New system aimed primarily at matching newer sellers with buyers
So now it seems I have to wait two hours before I can bid for a job. This is extremely unfair. Not only do experienced creatives/designers have to compete with an unfair playing field, ie people offered to do a job for £10 when it is clearly worth £100, we are now not allowed to bid for jobs as soon as they appear on PPH. What kind of system is this?!
Awful. Unfair. Unprofessional. Discriminatory.
Regards
C. Howe
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Unnecessary capitals are very common in South Asian English (especially, but not only, among those who speak English as a second langauage and whose first language does not have capital letters). Cheap freelancers again? The people picking the freelancers are not native English speakers?
Pilar, if you allow proper control of emails (i.e. get PPH emails I want without the sales emails) it will be a huge improvement. Tying them together was stupid.
Paul, I am pretty sure that all endorsements do is give you 1) a pretty badge and 2) a substitute for feedback. It may make you look a bit better if you have a low CERT or no (or bad) customer feedback, but otherwise it does not really matter.
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"Outsourcing is the smart way of working meaning you can get more out of your day as a business owner if you give away specific tasks."
Kind of illustrates how PPH has become a purely money-making platform rather than a platform for freelancers.
As an old fashioned freelancer not a seller I would never outsource any of my work. 1) I care too much about my reputation 2) I enjoy what I do and if I didn't like the look of a job and want to do it I wouldn't have taken it 3) I want to spend my time doing what I enjoy, not finding other freelancers and acting as middleman. And if I'm so busy that I'd need to outsource, I'm earning enough money and I don't need the extra hassle. So OK maybe I don't work smart but I work happy.
Re the spam, I hope that whatever system PPH come up with, it involves newbies being given the option right at the start as to what they receive. I find it incredible that PPH is finding this simple process so difficult, I can't think of a single other company that has a problem with it. It also amuses me the way PPH cheerful admit with no sign of embarrassment whatsoever that they send out spam - most companies would get awful upset if you described any of their mailings as spam.
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As an old fashioned freelancer not a seller I would never outsource any of my work.
You might think that's true, but maybe it isn't. Do you use an accountant?
There are plenty of freelancers that outsource work, but perhaps not as you might consider outsourcing. There's that guy your friendly with that does good graphics and might make the web page design. If your really busy you might ask him or her to make that small website you really haven't time for but you don't want to turn your client away.
I don't think it's fair to criticise PPH for supplying a more formalised way of doing that kind of thing. In many ways PPH can be an enabler for moving from a one-man-band to a larger business. Many of the PPH success stories involve subcontracting jobs to other PPHers - it's the bane of writing jobs, here on PPH.
We rightly give PPH a kicking for many things, but we shouldn't dismiss the potential PPH offers.
If I could hand over my work to other freelancers at half the cost I'm being paid, I'd do it for sure. It's what many of my clients do.
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@Pie -
*I want to spend my time doing what I enjoy, not finding other freelancers and acting as middleman. *
So, if you had a client that needed something doing, but you (for whatever reason) didn't have time to do it, you wouldn't them ask someone else to assist? (which I believe is 'outsourcing')
And if I'm so busy that I'd need to outsource, I'm earning enough money and I don't need the extra hassle.
Really? Unless I'm misunderstanding you, does being busy mean that you're earning enough money?
I think Paul is spot on. I reckon we ALL 'outsource' things without even realising that we are doing it.
And what Paul has stated about PPH is right, it's not fair to criticise them for that.
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If I had made the names up and been caught out, I'd simply not say anything too.
It's not a great way to behave, but I can understand someone thinking it was a bright idea to make the emails look more appealing - coming from an individual rather than a corporation.
I don't believe there's a conspiracy behind every PPH door.
The names (if made up) are a silly thing that undermines confidence.
I remember a technical publication just starting out. They had a letters page but before publication, no letters.
The editor made up letters with different names, using it as an opportunity to ask and answer questions he thought the readership would be interested by.
Everyone bends the rules a bit.
In this case and the case of the letters, the simple deception harms nobody.
If PPH has made the names up then it's time to stop.
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LOL, well here's my peneth (until we here from Michael / Pilar, if we do):
IF they ARE real people, then why WOULDN'T they admit it?????? There would surely be no embarrassment.
There's gonna be embarrassment admitting that they ARE fake.
So, unless I hear it confirmed otherwise, I'm going to assume that they ARE fake. Simples. :)
(don't know if that makes any sense???)
As for Paul saying that everyone bends the rules a bit. I had to laugh at that one.
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Hello PPHers,
I am sorry but i didn't see the questions regarding the emails that are being sent and the people that send them. Both Lucy and Sophie are actual people as all users who send out these emails. The reason for the no-reply is for the large volumes of mail that may go back their direction. Kelly who is one of community managers is in charge of the content and people who work with us to send these emails.
@Paul, hehe, definitely not me with a wig on, it wouldn't be a pretty picture!!!!
As far as time frame regarding the email management feature, I really don't have an exact date to provide you with as it is being worked on by our developers, but I would predict that we should have it all setup in January.
