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The Freelance Competitor You Don't Know You Have..

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

Lex DeVille

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This morning I posted an Upwork gig for an audio track. Several freelancers applied. I reviewed their proposals. All were ME Focused and made the usual mistakes.

29475

So I searched Upwork hoping to invite the right person, but nobody stood out.

While I waited for more proposals, I searched Google for the right sound. The top results were YouTube videos and one of those videos lead me back to AudioJungle.net who has a whole marketplace of freelance background tunes to choose from.

The best Upwork offer was $75 for a 1-3 minute track and it wasn't clear if the guy could do the style I asked for. AudioJungle's prices range from $5 to $39 and they have an endless supply sorted by tags, categories and sounds.

After a few minutes of listening I found two tracks on AudioJungle that fit the vibe for a total of $40 and bought them both. No reading proposals. No interviews. No chance for misunderstandings or screw ups. No wasted time.

And that got me thinking about who your real competition is...

It's not just freelancers.

Clients look to solve their problem the best way possible, even outside of Upwork. So it's not enough to be the best applicant. You have to figure out what makes you better than the first results on Google. And you have to articulate that to clients in the first line(s) of your proposals and bio before they go searching.

So what's your answer? What makes you better than the first results on Google? How do you make them an offer they can't refuse? It's worth thinking about as you head into the new year.
 
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karakoram

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OK I will bite as I've been considering offering freelance engineering - how should they pitch their offer to be less "me" centric?

I can understand why they are saying "5 years experience, etc." because they are trying to establish credibility. From the point of view of the buyer of consulting, I doubt anyone would want to hire someone with no experience for something that is extremely technical in nature. Let me put it this way: If I want to hire a private pilot to fly me across the country, and I had a choice between someone who just got their license vs. someone with 5 years flying experience, and the experienced guy was more expensive, I would still choose them first because I find the experienced guy has more value - I feel that they will be much more likely to know what to do in an adverse and/or difficult situation. Same reasoning with technical projects.
 
G

Guest24480

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OK I will bite as I've been considering offering freelance engineering - how should they pitch their offer to be less "me" centric?

I can understand why they are saying "5 years experience, etc." because they are trying to establish credibility. From the point of view of the buyer of consulting, I doubt anyone would want to hire someone with no experience for something that is extremely technical in nature. Let me put it this way: If I want to hire a private pilot to fly me across the country, and I had a choice between someone who just got their license vs. someone with 5 years flying experience, and the experienced guy was more expensive, I would still choose them first because I find the experienced guy has more value - I feel that they will be much more likely to know what to do in an adverse and/or difficult situation. Same reasoning with technical projects.
The point is they completely ignore what the CLIENT wants, so it doesn't matter how many years of experience they have if the client doesn't feel like they can solve his/her problem.
 

karakoram

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The point is they completely ignore what the CLIENT wants, so it doesn't matter how many years of experience they have if the client doesn't feel like they can solve his/her problem.
I got that. I'm asking: How should they pitch instead?
 
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Lex DeVille

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I got that. I'm asking: How should they pitch instead?

 
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Guest24480

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I got that. I'm asking: How should they pitch instead?
There's an entire thread by @Lex DeVille going over this

 

Andy Black

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SEBASTlAN

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Clients look to solve their problem the best way possible, even outside of Upwork. So it's not enough to be the best applicant. You have to figure out what makes you better than the first results on Google. And you have to articulate that to clients in the first line(s) of your proposals and bio before they go searching.

So what's your answer? What makes you better than the first results on Google? How do you make them an offer they can't refuse? It's worth thinking about as you head into the new year.
A question we face consistently.

Usually, the #1 result on Google is not the best possible result. They just have branding/great SEO behind them. I always check the first 10-30 results, no matter what I'm searching for.

P.S. I usually check Fiverr first, then Upwork, but it's rare I don't find what I'm looking for on Fiverr.
 

alexkuzmov

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This morning I posted an Upwork gig for an audio track. Several freelancers applied. I reviewed their proposals. All were ME Focused and made the usual mistakes.

View attachment 29475

So I searched Upwork hoping to invite the right person, but nobody stood out.

While I waited for more proposals, I searched Google for the right sound. The top results were YouTube videos and one of those videos lead me back to AudioJungle.net who has a whole marketplace of freelance background tunes to choose from.

