Despite the economic hardship we hear about every day on the morning news, this is one of the most exciting times to be alive. There are three reasons.

First, everyone unanimously agrees that the status quo is broken. That means new approaches to old problems are in high demand.

Second, high unemployment both here and abroad creates a huge pool of labor, eager to find work. That means any offer of employment, either permanent or contract, will likely be met with significant interest.

Third, technology is allowing employers to hire and manage employees in different parts of the world, allowing for major cost savings with little or no reduction in work quality.

These three trends converged for me earlier this year when I hired Uma, my virtual assistant located in Chennai, India. Uma is an absolute pleasure to work with and offers quality work with the utmost integrity. We have worked together for about eight months and it has been a resoundingly positive experience.

Also, because Uma lives in Chennai where the cost of living is a lot lower than it is here in California, the hourly rate she charges is a small fraction of what it would be if I hired someone local.

Uma’s primary responsibility is to help me promote my second book entitled “Webify Your Business – Internet Marketing Secrets for the Self-Employed” and submit my proposals as a speaker to business conferences and professional associations around the world.

The interesting thing is that my book talks all about leveraging the internet to grow your business and I have heard from a number of readers who have now hired their own virtual assistants to support that process. Internet marketing isn’t rocket science. It’s a simple process and many of the tasks are tedious and mundane; perfect for a virtual assistant.

There are literally millions of self-employed professionals (including real estate agents, insurance brokers, loan offers, financial advisors, massage therapists, life coaches and marketing consultants among others) who would benefit from having a virtual assistant, and technology platforms like oDesk are making it easier than ever to manage.

There are enormous opportunities to leverage the internet these days. It’s like the Wild Wild West all over again. Social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube are allowing enterprising individuals to build online empires with little more than a laptop and an internet connection. If you would like more details, get a copy of my book.

Once you have your plan mapped out, isolate the tasks you could pass off to a virtual assistant. It won’t cost you very much and oDesk makes it easy to manage their work and pay for their time. Consider the possibility. If you’re anything like me, it will raise your game and accelerate your progress while improving your outlook for the future.

Uma is like my secret weapon. With a 12-hour time difference, I give her detailed instructions in the evening and when I wake up the next morning, the work is done. I am happy and so is she. I couldn’t think of a better situation. Give it a try and let oDesk help you manage the process. Once you get used to it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

Patrick Schwerdtfeger is the founder of Tactical Execution; a company that leverages progressive marketing strategies to build credibility and exposure for its clients. Patrick is an award winning speaker and has given hundreds of workshops and seminars across the United States and western Canada.

Patrick is the author of “Webify your Business – Internet Marketing Secrets for the Self-Employed“. His podcasts have been downloaded over 30,000 times in 27 countries and his articles have been published on thousands of different websites. With a diverse background in marketing and finance, Patrick has a gift for explaining complicated subjects in simple language, making his presentations insightful and empowering.

We needed some design help for a couple projects that we knew would be short and simple for someone familiar with Photoshop and had a graphical eye, and turned to oDesk for help. Through our experiences, we wanted to give buyers some advice on how to find a graphic designer to help improve a website, create a logo, or even develop a Twitter background, and pinpoint the one that can deliver the results that you’re looking for when it comes to graphic design for the web.

* Communicate your needs.
What exactly do you want? Be as specific as possible: Provide dimensions of the final product, desired file types and sizes, and give some creative direction. Sometimes even sketches or Powerpoint mockups can help. After all, a picture’s worth a thousand words!
* Provide examples of websites or graphics that you like.
Even if you don’t have a vision of the final product, provide 3-5 examples of websites or logos that have design elements that you like or really don’t like. A brief sentence about why you like or don’t like something (maybe the fonts are fine but you hate the colors) will help the provider get a better sense of what direction to take the job. It’s even better if you can identify 1-2 websites with designs that you want the provider to emulate in style.

* Review the provider’s profile carefully.
Look for a work history of completed projects with similar themes or deliverables to your project. If you’ll be incorporating text into your graphics, make sure providers are from an English-speaking country or have passed the U.S. English language tests with high marks. Review the combination of the provider’s minimum number of hours worked, their total positive feedbacks AND read the reviews. Sometimes you can learn a lot from what is suggested about a provider in their feedback than what is in print.

* Comb the provider’s portfolio.
To make sure you’re working with a pro, see if the graphics used incorporate good optimization practices, so that the images can load quickly without compromising the sharpness of the image. Usually this will take the form of smaller images to help make the page load quickly. Make sure the images aren’t of degraded quality (ex. fuzzy, or grainy imagery), which can happen if a picture is over-optimized. Look at the variety of artwork across the portfolio. Note if the provider uses a variety of standard techniques such as gradients, shading, stock imagery, and incorporation of different fonts.

Those are just a few suggestions on how to find a graphic designer on oDesk to help with your projects. We hope you have as much success with your provider as we had with ours!

DealBase.com is a hotel deals review site, evaluating over 5000 sources to find the best hotel deals and discounts. This article was written by Liz Kao, DealBase.com Director of Marketing.

The demand for iPhone developers on oDesk has only increased over the past year. If you are currently developing for the iPhone and looking for some more resources to keep your skills sharp, or you’re wanting to get started developing, the links below should be helpful.

	The Mobile Orchard – Top notch tutorials, news and a weekly post on “This Week in iPhone News” that can be helpful if you want to stay up to date up in a condensed format.
	Maniac Dev - Offers news updates and commentary on iPhone features, tutorials, and even has an excellent top ten list of their own.
	The Apple Blog – Includes a few helpful tutorials, but mostly focuses on keeping you apprised of happenings in the world of Apple. Check out their walkthrough on Adding Analytics to your App.
	iCode Blog – iPhone Tutorials, and excellent commentary including this reaction to Adobe announcing that Flash CS5 will be able to export iPhone Apps.
	iPhone SDK Articles – As the name suggest, no frills, just straight up tutorials. Case in point, a helpful article on dynamically adjusting your apps to local currency, language, and timezone.
	Cocoa with Love – Cocoa and Objective-C Programming Tutorials for both Mac and iPhone. In depth analysis, like this article on optimizing loading of large tables on the iphone.
	iPhone Development – Offers excellent iPhone commentary, Jeff Lamarche is the Author of “Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK”. Read this article where he praises, tears down, and rebuilds a snippet of code on device detection.
	iPhone Incubator – Solid news, commentary and tutorials. An interstesting counterpart to oDesk’s Top 10 Banned iPhone Apps, is iPhone Incubators’s Top 57 ways to get your app rejected from the App Store.
	Mac Create – iPhone news and interviews with developers. Read Toki Torri App creators talk about how they hatched this well recieved game.
	App Every Day – The anonymous author “Matt”, created 25 apps in 25 days in the month of August 2009, all the code is available for download. An ambitious, and interesting project.

Helpful Non-Blog Links

The following, while not traditional blogs, might be very helpful links if you are interested in developing for the iPhone.

	Apple’s iPhone Developer Portal – It’s tough to beat the documentation that apple provides.
	iPhone Dev Central- Offers a database of user submitted tutorials.
	iPhone Dev SDK – Unnoffical iPhone development forums.
	iPhone Dev Camp – The iPhone Dev Camp is a non-profit organization that meets regularly to present iPhone apps and select winners of their “Hackathon” contest, many of the entries are open-source.

If you think you’re the office ”excel ninja” – with your fancy vlookups and your pivot table prowess – think again, powder-puff.  These guys will smack you all the way back to Lotus 1-2-3 with their Excel skills.

1) Pac-Man
Are you kidding me?  If you’re an Excel Geek like me, this one will make your heart skip a beat.  This guy from Japan made the entire Pac-Man video game by using the cells as “pixels”.  He set the zoom at 10%, and then automated the changing of fill colors within the cells using VBA to animate the game.  If lovin’ games in excel is wrong, then I don’t wanna be right!

2) 3D Game Engine
Defining true ostentatiousness and technical supremacy, this guy created a full-blown 3D-rendering gaming engine inside Excel.  If you’ve never seen a three-dimensional spinning cube inside Excel, you’re missing out…big time.

3) AC/DC Video
Take an old-school ASCII-Art Nerd from the 80’s, a die hard AC/DC fan, and an Excel Geek: mix them all together and this is what you get: An AC/DC video in the lowest fidelity imaginable.  But hey, you’re watching the video inside an Excel spreadsheet, so get over it. You have to see it to believe it.

4) Music Synthesizer
Offered on the Microsoft Website as a free download, this Excel program is a fully functional music synthesizer complete with musical staff notation.  Use it to control your favorite MIDI device, or jam out through your computer’s sound card.

5) Anything by This Guy
Jon Peltier is the man. If Excel skills could kill, this guy would be a Japanese Naginata.  His section on charting is unbelievable, especially for an advanced user that wants to kick it up to the next level.  And don’t even get me started on his online tutorials.

What is the craziest thing you’ve ever seen in Excel?

The oDesk team recently pulled together our thoughts on the ways business, technology and the working world intersect. The result of our brainstorm? The Future of Work: An educational presentation that explores how technology is changing how the world works.

Check it out, share it, discuss it – We’re excited about the future of work, and we hope that you will be too!

Recently I’ve seen some tweets from those curious about the presence of extremely low bids on oDesk.

My response is that it doesn’t matter. Or at least, it shouldn’t.

Face it, if the only thing that makes you a viable canidate for a project is your price, then you’ll need to have the lowest bid. But is that the kind of freelance or contract work you want?

This isn’t a groundbreaking thought, but perhaps I can offer the perspective of an active contractor and bring some of the philosophical arguments into the real world. I’m self-employed and manage the technology needs of small businesses, consult on various projects, and write software. I use oDesk to manage all of my contract web development work. In that field, you’ll find some jobs with hourly rates of $10, $5, and even $3, yet I have active and ongoing projects at much higher rates.

Last November, in an interview with the BBC, I expressed that I was satisfied with the amount of work I had through oDesk, but was confident I could get more if I wanted. A little less than a year later, things have slowed down and I decided it was time to start bidding on work again. A few weeks ago I started actively bidding for new oDesk jobs. Here’s how I view the process – in some admittedly broad strokes:

Understand that you’re not going to get – or even be considered for – some jobs. Some buyers are looking for the lowest bid – and for some jobs that is fine. Other buyers won’t be able to meet your rates, which may very well mean they can’t afford what they say they want. Don’t let a candidacy that ends with ‘rate too high’ shake you. Just as the buyer limits their potential providers by the constraints of their budget, your rate limits your potential jobs – and that’s a good thing. It helps you weed out the jobs that aren’t as valuable as the service you provide.

Don’t let a low average bid affect your rate. oDesk recently changed how much information you are able to see about other candidates when you visit a job posting, but you’ll still see how many people have applied to that job and the average bid. Don’t use that to set your rate, though. Your rate should be determined by the value of your work, your skillset, your experience, and many other factors. It shouldn’t determine the way others value their work, their skillset, or their experience. In the same way, remember that the kind of provider a buyer is looking for – and the budget they have – isn’t tied to the average bid amount.

