Never Bid Low On Online Freelance Projects

It is really sad that in their quest to win jobs posted on freelance sites, many freelancers resort to underbidding. In other words, they quote rates which are way below what people in general would consider to be a realistic price for the job in question.
As an instance, if a posted project seeks 10,500 word articles that can only be written after thorough research on the given topic, quoting a rate of 20 dollars or even 30 dollars on that project is totally unrealistic. Yet – as unbelievable as it may seem, we find that besides freelancers from say the Indian sub-continent, where each dollar gets contractor a significant amount of money in local currency, it is American freelancers too who quote such unrealistically low rates.
Agreed that this may seem like an unbelievable trend but it is in fact true. And with clients getting wind of freelancers actually willing to work at such low rates, they in turn have become privy to posting more and more jobs which pay such unbelievably low rates.
Clearly, underbidding or bottom-feeding does not benefit anyone, not even the clients, in case you are thinking that they are better off this way. After all, at such low pay scales, they simply NEVER get the kind of quality of work which they hope to receive.
Therefore by bidding low, it is amply clear that everyone is the loser and no one really gains anything or in any way out of doing so.
Accordingly, it would almost be a fervent plea of sorts from my end – to each and every freelancer out there, to please bid realistically. The more you resort to undercutting, the more you harm the entire freelance community, yourself included.
Also bear in mind the fact that we are living in a time and age where things are only getting more and more expensive. So by bidding low, for the same time and effort, you will end up with less money in your hands, which could otherwise have been a much higher sum.
Moreover, it is important to realize that life is not about sitting in front of the computer, day and night, every single day, so that high volumes make up for the less pay that you are getting from each job that you do. Rather, your endeavor should be to maximize RoI or Return on Investment, by spending minimum time working and deriving maximum revenue out of the time and effort that you spend in doing so.