Remote freelancers have one distinct disadvantage when it comes to productivity. Distractions are everywhere! Working from home, there can be inevitable distractions – like your kids, the telephone, the pile of laundry, and pretty much anything else home-related. However, the lure of the most powerful distraction of all, the Internet, is shared by traditional office workers as well.

I find it helpful to set aside 30 minutes a day for what I call “avoidable distractions.” I peruse a few blogs, check in on some news sites, and drink my coffee before getting to work. That way I don’t have to feel guilty about feeding my curiosity later, and can go ahead and get it out of the way early on.

Everyone has different vices for online distractions, for instance visit YouTube.com and search for “puppies” or “kittens” and you’ll see around 6 million hits per video. Thankfully I do not have an addiction to watching these cute animal videos, but bizarre news and fascinating stories do grab my attention. This is a gray area of online reading that I find both helpful for my work, and distracting. Blogs and news stories contribute to my developing ideas as a writer, but sometimes the stories take me down a decidedly non-work rabbit hole. Below are some of the most interesting pieces that have passed my screen recently as part of my planned morning excursion into distraction.

	From the blog Dvorak Uncensored, comes a post about the CIA’s top secret “Acoustic Kitty” program. I know, I just said I’m not addicted to kittens, but this story is far from cute, it leaves one baffled by the absurd monetary cost, tickled by the hilarity of the concept, and appalled at the abuse to the cat.
	The Guardian and The Washington Post both reported from different angles recently on the controversy of Rupert Murdoch threatening to remove his publications from Google’s search results, and Microsoft responding with an offer to pay him to do it. All of this in an effort to achieve fair payment for the content of News Corp’s many news outlets, and to promote Microsoft’s Bing.
	Animated stereo images of old japan appeared last month on PinkTentacle.com, an all things Japanese blog with an emphasis on art and pop culture. The images combine two things rarely found together, authentic historic images and 3D.
	Apple Insider reported recently about the first “iPhone Worm,” that funnily enough has the sole purpose of rickrolling it’s victims and replacing their iPhone’s wallpaper with an image of Rick Astley. The worm only effect jailbroken iPhones (iPhones that have been hacked to remove any ties to one single mobile carrier.)
	The UK paper, the Daily Mail ran a story that brought to my attention the environmental impact of the shipping industry. Car and Jet pollution are on most of our radar screens, but the high sulfur fuel burned in container ships and oil tankers is apparently the worst offender of all (when looking only at the impact of sulfur, and not other agents).

Hopefully, you can be more productive than me this week by simply reading this consolidated post and not having to seek out all of these stories on your own… Let us know what you’ve found distracting this week, and how you handle your own work from home distractions in the comments!

Today is oDesk t-shirt day! Check out my own bedazzled creation below…

Some of our festivities include:

Facebook Contest Become of fan of oDesk on Facebook and upload a photo of yourself in an oDesk shirt to be entered to win a $50 Amazon giftcard! Don’t have an oDesk t-shirt? No worries! Get creative and make your own!

Live video Jason from IWearYourShirt.com is wearing his oDesk t-shirt today, and will be doing a live video blog at noon Pacific time. We’ll be chiming in inside his chat room during that time, join us!

Congratulations to “Stylish and Dry When it Rains”, the winner of oDesk’s October Design of the Month Contest. This project was for a skilled designer to create a postcard that demonstrated his or her best creativity and skill sets while also representing the products and message of www.AmeRain.com. They actively promoted their contest submission, bringing in an impressive number of votes and helping them win a $1,000 oDesk credit and an Apple iPhone 3GS.

Runners-Up:

• “iPOV Corporate Website Design” This project was a complete overhaul of the design of the buyer’s corporate website. The purpose was to clearly communicate their instructional design approach to visitors and potential clients. The new design has a new look and feel, layout, and diagrams to help get the buyer’s message across within a clean, professional design.
• “LingQ Redesign” This was an update to the design and functionality of the buyer’s website at LingQ.com. The talented providers hired for this job made significant changes to the site’s core functionality and design to provide a cleaner and more user friendly appearance.
• “HelperHire Website” This was a design of a database driven website similar to a dating site in functionality. The buyer wanted a simple design with the least amount of pages and text as possible but also user friendly with a friendly, outdoors, happy theme.

This month’s contest served as a reminder of the amazing design talent we have in our oDesk community of providers. All oDesk buyers who completed any type of design job through oDesk were eligible to submit their designs to the contest. Winners were determined entirely by oDesk community voting. We’d like to thank all of the participants in this month’s contest and helping to make it yet another success. Stay tuned for our next contest which we anticipate will be bigger and better than any we’ve done in the past. As always, we’d love your feedback so feel free to submit your suggestions within the comment section below for future consideration. And please join us in congratulating our winners for October! Nice work folks!

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?

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

On October 22-23, oDesk CEO Gary Swart will be joining Silicon Valley business leaders at BiztechDay. If you’re attending, make sure to grab a moment with Gary and ask for his insights on the Future of Work – his answer will give entrepreneurs, investors and executives fuel to rethink, retarget and change how their business works.

The oDesk Manifesto is a declaration to both freelance service providers and the companies that hire them. A while back, we asked oDesk providers to submit videos of themselves reading our oDesk Manifesto.

We received responses from across the globe, from providers proud to lend their voices, faces and home towns to bring the oDesk Manifesto to life.

The response:

We really can’t say it any better than they have!
oDesk. Changing How the World Works.

Patrick Schwerdtfeger, one of the Bay Area’s preeminent Social Media evangelists, will be hosting his next Entrepreneur and Small Business Academy event tonight at 6:00pm at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza, in Berkeley, CA.

At the event, special guests Kane Minkus & Jeff Slayter will share their wealth of Entrepreneurial experiences with their presentation, “Blatantly Unfair Sales Magic Sooo Powerful You Might Be Afraid To Use It.”

The presentation will cover:

• Stealth email tricks that boost client loyalty
• Linguistic tools that make you indispensable
• A precise system for creating a constant stream of clients and customers
• Three behaviors of top-producing Entrepreneurs that will change your perspective on how to do business in the current market place
• Advanced techniques for balancing multiple income streams

Patrick will also have copies of his book, “Webify Your Business: Internet Marketing Secrets for the Self-Employed“, and his new 6 DVD Set “Social Media Victories – Real Businesses, Real Campaigns, Real Results” available for purchase.  Patrick has agreed to offer oDesk users a $100 discount to the DVD set.

We’ll have a table at the event to chat with folks about oDesk, so make sure to stop by and say hello!

We’re excited about tonight’s sold-out Juice Pitcher event put on by TheFunded.com and Vator.TV.  This unique startup pitching and networking event democratizes access to exposure for promising early stage companies.  136 companies competed for the chance to present tonight to an audience of over 300 investors, founders, and members of the press.  Aaron Patzer, of Mint.com, and Munjal Shah, of Like.com – two leading Silicon Valley CEOs – will be speaking at the event to educate and motivate the participating startups.

In fact, we’re so excited about Juice Pitcher, we’ve extended our oDesk Challenge offer to the 10 finalists (who haven’t yet been announced).  These early-stage companies are under constant pressure to do more with less, and a great way to do that is enlist the help of teams of online contractors.  Through participation in the oDesk Challenge, we’re going to help them find the very best talent on oDesk, so they can begin reaping the benefits of having an online workteam on their side.

Our CEO, Gary Swart, and several members of our team will be attending tonight’s event – if you’ll be attending, we look forward to seeing you there!

We’re excited to announce that voting has officially begun in our oDesk Design of the Month contest! This time around we have 57 submissions, each of which was built by oDesk providers, and we must say we’re quite impressed with the entries.

Here at oDesk we have the privilege of bringing businesses and individuals together with remote workers to collaborate on oDesk, and seeing amazing results come out of it. Our buyers are proud of their products and likewise ourrebeccaturner providers are proud of their hard work. This month’s contest is rather unique because it was open to all types of design work. It allows buyers a chance to show off their masterpieces, from logo and illustration, to video, to web design and everything in between! We’re also excited to showcase the incredible design talent of our community and honor some of the best work done through oDesk.

Winners will be chosen entirely by community voting which will continue through October 31st. The grand prize winner, or Design of the Month will officially be announced on November 1st. So what are you waiting for? Click here to cast your votes – you are allowed to vote for up to 3 apps per day. Facebook guru? You can also vote via our Facebook App. That way, your votes will show up on your walls, and your friends will be encouraged to vote as well.

The grand prize winner will get $1,000 oDesk credit, an iPhone, possible press opportunities, and of course, ever-coveted bragging rights! The three runners-up will each get an oDesk t-shirt.

So what are you waiting for? Check out the competition (we think you’ll be as impressed as we are) and cast your vote today! Good luck to the contestants – may the best design win!

At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT, and technology is the key ingredient that makes this system work. So we thought it was time to address the various modes of modern communication, creation and collaboration.

Which of these tech gadgets are your tech gadgets?

From largest to smallest …

COPY MACHINE: An Oldie But a Goodie
Best - If used sparingly and combined with a printer or fax.
Worst - If you have an old dinosaur that needs upkeep.
Needed - If you consistently need massive amounts of copies.

FAX MACHINE: It’s Come a Long Way
Best – If you aren’t paying for an extra phone line.
Worst – If you are still using rolls of paper (say it ain’t so).
Needed - When a potential client says: “Can I fax you this?”

PRINTER: A Necessary Evil
Best – If you can hit “print” from any room in the house.
Worst - If your ink costs as much as your electric bill.
Needed - For contracts, tax papers, etc.

COMPUTER: The Crucial Ingredient
Best – If you still have it under warranty (or are a tech wiz).
Worst – If it has a virus or takes 15 minutes to boot.
Needed - Are you kidding?

LAPTOP: Priceless
Best – When it’s light, fast and new.
Worst – If it weighs as much as your microwave.
Needed - When you have to be able to work from various locations.

MINI: A Tiny Luxury
Best – If you work on the go … really on the go.
Worst – If you blog, work on large pdf files or have carpel tunnel syndrome.
Needed - When you can’t lug around a laptop (or can’t afford one).

PDA: Palmtop Computer
Best – Maybe not.
Worst – If it’s the size of a Dan Brown novel.
Needed - In 1999.

SMARTPHONE / iPHONE: All the Rage
Best – If you know how to use it.
Worst – If you don’t.
Needed - For those who need Internet access at all times.

HEADSET: Hands Free Talking
Best – If it’s comfortable and gets good reception.
Worst – If it’s so small you can’t find it when you need it.
Needed - If the telephone takes up more than 20% of your work day.

WFHT Recommended Reading
“Home Office Essentials” from About.com
“Tips for Home Office Technology” from Fast Company Blog
“The Technology Every Freelancer Needs” from Freelance Directory
“Choosing a PC Pt. 1” from Freelance: UK

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work.

- Tamara

Yesterday, at 4:30pm, after a long day of demoing oDesk in the TechCrunch50 DemoPit, Michael Arrington dropped by our table to inform us we won an Audience Choice Award and a chance to demo on stage to all 2,000 conference attendees.  We were already thrilled at the warm the reception our product had been getting all day, but this was a truly spectacular opportunity and a great way to end the day.

