Updated April 22, 2021

If winning your first bid is still on your todo list, then this article is for you. If you’re a veteran of the site, this article gives you context to take your services to the next level. I’m going to share metrics on how students engage with StudyGate and how you can join the active (or superactive) earner category. I’ll also share the mentality of a winning tutor who gets $1000s in work. Finally, I’ll share some actionable ways to get more work.

Let’s get started.

I’m finding some stable trends in research on student bids

StudyGate is a competitive space, but how competitive is it exactly? What is the secret recipe of a winning bid? That’s what we cover here.

60% of the time if you are offer #1 you will get the job. Before I explain why, let’s uncover some context. I started this article in 2019 to measure StudyGate’s bid environment. Back then, I researched jobs completed from April-November. And I concluded that the first bid wins the job about 70% of the time. 32% of completed jobs had only 1 bid placed before the student confirmed.

First, some clarity on terms:

• First bid with no other offers means there was only one bid. And it was confirmed. This happens if the student is in a hurry or if it is a tough project and the student could only find a single tutor.
• First bid with multiple offers means it was not the cheapest bid. And there was more than 1 bid. But the student still chose the first bid. This would happen if the job was big and the tutor immediately started engaging in question details to the point where their expertise overshadowed the price benefits offered by others.
• Cheapest bid among multiple offers means a tutor undercut the initial bid and the student went for it.
• Not the first nor the cheapest bid happens when there is an easy question (i.e. algebra) with many bids, usually 5-15. The student typically picks something in the bottom range, just not necessarily the lowest price.

Since 2020, I’ve changed my methodology to consider only the last 100 jobs on the platform. Below are the metrics for 2021 and 2020 with the latest win percentages. If you are:

• First bid with no other offers: 47% win rate
• First bid with multiple offers: 13% win rate
• Cheapest bid among multiple offers: 36% win rate
• Not the first nor the cheapest bid: 14% win rate

Here’s a graphic breakdown of those numbers:

The big takeaway here is that the platform is consistently competitive in 2020 and 2021. 60% of tutors that place the first bid actually win the job, down 10% from 2019. I think this is because students had to wait so long back in 2019 to hear from someone that if they actually did, they would confirm because they really needed it. Today, students are a little bit more picky. But the uptick in accepted first bids with no other offers suggests that students trust the StudyGate refund policy for protection. Generally, the bigger the question, the longer the student will wait to consider options before committing.

Based on these numbers, we’re seeing 3 kinds of student:

1. Loyalists. These students are definitely in the minority, and they’re willing to wait for their preferred tutor at any price because they don’t trust just anyone.
2. Penny pinchers. These students want the best deal available and will wait and negotiate to make sure they get something that fits their budget. If the job has been up for more than an hour, assume the student is price sensitive. Especially if it’s a large project.
3. Speedsters and specialists. They need it done, like, yesterday. The question is difficult or urgent, sometimes both. I mostly see this in quick math questions or big coding projects that were hard to find qualified tutors for.

What are our big takeaways from these numbers?

1. Speed kills. Try to be the first person to bid on the question. Then use fair bid standards to solidify your offer.
2. If the question has been up for over an hour, there’s about a 50/50 chance the student wants a good price. You’re unlikely to get the student’s attention if you bid high after that time.
3. Established tutors get badges and better commission rates, but they don’t get favoritism from students. Most students want it either cheap or fast, but rarely expensive and slow.

These insights might help understand students better, but they can only take you so far. What’s the second key ingredient to tutor success?

Reviews.

The reviews you earn at the beginning of your account history contain 10x more value than any price you get paid for a job. Here’s why:

Tutor profile page traffic doubled in 12 months

A successful tutor places a premium on reviews because students check them on their bio. Here are the page views on tutor profiles alone in March and April 2021:

Here are the same measurements over the exact same time period in 2020:

Students are spending more time than ever on your tutor profile page. They want to know who you are and if you can be trusted to do the job. Here’s a graph comparing that data back to 2019:

This graph shows how many more seconds students are spending on tutor profile pages:

The bottom line is that SG has more traffic than before too. Our top tutors optimize their profile pages to sell their strengths, and students are noticing. So if you’re trying to get work on StudyGate, treat your first few customers like they are queens and kings. Respond quickly to messages. If they ask for A, B, and C, give them D and E as well. Once these students confirm your bid, you can leverage those jobs for the great reviews necessary to build a powerful account.

Reviews will still make [or break] your account

Please note:

Students MUST leave a review to continue using StudyGate after they finish working with you. There are 4 kinds of reviews you can expect to receive:

1. Incompetent for my high level homework,and it wastes my time.
   1. This is not impossible to recover from, but it makes things significantly more difficult. Your bid will get ghosted. If you’re lucky, the student will tell you their objection and you will get a fighter’s chance.
2. J d j d h d b h d b s h sh b d
   1. This kind of review is still going to show up on your profile, it means they didn’t like you but they don’t want to make a scene. Not exactly a rave review as it clogs your profile page with spam material.
3. This user didn’t leave a comment
   1. This will show up if the question automatically completes, but the student has not logged into the system to leave you a review yet. This counts toward your badges, but does not show up on your profile page. If you want to fill it, you can try asking for a review. But don’t be pushy about it.
4. Very helpful and responsive in answering all of my questions
   1. This is the goal, a confident endorsement from students. StudyGate hides the star reviews your profile page and only uses it to measure your performance for badges. So a positive endorsement like this rings especially strong.

Whatever they say in the review, your future client will be checking to see how it went.

Fine, SG is growing. But can I actually get work here?

Absolutely!

In Spring 2020, the top 5 most experienced tutors on StudyGate earned nearly half of the total platform payout. One tutor alone made a ton of coin, and it skewed the overall downward trend or top tutor earnings percentage.

Here’s how I got these numbers:

1. I measured tutor profile page views in 4 month periods during the busy season.
2. Then I calculated the earnings for those top 5 tutors during the same time period.
3. Finally, I added those 5 numbers together and divided them against the total payout from StudyGate during the same time period.

The results are below:

More than ever, StudyGate is filling the queues of premium and Ivy tutors. That means incoming traffic doesn’t get a chance to connect with them and turns to new tutors, so you’ve got a great shot at winning work.

What’s the bottom line?

There will be some price competition during slow seasons, but it’s getting easier for new tutors to win work.

Here are 5 ways to make your profile a bid-confirming magnet:

Use the following articles to optimize your profile page under your account settings.

1. Write a perfect headline
2. Optimize your bio
3. Upload a portfolio item
4. Create an introduction video
5. Upload a professional profile photo (even better, use an avatar for privacy!)

Then make quick offers using fair bid standards.

A brief conclusion

We’ve covered that 60% of the time, the first bid gets the job. Earnings are getting more evenly distributed across the platform. And students spending increasing amounts of time on your profile page before making a decision on your offer. But work comes before recognition.

Relationships and trust come first. The payouts will come after that. You’ve got this!