I left my “real” job several months ago because I was making more money
staying at home doing the jobs I found online. Going to work was
actually costing me money. Now, I make much more than I did when I left
the house to work. To boot, I only spend about $10 a week in gas
because I work from home. One of the best places I have found to make
money, aside from Mechanical Turk, has been oDesk.
If you have any kind of skill like data entry, sales, transcription,article
writing, virtual assistant, etc., you can make money on oDesk. I make
more there than on Elance. Unlike Elance, oDesk lets you apply to more
jobs without charging you fees.
It’s really easy to sign up and you can start applying for jobs right away. Your problem may be getting that first job. Buyers can see that you are a new provider and may be hesitant to hire you. That’s why it’s important to set aside some time and build your profile. I was frustrated at first because I wasn’t getting any jobs. Then, I made some changes that only took an hour or so.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to make sure you have an awesome profile. Make sure you have an objective. Don’t leave it blank. Proof read your objective and make sure you have good grammar and spelling. Make sure your entire profile is full. Fill out the experience, education and certification sections if you have any. If you don’t, it’s fine. You’ll still get hired. But, the more information you have, the better. Also, make sure you have a picture.
There are a lot of people bidding extremely low for the available jobs. When you apply, it will tell you what the average bid is. Don’t worry about it, especially if you’re applying for transcription or writing jobs. A lot of these bids are from people in other countries and their English won’t be as good as yours. People are willing to pay higher for work they don’t need to do any editing to. I’ve tossed a few jobs up there as a buyer as well. The people that are bidding low either don’t have good profiles or their feedback score is low.
Also include a sample of your work. You can put a link to where your work is located on the web or upload it into the application. Either one works. Most of the time, they’ll ask for a sample in the job description. But, you’d be surprised how many people don’t. So, if you see a lot of people have applied, apply anyway. If they don’t ask for a sample, include one anyway.
Make sure your cover letter is good and mistake free. You’re not supposed to use a recycled cover letter. But, how many times can you say the same thing about yourself? I basically use the same one and then gear it towards the specific job requirements. I’ll change a little bit around. But, my background and experience stays pretty much the same. So, it won’t take you long to apply for jobs once you’ve applied to a bunch of them because they’ll basically say the same thing.
Somebody will eventually give you a job. You might want to bid really low on your first job just to get one, do a good job and get a good feedback rating. You won’t have any stars or feedback at first. Just make sure if you do this that the job you are taking for low pay doesn’t require much work. For example, if you’re a good writer, you may take a small job to write a 400 word blog article and bid $1.00. That won’t take more than an hour and now you have good feedback and can start asking for what you want and what you’re worth.
The longer you’re on oDesk, the more jobs you can apply to in a week. Take their readiness test and you can start off with applying for 20 a week. The more stars and higher rating you have, the more you can apply to as well. Just keep applying.
My bid is always higher than the average bid. I pretty much have a set rate for my transcription work. I apply to jobs every day. I don’t get all of them. In fact, I only get a handful of them. But, I apply every day to every job I’m interested in. I can’t get them all. I don’t want them all. I don’t have time. But, not everyone’s going to hire me. So, I apply to them all.
If you’re not selected, they’ll give you a reason why. Typically, I don’t get hired because my rate is too high. That’s fine. I have other applications out there for people that are willing to pay for my good work. My feedback is great. I even have one that states I charge a lot more than other providers, but my work is worth it as it needs no editing and they’d hire me again. I’m not saying to charge outrageous amounts of money. But, you don’t have to under sell yourself either.
Soon, instead of applying to jobs, people who have hired you in the past will come back to you when they need work done. They can just go right to your profile and request for you to work for them. That’s awesome. Once that starts happening and you are swamped with work, you can raise your price a tad. Some people will go elsewhere and that’s fine, too. Just don’t burn your bridges and don’t raise your price too high when that starts happening.
Another thing to keep in mind is some people may want to hire you, but not pay your price. They’ll send a note saying they’ll hire you if you lower your price. Don’t do it. You can nicely decline. Most of the time, they’ll hire you anyway. Then, they’ll hire you again at the same price. Or, you can make a deal with them and say you’ll do one hour of work at the low price they want so they can see your work. Then, they’ll have to pay your price.
One last tip I have to getting your first job on oDesk is to constantly go back and refresh the page. Try and be the first applicant. Chances are, if jobs have been up for a while, they probably hired someone and just didn’t close the job. So, your application does nothing. If you’re the first one and you impress them, they may just hire you right away! This has happened to me. I applied to a job that was posted only five minutes prior and began working on it within the hour.
I hope these tips have helped you. Remember, it’s important to follow through on what you say you’re going to do with a buyer and do your work in the timeframe you said you would. A lot of times, providers will want to impress somebody, or get a job by promising a really quick turnaround. Be realistic. Under promise and over deliver. If you say you’ll get the job done in 24 hours and you do it in six, that’s impressive and it’s sure to get you a great feedback as long as your work is good. On the flipside, if you promise to get it done in 24 and it takes you 48, that's horrible and you will pay for it by your buyer not hiring you again and giving you a bad feedback rating.