Forget where you live. If the only justification for your rate being higher than other providers is that “it’s more expensive where I live”, then you need to find a job in an office near your house. It doesn’t matter what you think of tariffs and protectionism, oDesk is a global marketplace. You’re competing with providers in different countries, as well as different economic areas in a single country. Your rate shouldn’t be determined by the cost of your mortgage, or the price of your dinner, it should be determined by what your work is worth.

There’s nothing wrong with starting slow. When you’re starting out, it may take some time to figure out what your work is worth. To get your first few jobs, you may need to bid lower than what you want to be making in the long term. Then, once you gain experience and reputation on oDesk, you can increase your rates. While you shouldn’t let the rates of others affect what you set as your own rate, you do have to be aware of what the market will accept. Keep in mind that you don’t have to be competitive to the entire oDesk market, just enough to provide the amount of work you want. If you have a few jobs in progress, it may be a good time to increase your rates, start bidding jobs, and see if you can be successful with a higher rate.

Focus on the right jobs. Things like a good cover letter, examples of work, certifications, and oDesk groups can make you stand out from other providers. But after a while you get a feel for what jobs best fit your profile of skills and experience. Some jobs don’t require the amount of experience you have, some jobs aren’t the kind of work you find yourself getting hired to do. If you really want to stand out as the right provider for a job – focus on the type of job that consistently results in positive feedback.

Is it possible to get work on oDesk with a rate far above the average provider rate in your field, or for a specific job? Yes. It just may take some time, and a bit of determination.

When I started bidding for jobs on oDesk my rate was about a quarter of what it is today. Close to a thousand hours on oDesk means something – but it doesn’t mean everything. Honestly, the biggest change in my rate came not because I felt I’d established a track record on oDesk, but because I realized that I didn’t need to worry about what others were charging. I know what my time is worth outside oDesk and – since I’ve proven I can work just as effectively through oDesk – there is no reason for my time on oDesk to be worth any less.

Was my claim to BBC still accurate, as I started actively bidding on oDesk jobs? For the past month or so I reviewed each job that matched my (rather broad) search terms. I know that the jobs I get tend to be single-developer, long-term jobs, with a buyer who has some familiarity with web development, yet needs high-level requests to be understood and implemented. Those were the jobs I focused on. Even still, for most of the jobs I received no response. But one job – on which I bid my usual rate, even though the average bid was lower than the rate I started on oDesk with – has panned out. Now I have another ongoing contract job, at the rate I set, and feel is acceptable for the services I provide.

And yes, I’m confident that in the future, if I want the work, I can go to oDesk and find it.

Tim Lytle is a Technology Consultant & oDesk Contract Web Developer. Owner of timlytle.net ltd since 2003, his oDesk adventures have been mentioned on the BBC’s Click and in Forbes Magazine.

Call it “Twittiquette,” call it what you will, but there are unspoken rules of the Twitterverse that everyone diving (or just slipping toes) into this social media pool should know. The water may look shallow and unintimidating from the deck, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re likely to drown.

Check out these TOP 10 WAYS TO LOSE TWITTER FOLLOWERS for tips on how you can stay afloat:

10. Passing off someone else’s fabulous tweet as your own. Here’s how this one goes down: Your friend makes a supremely witty observation about Balloon Boy. You laugh and tweet his words yourself, without taking the time to note it’s a re-tweet. This may seem like no big deal, but it is a major breech of  Twitter etiquette.

9. Twittering your love life. It’s a fine line. We know. It’s nice to know when a friend is having a nice date. It’s  not nice to know they have “moved things into the hot tub.” Really … if you wouldn’t do it in front of your mother, don’t tweet it.

8. Twittering other people’s private lives. A juicy tweet can be hard to resist. You meet a client for lunch, afterward they leave with someone young and pretty who is not the wife you met last time. Seems innocent enough to make a funny tweet about it, right? Well you’re treading on thin ice. Social media has brought everyone a little closer than you think, and there is a chance — no matter how small — that this could be damaging. Is it worth it?

7. Writing one-word tweets. This. Gets. Old. You have 140 characters. Use them. Creative people use words. Plural. Use your words, people.

6. Twittering arguments. Fighting with Internet acquaintances is tempting. You’re having a bad day, they say something that offends you, and — wham! — you engage in a Twitter  feud. Don’t do it. If famous people who write books can’t get away with it, neither can you.

5. Twittering rumors that later turn out to be false. Raise your hand if you have sent out a premature “RIP” tweet about a celebrity who later turned out to be very much alive. Please tell us you’ve learned your lesson. Don’t tweet major news unless you really know it’s true. And we mean really know it’s true.

4. Twittering spoilers. Prefacing your tweet with “SPOILER ALERT” doesn’t quite cut it when we’re talking about 140 characters screaming boldly across your friend’s phone or laptop. Even movie stars aren’t allowed to do that anymore. Don’t tell us the end of a movie, the end of this week’s LOST, but seriously (seriously) don’t tell us who got the boot on American Idol.

3. Twittering your bodily functions. This should be a given, but it’s not. This happens all the time, and it is one of the fastest ways to get acquaintances, business contacts and distant relatives to stop following you. In fact, you’ll be lucky if your college roommate wants to keep reading your tweets if you head down this road.

2. Twittering incessantly. No one wants to scroll through tweets from you to get to the rest of their friends’ updates. Limit yourself to one or two an hour, and send direct messages if you are having a conversation. Is this rule written in stone? No. But it should be.

And the number one way to lose followers …

1. Bitterly slamming cities, people, businesses, etc. It’s so easy to become a Twitterverse legend, and not in a good way — just ask the guy who famously insulted a client’s city! You feel safe when you can see all the faces of your followers, but it’s an illusion. This is the World Wide Web, and you’d do well to remember that.

Working from home can either liberate you or weigh you down — it’s all about how you do it. Having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work. Here at oDesk, you’ll find the tips and tools to do it right.

- Tamara

My faith in professional online etiquette was called into question last week, when I spotted a rather unflattering eBay auction—posted by a professional dealer no less—advertising a car. In a single run-on sentence devoid of capital letters, the auction promised heightened sexual attraction for anyone in the driver’s seat, contained several obvious spelling mistakes, and concluded with no less than 18 exclamation points. If ever there was an example of how not to conduct business online, this auction was it.

Acting professional in online communications, whether through email, online postings, or profiles, should be a matter of common sense for oDesk providers and buyers alike. Unfortunately, the comfortable anonymity that stems from communicating through a computer keyboard can be quite deceptive. As a result, the automatic etiquette-check in our brain that separates professional communications from informal situations may never get tripped. Should this happen, lucky individuals will just eat a crow sandwich and move on. Those less fortunate could miss key employment opportunities or even lose clients.

Blogs and guides for more detailed “netiquette” are everywhere, but Netmanners.com should be a prerequisite for anyone venturing into a professional online career. Carol Bory’s daily blog on business etiquette and Marcia Pledger’s suggestions are also worthy reads. If you don’t have hours to study the finer points however, these six etiquette tips can help ensure you don’t commit a professional faux pas.

• Don’t use smiles or emoticons. These are fun, cute ways to convey emotions in an informal email or forum post, but they don’t belong in a professional communication. Good rule of thumb: if you’re not sure a particular passage will be taken correctly without a smiley or emoticon, don’t use that passage.

• Don’t get fancy on fonts or formatting. Formatting can change between computers, fancy fonts or multi-colored formatting can sometimes be difficult to read, and frankly, it also looks like a cheap attempt to get attention.

• Keep email attachments small. Under 256 Kilobytes (Kb) is a good rule of thumb. If you’re unsure what kind of connection your recipient is using, contact them first to ask permission on larger attachments.

• Don’t use internet lingo or abbreviations. Everyone likes to LOL, but AFAIC, such lingo is far too informal—and potentially confusing—for anything but basic chatting between friends.

• Include your email address in your closing signature. Aside from being convenient, some mail readers don’t display email addresses. Sure, one could just hit reply, but what if your message was forwarded to someone else?

• Don’t type angry. You will type things when you’re angry that you’d never, ever say to someone in person, and if you send it, you will regret it.

To celebrate the recent launch of the new oDesk Affiliate Program, we’ve gathered a list of the Top 10 Must-Read Affiliate Marketing blogs on the web.  For each one of these awesome blogs, we’ve given you some information about who writes the content and why we think their blog is great.  We’ve also linked to one of their must-read articles.

If you’re looking to get involved with affiliate marketing, why not learn from the best?

	Shoemoney: Skills to Pay the Bills Who writes it? – Jeremy Schoemaker, internet marketer, founder of Shoemoney Media Group Why it’s great - Jeremy’s informative posts, the Marketplace Must-read article - “How To Avoid Obvious Failure As An Affiliate” by Jeremy Schoemaker
	Zac Johnson: Inside the Secret Life of a Super Affiliate Who writes it? – Zac Johnson; affiliate marketer Why it’s great – Nice roundup of internet marketing tools, solid content Must-read article - “5 Simple Ways to Increase Click Through Rates” by Zac Johnson
	Murray Newlands: Affiliate Marketing Blog & Social Media Marketing Blog Who writes it? – Murray Newlands; internet marketer, blogger, ebook author Why it’s great - Useful news updates relevant to internet marketers, interesting interviews Must-read article - “Affiliate Marketing for Merchants” by Murray Newlands
	John Chow: The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul Who writes it? - John Chow; internet marketer, founder of The TechZone and TTZ Media Network Why it’s great – John’s marketing wisdom & his sense of humor Must-read article - “5 Strategies to Make Money as an Affiliate Marketer” by John Chow
	Affiliate Tip: An Affiliate Marketing Blog Who writes it? - Shawn Collins; internet marketer, co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, Founder of GeekCast.fm Why it’s great - Shawn’s section for Affiliate Newbies, video posts Must-read article - “Step-by-Step Process to be an Affiliate” by Shawn Collins
	John Cow: Making Money Online Who writes it? - Jason Katzenback; internet entrepreneur Why it’s great - The name (a play on John Chow), Jason’s conversational writing style Must-read article - “Don’t be a Shy Affiliate Marketer” by “John Cow”
	Finch Sells: Affiliate Marketing & Creative Thinking Who writes it? – Finch; internet marketer, affiliate, blog artist Why it’s great – Finch’s no-bs style, the Affiliate Toolbox Must-read article - “Investing For The Future With Affiliate Marketing” by Finch
	Affiliate X Files: How Does Affiliate Marketing Work Who writes it? – Ron Cripps; marketing copywriter Why it’s great - Great introductory articles for those new to affiliate marketing, tutorials Must-read article - “How To Become An Affiliate Marketer” by AffiliateX
	Affiliate Marketing Blog: from UK Offer Media Who writes it? – Kieron Donoghue; internet marketer, founder of UK Offer Media Why it’s great - Top-notch insight into the world of internet marketing Must-read article - “The benefits of working full time in Affiliate Marketing” by Kieron Donoghue
	MoreNiche Affiliate Marketing Blog Who writes it? – The MoreNiche Team Why it’s great – Useful material, insider knowledge Must-read article - “How To Increase Affiliate Marketing Sales”

As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, we’re excited to partner with affiliate marketers, but we are even more excited to introduce the world of affiliate marketing to oDesk. Publishers can use oDesk for all of their day-to-day needs, since oDesk is a great place to find web developers, graphic designers, blog writers, virtual assistants, and online marketers (SEO, PPC, and social media experts).