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@ David
As i just wrote further up, I wasn't aware that there was a question about the authenticity of the users sending emails. There is really no reason for myself or Pilar not to answer the question directly. I am sorry if it was not answered faster as it was overlooked with the rest of the comments.
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Michael, as you are here can I ask what the process is for dealing with feedback/complaints about jobs? I am asking you as I have had to response from customer services. There have been several 'non jobs' in the past week where the description is 'Send us your name, phone number and email address and we'll be in touch', When jobs are vetted, if they are, does it go off the title only as these all seemed fine at first glance "content Writer Needed" "Bloggers Required" etc. There are more and more of these appearing as well as a plethora of 'peanut paid jobs' which I know have had numerous complaints but are still there.
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..in addition it's impossible to flag these jobs if they are marked as private. People still get to see them regardless.
It's a really stupid thing that private jobs are recommended to people by the PPH ystem.
It's even stupider that non-invitees can see them at all. That's not very private.
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@Malcolm
So, if you had a client that needed something doing, but you (for whatever reason) didn't have time to do it, you wouldn't them ask someone else to assist? (which I believe is 'outsourcing')
No I wouldn't. It frequently happens that I can't promise to deliver what clients want by the time they would like it. What I do is negotiate later deadlines and work weekends if necessary. The only time I hand my work over to someone else is when I go on holiday. My clients deal with me because they know that I'm a one man band and I suppose they 'like my style'. If they weren't particular about style and their priority work done promptly but not necessarily by the person they chose to do it, they'd go to an agency.
And if I'm so busy that I'd need to outsource, I'm earning enough money and I don't need the extra hassle.
Really? Unless I'm misunderstanding you, does being busy mean that you're earning enough money?
Well yes, of course being busy means that I'm earning enough money, isn't that the whole point? If I'm busy and I'm not earning enough money, it means my pricing is wrong. What I was trying to say was, I'd rather do 8 hours work per day at whatever rate I charge, rather than 6 hours work at my rate, plus 2 hours piddling around buying hourlies and briefing them and sending the work out and checking it back in and all the associated hassle, all for a small percentage of my rate.
Perhaps I should give up, 25 years freelancing, still don't understand how it's supposed to work and never outsourced a job.
I wasn't exactly criticising PPH, just reflecting on how different sellers are from what I think of as freelancers.
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@David, Pie. I personally have never outsourced as I don't take on any jobs that I know I can't complete myself, but I sell a lot of hourlies to other PPH'ers who are outsourcing. I am also way too picky to get anyone else to write for me as I know for a fact I would rewrite them all in 'my style' so I may as well do them in the first place. I'm proud of my feedback as I know it is me who has earned it and I'm not basking in the reflected glory of people I have outsourced to. My buyer record is pretty pathetic and amounts to an ebook cover and a logo, both for my own personal use. I can see why people outsource but it's not for me personally.
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If anyone is interested (if you haven't already seen it), here's some stats on the brilliant matching algorithm :)
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Well, it must be good. It feels like the Twilight Zone - a complete disconnect with the opinions here.
I get loads of jobs I can do - yipee - plus loads of jobs I can't do that PPH thinks I can. From that point of view it's no different from what I saw before. I'm waiting to be told I can't bid on a job - it hasn't happened yet.
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Thank you David and Deb, I was beginning to think I was on my own here.
It just seems wrong that a client pays X for a job, and ends up with a job that cost X divided by 2. Because as we all know, generally you get what you pay for. So to me, that would be tantamount to ripping the client off - you've taken a cut, you've added no value (unless you've redone the job so that it's up to standard which kinda defeats the object) and you've delivered substandard work, and the client has overpaid for what he received. Either that, or the hourlies are selling themselves too cheap. But hey I guess that's how it works.
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It just seems wrong that a client pays X for a job, and ends up with a job that cost X divided by 2.
Not really. If your subcontractor isn't up to scratch you will bring the job up to scratch. Your client buys your reputation and quality. You may be able to find someone that works faster to an equivalent quality. There are all kinds of permutations.
I once worked for a company and I asked about how they priced their jobs and did they sometimes feel it was fair to be able to realise high margins.
They thought it was entirely fair because their client is happy with the cost and the result and the jobs they achieve high margins for subsidise the jobs that only manage low margins or losses and there's all the margins and unoccupied time (holidays, etc) that has to be covered by higher margin jobs.
I agree with them.
Many of my clients charge their clients a lot more for my time than I charge. So far the worst I have come across is a 100% markup on a very lucrative contract for me.
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@Paul
"The editor made up letters with different names, using it as an opportunity to ask and answer questions he thought the readership would be interested by."
I've seen websites that do this. To me it means I should trust nothing that is said on the website as their business ethos clearly includes deceiving their customers and potential customers. If "This is what our customers say" equals lies why would "This is what we can do", not equal lies?
I've never once used the services of a company who appear to have done this and I do tend to read this type of information before using a company. FAQ is the place for question and answer type information.
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@David - im talking about the daily
@Paul - thanks for cutting me some slack Paul, just an FYI that i'm a she
@Greame That's what we are working towards for Jan
@Pie What i meant from that is by giving jobs you may struggle with to experts who specialise in said task you could save yourself a lot of time to focus on the things you are really good at
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