RE: Guru.com

["Juho Tunkelo" <juho -at- metadoc -dot- fi>]

While I have no experience with guru.com, elance.com and
workaholics4hire.com have both been getting some good press. I suggest you
explore those places instead if guru.com is as bad as it sounds. 

Juho Tunkelo


> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+juho=metadoc -dot- fi -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-
> l-bounces+juho=metadoc -dot- fi -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Peter Neilson
> Sent: 15. helmikuuta 2006 2:25
> To: Jennifer C. Bennett
> Cc: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Re: Guru.com
> 
> I am signed up with guru, using their "free" service, not paying to be a
> preferred vendor or whatever.  For the most part, the jobs that show up
> are so imprecise as to defy bidding.  I submit for maybe two or three a
> year, and have never had any response from the clients.
> 
> Here's one I didn't bid on:
> 
> ] Title: Need a Nutritional (Supplement) Expert
> ] Category: Writing / Editing / Translation
> ] Description:
> ] Need a nutritional expert to develop four six-week supplement guides
> ] programs for dieting and health maintenance for four different times
> ] of the year.
> ]
> ] The nutritional expert will be given payment after work is completed
> ] or partial, depending if the nutritional expert wants royalties and
> ] recognition on the final product.
> ]
> ] Further details will be given to the qualified winner.
> 
> It makes me glad I'm not an expert in that field.
> 
> I saw one guru RFQ that contained the following lament: "I have been
> so disappointed with GURU's attempting to get this work, it is
> amazing. I am trying again! I am looking for someone to peak my
> interest. The press releases need to cut through the clutter, and so
> far...I have only received very generic replies."  This person, who is
> willing to pay $70 per release, is clearly in need of a writer.
> (Anyone trying to 'peak' an interest needs an editor at least!)  I can
> see that if they had a staff writer working at $60,000, the person
> might be able to toss off two press releases an hour, and the naively
> perceived hourly cost would look like $30/release.  But to come in out
> of the blue and do them at $70 each?  How long might it take?  Maybe
> two weeks to come up to speed on their actual requirements?  Then
> maybe a day per release of back-and-forth to get them worded
> correctly?  Sounds like $30/day to me!!!  Slightly below my going
> rate.
> 
> 
> Here's another:
> 
> ] Title: IT SupporContract Proposal Tech. Writing
> ] Category: Writing / Editing / Translation
> ] Description:
> ] Need someone that can interperate network, server, hardware and
> ] software information on an RFP and write the technical response
> ] to deliverables. Probably on the order of 5 pages of test.  Subjects
> ] will be:  Help Desk support, Unix/Windows Administration, Network
> ] Administration (routers/switches/firewall).
> 
> Perhaps there is money to be made in helping guru's clients build
> good RFQs.  The originator intended to say "interpret" and "text".
> 
> When bidding on guru, one is supposed to make a total-cost, fixed-price
> quote, IIRC.  There is the temptation to low-ball just to get the
> job. and then to try to squeeze in added costs, but that's not
> something I'd want to try.  Once I found one job that I was sure I could
> do, but it was so flaky that I bid way high just to make sure I
> wouldn't get trapped.  Never heard from them.
> 
> It's my opinion that guru's clients are cheapskates who see spending
> more than a trifling amount of money on tech writing as being wasteful.
> If they were for real they would hire a writer or contract with a
> tech-writing company.
> 
> My advice about guru?  Not worth the trouble of even bidding.
> 
> Jennifer C. Bennett wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > Has anyone here used Guru.com to find freelance technical writing work?
> > If anyone has any experiences to share, good or bad, please let me know.
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