Click here to apply to oDesk’s Affiliate Program on Commission Junction today!

Telephones didn’t always come with tiny pop-out keyboards and message screens. Once upon a time, people would actually speak into phones to talk directly with other people. No text messages, no email, no internet browsing, just actual conversations with folks who listen and respond with phones of their own.

There are many freelancers and providers out there who believe business can be handled through emails and text messaging alone, but the truly successful entrepreneurs know this simply isn’t true. There’s a time and a place for both written and verbal communications, but nearly 20 years of email, the rapid rise of text messaging, and other social networking mediums have erroneously de-emphasized the importance of telephone conversations. The fact is a single telephone conversation carries a far greater impression than the best email ever could. That may frighten many of those used to online communication here in oDesk-land, but the advice offered from Gotta Know Online and Associated Content—not to mention our tips below—will show you there’s absolutely no reason to fear the speaker.

Smile when you make a call or answer the phone.
Smiling has the unconscious effect of giving your voice a very friendly, upbeat tone, and that’s how every business conversation should begin.

Always identify yourself on incoming and outgoing calls.
If you’re a freelancer, this can be as simple as answering calls with “Hello, this is Chris,” or “Hi, this is Sandy, how can I help you?” If you’re working for a company, include their name as well. On outgoing calls, always identify yourself to the person that answers, even if you need to speak to someone else. A good example would be “Hello, this is John Doe calling, may I speak to Richard?”

Be an active listener.
Active listening is a fancy way of saying “pay attention!” Turn off music, close the office door, or if necessary, go to a different room where you can offer your complete, undivided attention to the person you’re talking to. Active listening also means you’re not just a silent partner. As the other person speaks, let them know you’re paying attention (or in the cell phone age, that the call didn’t drop) by offering simple acknowledgements such as “sure” or “I see” to the things they say.

Leave short messages.
If you have to leave a message, make it short and to the point. Offer your name and number both at the beginning and end of the message, with a sentence or two in the middle explaining your call. A 20-second message is usually sufficient to get the point across; anything longer should be addressed in the callback.

Resist the urge to take a business call while on personal errands.
Cell phones allow us to talk shop anywhere, but taking a business call while you’re eating dinner with the family or standing in line at the grocery store is not a good idea. Let it go to voice mail and call back as soon as you’re in a more suitable location, even if it means making a quick trip to your car. It may appear as though you’re showing dedication to your clients or customers, but choosing to take a call while rapped up in a personal activity almost always makes the caller uncomfortable, and if you’re in a public setting, you risk blaring out potentially sensitive information.

While these tips provide a good foundation for telephone etiquette, remember that the best phone jockeys develop their own unique style over time. Have any other suggestions to maximize professional telephone conversations? Feel free to share your tricks of the trade in the comments section below.

Should your next website or software app use PHP, ASP, AJAX, JavaScript, Flash, or another technology that you’ve just heard about? Should it be hosted on your LAMP or Windows server, or reside in “The Cloud?”

I recently had a friend pursuing his entrepreneurial spirit who wanted advice on how to create a new interactive website. He has a fantastic idea and some basic understanding about current Internet technologies and asked if he should use a wiki, blog, HTML, custom PHP, or an out-of-the-box solution to run his website.

Over the years I have had many clients come to me with technology questions. Some people read an article and get very excited about the “Technology Du Jour” when their time would be better spent focusing on the user experience and scope of the project lifespan. Others get very involved in the technical details, when defining the big picture would address their concerns.

As a rule, I steer clear of potential clients who know that they want to use Flash, or AJAX. The success of the project rarely depends on the type of tools but rather on the expertise of the person using them. I learned this from my father – he was a successful auto mechanic who guaranteed his work and would be cautious of a customer that brings his car in and asks for a new brake master cylinder to fix the squeak in the front end. It is always best to fully evaluate the best outcome and then look for the best solution, rather than try to make the solution fit the desired outcome.

When approaching a new technology application, as developers, we always keep the user experience in mind. We first focus on what the project is trying to accomplish and determine about how to get it done later.

As he eloquently explains in this video from the Business of Software conference, Jason Fried uses a similar approach to develop and manage 37Signals.

I use this same approach when developing new software such as a shopping cart, CMS, or online registration system [link to RegistrarSuport.com]. We build it in stages and add features as we go. I encourage this approach for any project that does not require a big rollout or specific launch date for a “finished” product. We systematically build momentum by achieving small milestones without getting bogged down with the details.

As for my friend, since he doesn’t have much of a budget and will be working on the project outside of his “day job” – I recommended doing as much as he can himself, so that when it is time to pass off the project to a professional firm, he will have a good understanding of what is needed. A clear vision written on a cocktail napkin can be more effective for jump-starting a project then hours of researching what features a particular technology can achieve. To coin a phrase–Just do it.

In 1998, Frank founded a small web design company in Port Townsend, Washington which has grown to include four distinct service divisions including Totera Web Systems. Today, Totera provides web development, creative design, domain acquisition, web hosting, site management, email services, and complete marketing solutions to clients worldwide. Frank enjoys combining creativity with state-of-the-art technology by building strong relationships with other industry experts. In addition to business consulting, Frank also spends his time playing music, exploring the adventures of fatherhood, and sailing with his family.

I was on the road last Thursday, after a Client meeting, and I had an oDesk conference call in 3 minutes. I pulled over at the nearest strip mall, parked, pulled out my iPhone and dialed into the meeting just as someone on the call said:

“OK, I just e-mailed out the agenda. Everyone please let me know when you have it open”

So I muted the call, and pressed the home button on the iPhone, which switched me back to the main menu (the call remained connected).

Cool…

Then I launched the E-mail app, and found the e-mail containing the meeting agenda. I was able to open the MS Word Document and view the agenda while still on the call.

Very cool….

About two minutes in, someone on the call asked me a question:

“Henry, are you available next Tuesday at 2:00? “

So I tapped the yellow bar at the top to switch back to the call, unmuted it, then pressed the home button, launched my Google Mobile app (review, review) and pulled up my Google Calendar.

“Yeah, I’m free. Want me to go ahead and send out the meeting invite?”

I created a new event, invited attendees, and sent the request out with just a few swipes of the finger. No sooner than I did that, I got an incoming call from a Friend, so I switched back to the phone, and with one click was able to put the conference call on hold while I took the new inbound call.

“Hey, I’m on a conference call, can you text me?”

I hung up the phone, and switched back to the MS Word Document, and a few seconds later I got a pop-up window with a text message:

“Hey want to meet for drinks later?”

So I responded affirmatively, wrapped up the conference call, and then:

• Made a few oDesk Blog updates in the WordPress app (review, review)
• Did a few Client Twitter updates with Tweetie (review, review),
• Logged my hours for the day in Minibooks (review, review) and in my oDesk Work Diary (in the Safari Browser App)
• Logged my To Do items in Remember the Milk (review, review)and EnCamp (review, review), the best third-party Basecamp app)
• Put Slacker Radio (review, review) on the headphones (near-flawless free streaming radio)
• Sent IM’s to all of my clients with the Skype app (review, review)and Bejive app (review, review), a multi-client IM tool, to see if anything else was needed for the day
• Plugged the address for the restaurant into the TomTom GPS app (review, review), and headed for the Bar
• Well, I actually might have gotten in a quick game of Tap Tap Revenge 2 (review, review) first (the most addicting game ever created)

All in a days work, and in the palm of my hand!
What are your favorite apps for working on the go? Please let us know by leaving a comment below!

So, you’re one of the lucky ones who has weathered the economic downturn and has held on to your full-time gig. Unfortunately, thanks to mandatory furloughs and benefit cutbacks, that full-time work may now have part-time pay. Here’s some areas we’ve seen that offer opportunities for non-technical professionals to boost their income with online work:

Say “Hire Me” in multiple tongues. For the multi-lingual among us, translation jobs are a great way to keep your language skills sharp while feeding your piggybank. With nearly 500 active translation jobs in a variety of languages – and more openings getting listed every day – you know translators are in demand!

Do you speak legalease? Congrats are in order if you do – legal jobs are one area where business is booming and there are plenty of opportunities to earn some extra money writing contracts, doing legal research, or providing advice to young businesses.

Pitch us! As companies tighten their belts, the budget for PR jobs gets tight. But there are opportunities for folks with the right skills to save the day by providing freelance press release writing, event coordination or strategy consultation.

Content is STILL king… There’s opportunities for people in a wide range of fields to write articles for print and web use. If you have free time, mad writing “skillz” (and know enough not to use the word “skillz” in your professional writing), you should check out some of the blog & article writing jobs.

Got other ideas for part-time freelance work? What are you doing to make extra money this fall?

The drowning starts with the conversation you never saw coming, and the conversation comes regardless of how long you’ve been with the publication or how valuable the publisher once considered you. One morning you get up and you have a job. By the time you get your cup of coffee, you’re unemployed.

Or at least that’s how it happened to me last year. When a certain national magazine pulled me out of the freelance ocean almost six years ago, slapped me with a name tag and brought me on board the ship, I thought my self-employed days were over. For more than half a decade I basked in the glow of a steady income, a snappy business card and a real title: Media Editor.

Never mind that the title itself was a constant bone of contention between me and my boss. I mean, really, I was the book and resource editor, so why not just call me that and spare me the constant clarifications at every introduction. What’s a media editor? It’s a book and resource editor. Oh. Insert quizzical expressions here, ad nauseum. (By the way, the answer “because it’s too long to fit in the masthead”, is not a good reason to keep a title so nondescript.)

Now, the squabble over the title seems silly. The editor with whom I waged this battle was laid off long ago, and now I have been too. The economy is rocky, the fear is on, and fancy titles are being lost every day. One friend took a pay cut to keep her job and title at a major publisher, but many haven’t been be that lucky. Companies are battening the hatches, plugging the leaks and tossing “dead weight” — publicists, writers, and editors — from the hold. I, myself, was mercifully walked off the plank by a friend who couldn’t help but cry. I mean, really, who wants the job of telling someone on their first day back from a medical leave to treat breast cancer that they no longer have a job?

So, post-layoff, I scrambled to update and add pizazz to my resume. (Does kicking cancer in the backside count as a relevant skill?) And, in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but sense that it was a futile effort. Even today, publishers aren’t hiring and periodicals are sinking fast.

What makes a writer think they can get freelance work, let alone another job?

Does it matter that I sold a bunch of personal essays in 2003? Do you think perhaps that could get me a book deal? Does it mean anything to anyone that my cover story in 2005 was one of the magazine’s best-selling issues?

