Appropriate to pay freelancer for sample in proposal?

[65e68572]

I posted a job for logo work. One application contained a rough sample with an idea that I really liked, but the freelancers style and portfolio weren't a good fit. The text of the job ad asked for text ideas, not samples, but the visual is what made me think it was a good idea even if it only forms the beginning of the process.

If the submission had contained only text, I would not feel any obligation even if another freelancer executed something directly from it, but the fact that the end result will be visually similiar makes it feel different somehow.

What I would like to do is offer the freelancer who submitted the sample a % of the contract total as a thank you, but I don't see any way to do that without creating a job just for the purpose of sending money his way.

What would you do in this situation?

[yitwail]

Nicholas, the only way I know of to pay this freelancer is by creating an invitation only job and inviting the freelancer. I commend you for being conscientious enough to think about paying the freelancer.

[renata101 · Accepted solution]

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@John K wrote:
Nicholas, the only way I know of to pay this freelancer is by creating an invitation only job and inviting the freelancer. I commend you for being conscientious enough to think about paying the freelancer.

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In addition to concientiousness, I believe there is also the important issue of intellectual copyright. I'm not sure how this works for graphic design, but if someone had sent you a sample article and you had not paid the writer for it, the ownership of the article would rest with the writer and you wouldn't be able to it without their permission.  I believe this is true in terms of visual concepts as well. If you didn't pay to develop it, don't assume the concept is yours to use because it was a response to your request for proposals. 

You could just explain that you'd like to buy the sketch and offer to pay the FL for the time it took to produce.  

[65e68572]

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In addition to concientiousness, I believe there is also the important issue of intellectual copyright. I'm not sure how this works for graphic design, but if someone had sent you a sample article and you had not paid the writer for it, the ownership of the article would rest with the writer and you wouldn't be able to it without their permission.  I believe this is true in terms of visual concepts as well. If you didn't pay to develop it, don't assume the concept is yours to use because it was a response to your request for proposals. 

This was also on my mind. On the other hand, assuming there is either legal recourse or recourse through Upwork, freelancers could "weaponize" this to some extent by sending samples of which some portion of the design may make it into the final even if the contract was not completed by them. Not that relevant for the contract that I posted as it was very open ended, but a more specific request could also generate more specific samples and more of them.

Ultimately I think your advice is good. The contract is not for so much that I can't pay someone afterwards to tweak whatever else needs it. It does though feel like my hand was force a bit when I would normally have gone with someone else and done everything on one contract.

[wendy_writes]

Nicholas,  experienced freelancers do not send free samples; desperate and/or tyro ones do.  My guess is that Upwork and a bunch of non-professional folk loose more money than any will admit.

I admire your honesty and business sense - a lot.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Nicholas,

Please note that requesting free samples is a violation of our TOS and our team will contact you directly for further clarification. Keep in mind that you can always view the portfolio section on the freelancer's profile for related past work and samples. The only way to pay the freelancer is to hire him/her on an official contract and the payment needs to be on Upwork. To learn more on how you can hire and pay freelancers check out this Help Articles. Thank you!

[65e68572]

Hi Goran, thank you for the reply. Though I would be happy to talk to your team directly, I'm a little confused about why you think I asked for samples. Quoting from the original post:

The text of the job ad asked for text ideas, not samples,

I specifcally tried to structure the job ad so that freelancers would not send samples becasuse I have posted design jobs before and received them and then felt bad that they wasted their time. 

[petra_r]

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@Goran V wrote:

Hi Nicholas,

Please note that requesting free samples is a violation of our TOS and our team will contact you directly for further clarification.

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 For crying out loud. He did no such thing!

[yitwail]

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@Petra R wrote:

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@Goran V wrote:

Hi Nicholas,

Please note that requesting free samples is a violation of our TOS and our team will contact you directly for further clarification.

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 For crying out loud. He did no such thing!

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Not only that, why would he be offering to pay afterwards if that was the case?? 

[versailles]

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@Petra R wrote:

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@Goran V wrote:

Hi Nicholas,

Please note that requesting free samples is a violation of our TOS and our team will contact you directly for further clarification.

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 For crying out loud. He did no such thing!

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Goran's advice wasn't tailored for this specific request, but it still stands as a broader advice.

It's like: don't request free samples and eat at least five portions of vegetables a day. It's a general advice that you can apply in many everyday situations.

[wendy_writes]

Moderators need to read the actual post. Goran apparently scanned it for 2 words -

free

sample

Boom > canned response 165

[charles_kozierok]

This is practically the archetypical representation of the quip "no good deed goes unpunished." 🙂