Here’s the demo our CEO, Gary Swart, gave.  The panel of experts consisted of Marc Andreessen, Roelof Botha, Paul Graham, Tony Hsieh, and Marissa Mayer.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our demo table and gave us the chance to earn your vote.  And thanks for everyone who blogged, and facebooked, and especially tweeted on our behalf.  The twitter activity was amazing.  We love these events, as they give us the chance to get in front of users, old and new, and remind us that we’re playing a small part in Changing How the World Works!

At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT. This Tuesday, we want to welcome those of you who are new to working from home and new to this wonderful — though sometimes unusual — business of freelancing, consulting and providing the world with your talent and skills!

FIFTEEN TIPS FOR YOUR NEW LINE OF WORK:

1. Motivation and dedication will be your best friends. Learn to have them.

2. Caffeine will be your second best friend. Stock your house with it.

3. Have a business plan and write it down. Even if it’s as simple as: Find clients on the internet and provide excellent service.

4. When you are working, imagine there is a “closed” sign on your front door. No friends, no census takers or religious zealots allowed — you aren’t home. You’re at work.

5. Beware watching TV while you work. Unless, of course, you are okay with subconsciously inserting bizarre phrases like “that walk is fierce,” “we’ve lost contact with the sub,” or “he’s at the 30-yard-line” into e-mail correspondence with your clients.

6. Network, network, network.

7. Just because you can enjoy a cocktail while working, doesn’t mean you should. Reasons? Impaired work skills and bizarre phrases in e-mails. (See #5.)

8. Find out how being self-employed will affect your taxes.

9. Get a work e-mail account. Separating your e-mail accounts will help you tune out fun when you are working, and it will help you tune out work when you are just having fun.

10. Seek more than one client at a time, even if you don’t need to. In this economy you don’t want to be dependent on one company for your income.

11. Create an online portfolio with a web site or blog.

12. Don’t take your laptop into the kitchen to work while cooking. Bad things happen to laptops in there.

13. No, seriously, find out about your taxes.

14. Be patient. Don’t expect to be busy right away. It may take time to build your business.

15. Enjoy your new-found freedom. Work at the park. Walk your dog on your lunch break. Spend a day at the beach and work at night. You are your own boss now!

WELCOME TO  OUR WORLD!

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work.

- Tamara

As we mentioned in our earlier post, we’re thrilled to be in the TechCrunch50 DemoPit this morning.  Here at the conference, every attendee is given a poker chip, which counts as a vote for the DemoPit company the attendee is most excited about.  The company with the most votes gets to present on stage as the “Audience Choice Award.”

So, our job is to get you to visit our demo booth, blow you away with our demo, and get you to give us your poker chip!  Please stop by and give us a chance to earn your vote!  (Voting closes at 2:30pm)

Here in the oDesk community we have a pretty impressive bunch of designers, if we do say so ourselves.  To celebrate some of the amazing design work being done through oDesk, we thought we’d try something a little different this time around and hold a “Design of the Month” contest for the month of October.

As with past contests, the competition is open to all oDesk buyers and will be used to showcase all types of graphic design, including web design, logo & icon design, 3D animation, video editing, illustration and more.

If you’ve hired a designer through oDesk, why not show off the results by entering?  The winner will receive $1,000 oDesk credit, a gift card for a new iPhone 3GS, press opportunities and, of course, bragging rights.

Voting for the “Design of the Month” will be based on visual aesthetics.  For example, if a web site is submitted, it will be judged on how it looks, not its functionality.

So what are you waiting for?  Enter today.  Submissions will be accepted through September 30^th with voting to take place throughout the month of October.

Let the competition begin!

At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT. This Tuesday, we want to acknowledge a few special moments in every freelancer’s life. Those moments where you realize that your friends — and maybe even your family — have no idea that working from home really is working.

For every time you’ve wanted to cringe (or scream), we offer you the following …

7 SIGNS YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
NEED TO BE REMINDED THAT
WORKING FROM HOME REALLY IS WORKING:

7. Your roomate is off work for the week and has invited half his old fraternity to the house to hang out with him. All day. And all night.

6. Your reading club is baffled and offended that you — someone who is home all day! — can never seem to finish the books. 

5. The head of the Parent Teacher Association just called to find out why you’ve never volunteered to be your child’s room mom. Isn’t it about time?

4. Your younger brother paid you a surprise visit last month and is still pouting because you couldn’t take a few days off to just “hang.” I mean, you are your own boss, right?

3. Winter break is just around the corner, and two other families from school just called to find out if they can pencil you in to watch their kids. Because they have to ”work” that week. 

2. Your neighbor just asked if you could start checking in on her new puppy every day. You know … ’cause you’re home anyway, right?

AND THE NUMBER ONE SIGN IT’S TIME TO DO SOME REMINDING?

1. Your spouse walked in the door last night, looked at the dirty kitchen and asked you — in a surprisingly pointed tone  — what exactly you’ve been doing all day.

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work.

- Tamara

Congratulations to iCooking, the winner of oDesk’s August App of the Month Contest.

iCooking is an innovative iPhone app that provides easy and simple solutions to avoid the hassle of deciding what to cook for dinner. Users can get multi-course dinner menu suggestions, as well as starters, main courses, deserts, soups, browse existing recipes, edit them and add your own.

They actively promoted their contest submission, bringing in an impressive number of votes and helping them win a $1,000 oDesk credit and an Apple iPhone 3GS.

Runners-Up:

• SpaceClash
  SpaceClash is an exciting multi-player on-line role-play game that erases the border between real life and fantasy world. It allows you to play with other people like you, make new friends and defeat enemies.
• Carpenter’s Helper Pro
  Carpenter’s Helper Pro is a unique application that offers iPhone users an advanced construction calculator, capable of handling even the most demanding construction projects. With Carpenter’s Helper, you’ll always have the calculating power you need on you, every time you need it.
• Cirris
  Cirris brings the classic game of bricks to your iPhone and iPod Touch. But there is a circular twist to this game. Player needs to complete a ring with the falling pieces in order to remove it.

All oDesk buyers who completed applications through oDesk were eligible to submit their apps to the contest. Winners were determined entirely by oDesk community voting.

We’d like to thank all of the participants in this month’s contest and helping to make it yet another success. Stay tuned for our next contest in which we will be looking for the best design commissioned through oDesk in our Design of the Month Contest.

As always, we’d love your feedback so feel free to submit your suggestions within the comment section below for future consideration.

And please join us in congratulating our winners for August! Nice work folks!

Job interviews are part of life (for most of us) and as a freelancer, they come up more often for you. Here are some quotes from hiring managers about real-life interview mishaps they’ve seen from their side of the desk:

Needless to say, please do not do any of these:

1. “… he said he was so well-qualified that if he didn’t get the job, it would prove that the company’s management was incompetent.”

2. “… he stretched out on the floor to fill out the job application.”

3. “… she brought her large dog to the interview.”

4. “… she chewed bubble gum and constantly blew bubbles.”

5. “Candidate kept giggling through serious interview.”

6. “She wore a Walkman and said she could listen to me and the music at the same time.”

7. “Balding candidate abruptly excused himself. Returned to office a few minutes later, wearing a hairpiece.”

8. “Applicant challenged interviewer to arm wrestle.”

9. “… she asked to see interviewer’s resume to see if the personnel executive was qualified to judge the candidate.”

10. “… she announced she hadn’t had lunch and proceeded to eat a hamburger and french fries in the interviewer’s office.”

11. “Without saying a word, candidate stood up and walked out during the middle of the interview.”

12. “Man wore jogging suit to interview for position as financial vice president.”

13. “Stated that, if he were hired, he would demonstrate his loyalty by having the corporate logo tattooed on his forearm.”

14. “Interrupted to phone his therapist for advice on answering specific interview questions.”

15. “… he wouldn’t get out of the chair until I would hire him. I had to call the police!”

16. “When I asked him about his hobbies, he stood up and started tap dancing around my office.”

17. “… he had a little pinball game and challenged me to play with him.”

18. “… she bounced up and down on my carpet and told me I must be highly thought of by the company because I was given such a thick carpet.”

19. “At the end of the interview, while I stood there dumbstruck, went through my purse, took out a brush, brushed his hair, and left.”

20. “… he pulled out a Polaroid camera and snapped a flash picture of me. Said he collected photos of everyone who interviewed him.”

21. “Candidate asked me if I would put on a suit jacket to insure that the offer I had made was formal.”

22. “Said he wasn’t interested because the position paid too much.”

23. “While I was on a long-distance phone call, the applicant took out a copy of Penthouse, and looked through the photos only, stopping longest at the centerfold.”

24. “During the interview, an alarm clock went off from the candidate’s brief case. He took it out, shut it off, apologized and said he had to leave for another interview.”

25. “A telephone call came in for the job applicant. It was from his wife. His side of the conversation went like this: “Which company? When do I start? What’s the salary?” I said, “I assume you’re not interested in conducting the interview any further.” He promptly responded, “I am as long as you’ll pay me more.” “I didn’t hire him, but later found out there was no other job offer. It was a scam to get a higher offer.”

26. “An applicant came in wearing only one shoe. She explained that the other shoe was stolen off her foot in the bus.”

27. “His attache [case] opened when he picked it up and the contents spilled, revealing ladies’ undergarments and assorted makeup and perfume.”

28. “He came to the interview with a moped and left it in the reception area. He didn’t want it to get stolen, and stated that he would require indoor parking for the moped.”

29. “He took off his right shoe and sock, removed a medicated foot powder and dusted it on the foot and in the shoe. While he was putting back the shoe and sock, he mentioned that he had to use the powder four times a day, and this was the time.”

30. “Candidate said he really didn’t want to get a job, but the unemployment office needed proof that he was looking for one.”

31. “He whistled when the interviewer was talking.”

32. “… he asked who the lovely babe was, pointing to the picture on my desk. When I said it was my wife, he asked if she was home now and wanted my phone number. I called security.”

33. “… she threw-up on my desk, and immediately started asking questions about the job, like nothing had happened.”

34. “Pointing to a black case he carried into my office, he said that if he was not hired, the bomb would go off. Disbelieving, I began to state why he would never be hired and that I was going to call the police. He then reached down to the case, flipped a switch and ran. No one was injured, but I did need to get a new desk.”

35. “… he asked if I wanted some cocaine before starting the interview.”

Once you get over the tears of laughter (or disbelief), here are a few links to follow for tips on correctly interviewing and being interviewed for a software or similarly technical job:
Joel on Software: Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing
Google and Microsoft Interviewer, Niniane Wang offers good insight here
Bill Veneers at Artima Developer offers a great list of items for the interviewer here (interviewees take note)

(Photo Credit laverrue)

At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT. This Tuesday, we want to encourage you to remember why you started working from home in the first place and what it is you want to accomplish in life. Dreams can get lost in the daily grind, but only if you let them.

Put Your Dreams  Back on Your Priority List. Chances are, you chose this freelance lifestyle as a means to your dream. Maybe the dream was spending more time with family, refurbishing a home, writing the next best seller, building the next must-have technology, or creating the next video game sensation – the point is, somewhere along the line you probably had something you wanted when you became self-employed. To keep a dream alive, it needs to stay a priority. Even a dream as seemingly simple as “being with my kids after school” can get pushed aside by work and other demands if it’s not truly a priority.

