In this article, Writers-House.com is going to explain why bidding systems are so bad and what problems they create for both the customers and the writers. Bidding systems are familiar for many freelance writers. These are places where a writer can place his or her bid on different orders available on a platform. After that, potential customers choose a writer based on their bids.
Some people like bidding systems because they illustrate the law of demand and supply. Many experts consider such systems fair. The thing is that supply and demand serve as the basis for the distribution of resources. According to the theory of the market economy, this principle makes the allocation of resources especially efficient.
Bidding is a method that forms the fairest market prices for the written content. On the other hand, this method isn’t really simple and has certain drawbacks. For example, it’s always possible that a race to the bottom occurs. The quality of content decreases when there is a completely free competition with no regulations.
There are always two groups of writers. The first group charges low prices and consists, in general, of writers without any considerable experience. On the other hand, there are experienced professionals who want to earn more for their services, offering a better quality. Bidding systems give more jobs to mediocre writers who charge less for their content.
We conducted a study on bidding systems and analyzed 182 answers to provide you with facts and valuable opinion.
Writers who worked with bidding systems gave very negative feedbacks. Here are the main issues we are going to address:
- Disadvantages of bidding systems for writers
- Disadvantages of bidding systems for customers
- What the alternatives to bidding systems are.
Bidding Systems Are Bad for Customers
Perhaps the main reason why such systems are bad for their customers is that customers waste their time. Every customer should check many bids and choose only one of them. At the same time, some bids are not even legitimate. Customers need to spend a lot of time if they want to find a writer who will do a good job at a low price.
WriterBay is one of the online platforms that are based on a bidding system. This company doesn’t even try to hide the fact that the majority of their writers are not Americans.
When customers see especially low bids, they can understand that something is wrong.
- Very low prices can mean that these writers live in developing countries;
- It can also mean that a certain writer has poor language skills.
Obviously, there is also the possibility that the customer will get what he or she is looking for and receive good content. The thing is that customers can’t know in advance what they get.
In 2017, it became apparent that the demographic situation in the market is changing. For example, there are many writers from African countries and from Kenya, in particular. Some of them try to work honestly, however, others are taking on too many orders for low prices in order to get more work, regardless of the quality of the final product.
Many freelancers don’t have a clear understanding of what this job is and what requirements their papers should meet. The sad experience of many customers made Kenyan writers a synonym for a poor job, as they pick any assignments, even if they know nothing about the subject.
- Some bidding websites hire everyone who creates a writer’s account;
- Many such companies don’t provide support or quality control;
- Many bidding companies are located outside the U.S.
Not only do customers need to waste their time checking many bids, but they also cannot determine whether their writer has the necessary qualification or not. Customers also need to make such a decision even if they want their project to be done at a certain price.
In general, if you’re using bidding systems you have to exclude the lowest bids. It’s virtually impossible that some qualified writer agrees to write your paper at the cheapest price.
Let’s say you want to build a home. You have a $150,000 budget and start searching for a contractor:
- The first contractor says they can do everything for $140,000;
- Another contractor can build your home for $90,000;
- The third contractor is ready to work for $50,000.
The third option sounds too good to be true, and your suspicions are reasonable. Obviously, all three contractors would use different materials. The most expensive contractor would choose the best materials, but they also need to earn a profit. The chances are, all three contractors will earn $30,000 of profit, but the first, the second, and the third contractors will spend $110,000, $60,000, and $20,000, respectively, to buy materials.
When we talk about custom writing, materials are writing skills, writer’s education, and experience. That’s why professional writers ask for more money.
Before you bid, you need to answer the following questions:
- Is the writer familiar with the specifics of your project?
- Does the lowest bid offer you the same knowledge and writing skills as the highest one?
- What qualification your writer should have to write your project?
- What is the probability that the initial order will be changed with an increase in price?
No matter what is your decision, you get exactly what you pay for, and this principle works in any industry. A customer needs to make a number of decisions and estimate writers’ skills, and he or she doesn’t get any help from bidding systems, as they don’t provide the necessary information.
American Writers: Are They Important?
Many companies like WriterBay present international backgrounds of their experts as an advantage, claiming that it helps them provide more diverse content. However, diversity isn’t the most important thing about writing. It’s the English language what really matters.
Moreover, there are many kinds of English, and there’s no chance that writers from Africa, South America, or Europe speak the same American English that you need, or have it as their native language at all. Even writers from the UK use different phrasing and wording. Obviously, things are getting worse in the case of writers from third-world countries.
Many of the best universities and colleges in the world are located in America, so if you’re looking for an academic paper that meets all the necessary standards, you need it to be written by an American writer.
Bidding Systems Mean Lower Quality
Our study revealed the main concern of most customers. Many writers agree that bidding systems cultivate lower standards and make it impossible for good writers to earn what they deserve.
The main reason why so many writers are ready to bid low is that they would better earn a little than don’t get any money at all. If they want to take your order, it doesn’t mean that they have the necessary knowledge. Most likely, you will pay a cheap price and receive a mediocre paper in return. This is also a reason why websites like WriterBay get so many negative reviews.