The answer right now, I believe, is no. None of those things helped me keep my job and none of them got me another. As it has always been in the world of publishing, it’s not what you know or what you’ve accomplished, it’s who you know. Know the captain and your ticket is a guarantee; only know the deckhand? You probably won’t make it to the galley.

What I didn’t know, during those first few months of resumes and cover letters, is that there is a whole new — and very different – world of publishing on the internet, where the old “shipping” rules are not as hard and fast. A writer can become part of the right community simply by logging in to the right forum or registering with the right freelancing site. Magic can happen overnight on the internet, publishing can happen overnight on the internet.

Still, I’m digging through the e-mail contacts, looking for the first time at the business cards stuffed in my laptop case (my apologies) and pulling up the cell phone numbers, signaling the shores and hoping against hope that the next time a group of happily employed editors are sitting around a conference table and the subject of a potential freelance gig comes up, my name springs instantly to mind.

Instead of yours.

We were excited to see that the SXSW Panel Picker was open for voting, and even more excited to see that there were a number of panels suggested that freelancers would find valuable. Here are our 15 top picks for your SXSW Interactive panel votes – log in and vote to make sure freelancers and the companies that support them get the tools they need to succeed at SXSW!

Freelancers (and the Companies that Love Them!)
Kill Your Cubicle: Productive Collaboration and Remote Work – oDesk CEO Gary Swart teams forces with leaders of companies who have successfully leveraged remote workers in order to help businesses and freelancers find new ways to overcome the obstacles to working together.
Good Client/Bad Client – Darryl Cili discusses how to separate the best clients from the truly evil ones.
Visual Problem Solving: 5 Diagrams in 15 Minutes – Dean Meyers spells out how to solve problems visually – a useful tool for freelancers trying to communicate with buyers (and vice versa!)
Picking Your Path – A panel of designers and developers will talk about working full-time, part-time and all the time for big agencies, small agencies, and solo.
Successful Networking for Introverts, Rebels and Misfits – Jan Triplett, Ph.D. walks participants through creating a realistic networking strategy for those accustomed to alternative work environments.
Funemployed – Success Stories from the Laid Off Community Chris Hutchins, from oDesk favorite LaidOffCamp, showcases some unique ways that people have spent their time while unemployed, featuring not only successful startups, but also touch on the various unique and exciting ways one can spend their newly found “free time”

Freelance Developers
Seven Ways To Stand Out In A Sea of Software Developers – Microsoft’s Jeff Blankenburg presents focuses on 7 things you can DO TODAY to make you stand out in the “sea of the same.”
Coding for the Man: Government Development From Home – Matthew Burton will explain how to get started on the Intelligence Community’s open source platform and other civic coding initiatives.
Selling your Milk When the Cow is Free – Jeff Eaton and others discuss making your idea succeed if you work with open source business models.
Coding for Pleasure: Developing Killer Spare-Time Apps – Adam Pash of Lifehacker fame talks about improving your life–and impact others’ lives–by coding for pleasure in your spare time.

Freelance Designers
Once Upon a Web Design – Brand Storytelling – David Stagg encourages you to step away from mere Web design and live happily ever after in the realms of the digital Brand narrative.
Are You There? Hello? Tips for Better Remote Collaboration Sara Nelson, of Tapir Studios, offers a design-specific look at remote collaboration.
Design, Collaboration, Pokemon: How Not to Offend People Globally – Chris Moeller, of Yahoo!, discusses designing for global markets, collaborating with colleagues overseas, and not offending your international customers.
A Pragmatic Approach to Wild Creativity – Finding your creative strengths and applying them to life and business issues.

I may not admit to being caught up in the Mad Men frenzy, but I will admit to wanting to go to SXSW Interactive really really ridiculously badly! What panels are you dying to see at SXSW? What other conferences are you itching to go to? Let me know in the comments!

- Erica

Many lately have been predicting the fall of Hi5, the third largest social netowrking site (after MySpace & Facebook)  Does Hi5 have what it takes to co-exist with the big boys?  Lets take a closer look…

The Market Share

As you can see from the graph below, Hi5 may be in the top three, but it’s a distant third.  In fact, in recent months their unique visotor counts seem to have been in a downward trend while MySpace and Facebook have been gaining market share at a rapid pace.

The Demographics

The one thing that has historically kept Hi5 from being more popular in the United States may be it’s one saving grace.  Lets take a look at the user demographics for the top three sites…see anything unusual about Hi5?

Thats right, Hi5 has the dominant position in every category except “Caucasian”.   The one that especially stands out is “Hispanic”.  Hi5 has over 10 times the market share in the Hispanic community than Facebook, and nearly 5 times that of MySpace!  Right now Facebook and MySpace might be hot in the USA and UK, but eventually their growth will slow in those areas.  If Hi5 can leverage their current user base to expand further into non-english speaking markets, they could quickly become a formidable contender to MySpace and Facebook.
 

The Conclusion: Is There Room For All Three?

Some things are hot in one area of the world and don’t catch on quite as well in others.  Look at the game “Lineage”.  One of the hottest Multiplayer MMO games in the world, with a subscriber base of over 1 million, but almost all of them in Korea.  Even the American juggernaut “World of Warcraft”, isn’t able to penetrate the Korean market with the same success they had in the USA.

Just like there is room for a McDonalds, Wendys, Taco Bell, etc. on every corner, there is room for multiple “flavors” of Social Networking sites.  The one that fails will most likely be the one that tries to be all things to all people.

There have been an increasing number of stories about issues with online security, and there are plenty of folks out there looking to gain access to your personal information with malicious intent. Below are a few of our tips to help you stay safe when working online.

Be wary of anyone asking you for personal information online. In general, be cautious when giving out personal data online. It can be hard to determine who is receiving that data, and who is responsible for ensuring its security. Once your account is established with us, oDesk will never proactively ask you for your personal information, unless it is in response to your contacting us via our support channels. If you are asked for these items and are uncertain if the person asking is truly an oDesk employee, contact our support team – we can help you identify illegitimate requests.

Educate yourself about phishing. “Phishing” scams are when an outside party tries to get you to release your information in an email or through a site that mimics a legitimate one. Wikipedia says: “In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT Administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.”

Defend yourself. Your defense against phishing is to check the browser address bar after you click on a link to make sure it took you to the destination you expected. Do not enter your login credentials on a site that does not reflect the expected URL in the browser address bar!

Updating your passwords is an easy way to reinforce your security measures. Use 8 characters minimally and include mixed case, digits, special characters – the more the merrier! Please make sure that you NEVER use your oDesk account password in any other services.

Forgot your password? Sometimes, the security question can be used by others to access your online accounts – many people use security questions whose response is easily guessable or whose answers can be located in a quick online search. Change your security questions into a second password. Pick any question, but add to the answer an additional password (8 letters, numbers, etc)- this way, your security questions become another line of defense in protecting your online accounts.

And, finally, if you believe your account on any service has been compromised for any reason, contact that company’s support team immediately, as well as any other organization that may be linked to that account.

I don’t work at oDesk, but I use it all the time. I start a new online business about every six months, and therefore need a lot of talented people to help me pull it off- 90% of the work for my companies is done through outsourcing with oDesk. I’m a buyer, and I want to share with you some tips to make yourself stand out from the crowd and command top-dollar for your skills.

Here are ten tips to make more money off people like me:

Applying for jobs

1 – Hide your (other) skills
When applying for a job, try not to copy/paste the same generic cover letter. A lot of times, I’m asking for something specific – like an ActionScript 3 programmer, and the cover letter I get would say “I’m an expert in HTML/CSS/PHP/FLASH”. That’s great, but I was looking for an AS3 pro, not anything else. Talk about the skills you have for this job specifically and you have a much bigger chance to get booked!

2 – Repeat the job
Almost always I hire the person that repeats back to me exactly what I want – in their own words. It makes me feel they are confident about their understanding of the job and I plan to interview with them right away!

3 – Good English skills don’t matter…
… when I’m not looking for a writer. On those types of jobs, tell me what variables you need me to define for you to come up with for a more accurate quote. I’m more than happy to reply using the interview feature. That hire button just got one step closer!

The interview process

4 – Talk timeline
Every buyer is a little nervous to go over budget. If you have enough information about the job, and can give an accurate timeline that you can commit to keeping, you will stand out from the rest. Follow through by sticking to that timeline? Five star feedback and re-hiring are now guaranteed.

5 – Present related work
I love a good portfolio, but don’t have time to go through a full list of work you did before. If you send me one link of something very similar to what I’m looking for, that’s enough for me. If your previous work isn’t directly related, give me a few items that combine to show the skills I need for this job. Still at a loss? Apply for a different job that is a more direct fit for your talents – this will let you command a higher rate and deliver phenomenal results!

Hourly jobs

6 – Work with a plan from the start
I’ve been a freelancer myself and my hourly rate was 70 EUR ($100 USD) while I was still in college. Not because I was a good programmer (I’m honestly not) but because I started every job with a plan. I used the four C’s (Cloud – Create – Contstruct – Control, which you can read more about in my book) with every client – and all of them were raving about the work, simply because I always started every e-mail with what ‘development phase’ we were in next.

7 – Please document
You’ll be surprised how few people document their work and how much more I’m willing to pay for someone who does. There are plenty of free scripts out there that you can use to quickly generate something that looks good. Explain what you did and the buyer will love you for it and fight to keep you on the team. I know I will!

8 – Say when you’ll work on it
Even if I trust you completely on the job and hired you 10 times before, I’m still a little anxious to know when exactly you will start on my job. If you specify when you’ll start working, I have some peace of mind, even if it’s close to the deadline.

Fixed price jobs

9 – Communicate about progress only
That’s all I want to hear about. Of course, too little communication is bad but too much communication is bad too. Keep in mind, every time you contact the buyer, you need to give a little update on your progress and you will become a keeper!

10 – Be honest
If you missed a deadline or did something wrong, be honest about it and I would still give you a 5-star rating. I love honesty more than anything and I love to give a second chance. (But not every buyer is the same. Get to know your buyer, build trust with them, and they are more likely to value you, your honesty, and your work.)

Don’t go yet: I want to be a better buyer, too! In your comments, please tell me: what makes a good buyer?

Ruven Meulenberg’s company is currently creating a video-game through oDesk. He is the founder of GuiMags, the author of “The Unplugged: Join a new breed of software developers that don’t use computers. Much” and he blogs twice a week on TheWayOfTheUnplugged.com.

Five years ago if you wanted to built a Web application with five million hits a month it required serious planning. You had to pick a server maker, the software stack, a hosting company, and then optimize for load balancing and burst capacity. It was time-consuming and expensive.

The world has changed, and now the all of the routine steps in creating an online application have been taken care of for you. The next time someone asks you what type of server you recommend, give them a dirty look and educate them on what’s cool now.

