No posts for a week and then 3 in one day? I know, just like London buses!

Anyway, for some reason, I just remembered an article I read in the Guardian a few weeks back about a guy who has been very successful at building one-way in-bound links using “viral” techniques. It’s an interesting read:

How To Get Online Advertising for Free

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Just over a week ago, I posted about how I’d had an idea and had posted the project on RentACoder (RAC) as I did not have the time (and quite possibly the knowledge!) to do the work myself.

Having used RAC in the past, I thought I’d post my top 10 tips for buyers through from posting your project to choosing a bid for your project:

1. Attach your own specification. And make it detailed. Take your time to think through all the functions and pages you need and write it down. The advantages of doing this are that you should get more accurate bids, it should cut down on your cost rising throughout the project and your project is more likely to be finished on time.
2. Set a maximum bid. There’s no point in attracting bids from coders that you can’t afford, but make it realistic.
3. Set a deadline. Setting a realistic deadline is important as you can then set your coder key milestones within this time-frame to keep the project on target. Setting an unrealistic time-frame will severely reduce the number of bids you receive.
4. Don’t choose any bid posted within 15 mins of your project being approved. Anyone who bids within this time-frame cannot have possibly looked through your spec, thought about it and come up with a realistic bid.
5. Don’t choose anyone who bids but does not send you a message. I find this to be extremely rude and I can’t be sure they have a clue what my project is about.
6. Avoid any bids that send an obvious cut n paste message. Examples of this include details about their company, URLs of sites unrelated to your project they have “worked” on.
7. Don’t use coders who send a message with a poor demonstration of the English language. How are you supposed to communicate accurately throughout the remainder of the project if their English is poor?
8. Avoid bids that are too high/low. Never choose a bid for your maximum amount. I always avoid the stupidly low bids too but this is personal preference as some very good new sellers will bid low in order to get projects to establish themselves on RAC.
9. Don’t choose anyone with no or low rating. Harsh but true. You’re taking a massive gamble if you do (sorry new sellers who are trying to establish themselves).
10. Check feedback. Always check feedback for a buyer before choosing them. In particular check any mediation’s/arbitration’s carefully. Note: you shouldn’t dismiss a buyer because they have been involved in mediation/arbitration but if they have been involved in many, this should set alarm bells ringing!

Using these points I have selected a guy from India for my project who has a 10 rating and posted a bid in the mid-range of the bids I received. He speaks good English and appears to have read and understood all that was required from my spec.

We shall see how things progress - the deadline I set for the buyer is one month…

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