How often do you turn down offers from DP Forum buyers?

We all know how common low end offers are on DP Forums. I'm curious to know how many people are turning them down and how often.

On the flipside of that, I'd also like to know how often you're asked for a quote and then told it's too high or never hear from the person who asked for it again?

In the past 3-4 days, I've had a combined total of about 20 times I've turned down offers and had people msg me for a quote, never to hear from them again. Wait. Except the guy who asked if I was joking.....

What about you? How often are you turning down DP offers?

 

I had to turn down an offer from a DP member just once. The client complained that the sample I sent him was not unique and was copied from Ezine. His attitude was horrible, so I had to turn him down. I also told him to check out the original article in Ezine and tally the name of the author with that of mine.

As of date, ~15 members of DP are not just my clients. They are my dearest friends too.

 

I don't do any business on DP but I do use Constant Content. I've turned down quite a few offers from buyers who undervalued the articles I've written. For every offer I turn down though, I probably sell another 4 at the original asking price or very close.
I've learned that my output has value - something that was the subject of an e-mail exchange with a customer just last week who eventually upped his offer on CC by 50% - and I don't have to undersell it.
I write articles as a hobby though and don't have cashflow pressures, so I accept I can afford to be a bit less flexible.

 

Every...single...time.

 

sounds like he didn't know what a 'sample' was!

 

He was a smart alec dreaming to get a free article.

 

LMAO - Right on!

 

Lotta those around!

 

I must admit that I very rarely liaise with potential clients @ DP, and this is mainly due to the numeous points mentioned in your OP. I always like to make sure that I have work booked in at least a few months in advance, and have been lucky enough to gain clients on a "word of mouth" basis, i.e. an existing client will introduce a new client. This hasn't stopped me from occasionally applying for work via the content creation forum, and yes the majority of replies are either in disbelief at my rates, or completely non-existent!

However, with that said, I have been working with a client (full-time) for 5 months now. The client has a steady stream of work on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I find this client to be extremely professional, honest and, above all, realistic! The client realises that many of $0.01 per word "writers" are not actually writers, but merely people who label themselves as such in order to make a quick buck! In fact, he has mentioned in passing that he is unlikely to hire a "writer" who offers such rates.

Now, believe it or not, I was introduced to this client here @ DP. So the moral of the story is...yes there are many clients who have totally unrealistic expectations of a "writer", however, there are definitely a few diamonds in the rough!

On a separate note - Senobia, I have just been scanning through the content creation forum and notice that your frustrations are begin to boil over! LMAO!

Cheers
James

 

**looks around innocently and mouths...me? secretly shocked that her feigned attempts to cover up the snark in her CCF replies failed...**

(laughing)

 

I turn down projects that I cannot deliver because of previous commitments. I have turned down many projects, which under normal situations, I would have enjoyed doing.

 

Funny that I ran across this thread today. I turn down offers quite often, even though I have accepted some low paying work to build up experience and a portfolio. Perfect example, last night had a DP member offer me a low amount for 5 articles on the same set of keywords. Each article was 500 words and they wanted it within 15 hours. It was about midnight here (Pacific Standard Time) so, I replied that unless the keywords would require VERY little research, it would not be worth my time at the rate. I also advised them that there was no way I would need more time to create quality content. So, they send me the keywords. They are literally a name and address of a doctor, which they want me to magically turn into 2,500 words of quality content in 15 hours for peanuts. I had to laugh...couldn't hold myself back. Especially when they offered to extend the timeframe to 24 hours but asked me to "please hurry ok?"

::Sigh::

Thanks for the thread Senobia...felt good to vent on that one! =)

 

Please tell us this was your reply, okay?

 

All of them, except one. I asked for $30/article and delivered the first one. The buyer said he's happy with the quality but changed his mind and will be closing the blog. I get paid for the article and it was the only writing job that I got here.

I also tried selling articles. I made a package of 5 articles, at $25. Couldn't be cheaper. I got bids like $5 and $7 for the whole package. I didn't sell. The market here sucks.Period.

 

Even though their rates are God-awful low (ok, not that low, heh heh), sometimes I wonder if such mills like Demand Media wouldn't be better for some folks....

 

Yes when they are international

 

Havent yet got any offers here, except for 1 person here who wanted to make some buck out of me by providing a service which i essentially didn't need but had seeked for. Other than that didnt get any offers

 

I am brand new to this forum and I have been working for about 1.2 cents per word, however, I am currently trying to obtain higher rates for my work. I had a client who ordered about 200 articles from me last month and I tried to hire some writers to do some of them for me. It was a nightmare! After seeing the illiterate crap that is being submitted on the web, I can't believe people won't pay more for quality. Unfortunately, Senobia, I have had the same issues so I have been forced to take whatever work I can get. With that said, I accepted a job here, and completed it, for $0.01 a word, it was so research intensive, and took so much time, I won't be doing any more work for this person.

 

Fatal mistake.

As soon as you settle, you often end up with even less than you settled for.

 

That's true considering I took time away from other things I could have been doing.