Guidelines on how to place an accurate bid

The short answer to this question is: just offer a quote in the same way you would normally. If an individual contacted you directly, what would you do? You would pay attention to the details of their inquiry and you would ask a lot of questions. Once you feel you have all the details necessary; you would offer a quote. We have the same system. Once a project is posted you may contact the project owner with any questions and then place your bid/offer.

Tips on dealing with special circumstances

1. A lot of times once someone begins with their family history project, their interest grows and so then does the scope of the project. You may see signs of that already based on your private communications and the project owner. Regardless of what you feel will most likely occur in the future, just stay focused on submitting a bid for the current project. Consider this stage one. Once that stage is complete, if the project owner would then like to continue using your services, then they would simply post another project. This way you will successfully build your feedback rating as well.

2.  Sometimes it’s hard to force the details which are necessary to a project from the project owner either because he/she does not know or because they think that some details are too unimportant to mention. If you have asked every possible question in order to get a better idea of the scope of the project and you still feel unsure of the timeframe and/or your bid, you can offer a range of cost or hourly fee. You must still however, enter a flat rate figure in the bid amount box. Then you will be free to use the PMB to clarify your bid with a range of cost and/or timeframe.

3.  If the project ultimately goes over what your initial quote was, be sure and inform us of the change. If there is any confusion over the price in the future, we will have this information to rely upon in advance.

INCLUDE AS MANY DETAILS AS POSSIBLE ABOUT YOUR OFFER. HERE ARE 2 EXAMPLES:

Our bid includes research of 2 surnames for the birth years 1860 to 1880, marriage years 1850 to 1870 and death years 1860 to 1890. We will record all entries with these 2 surnames. We will include 6 document copies of events for primary subjects (parent’s marriage and birth of children). The report includes all persons with the surname found in the records with dates and parents names. Should there be other records of interest to you among the reported names then we will order these for you at a cost of $X per document. We will also add suggestions for further research and a basic analysis of what we have found to date.

Includes research of civil records 1874-1890 only. Document copies if desired, will be a separate cost. Only document copies of primary subjects are included. Repository fees included (if applicable)”.

Please remember: It is prohibited to make any offers outside of our system or to include your private contact information or business details within your communications prior to the job owner’s selection of the winning offer. If yours is the winning offer, you and the project owner will be emailed with each others private email address upon your acceptance of the project.