Give Your Dream the Best Version of You. Writing the novel of the century is probably not going to happen at 2 a.m. if you’ve been crunching numbers for your new client all night up to that point. Creativity, energy and motivation need to be aligned in order to make magic, and you have the ability to give all of them to your dream. Schedule a time each week or each day when everything is dropped for at least one hour, so you can focus on your dream. For example, are you sharpest at 8 a.m.? Then you need to start building the software of the future every Monday morning at 8 a.m. Maybe (just maybe) every morning at 8 a.m. (It all depends on how bad you want that dream.)

Don’t Give Up Too Easily. Sometimes dreams change. In high school you wanted to be a rock star, now you would be happy to play one night a week at your local coffee shop. It’s a fair change of plans to shoot for the coffee shop — and not entirely different than your original dream. Just don’t let a momentary, short-term failure ever be the basis for abandoning a dream. There’s a very wise saying: If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived. A lot of people who have made their dreams come true encountered failure along the way.  You don’t want to look back on your life one day and see that you gave up too soon. So don’t.

WFHT Recommended Reading
“Four Ways to Find More Personal Time” from Freelance Folder
“49 Motivational Quotes to …” from Guerrilla Freelancing
“Sideshows: Making Time for Important Things” from Web Worker Daily
“In Search of Dolphin Leather” from Seth Godin’s Blog
“The Ultimate Guide to Motivation: How to Achieve Any Goal” from Zen Habits

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work.

- Tamara

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

We’re happy to announce that voting has officially begun in the oDesk App of the Month contest and the competition is now in full force. We’re excited to have 37 amazing entries, each of which was built by the oDesk community.

Every day, we have the privilege of bringing remote workers together to collaborate on oDesk, and seeing incredible results come out of it. Our buyers are proud of their products and likewise our providers are proud of their hard work. This month’s contest gives them a chance to show off their Facebook and iPhone masterpieces! We’re also excited to showcase the development talent of our community and honor some of the best work done through oDesk.

Winners will be chosen entirely by community voting. Voting will continue through August 31st, with the grand prize winner, or App of the Month, officially announced on September 1st. Click here to cast your votes – you can vote for up to 3 apps per day. You can also vote via our Facebook App. That way, your votes will show up on your walls, and your friends will know what you’re up to.

The grand prize winner will get $1,000 oDesk credit, an iPhone, possible press opportunities, and of course, bragging rights! The three runners-up will each get an oDesk t-shirt.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over, take a gander at the competition and cast your vote today! May the best app win!

We’re wondering about your vacation plans – take our 1-question quick poll to let us know!

Here at oDesk, we really enjoy getting visitors. We have a nifty office space, lots of food handy, and you can challenge one of us to a game of ping pong or foosball if you’re feeling lucky.

Recently, we had a nice visit from Paul Sedacove, one of our affiliates and principals at Oggetto Web.  The 17 providers at Oggetto have worked 9,000+ hours on oDesk in the last ten months with a handful of customers.

Paul had great things to say about the help he received from our staff (nice job, Ron and Kendra!), and  Paul mentioned that our platform was ‘perfect’ and had a few very minor suggestions to improve.

Paul left us with a book on Russia, which he signed, ‘from Russia with love’.

We were also visited last week by Elliott Ng, Co-Founder, VP of Marketing at UpTake and founder of CNReviews.com. Elliott brought his video camera, and chatted with our CEO Gary Swart about outsourcing, oDesk, and the global impact of remote work.

The video is also available at The China Business Network at: http://www.thechinabusinessshow.com/special-features/gary-swart-ceo-odesk/2009/07/

Going to be near Menlo Park? Want to stop by and tell us about your oDesk experience? Let us know – we’ll show you around (and maybe even let you win a ping pong game or two)!

So, you want to use Facebook to promote yourself and your work. Network a little. Get friendly with potential clientele, while finding old friends. Here are some things you might want to avoid doing the next time you log in to make sure you’re putting your best foot forward for a professional image:

PROFILE FAUX PAS

Posting a pretentious profile picture that looks nothing like you. Really? The glossy headshot from your brother’s wedding in 1997? Don’t do it. (Unless it’s just for fun.)

Using a shot of your children for your profile picture. It might be cute, but post it to your wall instead. Your profile pic should be you. Don’t be lame.

Not setting up your profile carefully. A well-set profile is your best friend. Learn  Facebook’s privacy features and use them. Categorize friends. Select privacy settings carefully.

POSTING FAUX PAS

Addressing political hot buttons on your page. Unless you’re willing to lose business opportunities over Proposition Whatever-It-Is, keep it to yourself.

Arguing with a friend’s friend on their wall (or any wall). You may hate that Dawn Whats-Her-Name  just called The Office juvenile on Joe Shmoe’s wall, but don’t get into it with her there. Walk away…

Posting something every 5 minutes. I don’t care if it’s your status, a video, a link or photo, every time you make a move on Facebook, other people know.  Don’t let your constant updates become annoying.

Constantly marketing yourself and your work in your status updates. Facebook is a platform–and maybe networking is the only reason you signed up–but be careful, or people will start clicking “unfriend” to shut you up.

PHOTO FAUX PAS

Posting pictures of yourself in compromising situations. Pics of you half-dressed or drunk will change the way others (who weren’t there) see you. If you can’t delete it, at least un-tag it.

Tagging someone else in such pictures. This is totally uncalled for. Friends don’t tag friends in compromising photos.

SOCIAL FAUX PAS

Constantly sending out games and throwing sheep. A cupcake never hurt anybody, but the quizzes and the games get old. Beware of overkill. Have fun without inviting everyone in on it every time.

Following every Facebook trend. The tagging of friends in your egotistical (albeit fun) sharing of life stories gets really old (i.e. 20 Things You Don’t Know About Me). One or two of these a year, please. No more. Stop the madness!

PRIVATE MESSAGE FAUX PAS

Spamming friends with messages about your work. Limit how often you send out mass ”private” messages meant to drum up potential business. Your friends WILL get tired of them.

Exchanging messages with old flames while currently married. Bad form. Don’t do it. Just don’t.

Accidentally replying to multiple recipients. You get a message sent to several friends. You then respond to the sender, not realizing that everyone else will get it too. It gets you in hot water and/or makes you annoying. So pay better attention.

So there you have it. Any other faux pas or pet peeves to add to the mix?

Update: For more thoughts on maintaining professionalism on Facebook, CNN covered this topic on August 22, 2009.

At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT. So we know how difficult it can be to keep your motivation and momentum going. It’s easy to get sidetracked and become bored with your work. Here are some ideas for turning around the blahs and becoming excited about your work again.

Get outside. Work from your backyard or a park.

Everyone gets a little tired of looking at the same four walls all the time. Try doing your work outdoors. If the daytime is too hot, try the early part of the evening or late afternoon. You might be surprised at what this change of scenery can do for you. You’ll hear birds (we hope), breathe fresh air (again, we can only hope) and you’ll have the chance to look up at the sky when you need an idea. We think it just might work.

Beautify your desk. Point your computer toward something you love.

Clean off the clutter and put two or three things you love on your workspace. It might be flowers or it might be your old Darth Vader action figure, just put something there that makes you smile. Try facing a window while you work, or paint the wall by your desk your favorite color–even if it doesn’t match the others. Sometimes making your workspace more interesting really can change your perspective.

The Big Idea: Go through your weekly work tasks and figure out the one you hate the most. Can it be eliminated?

If working outside and adding interest to your work area aren’t getting you over your work blahs, it may be time for some pretty serious re-thinking. If there is a task or two each week that you can’t stand–or a client you’d rather not answer to–consider breaking free in a professional and polite way. It’s a big freelancing ocean out there, and there are more clients in the sea.

WFHT Recommended Reading
“Getting Bored With Yourself” from The Empowering Mom Blog
“Stuck in a Self-Employment Grind?” from Suite 101: Working Solo
“Is Boredom Hurting Your Freelance Career” from the Freelance Rant
“How to Cure Work-Related Boredom” from Bizzia

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work.

- Tamara

Whew! Do NOT try to say that title aloud ten times fast!

Last week, we had asked everyone to submit their best “Remote Working” or “Remote Management” tips for a chance to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card. We received many wonderful responses, and we managed to narrow down the list to our top 10 tweets.

It’s a good thing we drew the winner randomly, because all of the tips we received were great! We had a hard enough time picking our top 10, let alone a single winner!

Thanks to @chaviebugsey on Twitter (our unofficial random number generator), our winner of the $100 Amazon Gift Certificate drawing is:

@tjlytle (Tim Lytle):Make sure you (and your client) know the difference between an employee and a contractor.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.

Congratulations, Tim!

Here are the Top Ten #oTip Tweets (in alphabetical order) and our responses to them:

	@AnneSemana (Anne Semana): That’s simple. Use oDesk!!! – Best tip ever! Our response: Yes, we like shameless self-promotion! Who doesn’t?
	@arronguy (Arron Washington): Don’t friend clients on Facebook. Ever. Our response: Funny, but true. We doubt you’d want your buyers knowing which Twilight character you should marry, or the top 5 people you want to punch in the face.
	@CrystalsQuest (Crystal Woods): Silence ISN’T golden. New clients need reassurance of you checking to clarify anything unclear BEFORE you go ahead and do it Our response: This is a MUST. ALWAYS ensure both you and your buyer know what the expectations are for each assignment BEFORE you start.
	@Deepa7476 (Deepa Govind): Never respond to email in haste, No body expects instant updates. So collect your thoughts, present them well & use spell check. Our response: We couldn’t agree more…especially if you’re upset!
	@EricaFenik (Erica Fenik): Overcommunicate. Clear expectations + execellent results = WIN for freelancers + buyers. Our response: Yes, this was sent in by an oDesk Staff member (so it disqualifies her from the prize), but this is very sound advice.
	@JoannSondy (Joann Sondy): My #oTip based on 15+ yrs of serving clients remotely = email isn’t always the answer. Pick up the phone occasionally! Our response: Absolutely! Even though our teams are staffed by oDesk providers, we have weekly conference calls to make sure everyone is on the same page.
	@likke (Fleire Mae Castro): Network with other oDesk providers. Referrals will be appreciated. Who else is gonna help you but other freelancers, right? Our response: Yes! Even though you’re competing in the same job field, you can still make friends and help out other providers – who knows? They may get too busy to take on work and refer clients to you (or vice versa).
	@michelem (Michele Marcucci): When you submit a proposal double check what the buyer is asking for and if you’re in doubt ask a question within the proposal Our response: There are no such things as stupid questions…okay, maybe there are sometimes – but don’t be afraid to ask questions! It can save you lots of time and money in the long run.
	@mylescxy (Mylene Sereno): Before letting out a loud sigh or scream “Whew! Whatta day!” while talking to a buyer on GoogleTalk, make sure your mic is turned OFF! Our response: I think we’ve all been there before!
	@tjlytle (Tim Lytle): Make sure you (and your client) know the difference between an employee and a contractor. Our response: Absolutely! This is the most important, yet highly misunderstood, aspect of freelancing!

