Jasmine with oDesk friends, April 2008

“Things change when you love your work,” says Jasmine Sison, who has been with the team for two years. “I am always looking to find new ways of making my work easier and faster without sacrificing quality.”

Jasmine quit her in-house job and has worked full-time for the oDesk team since January ‘08. She notes that the posting that led to this great fit seemed perfectly suited to her from the start — it wasn’t just work she could do, it was work she wanted to do. “The position was something that interested me and I am very good at doing,” she says. “A nice combination of my education, acquired skills and experiences that I have gained from other work and work environments.”

As director of customer service, Shannon Adkins makes sure the job stays interesting, and that her providers continue to feel engaged, with brief weekly training sessions in which they troubleshoot a recent difficult case. She also uses oDesk’s transparency to keep everyone involved. “All metrics are published to the entire team, and all team members know how they are doing relative to their peers, as well as how oDesk as a whole is doing.” And those who are doing well receive bonuses.

But Shannon looks not just to the present, but the future: “We provide a clear guideline of how to move up in the organization, from entry level to team lead or specialist.”

“My potential is being discovered and my existing skills are honed and challenged,” Jasmine says. “I love learning, and I get my daily dose from this team.”

For more on how oDesk makes remote work work, read our full case study.

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Alexey, Beverly, Misha and Tamara — you’ve earned this!

	Alexey Z C/C++ Technical Lead Total oDesk Hours: 217 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 1 feedbacks) Comments: I would like to stress his ability to deliver work right on time, as you dont see this too often. His communication skills were excellent, and he could quickly understand my needs.
	Beverly B MarCom and Administrative Assistance by Seasoned Professional Total oDesk Hours: 101 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 1 feedbacks) Comments: Beverly was a great provider. She had all the right tools and helped us on our webinars, PowerPoints, and content creation projects. Thanks!
	Misha B (Affiliated with UACoders) Drupal/PHP/MySQL/HTML/JS/CSS Total oDesk Hours: 1,289 Overall Feedback: 4.62 (Based on 14 feedbacks) Comments: Misha is a talented and capable developer with an in-depth knowledge of Drupal. He is a pleasure to work with and a valuable part of our development team.
	Tamara B 2400+ oDesk HRS-90WPM Transcribe, Transcription (audio/video) Total oDesk Hours: 2,440 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 41 feedbacks) Comments: I have been working with Tamara for over 1 year now. I have never been so happy with a service provider! She gets the job done fast, accurate, and loves what she does.

Stature Software started using oDesk in August 2006, only three weeks after it formed. “I realized at the time that the future was with offshore developers,” says partner Gregory Silvano. “My problem was that I didn’t know how to find good offshore developers. … Once I saw oDesk, I realized it was exactly what I was looking for.”

Three years later, Silvano’s partnership with Joseph Patalano has grown, with no capital investment, into a business that earns $2 million a year. Relying almost entirely on remote providers, they’re experts at managing online workteams — they have 20 oDesk providers and a smaller number of outside contractors — so we asked them for a buyer’s perspective on provider relationships.

Q: You really emphasize long-term relationships with your providers, don’t you?
A: “Once we find a provider, we typically keep that provider full-time forever. The second person I ever interviewed was Roman Trotsenko, who now has a dozen developers in his company working for Stature. Originally it was Roman as our developer, and we kept adding more and more to his team.”

Q: Besides the specific technical skills, what do you look for when you’re seeking a good provider?
A: “Creativity, reliability, English skills, responsiveness. I don’t want to give perfect specs every time. I want the developer to understand our clients’ business and really understand the problems they need to solve.”

Q: What’s a fatal mistake that providers commonly make, whether in their profiles or in initial communication with you?
A: “Lack of responsiveness is absolutely No. 1. It is probably the only fatal mistake they can make in my eyes. They can always get better at coding and better at the processes. But if they are unreliable, then they’re gone. I’d rather have an eager and responsive junior developer than an unresponsive expert.”

Q: You’ve got providers all over the world. What are the tricks and advantages to building a widely dispersed workteam?
A: We have nearly 24 hour coverage … it’s good to have the team all over the world. I intentionally found providers from several locations in 2006 because I didn’t want one political situation or one tidal wave to wipe out my entire company. We typically focus on Russia, Ukraine, and Philippines.”

Q: In what ways does using oDesk providers give your business an edge over the competition?
A: “Cost and ability to rapidly expand. I can add new developers quicker than my (competent) competitors can. I can also add developers quicker than my clients can add in-house developers, which means I can ramp up for a new project quicker than they can — so I’ll often get the new business.”

