Acquisition Rate — Acquire Clients, not Projects
Acquisition Rate is a Guide
One thing I’ve noticed with the acquisition rate matrix on Guru.com, is that those with low acquisition rates are also those who are bidding on just about every project request that comes down the pipe.
As I have eluded to in previous posts on this subject, a low acquisition rate is a self-propagating event. If you have a low acquisition rate, prospective clients are less likely to give you the project, causing you to continue to have a low acquisition rate. Also, pointed out in previous posts, you really don’t need very many projects a month to build up a client list that keeps you working full-time. So, putting out the formula bid for every project out there, is not helping you, in fact it is hurting you.
Now, since I’m your competition, I don’t really mind if you ignore this tip, but I also know that there is plenty of work out there, and if you happen to take a project that I really wanted, well, there will be another coming in tomorrow and the next day, and a few hours after that — and I’m not competing with you for projects, I’m competing with you for clients. There is a huge difference between these two — the largest being; that one means constant full time work at a reasonable wage, and the other means working for meager wages on a random basis.
Learn to read the Project Descriptions. Learn to discern between the prospect of a Project and a Client.
Since we are on this subject, I recently read a Project Description in which the guy is pomping that he is looking for Full Time writers — and is only willing to pay $1.50 for each 500 word article. To me, this is not a client I want anything to do with; he has no concept for the value of the work, nor does he care at all about his own business — if he did, he wouldn’t be trying to scam the people who he is putting in charge of his profits. So, this person is not a client I want to work for, and I will never waste the time, effort and money required to put in a bid — thus raising my own acquisition rate.
They say that discretion is the better part of valor; it is also the keystone to high acquisition rates.
What other bloggers say on this subject:
There are no posts at this time discussing how to improve your Acquisition Rate as a Freelance Writer that I can find… curious eh?