Whatever you may think about the current fascination with obnoxious media pranksters (Ali G, Bruno), their results are somewhat stunning. They manage to hack their way through layers of PR consultants and access some of the world’s better known personalities for fake satire interviews. In this video, the farcically clad Ali-G (Sacha Baron Cohen) interviews the ex head of the CIA.

While the whole scene is surreal, it is made possible by meticulous preparation on the part of the production company to make the interview offer look as official and legitimate as possible. When dealing with unknown companies and personalities – as we all do on the Web – we are conditioned to look for cues of legitimacy and signals of professionalism. We will often choose to move forward with a relationship if the right professional signals are in place, even if the company is otherwise unknown to us. An exposé into the snaring of these prank victims revealed the elaborate lengths the producers went to make the interview offer appear legitimate.

“The letter is so thorough that the URL in the e-mail address at the bottom actually goes to Somerford Brooke’s fictitious one-page website. (Potential interviewees for Baron Cohen’s libidinous Kazakh persona, Borat, say they have been contacted by United World Television which maintains a suspiciously similar site.) The producers have even gone to the trouble to make sure Somerford Brooke and their other fronts are officially registered companies.” (Slate.com, 2004)

When a proper and professional business appearance is in place, the prank unfolds. Despite the inane and sometimes insulting questions, the interview continues, all on the premise of its legitimacy. I can think of no greater proof of the power of professional appearance.

So What?

Before you dismiss this as a bizarre outlier, meet and mingle with a few young, start-up CEOs. You may find more Baron Cohen savvy in their approach than you’d suspect. Many acted the part long before they were hired, funded or cast for it. They, like the pre-interview Ali-G, signaled legitimacy and gained significant access. Steve Jobs was famous in high school for calling companies, claiming to be working on a prototype for a major production to receive free parts; he even called Bill Hewlett of HP fame personally from the phone book for a part and landed a part-time summer job from it.

It seems so simple, but it bears repeating: if nothing else, appear the consummate professional. Be courteous and direct in your business communications. Rid the Internet of items that may potentially damage your reputation and credibility. And remember that judgments can be formed quickly, so do everything you can to give the appearance of professionalism from the first impression.

With US unemployment hitting almost 10% this month, the number of awkward, jarring, painful, surprising and horrific layoff moments at work have hit an all time high. These are the moments in corporate relationships of high emotional tension and dark humor. I saw this phenomenon firsthand; at the end of a spring internship, one of my friends stuck a “hire me” sign on his back (an homage of sorts to a “kick me” sign). He walked around all day pretending to be oblivious to it, provoking laughter wherever he went. It was gallows humor; after six months his run was ending without an offer to stay full-time. I scoured the web to see just how awkward it can get…

Sequoia’s Mystery Scrooge

When you care enough to send the very worst…

“Which startup laid off some folks recently, but had planned to make much deeper cuts? They went as far as having their outsourced HR firm send out final paperwork and checks to a number of employees — and then changed their mind. The CEO was so spacey he wasn’t sure who got sent the paperwork. So he sent an email out to the entire company saying, “Please ignore any package and letter you might get from our HR firm – you’re not fired.” Ouch.

Squidoo’s Layoff Queen

I can’t imagine she was that professional before the lay off…

“I yelled, I ranted and raved, I threw my badge across the office, and I cried. Then I began to beg, much to my chagrin and humiliation. I said I would take a demotion or admin work, anything to keep my job. After about a half hour of enduring what has to be the worst layoff in my entire life, I was ‘escorted’ back to my office to collect my things and then out the door, in front everyone. I was so angry that I wanted to get revenge on everyone in that company, and I am not a violent person.”

Forbes’ Brotherly Love

Because laughter is the best revenge…

“The announcement, made late Tuesday by Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes, came amidst a new wave of layoffs at the magazine and caught few observers by surprise. The company in recent years has sold off assets ranging from its south seas island, a helicopter from the company yacht, Faberge eggs, a Colorado cattle ranch, toy soldiers, a palace in Morocco and historical documents including Lincoln’s final address as President. The Forbes building itself, at 60 Fifth Avenue, was put on the market in 2007.

Yesterday’s announcement squelched rumors the company has nothing left to sell.

“Pop always told us,” said Mr. Forbes, referring to his late father, legendary publisher Malcolm Forbes, “that people are our greatest asset. Now the time has come to prove him right by monetizing one of my three brothers.”  Exactly which brother would be sold was not immediately clear.”

Snowball.com’s Freezeout

A leaky situation at snowball…

“Here’s how the layoffs began,” recalled one former employee of Snowball.com. “The human resources director sends a list of the people that are to be canned within the next few weeks to the CEO. All e-mails to the CEO first go through his personal assistant. The personal assistant’s name happens to be on the list of layoffs (a small, yet crucial fact that the HR director happened to overlook). The assistant starts e-mailing the other people on the list, letting them know of their impending doom.

Listen.com’s Deaf Ear

He’s happy to listen, he just will never pay you again and please leave… but really we are all in this together…

…The final insult came later, as the newly laid-off Listen.com staffers congregated at a bar next door. The company’s CFO and CEO joined the crowd and tried to commiserate with the workers they had just laid off.

“It was the most tone-deaf move I’ve ever experienced. At the very least, they should have left an open tab and walked out.”

Tribune’s Layoff Voicemail

Fired by the answering machine.

“March 11, 2008: I came home to find a message on my answering machine: “Hello S—-, this is Wanda from —-—- Outplacement Services. We’ve been hired by the Tribune to help with your job search. Please call us to schedule a time to take advantage of our outplacement services—no cost to you, the Tribune compensates us. We have classroom openings for next week, so we need to hear from you as soon as possible”.

Hedge Fund’s G-Chat Liquidation

What a G-chat gut shot…

“The hedge fund started liquidating its accounts and the woman who got me from the temp agency turned in her notice, but I still had hope that maybe, just maybe, I could fill that job during the final months of the company, get health insurance and not pinch pennies anymore.

They started interviewing hot, blonde temps for the job instead. By the way, I have dark hair. And that’s when I learned of my demise in a Gmail chat window. One of the assistants led me to her desk to sign my time sheet. As she signed it, my eyes fled to her computer, where I saw these words in the little Gchat box: “Let’s use one of these girls to replace Kristie.”

One week later, I got a call from the temp agency say that I just worked my last day there and that the company couldn’t afford me anymore. Yeah, but they can still afford to hire hot blondes and company-wide bagels on Fridays, right?”

The Fire Alarm Laid Us Off

This can’t be legal…

A large office campus was evacuated when the fire alarm rang. Hundreds of employees poured out of the multi-building complex. The employees gathered in groups in their assigned area waiting for the signal to return to work, just like every other fire drill. The employee in charge of the drill began to deliver the following message over a loudspeaker:

‘Due to the ongoing recession and bad business climate, the company is laying off 50% of its staff. So when the announcement finishes I ask all of you to move back to the building. If your employee card does not give you access to the building , it means you have been laid off and will not be allowed inside the building. All of your belongings will be sent to you. The company is using this innovative approach because we do not want to clog our email system with layoff notices and farewell messages. We also wish to avoid any fighting inside the office and the security issues for all staff. We hope you had a rewarding career with us… now please move back to the building and good luck.’

Welcome to Work From Home Tuesday. At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT. Unfortunately, when you work from home, you are usually the one responsible for managing your own technology. When a laptop dies, you are on your own to replace it. We know it’s hard, but we thought this list might help you know when to pull the trigger on getting a new one.

HERE ARE THE TOP TEN SIGNS IT’S TIME TO REPLACE YOUR LAPTOP:

10. Your laptop screen is giving you static worse than the lines on your grandpa’s old black and white bunny-eared television in 1976.

9. It weighs more than your six-month-old nephew named Tank.

8. You had to buy new memory last week, just so you could get the updates for your operating system.

7. You can no longer read the letters on your keyboard.

6. You had to defrag your hard drive five times last month.

5. The fan is so useless, you prop the laptop up on spools so it can “breathe.”

4. It’s held together by duct tape.

3. It melted your vinyl countertop the last time you used it in the kitchen.

2. You can cook a three-course meal while waiting for a photo to download.

AND THE NUMBER ONE SIGN IT’S TIME TO REPLACE YOUR LAPTOP …

1. You had to call the fire department the last time you rebooted.

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work. (And I’m super excited to retire my laptop this week!)

- Tamara

Welcome to Work From Home Tuesday. At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT. With your kids home from school, you might be questioning your sanity right now. So, here’s some advice.

The big kid swap. Trade kids with a friend.

Here’s how this one works. You figure out which of your friends has kids that get along best with yours–or maybe just which of your kids’ friends you can tolerate the best. Then you arrange a swap. Once a week you have all the kids for about 5 hours. Once a week, they have all the kids for about 5 hours. And you know what this means–5 hours of a quiet house. If your kids are old enough and play well together, the five hours all the kids are at your house might be productive as well.

Give in. Change your work schedule.

If you’re used to working during days, this might be a tough switch, but summer only comes once a year. Temporarily, work minimally during the day and seriously at night. Spend time with your kids while they’re young enough to want to be with you. After dinner, put in a great movie and you can get back to work. If your spouse has weekends off, maybe you should start working weekends. It’s not ideal, but it’s short term. Say it together: They are only young once.

Consider day camp or hired help. For their sake and yours.

If playdates, kid swaps, and working nights won’t cut it this summer, think about hiring temporary help. Get a trusted teenager who will babysit the kids right in your backyard  a few hours a day (for much less than the cost of daycare).  Or, if you can , send your kids to day camps and summer camps.  They’ll have fun and you can make money while they are gone. Sometimes you need to make a choice, and sometimes you paying for science camp is a better option than you screaming at them every 20 minutes: “Quiet! I’m on the phone!”

WFHT Recommended Reading

“Productivity vs. Balance During Summer Break” from Freelance Parent
“Planning Your Summer” from The Writer Mama
“How to Have Children and a Freelance Career “ from The Essential Site for Journalists
“One Runny Nose, Little Sticky Fingers and a PC Clinic” from Freelance UK
Ideas to keep your kids busy from Today Is Fun

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work. (Excuse me while I tell my children to be more quiet, so I can work.)

– Tamara

Over the years, Hollywood has taken some liberties with the abilities of a computer and the individuals that claim to know how to use them. Here is a quick look at some of our favorite ever-so-slight exaggerations the screenwriters, producers, and directors have given us.

Jurassic Park – It’s A Unix System

…and she knows it.

Hackers: The Whole Movie

An oddly dressed, rag tag bunch of hackers take on a evil skateboarding hacker. No really, they do…

CSI: “I’ll Create a GUI interface using Visual Basic”

Ok, so we’ll just have someone else solve the crime while you’re busy doing that.

CSI New York “VB GUI Interface

Swordfish: “I Need a Worm in 60 seconds”

…..and a decent haircut.

Live Free or Die Hard: “The entire network is down.”

Really. The ENTIRE network goes down when a bad guy tries to control everything via the internet.

The Italian Job
Playing video games at work.

So for those of you looking to work in the technology field, I’m sorry to tell you that computers don’t work like that. Please also note that the other programmers and coworkers in your office will rarely look like Charlize Theron or Angelina Jolie…

Many of you already know that we love Twitter and love finding and retweeting great tips and stories. But now, we think it’s time for us to take a break from hearing ourselves talk (oops, did I say that out loud?).

