter in this field can be extremely gullible because work is not too easy to come by initially and is also erratic. There might be times when you have too much work to handle and then have nothing to do for a few days.
It wasn’t easy for me too when I got started. I made some right choices and some bad decisions too, for which I had to regret. I am sharing one such bad experience with all my readers here today.
Say NO to Free Samples
I did get some very good clients due to word-of-mouth publicity and referrals. But since I was ambitious and driven by a fierce desire to make it big, I started working at some freelancing sites as well.As is the norm, one has to see the various open projects at these sites. One fine morning, I saw this short requirement reading like:
“Wanted Rewriters for manually rewriting health related articles. Looking for people with prior experience in the field of health. Willing to pay handsomely to the perfect candidate. Please get in touch with previous work samples immediately- we will make the final choice within the next 12 hours. Continuous and ongoing work.”Nothing unusual. And it sounded well too. I saw that there were some 10 odd bidders before me. Confident of being able to bag the order inspite of other bidders, I placed my bid. I knew that unless we failed to come to a consensus about the rates, I would get it.
I placed my bid, and resumed my work after surfing that site for a few more minutes.
After two hours, I got an email message saying,
“Congratulations!! Your proposal has been shortlisted. You are one of the three lucky chosen ones for this project. Your samples were really brilliant and we would be glad if you could rewrite this sample passage for us. The same samples have been sent to the remaining two candidates as well. And we would like to see who would be the best person to handle this task.”Every freelancer looks for regular work and is usually willing to scale down his prices if he sees that possibility. Ecstatic at the prospect of getting continuous work in the future as well, I quickly did the sample rewrite within the next 40 minutes and attached it at the site. Most sites do not allow direct communication between the clients and freelancers till the final decision has been made. I did not know about the name of my client or his/her whereabouts. But that seemed to be the most natural thing to do.
Within 4 hours, I got another email from the same hirer saying,
“Wow! You are really a superb writer. We were just wondering if you can handle the entire project involving a rewrite of 70,000 words for us on XYZ topic. Can you please prove that you are the perfect person for this huge task by rewriting this small 500 word passage?”As I said already, I had been into writing only for a few months. It was nice to hear those words of appreciation, undoubtedly.
Inspite of the adulation, it did seem a bit odd. I had attached tons of samples with my bid. And had already done a 500 word rewrite for them. But since the chance of getting an order for a 70,000 word rewrite was too enticing to be turned down, I thought it was worth the effort anyways. That could have meant another $7-800 in my bank account within the next week.
I thought about it for 5 minutes. But then, the lure of the lucre got the better of my judgment and I again did that sample for them. And attached it to the site, like before.
I was hoping to hear the magical words, “Congratulations! Your proposal has been accepted!” within the next 2 hours. But nothing happened.
A day passed.
Then, two more.
Soon, a week passed but there was no confirmation order from the prospective client at all.
I was furious at not getting the order. Not because it mattered- I had enough work at hand anyways. Annoyance was due to the fact that I’d done two FREE rewrites for the ‘client’.
It is not the rejection of bid or other bids getting chosen over yours that causes you a heart break.
NEVER!
Any freelancer knows how to take rejections in his /her stride.
It was the fact that I’d been gullible and been duped that was making me feel STUPID.
To my surprise, I saw the entire passage I had done for them LIVE on a website.
Fuming, I checked a few lines from the second rewrite as well.
Much to my chagrin, that was LIVE at the same site too!
I did feel extremely foolish for having WILLINGLY submitted free samples.
Not once.
But TWICE!
That experience, however, left me much wiser and I made up my mind never to agree for a free sample for a client ever again. I now give them enough samples of my previous works. And politely ask them to make a final choice out of those.
If a client really appreciates your work and is genuine, he will not ask you to do free samples for him. If someone is asking you for those, you have every reason to assume that he might cheat you in future and not pay you for your hard work.
While we, as freelancers, would love to get as much work as we can possibly handle, WHY render our services free of cost to cheats like these?
I actually wondered how many free rewrites that smart site owner must have got from each of those bidders, and used them all later- he probably got away smartly and got his work done from silly people like me without paying a single penny!
Don’t give in to the temptation of regular work or good prices if you feel that the prospective client is too smart for you.
Conclusion
I am sure any freelancer who has agreed to do free samples for his client has undergone through similar situations. I am sharing my experience here with you all today so that more newbie freelancers like me are not exploited my smart hirers like these.
If any of you has ever had to regret after agreeing to do free samples for client(s), please do share your experiences with us here. Let us share the bitter experiences we have gone through so that others can learn from our follies.
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