Bidding Tips
By Aaron Anderson
Rent a Coder Buyer and Coder

Finding a suitable project

If you are new to the RentACoder system, you'll have a tough time landing any large project. Try finding a simple project and charge nearly nothing on it. Some buyers will go with the lowest price they possibly can and this is a great way to grow a reputation.

I was a part of RentACoder for a number of months before I landed my first project, the main reason as I see it was my prices. After I got desperate and lowered my bids to half of what I'd normally attempt, I landed my first job. This was a client who was so impressed they not only dropped a bonus but they returned on two other occassions boosting up my ratings.

Before you can make suitable money, you need to impress buyers not only with your services but your prices as well.

Project outside of your expertise

There isn't a single one of us who knows all the different languages, infact you won't find a person who knows more than two programming/scripting languages fluently. You should look for projects you find interesting even if it isn't in the language of your choice or your expertise. If the coder asks for it to be in language1 but you believe it's much better suited for language2, post a bid explaining your thoughts and reasoning.

A number of the projects I've completed were originally for PHP work but after placing a bid and discussing the benefits of CGI over PHP, not only did I change their mind on the language to us e but I landed the project as well. Remember, the buyer doesn't always understand the most efficient and secure way to do things. Just because what they are asking for is out of your expertise doesn't mean you can't talk them into changing their outlines.

Ask questions

Buyers love to hear questions, it lets them remap their project through their head and it shows to them that you understand and have read the project outlines enough to request more information or clarity. With questions you should also propose alternative solutions, this will give them the impression you know what you're doing and they don't need to hold your hand through the process.

I've been a buyer on this site as well, nothing is more intriguing than coders who ask questions. They asked questions I never dreamt of and it's a good idea they did. A few years ago I hired a coder to design an image gallery web site and asked them to put each picture's data on it's own page for displaying. The thought never crossed my mind if the coder would make a separate HTML page for thousands of images automatically that would eat away at my storage space or if there was an alternative way. But because of a single coder that many years ago, the project was done and the performance was amazing.

Asking questions doesn't mean you don't understand, it means you're wise enough to know you can't read their mind.

The client is always right!

You've surely heard this a number of times before but how true is this? The reality is, the buyer is not always right, if they knew everything they could complete the project themselves. That's why there are coders, we're not here to just make them happy and agree with everything they say, they want our feedback to make the project more beneficial and efficient in the long run.

If something they a re asking for is unreasonable, let them know and explain the downfalls and benefits of another solution. There have been many times the buyer asked me to do something so unreasonable it would have taken days to code would could have taken hours, but they won't know this unless you explain it to them. Buyers are usually interested in hearing other ideas or suggestions for their project, they do want it fine tuned and perfect after all, don't they?
 

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