We want to hear what YOU have to share!

• Are you on Twitter?
• Do you have a great tip for remote working or managing remote workteams?
• Can you annotate it in 120 characters or less?

If you answered YES to all of those questions, enter our Twiveaway for a chance to win a $100 Amazon Gift Certificate!

All qualified tweets will receive an entry into our contest. We will hand-pick the top 10 tweets and post them on our blog. A winner will then be randomly drawn from the top 10.

What makes a qualifying tweet, you ask?

It’s simple, just follow these steps:

1. Follow @oDesk on Twitter
2. Send an @ reply to @oDesk with your tip
3. End your tweet with this hashtag: #oTip
4. Make sure your entire tweet (including @oDesk and #oTip) is less than 140 characters

That’s it!

Here’s an example of a qualifying tweet (we sent a similar tweet to @mashable last month):

@odesk When emailing a buyer, ALWAYS spellcheck words like “shift” before hitting send…one letter makes a BIG difference! #oTip

Be insightful. Get creative. Add a dash of humor. Show us what you’ve got!

Deadline for submission is Thursday, July 2nd.

It hurts me to share these. Prepare for major cringe. But with the good viral efforts (thank you, exploding Mentos guys!), we must also accept the bad, as well as the… paid. It’s time for the most contrived corporate viral videos and ad campaigns.

Our first hackneyed harlot is from casual dining with Ruby Tuesday. They went to the extreme of blowing up a building and still weren’t funny. The whole thing feels staged from the start. Let’s follow the sickly saga, shall we?

>> Visit Cheeto’s Underground

Strangely, the site is now shuttered. I’m shocked. All that remains, as is often the case with corporate viral campaigns, is the blow back mock-u-mmercial.

Charlie Murphy’s kinda silly TV ads ran for a while. Nike is the suspected – and only possible – sponsor. Nothing can be bought there and no brand is advertised on the site. At least they learned not to be blatantly obvious. I went to the site out of curiosity, puttered around a bit on it, and left very confused.

>> Watch Charlie Murphy’s videos

An oldie, but still a goodie.

Welcome to Work From Home Tuesday. At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT. With summer vacations planned and kids home from school, working from home can get messy this time of year. Here are some tips to keep your boundaries and work-life balance all year long.

Just because you can work on vacation, doesn’t mean you should work on vacation.

With free WiFi available at hotels and airports (a topic for another day), it’s tempting to make money while you should be relaxing, but everyone needs a break. If you aren’t taking time off, you should be–two days a week and a week or two (or three) each year. Whether your weekend is a Monday and Tuesday, whether your vacation is in March instead of July, whether it’s a “staycation” or a getaway, you should take regular breaks from work. It’s good for your health, mind and creativity. Start a vacation savings account, and a few months from now you’ll be able to put the “I’m on vacation” outgoing message on your cell phone and e-mail and put your laptop away. Make days off and vacations a priority, not an option.

Don’t work long hours, just because you can work long hours.

It’s really tempting to put in 12 to 16 hour days, when your work is right there in front of you 24-7. Granted, if you are only working three or four days a week, a 12-hour day might be just right for you. But if you are putting in 5 or more days a week, you need to know when to call it a day and put your computer out of sight. Everyone has a time of day they are most productive, but after  8 or nine hours of consecutive work, most people will begin to function with diminishing capacity–in other words, they’ll stop working smart and will just be working. Figure out a schedule that works for you and your family, if you have one. Then try to stick to it.

Don’t forget what home is about. Don’t let the place you live become your 24-hour office.

Home should be a place to decompress. Whether you live alone, have a roommate, or have a family, try to work in a space at your house or apartment that you can get away from–a desk that closes up, a room you can ignore, a big closet you can lock up. Sure, it’s convenient, at times, to work around your loved ones. (I mean, how great is it that you can eat dinner and check your work e-mail at the same time?) But these habits take their toll on you and the people you live with–especially if they work outside the home and want to feel like they’ve entered a work-free sanctuary when they walk in the front door. Even if it doesn’t bother you, it may be bothering them. Once again, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

WFHT Recommended Reading

“5 Boundary Setting Tips for the Work Obsessed” from The Four Hour Work Week Blog
“Freelancing and Time Management” from Graphic Design Blog
“Balancing Work and Family” from Freelance Switch
“How to Plan a Freelancer Vacation … “ from Men With Pens
“Is Clocking Out by 5 P.M. Back in Style” from 9 to Thrive

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work. (And I admit I’m terrible at putting my laptop away at the end of the day.)

– Tamara

Lots of companies post uninteresting blogs – but not this crowd! Each of these companies has found a way to be a category killer and stand out. Instead of doing traditional power ranking, I looked for blogs that bring relevant attention to a brand. What can you learn from them?

Most Linked: Google

While it may fall behind the “Stuff white people like” with 37,098 blogs recently posting reactions, Google is the only corporate blog to crack the top 100 blogs as ranked by Technorati’s power rating. When it comes to corporate blogs, Google owns re-blogging relevance by multiples. Controlling the economics of the internet is a pretty big platform to speak from and Google’s blog dominates the conversation.

Most Outlandish: Go Daddy

Go Daddy is semi-famous for their censored Superbowl ad campaigns. Go-daddy CEO Bob Parson’s video blog follows a Hooters-esque approach, with simple advice on internet business mixed with plenty of tank tops and wacky stock footage of grandmothers with automatic rifles to illustrate ‘targeting.’

Cooler Than You: 37 Signals

With estimates of over 100k subscribers despite a modest revenues of under (est) 10$M, the 37 signals blog has an outrageous ratio of readers to revenues. Their corporate blog is so cool it has its own ads. My favorite feature is the frequent use of intellectual quotes.

After you invent Ruby on Rails, bash heavily VC-funded users of that framework, create a 100k-user corporate blog using homemade blogging software, and then sneak quotes like these into your posts – maybe you can be cool, too.

Founders Club: Sun Microsystems

Jonathan Schwartz is the most famous CEO blogger in the world; he was the first Fortune 500 CEO to blog. He appeared in an Internet-themed Letterman “Top 10″ list. He fought the SEC for the right to announce Sun’s earnings first on his blog. Sun now has over 4,500 bloggers hammering out a staggering 110,000 cumulative posts.

Disclaimer: The first blogger CEO didn’t last as a CEO.

Freshest: Zappos

Zappos headquarters was recently visited by the Scobleizer himself. They have 400 twittering employees. Does it get fresher than a video tour of employee Tattoos complete with the stories behind them? Fresh content comes from the core for Zappos, look into their company tour next time you are in Vegas.

Behind the Scenes: BBC Editors, GM

The BBC editors blog, like Google’s, is a great example of telling the story behind the phenomena. When people are already engaged with a brand, letting them peer behind the scenes into the human decisions and perspectives required to create the product can thrill to great effect.

GM’s fastlane blog has also excelled at behind-the-scenes stories.

Humanizing: Delta, Southwest

How can Delta and Southwest, two brands with few very consistent product offerings and little to announce, have blogs consistently ranked in the top twenty? Simple, they humanize otherwise mechanical experience of flying and tout the little things they are both doing to help customers enjoy the flight. Its nice to know someone cares about your snacks while your logging another 6 hour coast-to-coast trip.

Best Office Humor: Clearspring Technologies

Hooman Radfar’s, CEO of the successful web start-up Clearspring Technologies (Add This, etc) popular Wigify blog recently diverged into a seemingly inane sub-plot between two desktop action figures. What developers love is the symbolic interplay between the coder and the executive side of this CEO expressed in the stories.

Takeaways:

1) Great blogs should reveal. Sounds so simple, but its not. One thing all of these blogs have in common is they tell you something interesting about the companies who write them: Bo-Dog’s CEO is just as tacky as his ads–Hooman Radfar is dark and hilarious–Delta puts way too much thought into tiny snacks–Jonathan Schwartz really really wants you to think he is smart–the designers at 37 signals work hard for their Zen through contemplative reading.

Blogs differ from marketing in that they tell you part of the story of a company more than just position and sell its offerings. What interesting facet of your company, product, and staff can your blog revel?

One of the best things about working from home is the ability to not work from home at all! Having a portable office means you can work when you are supposed to be on vacation (another topic for another day) or when you are waiting to have lunch with a friend. Here, in alphabetical order, are 20 US (and beyond) hotspots for free WiFi on the go.  Just try not to spill on your laptop.

Get free WiFi at …

• Bailey’s Pub & Grille — They offer free WiFi at many locations, so check this list.
• Big Boy — This chain has free WiFi in several states. If you’ve got one, check it out.
• Bruegger’s — Many of these locations have free WiFi, but you’ll have to check each one to be sure.
• Chick-Fil-A — If you’ve got one near you, check for a free WiFi sign. Many now have it!
• Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf — Most have free WiFi. Check yours and enjoy the coffee!
• Corner Bakery — These are popping up everywhere, and most have your free WiFi waiting for you!
• Daily Grind Unwind — If you have one, it may have free WiFi and really good coffee.
• First Watch — If your state has a few–many do–take advantage of the free WiFi.
• Fox & Hound — Check out this list, to see if your local Fox & Hound has the free WiFi.
• Hooters — No joke, many have free WiFi. Now just try to get anything done there.
• It’s A Grind — These coffee shops have free WiFi, just find the one nearest you.
• Krystal — A lot of these burger joints have free WiFi, so check the one nearest you.
• McDonald’s – Chances are you have one, but not all have free WiFi yet.
• Panera Bread – More than 1,000 of these have free WiFi, just check the list.
• Peter Piper Pizza — Want pizza with work? Get it here. Check your location for WiFi (Mexico too!).
• Schlotzsky’s – These are popping up all over. Check your local one for free WiFi.
• Shari’s — More and more of these Northwest restaurants have free WiFi. Check yours.
• Starbucks — Get a Starbuck Rewards Card and free WiFi is included.
• Subway – Not all have free WiFi. However, the one nearest you might, so check it out.
• Whole Foods Market — Shop and work? Check out your local Whole Foods (Canada and UK also).

Recommended Websites:
WiFiFreeSpot — Here, you’ll find a directory that includes hotels and airports.
ILoveFreeWiFi — Get big city directories and user reviews as well at this helpful site.
GWiFi — Use Google Maps to find your free WiFi hotspot.
JWire Global WiFi — Just beware, as not all of these international listings are really free.

Much like a divorced marriage counselor, my ability to dish out advice is not an indicator of my ability to implement it. However, having worked from home for over a decade, I’ve learned what works and what just creates more work. – Tamara

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 happy to announce that the second installment of the oDesk Site of the Month contest is in full force.  This time around we have 47 entries, each of which was built by oDesk providers in collaboration with their oDesk buyers.

Every day, we have the privilege of bringing remote workers together to collaborate on oDesk, and seeing amazing products come out of it.  Our buyers are proud of their sites, and this contest will help them show off their masterpieces!  We’re also excited to showcase the web development talent of our community and honor some of the best work done through oDesk.