Cool is controlling the data and features of the application without worrying much about how it runs. Cool is figuring out the application and letting someone else worry about scaling, operating, and continually running it – automatically! Cool has a new name: PaaS, or Platform-as-a-Service. These cloud computing-based services offer up a software stack already scaled across a massive set of parallel infrastructure, and a tuned and configured scripting stack ready to serve up millions of hits a day.

If you know Python or Java, my favorite PaaS is Google App Engine. They’ve created a nifty tutorial (below) – you can see how easy it is to use!

One big reason the Google App Engine is my personal favorite is that for an application or site with up to five million hits, its free. Why not brush up on Python and use the App Engine to save your clients money in their hosting costs? An expertise in navigating the world of PaaS is sure to be in demand, and increase your value as a top-notch developer.

While the “simple, free and scalable” approach makes me a huge fan of Google’s App Engine, you should check out a few of the other PaaS providers as well.

Engine Yard makes it easy to host and scale Ruby on Rails applications.

Microsoft Windows Azure might just be your ticket if you or a client writes primarily in .Net.

Force.com is worth a peek if your client already uses Salesforce for other SaaS applications.

When you can write web applications that automatically scale themselves up to millions of users, you are one stylish cat. Don’t get caught talking about buying and configuring servers though – if you do, you will look as awkward as this poor guy:

There is a ton of good advice available about hiring online workteams, but I find that I’m often pressed for time and cannot do everything that one “could” do. At the same time, I never want to settle when it comes to hiring, especially when I’m looking to build a long-term relationship – which is pretty much always the case. Here are steps 2 & 3 of my advice for hiring better online teams:

2. Interview by email first. I much prefer email to other approaches of first-round interviewing (phone or chat).

Email has four advantages:

1. You get a chance to collect more information with minimal additional time investment since you’ll be sending a nearly identical list of questions to each candidate.
2. If a candidate’s English-language skills slow down real-time communication, you’ll save even more time.
3. It’s asynchronous, so you don’t need to schedule time to talk with the candidate.
4. All candidates have an equal opportunity to shine. I hate to admit it, but I’m less consistent with real-time interviews. Sometimes timezone issues require that I do an interview at an odd hour when I’m less alert or I might be rushed. Real-time conversations might also take you on tangents that bias your decision.

I’ve found that candidates at this stage are also more motivated to provide you with information because you’ve confirmed that there may be a good fit. I suggest positioning the questions as a prelude to a real-time phone/skype conversation or chat if it looks like the candidate is still a promising fit. The specific questions you ask depend on the work you want done and I am more confident asking for more information the larger the work opportunity is – e.g., I’ll ask more if I’m hiring for a long-term, full-time position than I would if it’s a smaller engagement. Strategies for specific interview questions are probably better suited for another post, but here’s a rough list of things I’ve asked freelance software developers at this stage for a long-term, full-time engagement:

# What experience do you already have building this type of technology? Please include a description of past projects that best illustrate your capabilities in this area.
# What is your development methodology? How do you ensure quality? Extensibility? Maintainability?
# How do you like to interact with your clients? How often do you do builds that we can see and test?
# What questions do you have about the engagement? What other info would you need from me in order to start work?
# (If the engagement has a set deliverable or clear initial milestone) How long do you think it would take to develop [the technology or achieve a certain milestone]?
# What factors will determine the actual amount of time? Where is there risk? Where do you need more info?
# What’s your availability to work on this? Number of people and hours per person? (If a provider company) which of your team members will be doing the work?
# What is it about your work that most differentiates you from other providers?
# Assuming that the initial “version 1″ project is successful, what would you charge me for follow-on work? How will costs change as we scale? [I'm trying to pre-negotiate good rates if the team grows with this question]
# We’re looking for a long-term partner, would you be willing to commit to a long-term relationship with an extended notice period should we decide to end the relationship at some point down the road?
# What questions do you have for me? [reciprocity is a key part of the process and long-term relationships need to work for both parties, so encouraging the candidate to ask questions is important]

I’ve used this strategy to reduce candidate queues from ~10 people down to 3 to 5 finalist candidates.

3. Test drive. By hiring your most promising candidates for short “test drive” projects, you get a chance to see the candidates in action and both you and the candidates get an opportunity to see if your working styles are compatible. oDesk makes it very easy to hire people and set a maximum number of hours they can bill. I recommend assigning the exact same project to your top candidates so you can make an apples-to-apples comparison. Also, I put the assignment in writing and send the same copy to all candidates, so that there is less risk of my guiding one candidate to a greater extent than I guide the others. Plus, it saves time to re-use the same project.

If you’re hiring an analyst, you might send the candidates a data sample and ask them to analyze it and present their findings in a 2-3 PowerPoint slides. You might ask software developer candidates to port a small open-source program from one language to another.

If all works according to plan, you’ll know exactly who your superstar is by the end of the test drive without having to waste any time. Plus, by following all the steps in the process above you will have laid the foundation for a great long-term work relationship.

Please leave a comment if you have a question or suggestions for other strategies that work for you!

There is a ton of good advice available about hiring online workteams, but I find that I’m often pressed for time and cannot do everything that one “could” do. At the same time, I never want to settle when it comes to hiring, especially when I’m looking to build a long-term relationship – which is pretty much always the case.

So what’s the best way to hire top-notch online talent on a tight time budget?

I’ll share the approach that I’ve been refining over the past few years. It’s led me to the right hire almost every time. It’s an approach that is particularly well-suited for online contract work where it’s as easy to hire as it is to fire, and where timezone and language barriers need to be broken down.

At its core, my recommended strategy is one that recognizes that you’re both buying and selling during the hiring process and recognizes that you place a lot of value on your time. At each stage, you want to sell your opportunity to generate interest from the right candidates (since top performers usually have lots of options) while also efficiently gathering critical information that will enable you to identify the best candidate.

I follow three key steps:

1. Write the killer job description. This post will show you an approach that should attract a lot of interest, but I suggest one important twist: tell prospective candidates what you want to see in cover letters including at least one specific request that will be easy for you to evaluate when you are screening applications later. The idea isn’t to discourage applications, but rather to make sure that you collect information that will both enable you to quickly eliminate unsuitable candidates and identify promising ones without needing to review their full online profile. The request should be something that would be a lay-up for the right candidate. I’ve used this strategy to reduce candidate queues with 50+ candidates down to 10 “qualified” candidates in less than an hour.

If you’re hiring an engineer, for example, you might ask candidates to describe an application that best illustrates their capabilities to do the type of work you require along with a short (2-3 sentence) description of why that’s the case. If you’re hiring a customer service agent, you might ask them to give you their favorite tip for keeping customers happy. If you’re hiring someone to help you with social media marketing, ask for a link to their blog or Twitter account.

Templated (cut and paste) applications are really easy to eliminate with this approach and often several responses stand out right away. Plus, this same job description is still suitable for sharing with friends or for reaching out to passive candidates if you have time for that.

Since this article is a bit lengthy, I’ve broken it into two parts: stay tuned for tomorrow’s post on Step 2 – Interviewing and Step 3 – Testing!

Wil Wheaton is a writer and actor who shares his stories through regular updates on his blog. I find his writing inspiring and valuable, so I’ve decided to share with you some lessons I’ve picked up from him that freelance writers (or freelancers in any field) may find useful.

Let yourself ramble – sometimes.
Wil has been known to occasionally allow himself some rambling space on his blog. I’ve found that some of my best writing comes after giving myself permission to write anything at all – even if it didn’t fit the assignment. That paper on Lake Champlain I got an A on in college? It started as a letter to my professor telling him how much I hated the assignment. It gave me a chance to fill the page, pass the first hurdle, and get started on the work at hand. (Of course, the difference is that Wil’s “rambling” is still readable and wouldn’t get him expelled from school if his professor read it!)

“Read” the works of others.
Many famous authors advise reading as a source of inspiration. Wil does a lot of his reading through audiobooks, proving that you don’t have to sit still and “read” to get the benefits of exposure to others’ works. Wil writes: “One night about three weeks ago, while driving home and listening, one phrase he spoke came out of my speakers, hit me in that part of my brain that makes me want to be a writer, and knocked out a story idea that has refused to let me do anything else until I bring it into the world and make it real.” Very cool, and the resulting story might never have happened without another author’s words to kickstart the idea.

Know when to start over.
Sometimes, the work isn’t going as planned, and the path it takes isn’t interesting or useful to the final result. You are not alone in this, and Wil provides context on the many authors who have written about creative exhaustion. It takes a brave person to be able to look at this thing they’ve been toiling over, set it aside and start anew. And, it takes a smart person to not completely delete the original efforts – because you never know when a phrase or thought may become useful in another context!

Fess up
Wil consistently reminds me that even the best writers are human, and he never fails to admit when he’s made a mistake. Not just admit to it, he genuinely apologizes, and explains his correction. Like in this blog post, where he corrects himself for misquoting fellow author Neil Gaiman. The slip was over one word, but – as Wil explains – that one word makes all the difference in the meaning. The lesson: admit mistakes, be genuine, and explain what you’ve done to correct the problem – even if it seems minor.

Be you.
Wil is an unapologetic geek. In fact, he’s pretty darn proud of his geekdom and shares his experiences from a decidedly geeky point of view. By being himself in his writing, Wil can write about the things that truly interest and engage him – like role playing games, good books, and his family.

Helpful links:
5 Writing Lessons I Wish I’d Learned the Easy Way
Blog vs. Book
And, of course:
WWdN: In Exile

I have never met Wil Wheaton, though I own a signed copy of “Just a Geek” because I have wonderful friends who met him while I was stuck at home with a nasty headcold. Therefore, the commentary made in this entry is mine, unless otherwise noted. My heartfelt thanks to Wil for sharing his experiences through his writing.

- Erica

There are some experiences that are unique to those newest members of the oDesk community. In the second of this 2-part series, a neophyte freelancer shares her early experiences and success, in the hope it may guide and inspire others as they begin their careers as providers on oDesk.

Previously, Verena was getting frustrated, and had very little luck with finding work online. Until she received an invitation to interview for a position after giving up hope:

I responded to the invitation with no expectation that I would be hired. I thanked the buyer for picking me from his many profile searches at oDesk. I took this as an opportunity to prove my worth…..or better yet, to point out my skill set, work experience and other proficiencies. After a day, there was no reply. I merely shrugged my shoulders and considered it as another rejection. I’ve dealt with the same already and I was done with it.

Until the evening of that day, came another email, this time direct from the buyer. His message said in part, “I appreciate your considering working with the number one office in Florida in regards of mortgage services and lending ….” He also included a questionnaire. “I have 20 more people I am interviewing this week and you were the first in the line so I wish you luck Verena” I answered his queries and emailed him back, still without expecting that anything good would come out of it. I no longer had the same enthusiasm as when I first signed up.

In no time, a follow up email from the buyer reached my mail box. It said…”I read all your answers and I like all of them. Congratulations… I think you are the right person for the job. I will forward all the email to correspondence HR and get you on board ASAP…”

Could this be true? Does that mean I am hired? I added his skype address to my list and true enough we had a voice chat and he confirmed that I got the job. Halleluiah! So what they say is also true, “when one door closes on you, another will open.”

