Getting Decent Work on oDesk

[SillyBits]

Hi everyone,

So basically, I was just wondering if any oDesk veterans have experience and/or tips on landing decent-paying work on oDesk. I'm with a couple of these bidding sites and they seem to be going okay, I'd just like to use oDesk as a way of increasing my chances of getting jobs (since most sites limit you to a certain amount of proposals per month).

I am aware, having read previous threads, that doing low-paying work and getting a good rep is one way of getting good pay and attracting better clients. The trouble is, when I find low-paying work, it is ridiculously low! I've just looked through jobs now, and there are so many people asking workers to bid nothing over $1.00 an hour. It just makes me want to scream. I have no problem doing something along the lines of even $3.50 per 500 words (still makes me cringe, though), but $1.00 is just outright unacceptable. I'd make more working in a bar! I'm still trying to break away from content mills, but offers like that just make me want to quit altogether.

So, if anyone has any ideas for getting noticed/finding better paying work, I'd be happy to hear it. I guess this post has also been a slight rant!

Thanks!

[dsmpublishing]

Hello and welcome to the world of odesk.

I charge $47 an hour for my services on odesk and get it and on the other side of it I hire filippinos at $0.56 an hour to do basic tasks for my clients.

So I can see both sides of it.

Odesk is brilliant for scoring new clients and its also amazing for getting outsourcing done for the very basic data entry jobs such as research and social bookmarking.

The point as far as writing goes is there are a lot of idiots on there that think its okay to hire writers for $1.00 an hour and for something important like writing I wouldn't even dream of it I pay my writers $2.00 per 100 words on odesk minimum.

If you are wanting to compete with these Indians you need to offer something they don't and really get your thinking cap on. For example I charge $97 to do a basic tutorial showing them how to get followers on twitter and approach those looking for twitter assistance and it takes me an hour and a half to complete it.

In the same idea you need to have a skill with your writing thats not too time consuming or a skilled type of writing such as writing resumes or proof reading. You cant go in to do seo articles because the changes are they will hire someone for $1.00 an hour.

I apply for about 10 jobs a week on odesk and will get 1. I know a 10% rate is terrible but I am offering a higher rate than most and some will reject you straight away.

But out of those 10% I scored a client that has already spent $2000 on me in the last two weeks and is going to be a long term client. So think of the bigger picture.

I have only actually been looking through odesk for a month so it shows the good paying jobs are on there. I started earning through odesk in July and my earnings to date are $15,684.

I wish you luck and if you have any questions fire away.

[maiyasmom]

Originally Posted by dsmpublishing

Hello and welcome to the world of odesk.

I charge $47 an hour for my services on odesk and get it and on the other side of it I hire filippinos at $0.56 an hour to do basic tasks for my clients.

So I can see both sides of it.

Odesk is brilliant for scoring new clients and its also amazing for getting outsourcing done for the very basic data entry jobs such as research and social bookmarking.

The point as far as writing goes is there are a lot of idiots on there that think its okay to hire writers for $1.00 an hour and for something important like writing I wouldn't even dream of it I pay my writers $2.00 per 100 words on odesk minimum.

If you are wanting to compete with these Indians you need to offer something they don't and really get your thinking cap on. For example I charge $97 to do a basic tutorial showing them how to get followers on twitter and approach those looking for twitter assistance and it takes me an hour and a half to complete it.

In the same idea you need to have a skill with your writing thats not too time consuming or a skilled type of writing such as writing resumes or proof reading. You cant go in to do seo articles because the changes are they will hire someone for $1.00 an hour.

I apply for about 10 jobs a week on odesk and will get 1. I know a 10% rate is terrible but I am offering a higher rate than most and some will reject you straight away.

But out of those 10% I scored a client that has already spent $2000 on me in the last two weeks and is going to be a long term client. So think of the bigger picture.

I have only actually been looking through odesk for a month so it shows the good paying jobs are on there. I started earning through odesk in July and my earnings to date are $15,684.

I wish you luck and if you have any questions fire away.

That's really great that you've had so much success with it! Its hard for me to take it serious because of the low paying jobs. However, hearing about your success makes me want to reconsider it.

[SillyBits]

Originally Posted by dsmpublishing

Hello and welcome to the world of odesk.

I charge $47 an hour for my services on odesk and get it and on the other side of it I hire filippinos at $0.56 an hour to do basic tasks for my clients.

So I can see both sides of it.

Odesk is brilliant for scoring new clients and its also amazing for getting outsourcing done for the very basic data entry jobs such as research and social bookmarking.

The point as far as writing goes is there are a lot of idiots on there that think its okay to hire writers for $1.00 an hour and for something important like writing I wouldn't even dream of it I pay my writers $2.00 per 100 words on odesk minimum.

If you are wanting to compete with these Indians you need to offer something they don't and really get your thinking cap on. For example I charge $97 to do a basic tutorial showing them how to get followers on twitter and approach those looking for twitter assistance and it takes me an hour and a half to complete it.