The best Upwork offer was $75 for a 1-3 minute track and it wasn't clear if the guy could do the style I asked for. AudioJungle's prices range from $5 to $39 and they have an endless supply sorted by tags, categories and sounds.

After a few minutes of listening I found two tracks on AudioJungle that fit the vibe for a total of $40 and bought them both. No reading proposals. No interviews. No chance for misunderstandings or screw ups. No wasted time.

And that got me thinking about who your real competition is...

It's not just freelancers.

Clients look to solve their problem the best way possible, even outside of Upwork. So it's not enough to be the best applicant. You have to figure out what makes you better than the first results on Google. And you have to articulate that to clients in the first line(s) of your proposals and bio before they go searching.

So what's your answer? What makes you better than the first results on Google? How do you make them an offer they can't refuse? It's worth thinking about as you head into the new year.
I`m a bit confused.
Isnt the offer in the screenshot from Murat Y. good?
He has listed the styles he makes, and says that he can show you a few examples.
I`m assuming that the links to these examples are in the message.
Maybe the styles of music he has listed were not what you are looking for, but as an offer, I wonder where he went wrong.

P.S. I get that he has no way of proving he has years experience producing music, so its irrelevant.
But he has examples, no? Isnt that good?
 

Lex DeVille

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I`m a bit confused.
Isnt the offer in the screenshot from Murat Y. good?
He has listed the styles he makes, and says that he can show you a few examples.
I`m assuming that the links to these examples are in the message.
Maybe the styles of music he has listed were not what you are looking for, but as an offer, I wonder where he went wrong.

P.S. I get that he has no way of proving he has years experience producing music, so its irrelevant.
But he has examples, no? Isnt that good?

No, it's not good because I asked for specific things in my job post and Murat didn't address them which tells me he doesn't pay attention to detail. People who don't pay attention to detail don't produce error free music.

He also claimed to do almost all music styles which tells me he's a generalist, not a specialist, which means he isn't an expert. I requested an expert in a specific style.

The screenshot is only to point out that freelancers still use too much ME focus. It isn't to show every reason I didn't pick each freelancer.
 
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NickNack

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Hmmm...

I 100% agree with the lesson, but speaking as somebody who’s worked in music-for-media for a good while now, I’m really curious as to what your listing said, and what you had expected to pay.

$75 for a custom 3 minute track is extraordinarily cheap, and I’m not surprised your pitches were underwhelming at that level. I certainly wouldn’t trust anyone at that price point to do good work (or to actually be delivering something original)

Libraries like Audiojungle and the myriad alternatives are exactly the right solution for this stuff, and it makes sense that’s where you landed. Customers get hundreds of thousands of tracks to choose from with clear and easy licensing, and Composers can afford sell at that price because they produce the track once and sell it many times over. It’s the same model as stock photography. You don’t go asking photographers for quotes if you just need “happy man in suit pointing at dollar signs” or whatever.
 

Lex DeVille

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Hmmm...

I 100% agree with the lesson, but speaking as somebody who’s worked in music-for-media for a good while now, I’m really curious as to what your listing said, and what you had expected to pay.

$75 for a custom 3 minute track is extraordinarily cheap, and I’m not surprised your pitches were underwhelming at that level. I certainly wouldn’t trust anyone at that price point to do good work (or to actually be delivering something original)

Libraries like Audiojungle and the myriad alternatives are exactly the right solution for this stuff, and it makes sense that’s where you landed. Customers get hundreds of thousands of tracks to choose from with clear and easy licensing, and Composers can afford sell at that price because they produce the track once and sell it many times over. It’s the same model as stock photography. You don’t go asking photographers for quotes if you just need “happy man in suit pointing at dollar signs” or whatever.

I didn't set a price and didn't go in with expectations for what to pay. $75 was the best offer. Not my limit. I've had quality custom audio produced for less and also paid more. I left it open so freelancers could send offers. While waiting I searched for similar sounds on Google and found something I liked so I didn't hire someone today.

$75 might be low for an Australian producer. It's not low for producers from other countries who can produce music just as good for much less. But I don't hire based on price. I hire based on whether or not I believe the freelancer can get the job done the way I want it done. If I believe they can do it then I pay their price.
 

NickNack

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I didn't set a price and didn't go in with expectations for what to pay. $75 was the best offer. Not my limit. I've had quality custom audio produced for less and also paid more. I left it open so freelancers could send offers. While waiting I searched for similar sounds on Google and found something I liked so I didn't hire someone today.