When it Rains, it Pours…

Because I was able to regain my enthusiasm that day, I applied for a few job posts. Barely 24 hours after that, an oDesk alert landed in my mailbox. This time the buyer was from Canada. His job post required a “Top Personal Assistant” for administrative support in his computer software industry. His personal requirements were that the candidate be “an excellent communicator, intelligent, independent, motivated, creative, assertive, reliable, responsible, well organized, preferably with above 5 English skills, at least 1 oDesk hours, and feedback score of above 4.5.”

At that time, of all the listed qualifications, I do not meet the last two. Since I had not begun my assignment yet with my first client, I had not logged any oDesk hours. Neither did I have a feedback score yet, since this comes only after an assignment is ended. But I got invited for the interview nonetheless. My self-worth came back!

I responded to the invitation and in no time I was chatting with the buyer. Our discussions covered topics on my experience in designing/creating powerpoint presentations, customer services, handling legal disputes, business correspondence, my availability or schedule, a brief summary of his business and his job requirements. Not long after that, I was hired for the job. I felt great that I had two jobs that I can manage, thanks to my skill at time management and multi-tasking. I felt so good and so grateful.

Currently, I have 6 active assignments, all from very nice buyers. I am very motivated because they all have very positive attitudes about me and my work. Two of them increased my hourly rate without me asking for it – according to them, that is for a job well done and for exceeding their expectations. I feel so blessed and lucky to have been involved with quality buyers like them, and I am happy to be a part of the growth of their businesses. I thank them for entrusting their jobs to me. I always make it a point to do my job well and I make it my commitment to do the best I can for them.

Thank you, oDesk, for serving as a valuable “bridge” between the buyers and providers like me!

Verena De Los Reyes is a stay-at-home mom and just recently a member of the oDesk community of freelance professionals. She is a mother of three beautiful children and the wife of a wonderful husband, Arthur. Verena shares more of her experiences as a freelancer earning an honest living online at her blog.

There are some experiences that are unique to those newest members of the oDesk community. In the first of this two part series, a neophyte freelancer shares her early experiences and success, in the hope it may guide and inspire others as they begin their careers as providers on oDesk.

The Newbie Excitement
My interest in looking for a job online was renewed when we decided to build a new house. Although we had a ready budget to cover the estimates, I learned that in the actual implementation, costs could double (and, yes they did!) This convinced me to work as a freelancer in order to augment the family budget, and the anticipation of more expenses for my son’s college education which starts this school year.

After visiting hundreds of websites offering online jobs, I stumbled upon oDesk. What pretty much convinced me to sign in was the fact that there is no membership fee. To my mind, there is absolutely no risk, no cash outlay, the only cost was my time to sign up!

After signing in, I learned that I have to pass an oDesk certification test in order to be allowed to apply for jobs. Due to my eagerness, I took the oDesk Readiness Test (ORT) at once before even equipping myself with knowledge of the policies. And – like a soldier without battlefield experience and weapon to match the adversary – I failed the test. I deemed it best to come back in full battle gear of knowledge about oDesk. I was jubilant that I passed the test the second time, earning an award among first-place finshers.

The Early Frustrations
When I first joined oDesk, I was hoping to land jobs in accounting, bookkeeping, paralegal and other legal-related matters. However, when I searched the job posts, there only seemed to be a handful of jobs pertaining to these skills. Even when there is one, the next thing I had to consider was my experience on the software required to accomplish the task. This factor again narrowed down even more my chances of landing a job. (Very seldom do I apply for jobs requiring the use of an application that I have no experience using.) This, however, does not discourage me when majority in the job description fits into my expertise. But, I make sure to mention in my cover letter this “handicap” and offer solutions or alternatives. I welcome every learning opportunity with the confidence of a fast and willing learner!

Within the first 2 weeks, I applied to a number of jobs and got rejected a number of times, too. The reasons were varied: “Insufficient oDesk history”…..”Rate bid too high”….. and a lot of “Chose another provider….” I soon realized how hard it can be for a newbie to compete with thousands of providers! I thought it will be very easy, since I have many years of work experience relating to administration, finance and paralegal, and that I have the work ethic and professionalism to match. It seemed I was wrong…..

It was already towards the third week that I received my very first interview invitation. I was notified to contact the buyer, which I did. It took more than a week for his response to come. To cut the story short, I did not make it because the buyer preferred somebody who can communicate well in both English and Spanish, and one who lives near his location. I may have basic knowledge of Spanish, but I am so many miles away… Why? I thought the very essence of freelancing online is telecommuting? (I was a bit furious.) All I could do was to pat my own shoulder and console myself. Well, that’s his decision and I can’t do anything about it. In the next applications, I decided to lower my already low hourly rate but to no avail. I started to feel down. Maybe I am not for freelancing. I stayed away from my computer the next 4 days. It’s been more than a month and countless applications, yet I did not land any of the jobs I applied for. I decided that I better move on. If freelancing is not for me, then so be it. I’m sure there will be other options to come my way.

When I finally decided to check my email, I was surprised to have received notification for an interview. I was amazed, since I had not applied for any jobs after I decided to quit. How can I be invited for interview?

Next, Verena will share the results of that interview, and her experience in trying to create success for herself as a neophyte freelancer on oDesk.

Verena De Los Reyes is a stay-at-home mom and just recently a member of the oDesk community of freelance professionals. She is a mother of three beautiful children and the wife of a wonderful husband, Arthur. Verena shares more of her experiences as a freelancer earning an honest living online at her blog.

Microsoft’s $100 million ad spend seems to have done a great job so far in attracting interest and search queries to their new search engine, Bing.  In terms of recent market share, many search industry data sources are reporting as much as a 50% gain in market share for Bing, from about 8% of search queries to about 12%.  According to figures from Compete.com, that equates to roughly 550 million additional queries.  If we use standard web ad metrics, this equates to a cost/click of $.20 (divide $100,000,000 spend by 550,000,000 queries).  Nice job on the ad buy, Microsoft. You’ve generated buzz and also driven a very significant amount of searchers to Bing.

Can this trend hold? We think not. Microsoft’s history in online, in our opinion, is one of playing a game of catch-up, and generally playing it poorly.  When it comes to the Internet, Microsoft copies others’ efforts, and usually does quite a mediocre job of it. Bing is no different – they have copied Google’s search page almost exactly.  Even the color of the premium sponsored ads at the top of the page are shaded orange, just as

Google’s are.  But one doesn’t need to look for long to see the silliness of Microsoft to shine through.  A sponsored ad goes to three lines long and looks amateurish (screenshot at right).  The #2 organic result for the query ‘php developers’ is for the Yahoo! Developer Network, which is billed as “your source for information about using PHP with Yahoo! Web Services APIs.”  It would be a very, very small minority of searchers for this phrase that would care about this specific topic, yet it’s the second result.

We think that the buzz will die down, and Bing’s market share will trend back toward where it has been. If, in the unlikely event Bing.com were to grab and keep a large share of the search market, advertisers would be much, much worse off.  This is because pay-per-click marketing is a self-service activity.  The advertiser interface provided by the search platform is key to enabling the advertiser to use thorough PPC management techniques to achieve positive ROI on a worthwhile scale.  Google does a brilliant job at this, and yet it strives all the harder to improve its advertiser interface.  Microsoft’s AdCenter interface is laughably bad.  I considered not using “laughably” as an adjective here, but decided I had to, for truth in blogging. In addition to an overall horrible interface, AdCenter’s conversion tracking system is unable to report on revenue from e-commerce transactions.

A related question: guess who constitutes a major category of keyword advertisers? Drumroll…that’s right – e-commerce companies.

Terry Whalen is a certified Google AdWords Professional and a partner at CPC Search. Since early 2003, he has managed search and other online marketing channels that have generated millions of dollars worth of revenue for clients such as Stamps.com, CitrixOnline, Autoweb.com, SoftwareOnline.com, Taleo, and Pacific Security Capital, among others.

Is your website or online store not doing so well? Is it in need of a spruce up? One way to breathe some life back into your online store and get people interested and visiting your website again is to revive it. With time, all websites can become stale and outdated if we don’t pay attention to them, and we should make efforts keep them fresh and current.

Here are 6 tips to revive your website:

1. Have your site checked for broken links and remove them. It’s a cardinal sin to have a site with links that don’t work, and its one of the fastest ways to alienate your potential customer. Whilst you are there, check all existing links, and update the information to ensure its current, relevant and details any specials you have.

2. Give your homepage a facelift by adding new graphics, text, and information. Consider adding a creative banner. Remove old and dated images, and add new, fresh ones. Research your keywords and revamp your text with some effective keywords.

3. Add a new area on the website filled with resources, information, and maybe even some special deals for your customers. Use relevant keywords to improve your search engine ranking. For example, if you own a web design company, offer web design and development tips and advice. Show other businesses how to make the most of their web presence, or what to consider when looking for an e-commerce solution. By providing information and resources along with your products, you are giving people a reason to keep coming back. This is how you build trust with your visitors and get more sales. If you haven’t yet tried blogging, learn how to blog and get one added to your website. WordPress is an excellent blogging tool and can be setup relatively inexpensively. Blogging is a great way to improve your search engine ranking whilst expanding your network.

4. Add a What’s New page to your website so you can let everyone know about all your updates now and in the future. This feature could get more people to return to your website site to see What’s New?

5. Review the colors and layout your are using on your site. Do they fit with your brand and the image you are hoping to portray? Be sure to change them if they don’t!

6. Add a survey on your site, either for all visitors to answer, or for customers once a purchase has been made. Ask them what they would like to see and what type of products they are looking for. You can’t do much better than to get information straight from the horse’s mouth!

Keeping your website current and up to date will assist greatly in keeping it relevant, and keep visitors and customers coming back again and again.

Nathan Sinnott is Chief Executive Officer of Newpath WEB, an award winning web design, and development, and online marketing company.

It’s a statement of our times. I almost hesitate to mention I’m qualified to write this piece because I’ve gone through a layoff. The experience is ubiquitous, hardly unique. I’ll mention it only because the following isn’t a compilation of what others have written on the topic. There won’t be many links to well meaning lists of tips about LinkedIn usage; it is just my perspective having gone through it personally and vicariously through countless friends.

Thought 1

I like to start with the basics: what is a layoff? This is especially important if it’s your first one. Think of it this way:

A layoff is when your current employer is no longer a qualified buyer for your skills.

I prefer this simple definition because it reinforces the impersonal nature of the event as well as the market system driving our careers. Many times a subtle game of “but I was very good at my role,” will come into the conversation about layoffs. Don’t go down this road. Don’t even begin to look at a layoff as a measure of your worth. If you want insight into your performance, look at your performance reviews.

Now you’re thinking about the event as a market event. You are also focusing on your previous employer’s financial situation instead of your own self worth. Your emotional approach to this event is very important in the job market; nobody likes to buy even their favorite products if the packaging is badly beaten up and damaged. Your perspective is your packaging.