In the same idea you need to have a skill with your writing thats not too time consuming or a skilled type of writing such as writing resumes or proof reading. You cant go in to do seo articles because the changes are they will hire someone for $1.00 an hour.

I apply for about 10 jobs a week on odesk and will get 1. I know a 10% rate is terrible but I am offering a higher rate than most and some will reject you straight away.

But out of those 10% I scored a client that has already spent $2000 on me in the last two weeks and is going to be a long term client. So think of the bigger picture.

I have only actually been looking through odesk for a month so it shows the good paying jobs are on there. I started earning through odesk in July and my earnings to date are $15,684.

I wish you luck and if you have any questions fire away.

Very basic tasks I can understand, it just grates me when I see people asking for "quality" articles and expecting to pay next to nothing for it. Furthermore, I actually live in Germany so each dollar is roughly 76c to me.

Just one question at the moment, what other simple tasks would you suggest? I'm sure I could think up a few myself, but it's pretty late where I am so I think I'll leave it for tomorrow! Proofreading is actually not a bad idea, certainly something I'll keep in mind. A friend of mine already outsources some proofreading work to me (he's an English trainer who translates texts from German to English), so I certainly wouldn't mind picking up a bit of work in that arena.

However, thank you for your reply. It has given me a few ideas. I'm still pretty new to freelancing (I've only been at it about a year). I know I'm an okay writer, I just need to learn how to market myself better. I'm also a little impatient which is why I got sucked into the whole content mill industry in the first place!

[ErinHill226]

I swore off those bidding sites, until I got desperate for work a few months ago. I hadn't been marketing myself AT ALL, and virtually every client crapped out on me at the same time. I had savings, but I still needed to scrounge up work quickly because I was the sole breadwinner before my husband landed a new job a couple of months ago.

ANYWAY... I have gotten several jobs since then with clients who are willing to pay my rates. My cover letter is always detailed. I usually only apply to jobs within my specialty, and I outline EXACTLY what they will get if they hire me (more sales, better quality, someone with experience meaning little training required, etc...). It also helps that I can throw out some well known retailers I've worked with.

My advice would be to spell out what you can do. Give them a reason to choose someone with more skill and experience. Spell out what makes you unique. If Freelancer.com proposals (where you can read what they write) are any indication, most people don't do a very good job of that.

[dsmpublishing]

Originally Posted by maiyasmom

That's really great that you've had so much success with it! Its hard for me to take it serious because of the low paying jobs. However, hearing about your success makes me want to reconsider it.

I am an internet marketing ebook publisher and writer so I did so that I could do an ebook on it and see how it went and I am still experimenting with it now.

Its a case of staying away from the huge amount of them that promote low paid jobs and sticking with things that are skilled.

I have never bid before on elance.com or any of the other ones so it would be interesting what I could get out of that site.

[dsmpublishing]

Originally Posted by SillyBits

Very basic tasks I can understand, it just grates me when I see people asking for "quality" articles and expecting to pay next to nothing for it. Furthermore, I actually live in Germany so each dollar is roughly 76c to me.

Just one question at the moment, what other simple tasks would you suggest? I'm sure I could think up a few myself, but it's pretty late where I am so I think I'll leave it for tomorrow! Proofreading is actually not a bad idea, certainly something I'll keep in mind. A friend of mine already outsources some proofreading work to me (he's an English trainer who translates texts from German to English), so I certainly wouldn't mind picking up a bit of work in that arena.

However, thank you for your reply. It has given me a few ideas. I'm still pretty new to freelancing (I've only been at it about a year). I know I'm an okay writer, I just need to learn how to market myself better. I'm also a little impatient which is why I got sucked into the whole content mill industry in the first place!

I have seen many writing companies want silly money for quality writing and it drives me around the twist. I actually contacted an IT company last week about writing for his site (I got the job) and what got me about this one is that he had been quoted a stupid high rate I think it was 1000 pounds for 20 articles (about $1550) so if you are looking for a solid area for decent rates the offline companies are very good as they have never even heard of odesk or elance and will pay you a lot more without question so if you go in with $2 per 100 words (or whatever you charge) you will be amazed at what you will get for it!

I agree about the rate I also deal in Euros as I am based in Portugal.

May I ask is your writing UK english or USA english?

For simple tasks you can do things like offering to upload the blog posts you are writing or if its to an article directory to include social bookmarking. Or offering to write out a tweet to go with the article. Just so that you stand out from the others that apply.

Most of my writers have come to me when they have had enough of the content mills industry so you are not alone!

kind regards


sam
X

[lilredwriting]

You've gotten spot-on advice here and I would only reiterate it. I don't use oDesk much but currently have picked up two clients there, both paying 12.00 per hour for writing.

My advice is to make each cover letter as detailed as possible and let them know exactly why you should be the one they pick out of the crowd.

[Lazy Gardens]

Take the skill tests, complete your profile and upload some really good samples.

Emphasize the "American English" native speaker part, because although many people speak English, it's a sneaky language that is easy to mess up.

[CC_Adam]

If you like ODesk, you might like cloudcrowd as well.