Winners will be chosen entirely by community voting.  Voting will continue through June 30th, with the grand prize winner, or Site of the Month, officially announced on July 1st.  So what are you waiting for?  Click here to cast your votes – you can vote for up to 3 sites per day.  This time, you can also vote via our Facebook App.  That way, your votes will show up on your walls, and your friends will know what you’re up to.

The owner of the winning site will win a $1,000 oDesk credit, an iPhone, and a spot in our Site of the Month gallery.  Runners-up will get oDesk t-shirts.

While you can’t outsource fun, you can find folks willing to do some pretty wild things on your behalf. Going beyond exceptionally open-minded virtual assistants, here are sites that let you hire others to take on unexpectedly odd tasks!

Singing happy birthday
You’re a thoughtful person. You want to call on your friends’ birthdays, but – being the caring person that you are – you don’t want to subject them to your screechy, tone-deaf rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Enter Taj Tunes, your personal belt-out-a-tune-for-any-occasion service. For a nominal fee per song, you’ve got someone else to sing holiday carols, “thinking of you” ditties, or even love ballads for you!

Gaming

Desperately seeking more gold, weapons, or magic items in your MMORPG? IGE.com is here to help by connecting you to folks interested in trading with you – for virtual gold or the real kind. While the site doesn’t currently offer power leveling (moving your character up through the levels at a rapid pace), but they appear to be developing it and encourage you to check back often!

Relationship with Mom

You love your mom, but she can be insufferable if you don’t call her on Mother’s Day. Momsourcing will call your mom, have a lovely little chat with her, and keep her from leveling you with the full brunt of her guilt the next time you do happen to call. Brilliant!

Your Under-the-Table Gambling Business
You take bets for your friends, coworkers, and 15 random guys at Starbucks. You know the spread on all of last night games, and you know what odds Vegas is posting for tonight’s championship fight. You could actually make some money at this – if only you had someone to manage the books for you. Offering data processing services for sports betting and gambling industry, 24-7Bookie.com will take the tedious task of keeping the books off your plate – leaving you time to shmooze your clientele and land more action!

Baking
Like many people, you love the taste of freshly baked goods, but your last attempt turned out more like hockey pucks than luscious, chewy cupcakes. Thank goodness for Crumbs.com, which bakes many flavors of expertly-decorated cupcakes and ships them to your door. Simple, easy, and yummy! Instructions: Place order. Wait 1 day. Open box. Place cupcakes on plate. Hide box. Take all the credit for the beautifully frosted creations!

And, of course, you can search oDesk.com for providers taking a creative approach to their personal assistant duties! Have you seen sites promoting outsourcing oddities? Let us know about them!

Welcome to a new weekly feature we like to call Work from Home Tuesday (WFHT, for short). At oDesk headquarters in Menlo Park, California, every Tuesday is a WFHT.  So what better way to celebrate remote working than discussing some ways to do it well?

First, however, you should know that–much like a divorced marriage counselor–my ability to dish out advice is not necessarily an indicator of my ability to implement it.  (Let’s just get that clear from the start.) Still, I’ve been in the work-at-home business for a decade, so I feel compelled to say on this beautiful Tuesday …

• Watching your favorite television shows when you’re working is never a good idea.

Sure, you did homework in front of the TV as a child, but you’re on the clock now. The five minute lulls in productivity every time Sawyer gets punched during Lost are going to catch up with you. Try working one hour in front of the TV and and another without any distractions. You’ll see the difference. If I’m wrong, toss my advice. If I’m right, stop it already. (Besides, your roommate will appreciate not having to pause the DVR to explain “what just happened” six times per episode.)

• Do you honestly think you can do quality work while simultaneously entertaining your toddler?
  

Now, sometimes this distraction cannot be helped.  I know, because I have lived it. But I was getting half as much done, taking twice the time and going nearly psycho on my babies. You’ll have a more satisfied buyer (and toddler) if you reserve work for when your little ones are sleeping or not under your supervision–provided you have these options.  (Please. No tears or calls to Child Protective Services.  Just burn the midnight oil and drink loads of coffee until they’re in kindergarten.)

• Try to resist the urge to open e-mails from friends when you are handling work-related e-mails.

If your work and personal e-mail in boxes are one, don’t be tempted by e-mails from friends and family when trying to get things done. It will distract you from corresponding with your clients promptly. I don’t care if it’s a link to some juicy Jon and Kate Gosselin gossip or a photo of your new nephew. If it’s not from a work associate, don’t open it during your work hours. (I promise the “Don’t Ever Call This Area Code” forward will still be there when you are done. And it will still be a total lie.)

WFHT Recommended Reading:
“8 Simple Online Time Management Tools for Freelancers” of Leo Babauta at Freelance Switch
“Setting Up the Web Working Day” by Eric Berlin of Web Worker Daily
“6 Steps to Eliminating Distractions” by Anastasia Pryanikova of Lawsagna

P.S. Ms. Jenkins, I–of course–have never worked for you while watching television.
Except that one time. Last week.

With Twitter’s monumental growth, there has been an increase in the amount of scammers looking to exploit individuals for profit either by the technology itself or by “social engineering“. Many of the same security disciplines required when using email or the web in general now apply to Twitter.

Sounds Phishy: Just like in email, getting a direct message or invitation to click a link has to be judged before following it. There have been many instances of scammers inviting tweeps to follow a link with a phrase such as “Who posted that pic of you on Twitter!!!!” Any Tweep following the link will be directed to a fake twitter logon page or other similar data gathering page. With enough data, any scammer can fill in the rest.

Give me your security question answers: This was an excellent example of social engineering. The recent twitter porn names scam was simply a hashtag trend started inviting people to create a twitter porn name by adding various common security question answers such as your pet’s name. Once someone tweets this info the scammers had the username and a selection of common security question answers. A few trips to Yahoo mail or Gmail would probably get you into someone’s bank account.

Sure buddy, just send me your credit card number: Tweet about how much you want product X. A certain scammer will befriend you as an employee of the company that makes Product X. After he builds up a little trust, he will offer you Product X at a special, insider price. Email him your credit card or bank info, game over.

Phone Home: “You have just won a free cell phone!” the tweet says. Clicking on the link and after filling out you cell number and basic details, you will just auto-enrolled on a $20/month horoscopes or similarly unwanted messages direct to your phone by text scam.

Worming in: Another recent Twitter attack that was more benign than malicious where an industrious but “bored” hacker used a javascript hack to take over Twitter accounts to spam twitter. Titled “Stalkdaily” or “Mikeyy”, it owned twitter for a few days. This, in honesty, was Twitters problem and not the users but users who used third party software clients to access Twitter like Tweetdeck were immune. This exploit in the hands of a more ill-intentioned individual might have delivered a few sad stories.

If we missed on any, simply tell us in the comments or link to the info. Safe tweeting.

We’re turning the oDesk Provider Manifesto into a video showing off the heart and soul of oDesk: our providers

Send us a video of yourself reciting all or part of the oDesk Provider Manifesto in your own way. Get creative, show us your culture, speak in your own language. Your video will be used in our oDesk Provider Manifesto Video!

You can view more information and submission guidelines on our oDesk Video Upload Site.

There are three ways to submit a video. You can use our private submission form, post a video to our Facebook Wall, or submit a video response on YouTube.

Video submissions will be accepted from Wednesday, May 20 – Monday June 15

Developing an iPhone App?  Here’s what not to do:

1. Baby Shaker

Without a doubt, it may be the most tasteless, most ban-worthy banned iPhone app of all time. It involved a badly drawn crying infant, a lot of shaking, and (eventually) a quiet–but mostly dead–little tike. Tech Crunch’s MG Siegler called it horrifying and eventually Apple did too.

2. I Am Rich

It didn’t last, but German developer Armin Heinrich did get 8 buyers before Apple shut down his $999.99 application, which was nothing more than a shiny red gem glimmering in the middle of your iPhone screen.  The pricey app would, Heinrich proposed, prove to all your friends that you really are that rich. And stupid.

3. Podcaster

Alex Sokirynsky’s podcast application was banned by iPhone, not for being obscene or otherwise offensive, but for seeming a little too much like competition–i.e. Podcasts on iTunes.  Sokirynsky’s iPhone version of Podcaster allows users to download podcasts via Wi-Fi or EDGE. (Read a defense of Apple’s decision here.) Sokirynsky–with a lot of techies rooting for him–has found a way around the ban though, by sending potential buyers here.

4. NetShare

Before it was unceremoniously banned, a tethering application called NetShare from Nullriver allowed iPhone users’ 3G access to extend to their laptops and get them on line. This ban can’t be blamed entirely on Apple, however. It was all about AT&T, money and territory.

5. iBoobs

Well, folks, it was exactly what it’s name implied, and demonstrations are still available. These almost life-like boobies/breasts/hooters would jiggle just for fun, until Apple gave them a proper bra and sent them home. Since iBoobs’ banning, an app called Wobble has allowed users to simulate an almost identical scenario on real pictures, however Apple has been up in Wobble’s grill since day one. Its jiggling days may also be numbered.

6. SlingPlayer

Using your 3G iPhone to get television from your SlingBox would be uber-convenient. However, AT&T was ultimately terrified of the bandwidth, congestion, etc. that could have resulted when untold masses tried to watch television on their iPhones at the same time via 3G. For now, its 3G banning is a bummer, but the Wi-Fi use is still available.

7. Murderdrome

One of the oddest iPhone app bannings was that of Murderdrome, a graphic novel app from Infurious. The banning was due to the content of the specific Murderdrome series, however the app itself would’ve allowed other–less offensive–Infurious graphic novel releases via iPhone. Never fear, in the end Infurious got their app back in the store for a different comic: EyeCandy.

8. Prohibition 2: Dope Wars

This iPhone game from Hardy Macia at Catamount Software had all the drug fun that made John E. Dell’s ’80s version (Drug Wars) such an addictive–no pun intended–success. Apple didn’t see the irony or the fun, so Macia had to go with a candy prohibition game instead.

9. Obama Trampoline

Swamiware was simply not ready to back down when its iPhone app was banned due to cartoon graphics of politicians jumping up and down on a trampoline in the Oval Office. So, they stuck to their guns … sort of. You can now get the app from the iPhone store, but you’ll have to play it with paper bags over the politicians’ heads. (Let’s face it, Apple, we all know who’s in the tight red skirt.)

10. Freedom Time

This last app–banned for reasons similar to #9–makes the list for one reason and one reason only: Steve Jobs himself took the time to give creators Alec Vance and Court Batson a response. This app was meant to give those anxious to get Bush out of office a fun way to count the days in 2008; but in the end, even Democrat-leaning Steve Jobs didn’t see the point in firing up the potential controversy.

Last week, oDesk crossed more than $70M in dollars billed through our service, and surpassed 13k online hours/day. But we also passed another important milestone – we resolved our 100,000th Support Ticket.

Customer Service and Support is an important priority for oDesk. Our stellar team has tripled in size, from just four team members to 12 this year. With this investment, we have been able to launch Chat Support from the hours of Midnight to 5:00 PM PST, and hope to expand to 24 hours Chat within the coming months.

Our commitment as a team is to help all customers be successful and thriving members of the oDesk Ecosystem, and as such, our team has been renamed the oDesk Customer Success team.