Thought 2

Hire yourself.

I’m a huge advocate of “working is its own reward”. I hate government statistics about unemployment. Maybe this term made sense in the early 20th century when factories and farms were the primary employers, but it certainly doesn’t in 2009. While you may have faced an immediate drop in your pay, you are now working for yourself, not unemployed.

When you were company employed, more of your task direction was dictated by your organization’s needs and inputs. Now that you are working for yourself, hour is just as precious as when you were on the clock, probably more so.

Realizing you are now the manager of your own day is my most important step in facing a layoff. Managers have goals, objectives, and tasks to monitor and metric. What are your management metrics for yourself?

Don’t try to boil the ocean. What are the three big areas where you can accomplish something related to your employable skills? Are you a writer? Keep writing. A coder? Keep coding. An executive? Write a business plan and study your market.

It’s important to have your own vision and understanding of what you are uniquely good at. If you don’t know, figure it out. Where have you had success in the past and why?

Don’t fall into the trap of accomplishing generic, perhaps household, tasks to feel better. It’s great if you finally have an opportunity to clean your pool, but will it contribute to rejuvenating your career?

Thought 3

Use your self-driven accomplishments to network meaningfully. Who can you collaborate with on your projects? How can you market and promote them? Big companies no longer have a strangle hold on our attention. The TV advertising era is over and this is the era of social media, Meetup, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and more.

The best way to get hired is to be a product someone wants to buy. How much easier is it for a friend to help promote something you have accomplished or created to a hiring manager vs. simply mentioning you are available?

Contract work is a great way to network and impress new contacts with your abilities. This is thinking like a marketer. Maybe the pay isn’t the same as your prior role, but what is the value of the new connections? Perhaps it’s better to take a lower offer with a company with a long-term future.

Meaningful networking is putting your highest value skills on display in front of qualified buyers and their recommending peers. Build your life around this metric – it’s your new job.

Use social media to build and support these networks. Not only will it help you in the present, but it will be a good investment the next time you may be looking for a new job.

Summary

Defiance for me is self-autonomy in work, growth, and accomplishment. It’s knowing your employer was only a buyer of your skills, not a parent evaluating your worth. It’s having the ability to relentlessly pursue qualified buyers with a “WOW must have” product demonstration.

If you are looking for a blog that will help to boost your spirits and give some good advice, you should look into Rajesh Setty’s blog “Life Beyond Code“.  It’s a high-tech way of looking at the world without focusing so much on the work.

Photo credits: pirano, Andrew Feinberg

“A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer.” –Bill Gates

Why is tech news so fun and addicting? Why do I keep scanning my RSS feeds hourly for the latest?

Great programmers are rock stars. Their heroic abilities and exploits are why we RSS Techcrunch and Siliconangle, continuously scanning articles for the latest hits and misses.  Programer rock-stardom, however, is founded on the well documented variation in software programmer productivity. Programmers, as it turns out, have one of the highest productivity variations of any profession.

“Numerous studies have found 10:1 differences in productivity and quality among individuals and even among teams…. programmers with an average of 7 years’ experience and found that the ratio of initial coding time between the best and worst programmers was about 20 to 1; the ratio of debugging times over 25 to 1; of program size 5 to 1; and of program execution speed about 10 to 1.” -Steve McConnell, development productivity guru and “10X Software Development” blogger

Anyone who has spent much time in a software engineering environment knows “the guy” to go to with the hardest problems, the one who can bang out the solution in an hour, instead of weeks. For me, it was an über-nerd named Roy who was the best talent in our 200-strong engineering group, despite having never spent a day in a college classroom. I once saw him in Blockbuster Video with his family. I was completely  star-struck  and I asked the woman at the register if she had any idea who she was renting videos to. I reacted this way despite sitting two doors down from him at work–he was a legend and I wanted everyone in Blockbuster to know it.

It was a similar reaction to the one in this recent USB Rock Star Commercial.

The same dynamic plays out at companies, and then fun begins! These rock star programmers have the power to create new markets, or topple top brands seemingly overnight. There seem to be two types of visionary programmers.

The first group makes a common thing uncommonly well:

Some of the greatest computer scientists out there excelled in this category. They go to the mattresses in a hiding place in Mountain View, San Francisco, or Atlanta and emerge with an unexpectedly awesome new edition of an already common piece of software. They work in small “best-of-the-best” teams with few breaks. They create value where the market thinks no more can be created. Google Search, Jboss, and Sun’s Fishworks, are examples that readily come to mind.

They upset markets by adding a radical dose of speed, reliability, manageability, or simplicity to known functionality. This first group of rock star programmers have the rare combination of smarts and passion you can’t teach.

The second group of rock star programmers grab the opportunity no one else sees yet:

These programmers revolutionize data or user behavior that was seemingly waiting to be coded appropriately. Napster is a great example of a somewhat simple piece of software that – despite its technical simplicity – was the result of a programmer seeing lots and lots of interesting data waiting to be harnessed into an application. I would also add Twitter into this group. It is an expansive view of where new linkages can be created that drives this group of programmers more than any outstanding ability to write the best code (as evidenced by the frequent sightings of the Fail Whale!)

Don’t always expect reliability, scalability, and general code perfection from this group – they are the visionaries of outstanding and radical applications that turn the everyday and mundane on its head.

How are you taking your productivity and vision to the next level?  Sometimes its hard to tell just how productive you are, but for now it’s a good sign if the young engineers in your group are starstruck when they see you in public.

What are your rock-star coder stories? I’d love to hear them!

Today we’re going to look at open source databases. Ten years ago, corporate systems like Oracle and MS Access & SQL Server dominated the landscape. Since then, MySQL and (to a lesser extent) PostgreSQL have made serious inroads into the market. The PostgreSQL vs MySQL debate is a heated one, with passionate (sometimes fanatical) communities on either side.  These two camps position themselves differently – PostgreSQL, as the world’s “most advanced,” and MySQL as the world’s most “popular.”  When exploring this topic, it will come down to a few determining factors and – in some cases – it will come down to the preference of the developer. For our purposes, we will look at the currently recorded tangible factors and let personal opinion take over after that.

The center of the debate between these two open source databases revolves around three key issues: speed, data integrity, and popularity. We’ll quickly go over the basics before leaving the conversation open for your comments.

Speed

Many attest that MySQL is a much faster database than PostgreSQL, and hundreds of benchmarking websites and blogs further this notion. But as loads increase, PostgreSQL seems to win the race.  PostgreSQL has made vast improvements in recent releases, but the jury is still out….is MySQL still faster than PostgreSQL?

Data Integrity

Comparing the two on data integrity, we get PostgreSQL getting the overall nod.  Why, you ask?  PostgreSQL has always maintained a strict adherence to the academic principles of “data integrity,” placing it above all else in importance.  MySQL on the other hand, started off  with a more open attitude on the matter, instead focusing on easy acceptance, increased flexiblity, and a high level of forgiveness for the average user.

Popularity

MySQL is still the world’s most popular open source database, with over 50,000 downloads per day. Its accessible attitude fostered high popularity and rapid growth of the MySQL community, something its poor, nerdy brother was never able to compete with.

As the marketplace for online workteams, we can look at our own data (which happens to be stored in a PostgreSQL database) to get a sense for the two communities’ sizes. As of this week there were 18,317 freelance MySQL developers and 594 open jobs on oDesk, versus only 1,239 PostgreSQL developers and 18 open jobs.  Quite a big difference!

Growth, on the other hand, appeared somewhat flat in the past 12 months for both contenders as the charts below show:

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think!  Please post your comments below…

We’re going to start blogging about the skill sets that are really hot in our marketplace. The demand for tech skills evolves rapidly, and a smart freelance professional is always looking for the next step in his or her growth. We think the best way to kick this series off is with PHP.

PHP, a scripting language that delivers customizable content on web pages, is all in sorts of popular sites — Yahoo, Digg, Facebook … If you’re on the web these days, that’s probably PHP in the background. It’s flexible, stable and free — and extremely popular with Web 2.0 developers.

The language was developed in 1994 and has relentlessly expanded ever since. These days, PHP 5, powered by Zend Engine II, is no longer the up-and-coming iteration – it’s now fully mainstream.

In early 2008, there were just over a thousand PHP jobs posted per month on oDesk. A year later, it’s 2,000 and climbing, a 75% percent year-over-year increase. There’s not a lot in today’s business world growing at that rate, is there? But the global economic meltdown doesn’t seem to be turning this growth curve around. We’ve been talking about PHP for a while now — back in December, we listed PHP as the web developer skill in most demand, and highlighted its meteoric rise: from 800 jobs posted in November 2007 to 1,800 last July. Clearly, PHP is a skill with legs.

If you’re a PHP developer there is every indication you skills will remain marketable for the next decade. As with any technical skill, maintaining and increasing your skill set should be part of day to day living. PHP training is available online and in formal classes if you are not one to learn as you go. The PHP development page is an obvious good first start and w3schools offers some excellent tutorials also.

Once you have the basics down, it might be time to visit Zend’s website for some more in-depth training, with an eye towards certification. Certification from Zend will carry weight in any interview and establishes a formally measured minimum level of competence. Now that PHP is fully mainstream and the level of competition has increased, certification can be expected to be a given as opposed to a bonus like many other mainstream technologies. Certification will give you an advantage over developers who are not in this competitive job market. Once certified, you can join our own Zend Group as a location employers will look to find fully certified PHP developers as an added resource for your job search arsenal.

Even though the economy has been bad news for pretty much everyone everywhere—unless maybe you’re a bankruptcy lawyer—we see encouraging signs for small and medium-sized businesses in our network. We also thought we’d highlight what that means for providers.

• Providers — We’ve seen dramatic growth in the oDesk provider community, with more than 26,000 new providers joining last month alone. The good news for a buyer is that there are now more than 150,000 providers offering their talents to you. For a provider, the opportunity is to continue to apply for jobs, write highly targeted cover letters, and refine your profile and portfolio, etc.

• Buyers and jobs — There are still more and more job opportunities each month on oDesk as the buyer community has also seen record growth with more than 11,000 new jobs posted each month. The average job size is about 370 hours, a sign of how much companies are seeing value in the oDesk approach. About 27,000 new buyers joined in 2008.

• Value of services — The value of services rendered via oDesk nearly tripled in 2008, and in November we passed the $50 million milestone. More than 2.4 million work hours have been logged this year. These hours show the health of the online workteam concept and our community.

• Categories — Web development and other technical categories continue to explode (hello, iPhone app developers!). We also saw the new writing and administrative support categories grow about 1,600 percent.

• Online workteams are going mainstream, and the mainstream is taking note — oDesk made it to the top of Google trends and made a global media splash, with the BBC, the Wall Street Journal and TV programs talking to oDesk buyers, providers and spreading our message.

• Larger companies/larger teams — we have seen a growing number of larger companies using oDesk. Existing buyers have also increased the size of their teams, hiring providers of different disciplines (tech, administrative, marketing, creative). To support this growth, we released the team admin page and the new staffing console, and we added invoicing/check payment for larger organizations.