Q: You’ve got multiple projects under way at a time; how do you divide the work among your various workteams?
A: “We’ve found it’s best to not use multiple teams on the same projects. There are different coding styles, time zones, managers, etc. In the end, I’d rather have all of the code written by the same team.”

Read our full story on Stature Software here.

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Kamil, Miranda, Nikita and Jo — you’ve earned this!

	Kamil D (Affiliated with DNC.PL) 8 years experiencein PHP5/MySQL, Magento / CakePHP / Google Apps Total oDesk Hours: 1,131 Overall Feedback: 4.99 (Based on 16 feedbacks) Comments: Kamil is a fantastic developer whose professionalism and communication skills make him a pleasure to work with.
	Miranda R XHTML/CSS/Flash/Photoshop/Illustrator Pro in Seattle, USA Total oDesk Hours: 1,112 Overall Feedback: 4.75 (Based on 13 feedbacks) Comments: Dedicated, Knowledgeable, Detail Oriented, Talented.
	Nikita P (Affiliated with Rus Wizards) MS SQL DBA & DBD (T-SQL, SSRS, SSIS, SSAS), C# CLR, BIRT/Eclipse ninja Total oDesk Hours: 3,137 Overall Feedback: 4.79 (Based on 4 feedbacks) Comments: Extremely solid. I will be going back to him when we need more DBA help.
	Jo B Web Content provider & Travel writer, Administrator, Purchasing Total oDesk Hours: 52 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 17 feedbacks) Comments: Excellent work again Jo, professional and the best quality.

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and a high quality individual portrait (not too blurry, no avatars). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

Every month, we highlight the most interesting discussions online of what we modestly call the oDesk Experience. Our favorite writers receive free oDesk T-shirts, which are so ridiculously fabulous, we don’t have words. (Send us links to your oDesk-related posts, and you might win one yourself.) Since our last check-in, there have been quite a few interesting blog entries about oDesk.

Our favorite? Student, runway model, and new oDesk provider Paulette Quinto’s blog post describing her first three weeks on oDesk. It’s just one of several posts about her oDesk adventures. We’re assuming she’s really gonna know how to wear that stylish black T-shirt…

We run across an awful lot of blog posts about the life of a provider—Katrine Sales provides a great one here—but this month we’ve got a fine piece for the buyers out there—headlined “How to Hire a Virtual Assistant,” it provides a lot of tips about how to hire a remote provider to take over all that clutter that keeps you from doing what you need to get done. It’s a fast-growing niche in our marketplace, so check out the tips and get on board now!

If you’ve been buzy buzzing too maybe you’ll be featured here on the oDesk blog next month! Send us your links for a shot at those T-shirts—they’re so cool, even models are wearing them now.

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Christopher, Stacy, Oleksii, and Daniela — you’ve earned this!

	Christopher M Flash Ninja/Actionscript Assassin! AS3/AS2/XML/HTML/CSS Total oDesk Hours: 188 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 1 feedbacks) Comments: The perfect developer: Highly skilled, fast, accurate with timeframe estimates, passionate, pays attention to details. Chris is a pleasure to work with.
	Stacy C Web Development, Design, Consulting, HTML, CSS, Joomla, Writer/Editor Total oDesk Hours: 17 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 6 feedbacks) Comments: Your work was excellent, thorough and complete. I appreciate what I learned from you in our close communication and I am delighted with the outcome.
	Oleksii M (Affiliated with RusCoder) PHP/MySQL/Javascript/AJAX/DHTML/C++/Win32API Total oDesk Hours: 730 Overall Feedback: 4.72 (Based on 3 feedbacks) Comments: His coding abilities are excellent, his code is clean and well documented, and he is very good at finding solutions to problems. All around, Oleksii is top notch.
	Daniela D Professional Graphic Designer specialized in Print Design Total oDesk Hours: 0 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 7 feedbacks) Comments: Truly wonderful designer and a pleasure to work with… So creative! Thank you Daniela! I would work with her on any assignment!

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and a high quality individual portrait (not too blurry, no avatars). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

1,383 providers from 75 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden and Switzerland, got their first jobs in the last month. These 1,383 providers have already racked up 53,690 oDesk hours and over $484,997 in just one month. Congrats to the providers who landed their first jobs in the June!

Want to get in on the earning action? Get oDesk Ready, fill out your profile, and apply to job openings!

1,266 providers from 66 countries, including Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland and Portugal, got their first jobs in the last month. These 1,266 providers have already racked up 48,067 oDesk hours and over $431,497 in just one month. Congrats to the providers who landed their first jobs in the May!