To celebrate this important milestone, we have gathered a few anecdotes to share with you that demonstrate our commitment, and might just give you a laugh.

• While chatting with a new provider, I learned that the first assignment she was rewarded was not legitimate. She was being hired now for the 2nd time, but she was concerned by a request to register on an outside site. I advised her to hold off and email the buyer asking for more information, but after we disconnected, I did a little more digging. I was relieved to see that the buyer was legitimate, and a GREAT buyer. I quickly called the provider back and advised her to go ahead and accept the work. A few hours later I got an email that the assignment had begun, but that the provider was looking for a little help getting started on oDesk Team. I asked her to call me on my cell phone during my commute, and we were able to walk through all of the best practices for ensuring success. I learned that this provider had been struggling to find a source of income after moving to a remote location in order to assist a loved one. I am confident that taking the extra time to ensure she had a great first assignment really made a difference, and set her up for future success on oDesk.

• Customer: How will oDesk know that I have submitted my job to buyer and if buyer pays me, keep oDesk %?
  Shannon: All payments go through the oDesk system, and will show up on your Financial Activities screen
  Shannon: Our fees are withdrawn before you are paid
  Customer: Well then. Thank you Shannon. I love you.
  Shannon: Good luck to you and you are welcome

• We had a provider contact us on chat, frantic that he was unable to withdraw funds. There was a significant language barrier, but we identified that the provider was having difficulty withdrawing funds from his Payoneer Debit Card. Perplexed, we decided to investigate this case, and at that time we realized that the provider had never been hired, or done any work on oDesk. While we are here to help, there are things that even we cannot support, and a self funding debit card is one of them! Darn.

Meet the Team:

Joe, Arizona	Karissa, Philippines	Shannon, California	Bernadette, Bahrain	Stephanie, Tennessee
Doreen, Massachusetts	Jasmine, Philippines	Michelle, Texas	Barbara, Massachusetts	Karen, Philippines

We look forward to chatting with you soon!

Getting it all together is one of the biggest challenges of the work-from-home lifestyle. Appointments, due-dates, family, clients… There’s always something or someone trying to slip through the cracks, a post-it that comes unstuck and flutters under your desk, an email that just doesn’t get flagged. For about a decade now we’ve been waiting for the promised pocket-secretary, an all-in-one device that helps us stay on top of all aspects of our lives. Enter the Palm Pre, a phone/pocket computer/web surfing device/camera/etc.

At the very least, the Palm Pre is going to give the iPhone a serious run for its money. Is it an iPhone killer? Maybe not, but I’d certainly expect the next generation of iPhone to tackle a lot of the Palm Pre’s extra features Stuff.tv shows off in this video:

I don’t know about you, but consolidating all my calendars, is a HUGE deal. Jumping between my work calendar, my family calendar, my Facebook calendar, my Yahoo Groups Calendar, and trying to keep them all synchronized is, quite simply, impossible. It’s everything that’s wrong with modern communications technology in microcosm: a flood of useful information, but so utterly dispersed as to be more disrupting than old-fashioned ignorance.

What we need is a way to unify all this sort of thing in one place, at one time, so we can see it, process it and make good decisions based on it. Palm Pre isn’t quite everything we need. It’s still subject to the old GIGO rule: Garbage In, Garbage Out. It won’t read your post-its, or the scribble on the dry-erase board that you fail to input on your computer, but it certainly looks like a huge leap in the right direction.

Unifying and capturing communications is another big step forward. About the only thing it doesn’t seem to do here is record our calls and transcribe them as text files. Still, being able to handle the email and simple research with access to Google docs and LinkedIn makes me a networking machine no matter where I am, especially since the Palm Pre supports multitasking. And apparently, it multitasks very well:

Ten to fifteen apps at once is hopefully more than most of us need, but in all honesty, I’d probably end up pushing it. As the war for the ultimate uber-phone intensifies, applications are going to become a major battleground. While the Palm Pre might not be the pocket-secretary we all desire, there’s a good chance it just might emerge from the coming clash between Palm and Apple.

This was another big week for oDesk. Just three months ago, we were thrilled about crossing the 10,000 online hours/day mark.  This week, we passed 13,000 hours, meaning 6.5 man years of work are done through oDesk each day.  We also crossed $70M earned on oDesk:

With these soaring numbers, the only appropriate way to celebrate was with an afternoon of indoor skydiving.  The 25 people working in our Menlo Park office enjoyed flying with the assistance of only a jet engine blowing at ~150mph.  See Brian, our VP of marketing, soar.

Thanks again to our 300,000 buyers and providers in 150 countries – you are the ones that make these milestones possible.  Each day we have the privilege of bringing you together to collaborate through oDesk, and seeing amazing products come out of it.  Let’s all keep on changing how the world works!

We’ve said it before: Twitter is the wave of the social media future! With Ashton Kutcher reaching over 1.5 million followers, and Oprah gaining over 700,000 followers since her Twitter debut on her show two weeks ago, Twitter growth is increasing exponentially! New users are signing up by the boatloads every day.

Because the second most frequently asked question by Twitter newcomers is, “who should I follow?” we decided to put together a list of the writers we follow on Twitter…and why you should probably follow them, too!

	@problogger (Darren Rowse): Full time Blogger, Author, Social Media Participant. Sharing Blogging and Twitter Tips (and a little life). Why we follow him: If you haven’t read his blog, Problogger, check it out. He offers excellent tips for writers and people aspiring to be professional bloggers.
	@skinnyjeans (Stephanie Quilao): Deliciously creative blogger of Everyday Tweet. Founder. I share stuff I think is awesome and helpful. Healthy living, Work, Food, Design, Photography, Twitter. Why we follow her: Her documented journey to becoming a professional blogger on her website, The Everyday Blogger.
	@daivrawks (Daiv Russell): Super-caffeinated Ninja-Nerd, Foodie, SEO/Copywriter, Husband, Project Mangler, Vegetarian, Software Process junkie, and Org Psych, Marketing & Statistics Why we follow him: With a blog named Ninja Nerd, how could we not? Plus, he’s got great SEO writing tips on his blog.
	@copyblogger (Brian Clark): I create new media content for fun and profit. Why we follow him: He offers great writing tips on his blog, Copyblogger, from how to write catchy titles to how to overcome writer’s block.
	@thedomesticdiva (Heather): Freelance Writer. Professional Mommy Blogger. Graphic Designer. Photographer. I’ve participated in the Sony Mommy Blogger Event and Walmart’s ElevenMoms. Why we follow her: Her blog, Domestic Diva, is fun…but we love her videos even more.
	@paulabrett (Paula Brett): Marketer, Web Host, Writer, Blogger, Actor, Singer, Footy mum, Voddie Glugger, Legend in My Own Lunchtime Why we follow her: Her tweets range from professional to, “People who say they never let little things bother them have never slept in a room with a mosquito!” and she shares tips for bloggers on her own blog.
	@writingspirit (Julie Isaac): Tips to unleash your writing genius and rock your world with twitter. Host of #WriteChat Sundays 12-3pm PST. Soon to unveil Twitter Made Easy. Why we follow her: Writers can get lots of great tips and chat with other writers on #WriteChat (on Twitter).
	@sarahprout (Sarah Prout): Author, entrepreneur, online socialite, publisher, passionate advocate of the Law of Attraction and mother of 2 little darlings. Why we follow her: She’s the founder of Sprout Publishing and helps aspiring authors get their works published in compilation books along with celebrity contributors.
	@thedailyblonde (Cheryl): Blogger,Writer,Commentator on Bullcrap, Funny Girl, Single Mom to 5 Awesome Kiddos. I’m A Left Handed Polish Chick & I’m NEVER Growing Up! Why we follow her: Because she “lives without a filter on her mouth” and she’s just plain funny.
	@conniegreen (Connie Green): I teach new entrepreneurs how to use online writing and technology to build a profitable business. Why we follow her: She has great tips on her blog, Ebook Writing and Marketing Secrets, for business bloggers and marketing yourself as a business.
	@hakicoma (Hans): Blogger, Blogging tips, Social Media lover and Internet Marketer. I really enjoy meeting new people… contact me! Why we follow him: He has tons of great writing tips for bloggers at his blog, Catch The Posts.
	@linnetwoods (Linnet Woods): I live aboard a schooner with my man and a cat… I’m a freelance writer and web mangler… Why we follow her: She’s very active on Twitter and her daily “Twitterhood” trivia quizzes are fun.
	@redhotcopy (Lorrie Ferrero): Copywriter, speaker, internet marketer, mother, wife Why we follow her: She’s fun on Twitter and her blog, Red Hot Blog, often has useful tips like this video for book authors on how to get celebrity endorsements.
	@mike_stelzner (Mike Stelzner): Author of book, ‘Writing White Papers,’ organizer of large summits and a dad Why we follow him: He has lots of useful information on writing white papers on his blog, Writing White Papers, along with great videos like this one on how to prevent the “feast or famine” cycle we’ve all run into at one point or another as freelancers.
	@jonfmerz (Jon F Merz): Novelist (the Lawson Vampire books, Rogue Angel), screenwriter, non-fic author, TV dude (THE FIXER), partner at New Ronin Productions, Bujinkan Ninjutsu 5th dan Why we follow him: Because there aren’t enough fiction novelists on Twitter, let alone ones who are as active as he is! You can also check out his blog, Boston Nocturne, for direct ebook downloads.
	@remarkablogger (Michael Martine): Blog consultant and coach Why we follow him: He has great writing tips on his site, Remarkablogger, as well as catchy titles like: How to Write an Ebook that Doesn’t Suck
	@thecreativepenn (Joanna Penn): Author, speaker and coach – writing, self-publishing, print-on-demand, internet sales and promotion for your book Why we follow her: She has great tips for self-published authors at her blog, The Creative Penn.
	@joefinder (Joe Finder): NYT bestselling thriller writer, Dad, Red Sox fan Why we follow him: Not only is he a New York Times best-selling author who’s active on Twitter, but he also has occasional writing tips on his blog, Joseph Finder’s Blog.
	@jennipps (Jen Nipps): Freelance writer/editor specializing in creativity, writing, fashion, health, & general interest. Update frequently. I’m sorry, but I can’t follow everyone Why we follow her: She always has great tips for writers (and freelancers in general) at her blog, TutorialBlog.
	@menwithpens (James C): A Canadian freelance writer with a pen mightier than a sword Why we follow him: His blog, Men With Pens, is another excellent resource for freelance writers.
	@kathleenfuller (Kathleen Fuller): Novelist, freelance writer, author of upcoming Amish novel series Hearts of Middlefield Why we follow her: She tweets and re-tweets a lot of useful articles for freelance writers.
	@angee (Angela Booth): Want to write, have fun and make money? Join me in this incredible new media journey to make good old-fashioned cash. I’m a copywriter and author. Why we follow her: Great tips for writers on her blog, Angela Booth’s Writing Blog.
	@joner (Linda Jones): Director of Passionate Media, journalist and author. Mum of twins, blogging at www.gotyourhandsfull.com Why we follow her: Her blog, Freelance Writing Tips, contains lots of great writing tips and book reviews.
	@chafkin (Max Chafkin): I write for Inc. magazine. I live in Brooklyn. Why we follow him: We like when he says things like this, “Beg for followers? Ewww. Twitter needs less of that. More conversation please.”
	@kathrynvercillo (Kathryn Vercillo): Blogger/Writer. Always pushing the boundaries of my creative experience. Why we follow her: Aside from the fact that we think more people should follow her, she publishes some great articles on her blog, Real Words, like Being Productive When Working from Home.