Not bad, eh? Individual businesses are tightening their belts, but for those who see the merits of a scalable workforce, this is a great time to be looking for talented providers. The current business climate is drawing more employers to the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of flexible online workteams—a concept that oDesk buyers and providers have been making better every day. And for the providers among us, market yourself well, and remember that performance—and the feedback it generates—is more important that even in this climate.

We wish you continued success in the new year.

The sudden turn of events in Pakistan over the last few days has been nothing short of frightening. As we scanned through the headlines, our thoughts here at oDesk quickly turned to the 1,000+ oDesk community members residing in Pakistan. Many of us here in the office have made connections with providers and buyers residing in the country, and we know many of our buyers have established important connections with users there as well.

What also came to mind as we read through the stories is just how connected we all are in today’s economy. Pakistan has gone through Martial Law before, but the effects are now greater due to the interconnected nature of the global economy. Many of us have professional connections with citizens affected by political situations in various countries, and in an increasingly connected society, conflicts reach further than their borders.

The flipside is that our interconnectedness has the ability to move us to action. The more connections we make with citizens in other countries, the more we’re likely to (a) work to understand their culture to improve our communication, (b) empathize with them and (c) prevent and resolve conflicts in order to keep our interconnected economies humming. We hope that in coming years, as business connections through outsourcing increase, that we’ll all feel a greater stake in the political situations in other countries.

For now, however, we wish our friends in Pakistan the best and hope all remain safe.

Steve Lohr’s recent article in the New York Times on hiring tutors from India (Hello India, I need help with my math) shines a spotlight on the increasingly popular trend of outsourcing consumer services. The article focuses on one offshore tutoring company and also touches upon the practice of hiring virtual personal assistants.

We’ve seen this trend reflected in our marketplace as well. Take a look at the numerous Buyers on oDesk who are currently seeking personal assistants. These assistants can help busy professionals with a variety of different tasks, including managing databases, preparing documents, taking calls, and booking travel arrangements. Already there are more than 2,000 providers on our network available as “personal assistants.”

What is particularly startling about the trend highlighted in the New York Times is that many of these new outsourcing clients are young. Really young. They’re kids seeking homework and exam help from tutors working on the other side of the globe. This next generation is primed for a working world without borders. Computer savvy, comfortable with communicating online and already experienced in the world of offshoring, by the time this generation hits the workforce, there will be no hesitation in finding outsourcing solutions. They won’t hesitate to look for creative ways to outsource their business tasks and personal lives, leading to further growth in the outsourcing realm.

We have one thing to say: Generation Y (and beyond), oDesk will be ready for you

According to a recent article by Hispanic Business magazine, the practice of homeshoring — hiring people who work from home — is skyrocketing. The magazine estimates that there are about 150,000 home-based “agents” working for companies in the U.S. today, a number that could reach 300,000 in 2010.

If you’re considering outsourcing solutions, homeshoring offers some advantages. Your providers are working in similar time zones, which may make it easier to communicate. Additionally, according to Business Week, employees who work from home may be more loyal than on-site employees.

To read more, here are some articles we’ve selected you may want to peruse:

1. Fortune: Commute to work in 30 seconds

2. Management Issues: Homeshoring is where the heart is

3. Seattle Post Intelligencer: ‘Homeshoring’ means that call center might be in someone’s bedroom

4. Small Business Trends: Homeshoring and its impact on small businesses

5. HR and Homeshoring Blog

6. Outsourcing Times: Offshoring vs. Homeshoring

7. IT Business Edge: Homeshoring helps companies improve customer service

8. Arbor Law Blog: Is Homeshoring the new offshoring?

9. Christian Science Monitor: Outsourcing comes home

10. CNN – How to earn more from home

11. CNET -  Homeshoring to trump offshoring?

If you are looking for some providers, check out this search for U.S.-based oDesk providers. Happy home (agent) hunting!

Offshoring, Homeshoring… Seems like these days you can add -shoring to anything and make it a buzz word. But what do all of these terms mean? Here’s our little guide to the world of remote work:

Outsourcing – Asking an expert (or a firm with experts) outside of your company to do something for you more efficiently and in a more cost-effective way than if you were doing it yourself. Companies outsource all sorts of tasks, from software development to network administration to graphic design. But outsourcing isn’t limited to business tasks — my personal favorite is the guy who outsourced his dating life.

Should you do it? Perhaps you’re thinking about redesigning your website. Could someone with more technical expertise do it better?

Offshoring — Essentially the same thing as outsourcing, except that this refers to when the work or product is done by someone in another country. But Thomas Friedman would agree, if someone can get quality work done better and faster, it doesn’t matter whether they’re in Minnesota or Moldova.

Should you do it? Establishing a clear communications strategy is the best way to ensure your offshored projects will be successful. You’ll have to consider time zone, language, and cultural differences.

Nearshoring — Much like offshoring, but instead of outsourcing to people anywhere in the world, outsourcing to people who are working nearby (in a nearby country, for instance). Some companies want to work with providers who have a similar culture, share a similar language or are in the same time zone.

Should you do it? Depends. If working with someone in the same time zone is essential, this might be the thing for you.

Homeshoring — Outsourcing your work to someone within your own country. People prefer working from home for a variety of reasons. Some want to avoid commuting, others have children they’re taking care of at home. Companies such as Jet Blue became well-known for their homeshoring strategies, but you don’t have to be a big corporation to take advantage of skilled workers who prefer to work from home.

Should you do it? Need someone in your timezone? Country? Can you deal with a flexible schedule?

Crowdsourcing — Ah, the power of the crowd. Why use one mind when you can use many? Essentially, this refers to having a crowd of people work together to produce a product. A great example: Wikipedia.

Should you do it? Netflix did. They posted a $1M prize for anyone who could improve their DVD rental system. Cons? You can’t have everyone sign a contract or an NDA.

Farmshoring – Moving jobs from urban centers to rural communities.

Should you do it? We believe it doesn’t matter where you work, but whether you have (a) the skills to do it (b) the tools to do it (c) the motivation to do it.

“The office is out people, get over it and out of it.”

Wise words from Nick, the Code Cowboy over at NothingButNoise.

Nick shares our vision of a world where people can work from anywhere they want.

At oDesk, some of us work in an office, while some work at home. Some work in the US, some in Eastern Europe, and some in India. All of use the oDesk platform to work collaboratively. We spend lots of time on Skype and Google Talk.

Nick also has some interesting comments about working with offshore teams, keeping a schedule, and dealing with non-technical customers. Enjoy.

Aaron reflects on oDesk’s pros and cons in this insightful post. First the good news.

He commends us for – among other things – being responsive, blogging often and interacting with our community, and not being afraid to put oDesk’s software to the test in order to make it better. In a nutshell, for “embrac[ing] the Web 2.0 model of doing business,” as he puts it.

His main gripe? That it’s too difficult and cumbersome for providers to get started on oDesk. For example, he’s not fond of job interviews. “…people tend to ask pretty stupid questions, like, ‘where do you want to be in 5 years’,” he says.

Point taken, Aaron. In fact, making it easier for providers to sign up is priority number one at oDesk. Please stay tuned.

But most heartening of all is this observation: “oDesk has basically brought the traditional workplace to The Web, which is a great accomplishment.” Kudos and criticism aside, it’s awesome to see someone talk about an important part of oDesk’s vision in their own words.

To which I’ll add that what oDesk aspires to do is to use The Web to move beyond the traditional workplace. For one thing, work doesn’t have to be done in a grey cubicle, just because that’s where it’s been done so far. You shouldn’t be limited to working with only those people that happen to live nearby. And ditto with the hiring process. It shouldn’t give a leg up to those that can charm away during an interview. Instead, oDesk now puts the facts on the table. What does a person really know? What have they worked on in the past? How did they do? That’s meritocracy.

Sure, there will always be something like an interview when you are choosing to work with someone. But hopefully the conversation will have more substance once the facts are clear.

The number of US residents with broadband Internet connections surged 40 percent last year alone to a total of 84 million, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. DSL connections are now leading the charge, with certain companies in the Bay Area wooing customers with rates half as low as were common for dial-up during the early days of the Web.

Like many things Internet, the era of broadband connectivity was seen as imminent during the go-go days, and then quickly forgotten about when things turned south. Well, it turns out that the baby may have been thrown out with the bathwater, and that reality is finally creeping up on the early hype. So what does this mean for another great promise of the Internet- the ability to unshackle knowledge workers from the claustrophobia of the cubicle? It can’t be too far behind.

And while tech work attracts the spotlight when it comes to remote arrangements, the stats regarding the US are especially promising with regard to the myriad of other types of knowledge work- such as tech writing- where the US has an especially talented workforce. We’re sure to hear more of this story, so stay tuned.

For the past few years, my ultimate invention candidate has been the Star Trek Transporter (illustrated on left).

“Energize!”, and you can go anywhere anytime. (My previous candidate was the Star Trek Replicator, to get my chocolate shake anywhere anytime). Why? Because the best places to work are not necessarily the best places to live (due to cost of living, deminished social life, being away from family and friends).

A lot of people end up living in foreign countries to pursue the career they want (e.g. me) and it’s not easy to spend time with your family (who live in Pakistan and the UK). Skype and Gmail allow us to remain in touch, but they don’t allow me to play with my nephew (picture on right).

I have a good friend whose main goal is to find a career where he can travel back and forth between Pakistan and the US, while not sacrificing the big bucks (he was working as a top programmer for a US company). He started a small outfit in Pakistan and was looking to get them some programming work. Naturally, I got him into oDesk as an Affiliate. He fairly quickly got a $100K+ project, quit his regular job in the US, and is now full-time involved as the Affiliate Manager.

Let me first outline some tips I got from him:

• He found job openings where his skill set was relevant (don’t blindly apply to everything)
• He applied himself, and also had his Providers apply at the same time (so they appeared together in the Candidate List)
• He clearly outlined who he was (Affiliate Manager), who else was in his team (Providers), links to the oDesk Profiles of his Providers (use oDesk Short URLs in the cover letter), and why they were good for the job
• He had a US number where he could be reached during his business hours (you can either get a VoIP box from Vonics or Vonage, or get a SkypeIn account)

But the cool thing for me was that oDesk helped him achieve his equivalent of the Star Trek Transporter. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has gone to his oDesk Buyer’s offices in Texas, and spends time with him family in Pakistan while overseeing his (growing) Affiliate outfit. You could argue that it’s better than the Star Trek Transporter. Captain Kirk always worked with the same people on his ship, and actually lost a few people in every episode (the poor Red Shirts). They should have just enjoyed their chocolate shakes in interstellar space and talked to the Klingons over Yahoo IM.

-
Abid

We came across this site and thought we would share it with our community. It’s an excellent resource on the Web to keep a tab on the home shoring story- one that you can be sure to hear more off as innovative work arrangements continue to spread.

While the economic benefits of these new arrangements are very important, the site promises to be especially interesting because of it will also cover the impacts on society at large.