Professional American writers would never agree to work for the prices offered on bidding websites. They are focused on providing high quality, and good quality is expensive. However, average customers often forget about it and rely on bidding systems, which is a mistake.
Low prices look like a good deal but turn out to be not as good as the customer would expect. Usually, low prices mean poor writing. At the same time, good writers need to adapt for such pricing policy and offer their service for less than they deserve.
Such a situation leads to good writers producing mediocre papers because they don’t have the necessary motivation and understand what quality is worth that money. The very nature of bidding services damages the quality of work and looks unattractive for professional writers.
This situation doesn’t have any benefits for customers, quite the opposite, it leads to the degrading of the overall quality and supports poor writers. As a result, customers can choose only bad writers, regardless of bids.
Your Confidentiality Is Not Protected
There is another problem with the existing bidding systems, which is caused by writers. Since writers don’t have the credibility earned by doing a good job, they often use the content they produced to promote themselves.
For example, EssayShark is a company that uses bidding and also uses customer data to advertise their recent works. Even though they don’t reveal personal information that can help identify the customer, such an approach can hardly be called comfortable. The customers just need to hope that this company won’t share previous work to promote its services. Nevertheless, such companies need advertising because many bidding systems produce papers of the poor quality. Unlike bidding systems, Writers-House.com has a quality control system which allows us to guarantee the best papers that meet all the necessary standards.
Writers-House.com doesn’t use any personal information about customers, and sample works available on the website were written especially for such a purpose.
You Make a Decision
Bidding systems are also associated with another problem: Their customers often don’t know what exactly they want to get. Many customers are not familiar with certain academic requirements so they need to rely on their writer and hope for the best. Some customers cannot determine whether their paper is good or not, so they opt for the lowest bid, receive the useless material, and don’t know that they bought a bad paper until it’s too late.
Many writers notice that bidding systems prevent professional writers from connecting with customers and attract beginners who are looking for an additional source of income.
Writers who work with such systems are often unprofessional, and such companies don’t select writers depending on their experience when receiving your order. Most customers need to choose from among dozens of mediocre writers without even knowing that these writers are bad, trying to find the best deal which will give them a useless piece of writing.
In addition, bidding systems provide no guarantees regarding the quality of work. As a matter of fact, writers who value their skills would never write a good paper for such a low price.
Bidding Systems Are Bad for Writers
Not only are bidding systems bad for customers, but they are also bad for writers. Writers-House.com conducted a survey among writers who had experience working with such websites. 57% of writers said they were dissatisfied with bidding services.
These systems are bad for writers for the same reasons that they are bad for customers. First of all, writers notice that bidding systems devalue their work. It’s not a fair competition because writers who offer the lowest prices are likely the worst in terms of writing skills, and yet they get more work. Thus, other writers also need to bid lower, even if they are really good.
Writers from Writers-House.com said that if our company ever switched to a bidding model, they would quit (fortunately, we are not going to do it). This perfectly illustrates how negative opinion about such systems is. Good writers lose more than anyone else when working with bidding websites, as they are forced to undervalue their work in order to withstand the strong competition with cheap mediocre writers.
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
If all the bidding systems agreed not to allow prices go lower than a certain limit, it would have a positive impact on such an industry, however, it’s unlikely to happen in the nearest future. First of all, writers who work with such systems cannot effectively communicate with each other. In addition, we need to take into account the prisoner’s dilemma.
The prisoner’s dilemma is related to the game theory. In the context of bidding for custom writing, it would look as follows:
- If Writer X and Writer Z both underbid, they both lose.
- If no one of them underbids, they both win.
- If only one of them underbids, this writer wins.
- Both writers cannot communicate nor trust each other, so they don’t know what another writer is going to do.
- As a result, both writers will likely underbid and lose.
Both writers would win if they agreed not to underbid under any circumstances. However, such a scenario is unlikely to happen. Bidding systems themselves are designed to minimize such a probability. Every bidding system is designed to make writers undermine each other and get less money for their work.
Obviously, such an environment is demoralizing. This is a reason why good writers don’t work with bidding websites. If some writer chooses such an approach, it means that he or she is either not serious about this job or looking for easy money.
Global Marketplace
Quite often, bidding systems are open to a global marketplace, which is somewhat good for customers but certainly bad for American writers. For example, there are many English speakers in India. This country is extremely cheap, so Indian writers are willing to work for much less than professional American writers.
It’s hard for Americans to withstand such a competition. These writers need to look for clients who value talent and professionalism and are ready to pay for what they want.
According to William Scheurman’s article published in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, outsourcing is a distinctive feature of the modern global economy. Specialists from developing countries ask for less money for their work but the quality of such work is far from perfect. This issue is especially important when it comes to the English language.
American writers who value their time and their skills would rather choose a company like Writers-House.com, where they don’t need to compete with writers from developing nations.
Unreliable or Inconsistent Pay
Another problem with bidding systems is that they cannot guarantee that some writer will have enough work. The prisoner’s dilemma makes prices go down, which is a reason why writers don’t know how much they will get for a certain order. The strong competition leads to uncertainty. Writers don’t know how many competitors are present at the moment and what price they can ask for. Therefore, bidding systems imply inconsistent and unreliable pay.
