I visit PeoplePerHour few times a week to check if any projects matching my profile are available. Personally, I would say that PPH projects are more professional than other freelancing sites, where you see more of ‘Clone a website’ or ‘Criaglist postings’ or ‘Post our links where ever you can’ kind of projects.
You don’t need any special expertise for that. A little bit of common sense, an internet connection, lots of time, and the willingness to ‘underbid’ other bidders will land you these projects.
Given the class nature of PPH projects, and an excellent support system ( they respond within 24hrs after placing a ticket and donot leave any issue unresolved), I never felt bad for loosing to a fellow bidder. The winning bidder sure must have something more to offer.
But their recent update is shocking, disturbing and depressing for independent freelancers. We don’t stand a chance again all those Affiliates and Virtual Staffing agencies who bid with “We have the people who match the skills required for your projects”.
It makes me sad to say, I shall not be recommending PPH at any more independent providers. PPH has come up with a perfect strategy to chase their independent providers to other sites such as scriptlance, oDesk, and Get a Freelancer. Sure, they too have their restrictions on bids and other things, ( For instance oDesk gives you more bids, if you take up more skills tests). But they are more than enough for an independent provider.
Here is why I would drastically cut down on my PPH visits.
Monthly Membership fees (7.95£ – 14.95£):
Affiliates and VA staffing agencies:-
Appears affordable to me given the fact that they have ‘n’ number of freelancers ( Virtual Assistants) already in their database, all they have to do is win bids and subcontract those projects to specific VA’s in their list
Independent Providers:-
Cannot afford, unless they are already established, and have a steady income from this, and / or other bidding sites.
If you are one of those listed VA’s with these staffing agencies, then chances are you will get a project. Else, start looking elsewhere if you want to operate independently.
Service Categories
This is I guess means, you are expected to be an ‘expert’ in just one field. Lets say, you are good at writing articles, and also good at logos and banners. You also have a portfolio that support this. Yet, PPH will allow you under standard membership to place bids in EITHER copywriting projects OR Graphic projects. You cannot bid on both.
Affiliates and VA staffing agencies:-
Gold members get 2 categories to bid on and Platinum members don’t have this restriction (Lucky !). Is it just me, or do i see more Platinum members at PPH from the staffing agencies in future. After all, they need to cater to the skills of all VA’s in their database. ….
Independent Providers:-
Think, how many projects will be posted per month on ‘your’ category. Btw, did I mention that you can ‘purchase categories at 5.95£ / month’. Well, you might as well go for a gold membership. It seems to work out cheaper.
Monthly Credit allowance
Affiliates and VA staffing agencies:-
These guys get whopping 20 – 80 bids per month. Remember platinum members don’t have the service category restriction. ( who ..independent provider !)
Independent Providers:-
Not worth the time, skimming through posted projects. Did I mention you can ‘buy’ more credits at 5.95£ ( per bundle of 10). Well, if you can !.
If you are still an independent provider, you must seriously start considering finding one of these guys and get affiliated. There is no way you can win independently here.hey!.. PPH guys !, it is not just you, we are also affected by the Credit crunch
A word to independent providers
Fret all you want There is nothing you can do about this. Take a detour
A word for PPH guys.
- How about allowing the buyers to present a standard set of questions which can be answered by genuine providers (who have the subject knowledge). This should eliminate most of the bogus bids.
- 3 bids per month for one category is practically useless. And the category restriction add insult to the injury.
- Providers will act more responsibly if you would release the category restriction, and instead enforce a 5 bid per week restriction. I hope asking for 1 bid per working day (Monday – Friday ) is not too much.
Think about this guys,
Well said – you can see my views on the subject below yours on the PPH blog site.
All I can add is that it is a great shame.
Hi Edward
Welcome here.
Well, what can i say.. its a win win situation for the site
PPH is going the Elance way.
I really hope they would reconsider their current strategy.
Established freelancers already have a client base
They will anyway bid minimally, as they are well aware how many clients they can handle
But with newbies, they ‘have to’ place as many bids as possible.
may be 1 out of 20 will see the interview.
Lets see how PPH takes our views.
Deepa
thanks for the feedback – please rest assured that we do consider each and every point raised in trying to find the best way for this to work for everyone.
We do take your points on board, however the one thing that it’s worth pointing out is that this is by no means a case of ‘staffing agencies vs independent providers’. The vast majority of PPH providers are independent providers and it is certainly not our intention to attract more agencies instead.
Simos
PeoplePerHour.com
Hi Simos.
I wish i had the chance to welcome you here under more pleasent circumstances.
Glad to see that the panel at PPH values user feedback
I am not against staffing agencies. But wanted to convey that the proposed
changes will only gain popularity with the staffing agencies.
PPH is a great place for individual providers. Seasoned providers have an established client base For them this might just be a bump on the road.However, this will be a huge roadblock Newbies and those who work on per project basis.
I understand the importance of restrictions, but there must be some other way to filter out bogus bidders. You guys have come this far, I am sure the team will surely think of something that is benificial to PPH , providers and the buyers.
All the best Team.
Thanks for dropping by,
Regards
Deepa