It’s really easy to sign up and you can start applying for jobs right away. Your problem may be getting that first job. Buyers can see that you are a new provider and may be hesitant to hire you. That’s why it’s important to set aside some time and build your profile. I was frustrated at first because I wasn’t getting any jobs. Then, I made some changes that only took an hour or so.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to make sure you have an awesome profile. Make sure you have an objective. Don’t leave it blank. Proof read your objective and make sure you have good grammar and spelling. Make sure your entire profile is full. Fill out the experience, education and certification sections if you have any. If you don’t, it’s fine. You’ll still get hired. But, the more information you have, the better. Also, make sure you have a picture.
There are a lot of people bidding extremely low for the available jobs. When you apply, it will tell you what the average bid is. Don’t worry about it, especially if you’re applying for transcription or writing jobs. A lot of these bids are from people in other countries and their English won’t be as good as yours. People are willing to pay higher for work they don’t need to do any editing to. I’ve tossed a few jobs up there as a buyer as well. The people that are bidding low either don’t have good profiles or their feedback score is low.
Also include a sample of your work. You can put a link to where your work is located on the web or upload it into the application. Either one works. Most of the time, they’ll ask for a sample in the job description. But, you’d be surprised how many people don’t. So, if you see a lot of people have applied, apply anyway. If they don’t ask for a sample, include one anyway.
Make sure your cover letter is good and mistake free. You’re not supposed to use a recycled cover letter. But, how many times can you say the same thing about yourself? I basically use the same one and then gear it towards the specific job requirements. I’ll change a little bit around. But, my background and experience stays pretty much the same. So, it won’t take you long to apply for jobs once you’ve applied to a bunch of them because they’ll basically say the same thing.
Somebody will eventually give you a job. You might want to bid really low on your first job just to get one, do a good job and get a good feedback rating. You won’t have any stars or feedback at first. Just make sure if you do this that the job you are taking for low pay doesn’t require much work. For example, if you’re a good writer, you may take a small job to write a 400 word blog article and bid $1.00. That won’t take more than an hour and now you have good feedback and can start asking for what you want and what you’re worth.
The longer you’re on oDesk, the more jobs you can apply to in a week. Take their readiness test and you can start off with applying for 20 a week. The more stars and higher rating you have, the more you can apply to as well. Just keep applying.
My bid is always higher than the average bid. I pretty much have a set rate for my transcription work. I apply to jobs every day. I don’t get all of them. In fact, I only get a handful of them. But, I apply every day to every job I’m interested in. I can’t get them all. I don’t want them all. I don’t have time. But, not everyone’s going to hire me. So, I apply to them all.
If you’re not selected, they’ll give you a reason why. Typically, I don’t get hired because my rate is too high. That’s fine. I have other applications out there for people that are willing to pay for my good work. My feedback is great. I even have one that states I charge a lot more than other providers, but my work is worth it as it needs no editing and they’d hire me again. I’m not saying to charge outrageous amounts of money. But, you don’t have to under sell yourself either.
Soon, instead of applying to jobs, people who have hired you in the past will come back to you when they need work done. They can just go right to your profile and request for you to work for them. That’s awesome. Once that starts happening and you are swamped with work, you can raise your price a tad. Some people will go elsewhere and that’s fine, too. Just don’t burn your bridges and don’t raise your price too high when that starts happening.
Another thing to keep in mind is some people may want to hire you, but not pay your price. They’ll send a note saying they’ll hire you if you lower your price. Don’t do it. You can nicely decline. Most of the time, they’ll hire you anyway. Then, they’ll hire you again at the same price. Or, you can make a deal with them and say you’ll do one hour of work at the low price they want so they can see your work. Then, they’ll have to pay your price.
One last tip I have to getting your first job on oDesk is to constantly go back and refresh the page. Try and be the first applicant. Chances are, if jobs have been up for a while, they probably hired someone and just didn’t close the job. So, your application does nothing. If you’re the first one and you impress them, they may just hire you right away! This has happened to me. I applied to a job that was posted only five minutes prior and began working on it within the hour.
I hope these tips have helped you. Remember, it’s important to follow through on what you say you’re going to do with a buyer and do your work in the timeframe you said you would. A lot of times, providers will want to impress somebody, or get a job by promising a really quick turnaround. Be realistic. Under promise and over deliver. If you say you’ll get the job done in 24 hours and you do it in six, that’s impressive and it’s sure to get you a great feedback as long as your work is good. On the flipside, if you promise to get it done in 24 and it takes you 48, that's horrible and you will pay for it by your buyer not hiring you again and giving you a bad feedback rating.
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