Quite often, experienced professionals cannot find enough work to make a living. This is also a reason why many writers work with several bidding systems at the same time, getting even more stressed out by such a working environment. Good writers shouldn’t worry about attracting customers. All they want to do is get a job and do it.
Bidding systems force writers to focus not on writing itself but on marketing. Thus, they spend more time to get each order, which negatively impacts the pay. Many writers agree that competing for bids makes them waste time and lose money.
Bidding websites are all about competition. Not only do writers need to spend more time fighting for each order, but they even cannot be sure that they will get an order. Obviously, such a system is absolutely counter-effective.
Bidding is a Negative Experience
The majority of writers in Writers-House.com say that bidding systems were an unpleasant experience. Along with the other factors mentioned above, bidding systems made writers feel that they don’t get compensated for their work. First of all, they don’t get a fair compensation for the effort of bidding.
Many writers also complain about the necessity of providing a sample paper for free. There is a considerable amount of work that writers don’t get paid for or get underpaid. Moreover, bidding systems usually don’t provide any support for writers, even though writers need to pay for using such websites. Companies are taking a lot of money, but in return, authors are forced to act as if it was their private company, having no help from the administrators of such sources.
Our survey revealed the overall negative experience that pushed writers to search for alternatives. The majority of writing experts who have worked with bidding websites avoid them but there are also writers who just don’t know any alternative to bidding systems. The truth is, there is a great alternative — it’s Writers-House.com.
Writers-House.com
This website doesn’t use bidding systems. Instead, this company implements a first-come, first-served approach.
There are three queues used by writers to get new orders: an urgent queue, a freelance queue, and a graduate queue. The freelance queue is available for all writers, while the urgent and the graduate queues require writers to prove their qualification.
Benefits for Customers
Writers-House.com is beneficial for customers, as they don’t need to waste their time checking bids and choosing their writer. On this website, customers can be sure that all writers have the necessary experience and academic background.
Writers-House.com makes sure that all writers are Americans. The majority of writers are college graduates. We also use special algorithms to find a perfect writer for each order. Every customer can choose certain specifications and define what level of skills is required for his or her order.
Our customers can ask for the best writer available, a graduate writer, or a writer they’ve been working with before. Our algorithms allow us to choose writers who have the necessary qualification, so customers don’t need to worry about whether or not their writer will cope with the assignment.
We know that many customers don’t know exactly what they want, so we do everything possible to find a good writer for every customer. All or writers are:
- Native English speakers from America;
- College graduates;
- Approved by our internal system of quality control;
- Experienced writing experts who can work under strict deadlines.
Our standards allow us to provide a better service which is much more reliable than any bidding platforms. The thing is that bidding platforms need to have a big pool of writers of various qualification levels because otherwise, they couldn’t work. If all their writers were professionals, they would ask for the same prices.
Customer Facts About Writers-House.com
- Our company is located in the US.
- We use complicated screening processes and ask all writers to provide sample papers before they can apply for a job.
- We offer 24/7 customer support.
- Our experienced editors make sure all papers are perfect in terms of grammar.
- We guarantee that our clients will be satisfied with our service.
- We have a convenient Android app.
We have reasonable prices but take into account the professional level of our experts. In turn, our customers can be sure that their paper won’t be written by amateurs.
Benefits for Writers
Almost all writers who participated in our survey agreed that Writers-House.com is much more profitable than bidding websites. They know that they’ll get paid and won’t waste their precious time for nothing.
We have fixed prices and eliminate the race to the bottom. Our prices are calculated depending on deadlines, the number of pages, and the required writer level.
Every writer can choose whether or not he or she wants to accept a certain order, but there’s no bidding system: Other writers cannot affect the price of the order. Writers-House.com ensures a positive working environment and guarantees that all our writers have a right to:
- Get paid for their work;
- Self-determination;
- Respect;
- Objective assessment;
- Privacy;
- Timely payment.
Perhaps, the most important feature of our company for writers is that they are sure they receive fair pay. Writers don’t need to undervalue their skills and they know that their work will be compensated, no matter what. The very nature of bidding websites implies the violation of such simple principles of fair work.
Writers-House.com is beneficial for both writers and customers, being completely opposite to bidding services.
Conclusion
In this article, we explained why bidding systems are bad for writers and customers. Bidding systems are inconsistent. Orders are written by unqualified writers who offer the lowest price. As a result, customers pay for poorly written papers without even knowing how bad their papers are — it can be simply called a scam. Bidding websites make writers undervalue their skills in order to get more work because there are many bad writers who are willing to work for a little money, providing papers of a terrible quality.
Writers-House.com makes sure all writers have the necessary qualification and experience, hence offering benefits for customers. Our website guarantees that all orders will be written by experts familiar with the necessary topic. All the writers are Americans with the perfect knowledge of the English language. We value our writers so we make sure they receive a fair compensation for their work.
The majority of writers we surveyed stated that they prefer our system to bidding websites. Customers can also appreciate all the advantages of our service without being afraid to receive poorly written papers.
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