In another article on Writing Content For Your Website, it's been discussed how there is so much competition on the Internet today that it can sometimes be frustrating even getting started. With RentACoder, the odds are a little less rigorous as buyers also understand that there are new registrants on a weekly basis, taking it upon themselves to post small projects for new coders to get their profile established.

While this is quite thoughtful, coders looking to make a significant profit from RentACoder will eventually need to put together a bid with practical pursuasion (not professionalism) on their own.

Separating the men from the boys...

Take the following bid, which you'll find quite common amongst a wide variety of coders on the web:

Coder A says...
Ooo, pick me! I can do this for you in no time flat. Please consider my bid as I have much experience in this. Thx.

Believe it or not, there are bids like these coming in all the time that flood RentACoder's database backend for supporting their messaging system and do nothing for either the buyer or coder. If this type of bid were accepted, the buyer would have just handed you (whom they have never met before) a $20.00 bill and said to go out to the next town 45 minutes away, buy them a bag of chips and bring back the change. Buyers, of course, are aware of the potential risks in accepting a bid of this nature and just skip over them. I know I have when requesting projects as a Buyer on RentACoder.

BREAKING NEWS: Professionalism bites the dust (again)...

Let's take a more professional approach in the following bid (also quite common amongst an even wider variety of coders on the web):

Coder B says...
Greetings! My name is Coder B from the Software Coders Association in Somewhere, ST and we here at SCA do our utmost best to provide you with the customer satisfaction guaranteed (or your money back) necessary to complete this job. We are well equipped with the best team of developers in the world and when it comes to software, no one comes close. Software Coders Association (and myself, Coder B) is your #1 choice!

Yeah, you and the rest of the professionals that seem to be of the same pursuasion that "no one comes close." You'd begin to wonder how they stayed in business if not even their Buyers could come close, as it is in the case of many of these bids. This is considered the other far side of the spectrum, opposite of the bid lacking credible information in Coder A's case. Point being, nobody wants to "please hold" for the next 3-5 business days while you forward your request to your software development team and take the credit for it.

People can spot a fake in a heartbeat, and often times that falls into the same category as corporate professionals whom the Buyer can't feel comfortable dealing with. Granted, some of these types of bidders may in fact know what they're talking about and can very well complete the project with great quality, but without some kind of PR going on between the coder and the buyer, being able to talk like human beings, sometimes a Buyer will even overlook a bid like this.

Win the bid and finish the job so we can go home...

Let's look at one more type of bid, one a little less lacking and a little more conceivable:

Coder C says...
Hello. I was looking through your project requirements and I do believe it's something we can complete in a reasonable amount of time. From what you described, it sounds like the issue you're having is not as related to the server itself as it is to the way it was coded. A good place to start would be in the header include where...

Do you see how this bid could be a little more personable than the others mentioned? This is the kind of bid that a RentACoder Buyer looks for. They want to know that you fully understand their project requirements and are able to fulfill (or learn to fulfill with respect to time) them in a timely fashion. Buyers aren't interested in what you know about universal knowledge. They're more interested in whether or not you can complete the project and a substantial reason as to why they should grant you the privilege of working for them.

Working for RentACoder is a privilege, not a right!

Remember that you're coming to work for RentACoder on their terms. Learn to respect their terms by taking the time necessary BEFORE placing your bid to fully understand a Buyer's project requirements. This will assist you in determining whether or not you have the abilities necessary to complete the project. If you keep in mind the fact that working for a RentACoder Buyer is a privilege (considering you're up against hundreds of other coders with more credentials than you), your bids will go in with less of an air about it and more of a reasonable and realistic attitude. Whether you've got to lower your skills down to the Buyer's expectations or raise them to meet the requirements, if you address your potential business partner with a down-to-earth, "here's how it is" bid, then you've established the upper hand and thrown out over 75% of your competitors.

Congratulations! 100% of your Rent A Coder work on a bid request was accepted!

Now this is always a nice little e-mail I love getting about 20 minutes to 10:00pm when I'm about ready to go to bed. Be sure to thank your Buyer once again for their consideration of your qualities and credentials, let them know it's been a pleasure to work with them (whether in fact it was or not is besides the point) and do an optional follow-up a week from now to see how everything's going. Chances are if you've finished the work a few days short of the set deadline, you'll received a good rating, if not, another 10/10 to throw into your pile of other projects of other 10/10 rated work (assuming you've adhered to the concepts outlined in this article for those projects as well).

So what's next?

Wait (or look around for more projects) until the next payout date when you'll receive an e-mail (perhaps even better than the former) that says, "A Payment was sent to you from RentACoder.com." These are also just as nice getting about 5 minutes before you storm out the door to make a long road trip to a place like California!

Repeat the process again until you get sick and tired of making money (I mean, doing business) with RentACoder. And at last, we can all finally now say (altogether now, on the first):

So that's how he got all those 10/10 ratings. Wow, I might try that sometime!