Stealing Ideas

[jdemegillo]

Hello everybody, This happened to me 2 yrs ago but I still see the same patterns repeating.. even until now...I see the same thing in odesk and craigslist I am curious whether you encountered the same and what you did... The situation is like this.... The client posts a job and then interviews you on 1. how do you go about your strategy? 2. what are the details of this and that? 3. explain this (insert whatever here) He was the cream of the crop, he made me sign an NDA, and explained he was from an australian ecommerce operation....blah blah It was a good thing, I made SURE, there was nothing deeply critical in the details of strategy I was sharing...the details I gave were just intermediate...good enough but not enough to copy my advantages.... Sure enough, the idiot proved to me he was as every bit of a creep as I thought he was... the website was launched and the marketing campaign that I was the one supposed to be doing was live.... I presume, he did it himself, he was trying to steal the methods on how to do it himself. I can see the amateurish way he did the adwords campaign.... ******(((( on an entirely separate event... a lady tried to interview me and started asking details that you can simply find in the definition portion of the adwords help section... finally, long story short, she admitted she wanted a TUTOR for ppc.... I told her she needs to pay up first...ok with me teaching her but I won't do the interview as it is ALREADY providing a FREE tutorial... she replied it is only a token of my experience to explain to her a few concepts seriously? I don't mind additional competitors but I do mind if you don't even pay for the tutorial lessons you are getting.... Did anybody here encounter same situations? how did you ferret or avoid them in the first place? just for laughs and maybe as helpful info for newbies in the online industry Best Regards

[itumulak]

1. Never share an idea
2. Never provide a solution

Unless you are paid for it.

[testsandeep]

I have had similar experience. clients take interview and disappear. In one such case client gives a website to find bugs, asks for one bug as a test, and then closes job post. He interviews 50+ candidates out of 60 applicants. In this way he completes work for free. Bad experience. Should be careful of such clients. I fear other clients don't pick up idea from this.

[e_gan]

To protect my ideas, I never give design examples / concept before a contract is offered, not even during interview because my work isn't free of charge/ It is a common fishy practice with clients for various reasons, so we freelancers need to NOT give into their sneaky tactics. Good luck!

[trenticle]

I'm a client. I hire people and I want to make sure they're good at what they do before I hire them. I ask them probing questions, including tools they use, and how they would go about solving certain problems to make sure they understand what they're talking about. If I want to learn something, I'll try it myself, ask on a forum or hire someone to teach me via teamviewer. If I don't ask these sort of questions, I end up with a bad freelancer - just so you can hear the other end of the story.

[marciamalory]

If a client wants advice that will only take a short amount of my time, I'll give it for free. It provides proof that I know what I'm doing and it sets the tone for a good relationship. However, there's a point at which I have to start charging. I'm not going to do many hours of work for 0 pay. Create boundaries for yourself, and never say never. Examine each individual situation and make the appropriate decision.