|
tranfree issue 43 - 26 November 2001
What's Happening Over at Proz?By Alex Eames "Beginning in January 2002, a fee of $1 or 100 browniz will be charged on each bid. This will filter out non-serious bids, which detract from the attention given to serious bids." - ProZ.com Now I'm gonna be watching this one really closely to see how it works out. I do understand the reasoning behind it. With ~25k subscribers, the outsourcers who post jobs are getting large numbers of responses - far more than they could ever effectively use. This must be a threat to the existence of the site, so something had to be done. Henry told me that recently one "adult site" which posted a job got over 400 bids (with 400 email notifications).
First Acceptable Bid Usually WinsThis was apparently exceptional, but when placing a job in a hurry (which is what I use ProZ for as an occasional outsourcer) I will accept the first bid which meets my requirements. The next 50 just get deleted. Or if you're brighter than that you'll go and close the bidding when you've chosen someone. I've only ever placed two jobs at ProZ (using closed bids) but that's how I operate. I imagine others are the same. So the downside of this is... If someone has not closed the bidding, how do you know you're not just going to get... Of course you can get 1800 targeted leads for 4 cents each with tranmail... http://tranfree.com/t/t.pl?43tm
Open Hostility to Open BiddingSome people have posted on our translatortips.com forums that when clients choose open bidding, they get bombarded with "bogus bids" that are basically hate-mails, slagging off the open biddng system. I agree that open bidding could cause rates erosion at the low end of the market (which is not where I recommend people operate). There have also been instances reported to me where people have submitted their 'test sample' and it has been copied word for word by a subsequent bidder. Now that's certainly not on. In fact it's an actionable copyright infringement. But who's got the time to bother suing? The fact of the matter is that if there is a cost to make a bid, the number of non-serious bids will plummet. That can only be a good thing. If something is free it is often percieved as having no value. That is clearly not true, or why are you reading this article? There would probably be much less SPAM if people had to pay for every email they sent. This is a similar thing. But I still expect a certain amount of hostility towards the idea of bidders having to pay. Let's face it guys, the free ride on the internet is over and only the profitable businesses have survived. Which basically means...
The advertisers are no longer subsidising you, Why else is Yahoo! prostituting the quality of their listings with Pay Per Click advertising from GoTo (Overture)? Will People Go For It?Are the kind of people who bid for jobs the kind of people who will not pay this fee?
By and large, I think they are, which is why it will probably
work. The whole purpose of charging is to reduce the number of
bids. I think the bids will reduce by 70-90%. But whether or not
this will meet the clients' needs remains to be seen. I'm
cautiously optimistic. I expect a great deal of thought has gone
into this idea. Of course, ultimately 1 dollar may not be enough
to achieve the goal and ProZ might have to raise the bidding
price. Admin Costs for Payments?For handling 1 dollar transactions, the only really viable solution is PAYPAL. Now if Henry can persuade his 25k members to each sign up to paypal, that'd be quite something. ...coz he'll get $5 for each member signup. Nice little earner!
In fact, I think I'll try it myself. Nothing ventured nothing
gained http://tranfree.com/t/t.pl?43pp I just visited PayPal and for a limited time, if you sign up (outside the USA) they will give YOU $5 and they'll also give me $5. Does that sound good? That'll pay for your first 5 bids. http://tranfree.com/t/t.pl?43pp
Actually it's not all that easy If you're interested in PayPal, click the following link... http://tranfree.com/t/t.pl?43pp Conclusion?I think this bidding charge idea will probably be effective - but people will complain about it. It's inevitable! But will they stop using ProZ? Probably not.
Alex Eames is the founder of translatortips.com, |
...
deleted after you've paid your dollar or
points? You don't! But even in the scheme of things, a dollar is
not much to pay for a strongly targeted lead.
...
The commission is only paid
after you've used the system to transfer $100 to somebody. This
having been said, PayPal is quite a good idea for a low cost way
to get paid by international clients. It's a lot cheaper than
bank charges. But they do make you jump through a few hoops to
sign up.