I have tried every possible bid from zero to 10x the average price. I have also prepared custom presentations, documents for my bids. Zero return.
1.You are wasting your time 2. You are coming across as desperate
By commitment I mean a phone call.
The number one mistake I see freelancers make is not schedule a time to talk to the prospect. Calls are amazing because they do a few things:
1. Filter out people who are not serious about their projects (it's either a side project for them and they have not fully dedicated themselves to it, or they are just shopping around for prices)
2. Allow you to sell yourself without trying. This is really easy to do counter to all the advice out there. Just listen. Listen carefully. Sympathize. Be there so they can cry their problems on your shoulder and then offer to relieve that pain by providing an end-to-end solution.
I have learned all of this the hard way - presenting free quotes, proposals and all that bs. Only when I stopped doing that and focused more on the networking aspect - talking to the person and understanding their problem - becoming their friend - that I got most projects.