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aliharvey
Community Member

Clients proposing outside available hours and rates

My profile includes several different locations with information about pricing. As an editor, I mostly charge per-word, but I also offer hourly rates. I include the hourly rates on my profile and the per-word base rates on my website, which are linked in my profile portfolio. I also make sure that I keep my availability up-to-date down to the day, so that it's easy for potential and current clients to know when I am available. 

 

I get job offers several times per week, but I am rarely able to accept them because they require more than my available hours or they are offering to pay me far less than what I would typically charge. This is especially common for people who want to hire "ghostwriters". They'll expect me to plan, write, and edit an entire 90K-word novel for like $200... Sorry, but no. I researched heavily before setting my rates and I am in the lower end of the bracket for my region. 

 

Are there any other ways I can prevent this from happening? I used to respond anyway and quote them my rate, but now I see that I'm getting notifications when those proposals are declined, which made me wonder if doing that would look bad on my metrics. What's a better strategy - to respond anyway with current rates or availability (outside of the client's budget/requirements), or simply decline, citing those reasons?

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petra_r
Community Member


Alisha H wrote:

 I include the hourly rates on my profile and the per-word base rates on my website, which are linked in my profile portfolio. I also make sure that I keep my availability up-to-date down to the day, so that it's easy for potential and current clients to know when I am available. 


You can't possibly expect clients to find and then look at your website to check your rates. You actually need to remove your website altogether because it has your contact details on it and that is not allowed.

 


Alisha H wrote:

I researched heavily before setting my rates and I am in the lower end of the bracket for my region. 


You are on a global platform, so your "region" is fairly irrelevant.

 


Alisha H wrote:

I used to respond anyway and quote them my rate, but now I see that I'm getting notifications when those proposals are declined, which made me wonder if doing that would look bad on my metrics. 


It has no effect on your metrics.

 


Alisha H wrote:

What's a better strategy - to respond anyway with current rates or availability (outside of the client's budget/requirements), or simply decline, citing those reasons?


That's what most successful freelancers do. It costs nothing to respond with your rates! I don't spend much time on those, but I have been hired from such invites, at my usual price/rate.

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petra_r
Community Member


Alisha H wrote:

 I include the hourly rates on my profile and the per-word base rates on my website, which are linked in my profile portfolio. I also make sure that I keep my availability up-to-date down to the day, so that it's easy for potential and current clients to know when I am available. 


You can't possibly expect clients to find and then look at your website to check your rates. You actually need to remove your website altogether because it has your contact details on it and that is not allowed.

 


Alisha H wrote:

I researched heavily before setting my rates and I am in the lower end of the bracket for my region. 


You are on a global platform, so your "region" is fairly irrelevant.

 


Alisha H wrote:

I used to respond anyway and quote them my rate, but now I see that I'm getting notifications when those proposals are declined, which made me wonder if doing that would look bad on my metrics. 


It has no effect on your metrics.

 


Alisha H wrote:

What's a better strategy - to respond anyway with current rates or availability (outside of the client's budget/requirements), or simply decline, citing those reasons?


That's what most successful freelancers do. It costs nothing to respond with your rates! I don't spend much time on those, but I have been hired from such invites, at my usual price/rate.

jr-translation
Community Member


Alisha H wrote:

My profile includes several different locations with information about pricing. As an editor, I mostly charge per-word, but I also offer hourly rates. I include the hourly rates on my profile and the per-word base rates on my website, which are linked in my profile portfolio. I also make sure that I keep my availability up-to-date down to the day, so that it's easy for potential and current clients to know when I am available. 

 

I get job offers several times per week, but I am rarely able to accept them because they require more than my available hours or they are offering to pay me far less than what I would typically charge. This is especially common for people who want to hire "ghostwriters". They'll expect me to plan, write, and edit an entire 90K-word novel for like $200... Sorry, but no. I researched heavily before setting my rates and I am in the lower end of the bracket for my region. 

 

Are there any other ways I can prevent this from happening? I used to respond anyway and quote them my rate, but now I see that I'm getting notifications when those proposals are declined, which made me wonder if doing that would look bad on my metrics. What's a better strategy - to respond anyway with current rates or availability (outside of the client's budget/requirements), or simply decline, citing those reasons?


You might want to remove the link to your website since it is a ToS violation.

Personally I would not mark myself as unavailable since some start looking for freelancers ahead of time (I have already requests for next year) and all you achieve is not to appear in searches. Communicate your availability in your proposal.

As for the low budget offers: Just decline them, these clients are not the ones you are looking for.

Oops! Not sure how I missed that in ToS. I’ve removed it.
wescowley
Community Member


Alisha H wrote:

 

Are there any other ways I can prevent this from happening? I used to respond anyway and quote them my rate, but now I see that I'm getting notifications when those proposals are declined, which made me wonder if doing that would look bad on my metrics. What's a better strategy - to respond anyway with current rates or availability (outside of the client's budget/requirements), or simply decline, citing those reasons?


There's no way to keep it from happening. It doesn't matter how obvious you make the information, some people will ignore it.

 

If an offer is something that looks interesting to me, I'll respond with my rate (or estimate) and my availability. It either works out or it doesn't. If their offer includes a deadline I can't meet (or if that comes out later in the discussion), I let them know that along with how much lead time I typically need in case they want to reach back out later. I don't pay a lot of attention to the stated budget unless it's clear that it's not flexible enough to meet my rates. To me, the small amount of time spent dealing with the prospects that don't work out is more than made up by those that do.

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