been seeing ads for a couple of the platforms that connect pilots with clients and i signed up for one of them a while back but havent gotten much traction. feels like a race to the bottom on pricing whenever i do see a job post, someone always underbids me by like 40 bucks and i cant figure out how theyre making any money after fuel and time.

is there a specific platform thats actually worth using or is the direct client approach just always going to be better. i know a few guys who swear by networking locally and cold emailing real estate agencies which i should probably be doing more of anyway but figured id ask.

yeah those platforms are rough if you're trying to compete on price. i tried two of them and the jobs that actually came through were low budget and the clients were often kind of difficult, like they had no idea what they were asking for and expected hollywood production for a couple hundred bucks. i keep my profiles active just for visibility but i dont count on them for real income. direct relationships with a few steady clients is where the actual money is, even if its slower to build up. a local property management company or a commercial real estate firm that gives you repeat work is worth ten marketplace gigs.

the underbidding thing drives me crazy too. i saw a mapping job posted recently that would have taken me the better part of a day including processing time and someone bid like 75 dollars for it. seventy five. i dont even understand the logic there, like are they just not counting their own time as worth anything. anyway i dont have great advice on the platforms specifically but cold outreach to contractors and engineering firms has worked okay for me on the inspection side if thats something you ever want to get into.