And, if you’re still not following @odesk on Twitter, what are you waiting for?

Some would say we’re biased, but it’s a simple fact: There are two kinds of people in the world—those who use oDesk and those who don’t. Since the percentage of people who do use oDesk is increasing every day … well, who wants to be left on the wrong side of history, right?

To make the oDesk value proposition clearer, in a way that doesn’t use phrases like “value proposition,” we’ve put together a short video that explains exactly what oDesk is and how we provide the best remote-work solution for both buyers and providers. We’re trying to serve two audiences: People who haven’t joined up yet, and people who have, but are tired of explaining to friends, family and colleagues how oDesk works. Now you can just send ‘em the video link, and two and a half minutes later, they’re on board.

We’re particularly proud that we put this thing together in-house—only we consider the entire oDesk provider network to be our house. Produced by me with the help of oDesk’s Larry Stone, the script (Brian McDonough), video animation (Bill Whitney), voice work (Mandy Nelson) and sound effects (Jeffrey Stevens) were handled by oDesk providers who put a lot of creativity and effort into the process. We think it shows in the final product. Give it a look and tell us what you think. And share it with everyone you know.

Orie Zaklad

P.S. You can also view the video and share it on YouTube

oDesk CEO Gary Swart will be speaking at tonight’s Biz Tech Series Event in San Francisco: How to Run Your Business on the Cheap.  Register here.

At oDesk, we have the privilege of helping small & medium-sized businesses do more with less by hiring, managing, and paying contractors from a global talent pool.  Tonight, Gary will share how we use our own platform to find the right talent, the right way, as well as other insights on doing business frugally.  Come if you can; otherwise, see his presentation here.

oDesk attended Web 2.0 Expo last week for the 3rd year in a row.  This year’s event, smaller than previous years, was appropriately themed “The Power of Less.”  It was strong nonetheless, with over 8,000 attendees and keynotes from industry stalwarts like Palm, eBay, Google, and Microsoft, and up-and-coming firms like Threadless and SalaamGarage.  My personal favorite talks were John Maeda’s on the importance of simplicity in the digital age and Blue State Digital’s inside peek at my.barackobama.com, Barack Obama’s new media juggernaut.

During the conference, oDesk CEO Gary Swart demoed oDesk to InformationWeek’s David Berlind:

At our exhibitor booth, the reception of oDesk’s product continues to be strong.  It was great to interact with current and prospective customers, understand their needs, and show them how they can realize the “Power of Less” using oDesk to hire, manage, and pay distributed teams of remote contractors.

…to make great music or do great work.

Stand By Me | Song Around The World from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

We stumbled across this clip from the award-winning documentary, “Playing for Change: Peace through music,” and immediately connected with it, as we feel it speaks to our mission at oDesk.  It’s a cover of  the Ben E. King classic “Stand by Me,” by musicians around the world adding their part.  Every day, we have the privilege of bringing remote workers together to collaborate on oDesk, and seeing amazing products come out of it.  Enjoy!

oDesk attended PubCon South in Austin, TX for the first time this week. The keynotes were delivered by digital entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki and Google lead quality engineer Matt Cutts. Matt launched Google’s new Friend Connect API on Thursday. Attendees included leading search and internet marketing gurus from around the South.

oDesk CEO Gary Swart spoke on a panel titled “Career Gut Check” and delivered this presentation on the SEO/SEM Career Landscape, using oDesk’s wealth of job data to draw conclusions on the state of the internet marketing industry.

At our exhibitor booth, the reception of oDesk’s product continues to be strong. It was great to interact with current and prospective customers, understand their needs, and show them how they can use oDesk to both find work and do more with less by managing a team of remote professionals.

We’re a little obsessed with analytics here at oDesk. We start each day with a vigorous round of “Daily Predictions.” The rules of the game: Guess how many hours of work will be logged worldwide on oDesk that day (ending 4 pm Pacific time). Players must log their guesses in a Google doc by noon, and no one can pick a total within 20 hours of anyone else’s guess. Don’t even ask about the disciplinary procedures for sneaking in after lunch and changing your guess — they involve severe public shaming.  The winner gets bragging rights, his or her name in the official “winners column,” and the (grudging) admiration of colleagues.

This is not a game for the faint of heart. Each of us has developed a personal algorithm, taking into account such variables as the number of hours already logged a the deadline approaches, the percent increase over the same day and time from the week before, and which guesses have already been claimed by rivals. It’s amazing that any work gets done before noon.

Last week was an especially exciting for this pulse-pounding mental sport.  We crossed 10,000 online hours in a single day for the first time on Tuesday.  What does 10,000 hours mean?  That’s five man-years of work logged on oDesk in a single day.

We couldn’t have crossed this important milestone without you – the more than 200,000 buyers and providers in 150 countries, so thanks for building our success, and for giving us a thrilling afternoon.  Imagine if we had money riding on this game.

When we’re not swimming through our data for fun and sport, we’re crunching numbers to better serve our community.  We always like to be transparent, and like to share data with you whenever possible.  To better live up to that, we recently redesigned our oConomy this week, which is chalk full of fascinating trends and data.  Check out the new look:

In case you’re wondering, it’s Product Manager Anand Hattiangadi who’s on a winning streak at “Daily Predictions” these days.  But we’re all gunning for him now, refining those personal algorithms every chance we get.  Work hours might be going up, Anand … but you’re goin’ down!

For those of you who missed my blog post, oDesk asked me and fellow oDesk provider Erin to represent them at the Boston Great American Job Fair and talk to prospective providers about opportunities in online work. Here’s a little about how it went…

I am a typically early riser (around 5:30 – 6:00) but even for me, 3am was very early to get up.  We arrived at the Sheraton in Boston at 4:45am. Now for a visual here, this hotel is one of the premier hotels in the area, and of course my first thought was where do I get coffee, but I decided to set up the oDesk table first and then head for coffee.  So off I went up the escalator and I was met with 12 security guards (go figure) and at least thirty people standing in line, resumes in hand, as well as the GMA staff setting up a table for people to sign in.  I entered the grand ballroom, and there were tables set up side by side 6 across and 6 deep for displayers.

At about 5am my fellow oDesker joined me (I recognized her by the oDesk shirt she was wearing) and we decided we should wander downstairs for coffee.  Starbucks (disclaimer: I never drink Starbucks coffee) was still closed but we were assured they were going to open ‘early’ at 5:30.  I hate to tell you – when I’ve been up since 3am, 5:30 is NOT early!  At 5:30 we headed back downstairs.  $8.25 for a cup of cofee, a muffin and a tin of gum.  Oh well, such is life!

So finally at 6am Tory Johnson announced that they were just about ready to begin filming and told us to not ‘fawn’ for the cameras but please don’t avoid them (oh please, can’t we just avoid them?).  At any rate, the doors open and the crowd began filtering in.  Let me tell you, people looking for work all have common ground, and the lack of noise in there was astounding considering how many people were in the room! In fact I don’t think it hit me for a couple of days just how quiet it was given the number of people in the room.

Our first ‘interested’ person came to the oDesk table at about 6:15 and from then until 10:00 we spent our time talking to people about oDesk, the opportunities available and about how we had found success here.  Chances are that some of the people are never going to even visit oDesk website (like the construction person who has never used a computer – I thought he was a little young for no computer use, but what do I know), and the person who typically worked on Government Contracts and was accustomed to making $125,000 a year.

After about the first 30 people passed through I think we were asking them before they did “What’s oDesk?” since that was everyone’s first question!  All in all the GMA Job Fair was fun and we enjoyed spreading the word about oDesk in Boston!  If I had to estimate I’d say that no less than 500 people passed through the Job Fair and I’d estimate that probably 150 stopped and talked to us!

Doreen Martel is a freelance writer on oDesk.  She is a longtime advocate for freelancers, and offers advice via her blog, Freelancing and More.  If you are interested in writing a guest blog post, email stories@odesk.com

We’d like to thank all our buyers and providers for an enormously successful 2008. We hope 2009 brings success to everyone in the oDesk community.And most of all, we’d love to hear how oDesk figures into your plans for a prosperous 2009! If your New Year’s Resolution includes oDesk, send an email to stories@odesk.com to tell us all about it. You could win an oDesk T-Shirt and be featured here on the oDesk blog.

The oDesk Team

Geeky guys in blue shirts and khaki pants? Silly made-up domain names? 23-year-old CEOs? Twenty-somethings flocking to Palo Alto to strike it rich in the land of opportunity?

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

“Here comes another bubble” has got it all. We stumbled upon this hilarious video from the Richter Scale blog about the sheer ridiculousness of Silicon Valley. It opens up with Peter Thiel (of PayPal fame and an early investor of Facebook), who states:

“There’s absolutely no bubble in technology”

and takes us through the crash of the last bubble to now, where companies like Facebook are being valued at $15 billion (Ford, by comparison, is worth around $16 billion, the video informs us).

If you’re in the Valley (and even if you’re not), you’ll definitely enjoy this clip.

We did want to note one thing: Several media outlets have been buzzing about one bubble indicator: made-up, off-the-beat domain names (the Wall Street Journal calls it the Goofy-Name Index). The video even pokes at several names currently in use (Meebo, Flickr, WikiYou)… etc.

But there is value in having a unique name. For one, people remember it. They associate that word with your company, and your company alone. And when they search for your company, you’re easy to find. Try doing a search for “oDesk” on Google. You’ll find us right away. (And if you’re curious about the origin of our name, check out the oDesk page on Wikipedia).

And after you’re done Googling us, watch the video again. I did, and couldn’t stop laughing (despite weird looks from cubicle-mates).

We wish all our our oDesk providers and buyers a Happy Thanksgiving!

This is really a holiday where many of us reflect on all we have to be thankful for, and here at oDesk, we’re grateful for many things. Just today, thanks to our amazing network of hardworking providers and diligent buyers, we hit a record of 4,002 hours worked in one day.

So it is with many thanks that we acknowledge your hard work on oDesk, and we hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

Dmitry Sokolovksy, our QA master, is also a bayan guru, which is a type of accordion.

He recently brought his accordion to the office and played a bunch of his favorite songs. Some really impressive finger work, I’m sure it helps in typing fast on the computer

Check out this video:

I hope you noticed:

The scary cat pictures
My South Asian bobble-head
The wink

-
Abid Mohsin

Our friends at Predictify launched their service earlier today and we’re giving it a whirl.  Predictify is sponsoring an oDesk-related poll to help predict how large the oConomy will be in Q4.

Those of you that frequent the oDesk homepage have probably noticed that the oConomy is growing faster than ever – nearly $3.5 million in the last 90 days!  You can see total provider earnings for the last 90 days on the “oConomy Facts” tab of our homepage.

Make your prediction for total provider earnings for the period from October 1st through the end of the year.

The most accurate predictors will split a pot of $250.