I guess what I'm driving at is that if you were able to so easily fulfil your requirements on AudioJungle, then it seems that you never really needed custom music in the first place.

(I'm not just being contrarian here - I'm going somewhere with it :p )

The advantage that custom music-for picture has over library music is that it's tailored shot-for-shot, scene-for-scene with your picture, and works in lockstep with the nuances of your story.

And/or you might be paying for exclusivity, so you know that your music is only going to heard in your project. A branding video might not need the same delicate emotional nuance of a film score, but they probably also don't want to risk accidentally using the same music track as their competitor, or a laxative commercial etc.

If I'm talking to a potential client and it becomes clear that a library track will do the job well for them, I just tell them straight up that I don't think I can provide the best value for their money, and point them to a few libraries. Otherwise I'm wasting both my time and theirs.

The reason I was curious about the wording in your gig listing was that I wondered if there might have been higher quality composers out there who read your brief and figured they'd be wasting both your time and theirs by pitching. Or composers who just don't bother looking for jobs on UpWork at all because they've realised that that's not where their clients are.

So I guess my corollary to your original point (which again, I completely agree with) would be that if a creative freelancer finds themselves competing with off-the-shelf, then they might want to reconsider their market positioning.


$75 might be low for an Australian producer. It's not low for producers from other countries who can produce music just as good for much less.

/TANGENT

I won't get too far into the weeds on this, because it's not really germane to the topic, but I'd still be a little suspicious of super cheap "original" music - or at least be conscious of the potential tradeoffs.

Low cost generally corresponds to low investment in software/equipment, and that often in turn corresponds to pirated software. Whether or not that presents a moral quandary is up to the customer, but it can also present a legal one. So many of the creative assets used in modern music production are audio recordings (sampled instruments, loops etc.) and thus fall under of copyright law. When a composer buys a sample library, loop pack etc. they're buying the license to create commercial works using those assets. If your "just as good for much less" composer is using pirated material, then you just bought yourself a copyright infringing piece of music.

Are you going to get caught out? Almost certainly not. But there is a risk, however small.

The other angle (and I've seen this a bit on Fiverr) is people who have pre-produced a big library of tracks, then pick the one that most closely matches the brief and resell it as a brand new custom work. Now that might get the customer something they like, no harm done. But ultimately you're paying for "custom" and getting off-the-shelf.

There's also the evil-cousin of the same trick, where a "composer" will pay a flat annual fee to subscribe to one of the all-you-can-eat music libraries, then sell the individual tracks as their own custom work on freelance marketplaces. Which again, is illegal, and means the customer is not legitimately licensed to use that music.

I'm sure there are also plenty of legit low-cost composers out there too. But caveat emptor.

/END TANGENT ;)
 
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floridaman

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I run into this a lot on when I'm looking at agency websites, or freelancer websites. They always say "I am a ____ " or "We are a ____." Who gives a shit? What can you do for ME? How about "Double your marketing with our ___." It's YOU focused, not ME focused. Everybody has their radio tuned into WIIFM ("what's in it for me").

I was looking at buying a domain name for UX consulting, and I thought about getting something like "boostyourux.com" instead of something with my name in it like "uxbyalex.com". Because who cares, I'm not famous.

I was listening to a course by Eben Pagan, a famous internet marketer, and he was talking about when he created his dating program. He didn't call it "David DeAngelo's Dating", he called it "Double Your Dating." Genius.
 

Andy Black

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I run into this a lot on when I'm looking at agency websites, or freelancer websites. They always say "I am a ____ " or "We are a ____." Who gives a shit? What can you do for ME? How about "Double your marketing with our ___." It's YOU focused, not ME focused. Everybody has their radio tuned into WIIFM ("what's in it for me").

I was looking at buying a domain name for UX consulting, and I thought about getting something like "boostyourux.com" instead of something with my name in it like "uxbyalex.com". Because who cares, I'm not famous.

I was listening to a course by Eben Pagan, a famous internet marketer, and he was talking about when he created his dating program. He didn't call it "David DeAngelo's Dating", he called it "Double Your Dating." Genius.
I know! The world has gone personal branding mad.
 

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Whenever I post a job on UpWork, I tell applicants to include some goofy word--like frijoles or turnbuckle or something--at the very top of their application. Usually only about 10-20% of applicants follow instructions & post the "secret" word. It's a quick & simple litmus test of their attention to detail & ability to follow directions.
 
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