Want to get in on the earning action? Get oDesk Ready, fill out your profile, and apply to job openings!

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Bernard, Julian, Sarah and Maria Norma — you’ve earned this!

	Bernard V (Affiliated with BI Competence Center) Business Plans, Spreadsheet Modeling, Simulation & Optimization Total oDesk Hours: 769 Overall Feedback: 4.95 (Based on 20 feedbacks) Comments: Bernard was an awesome asset to our programming project. When tweaks were required along the way, Bernard was responsive and accurate with his work. His knowledge base of excel and his ability to communicate and provide solutions is superb.
	Julian M Qualified IT Professional | PHP, CodeIgniter, jQuery, Java Total oDesk Hours: 1,781 Overall Feedback: 4.91 (Based on 12 feedbacks) Comments: This has been one of my top experiences on a web development project anywhere. This guy is truly talented and his love for the craft of web design/development shows through his work and attitude. Thanks Julian!
	Sarah W Excellent English, Veterinarian, Freelance Writer Total oDesk Hours: 49 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 4 feedbacks) Comments: Sarah is the best! If you are looking for well-thought, researched content that is actually worth something, Sarah is hard to beat. Hire her, pay her well and spoil her rotten!
	Maria Norma G (Affiliated with Galindo Consulting Group, Inc.) Semiologic Pro/Drupal/Html/Css/Php/Wordpress/Photoshop CS3/Dreamweaver Total oDesk Hours: 670 Overall Feedback: 4.96 (Based on 12 feedbacks) Comments: Maria has been working with me for over 5 months on several assignments and has been absolutely wonderful to work with. She is fast, consistent and excellent at completing assignments on time.

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and a high quality individual portrait (not too blurry, no avatars). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

Salesforce.com has helped build a group of certified Force.com developers on oDesk, making our marketplace one of the best resources for buyers looking to use Salesforce.com CRM solutions on the Force.com platform. And we’re hearing from the providers offering Force.com skills that being part of this latest certified group on oDesk is paying off as “cloud computing” reaches new heights.

Rakesh Aggarwal is a salesforce.com-certified developer in India who says demand for Force.com implementations has brought him a steady stream of customers since a buyer brought him onto oDesk last summer.

“I was already developing applications on salesforce.com when one of my clients insisted on working through oDesk,” he says. “After my first successful job through oDesk—now I insist that my clients work through oDesk!”

In its first three weeks, the salesforce.com/Force.com group on oDesk has grown to about 60 programmers. Jobs were already on the rise—a year ago, about 10 jobs involving Salesforce CRM were being posted each month on oDesk. Today it’s between 40 and 50. Rakesh says the technology has a lot of appeal. “I knew this was the future of technology because it’s the fastest, most trusted and most complete platform for building and delivering applications in the cloud.”

The cloud idea is simple—offering the full software platform as a service, so that the applications and data reside on the Internet (conceptualized as a cloud of servers), where a business can access them. This keeps in-house IT costs down and allows more flexibility and faster rollout of new services. Rakesh says a wide range of companies are taking advantage of the concept. “I’ve worked with individual developers who wanted to push their applications to Appexchange, and also with companies with more than 200 licenses, where they wanted to extend their business processes within salesforce.com.”

Rakesh has been working with salesforce.com technology for three years, since before the Force.com offering launched. He says that Force.com and oDesk have been a powerful combination for his business. oDesk lets him focus on his work as a developer, rather than on the hassles of being a one-man small business.

“I can manage my work much easier now,” he says. Which is good, because there’s more of it. “I had to go about searching for work earlier, but after couple of jobs here, I have been constantly getting work through oDesk.”

He says he’s even busier since joining the new salesforce.com certified users group. “It’s a great initiative, and it’s great to be part of this group,” he says. “After joining this group, the number of leads for salesforce.com projects has increased for me.”

While his profile offers other skills besides his salesforce.com expertise, Rakesh sees the Force.com platform as the critical focus, for himself and the buyers he’s serving.

“Cloud computing is a simple idea,” he says, “but it can have a huge impact on your business.”

Click here to see salesforce.com certified providers.
Click here to see all of oDesk’s sponsored groups.

There’s plenty of online buzz about oDesk again this month. We love it when experienced providers offer their wisdom for newer arrivals, and this month our favorite post in that category was Lisa C, whose “Slightly Skewed Blogging” included a look at the things she’d do differently if she were starting over again at oDesk–and the things she’d do exactly the same. She offers some great advice to novice and journeyman providers.

Now this is just cool: GigaOM blogger Stacey Higginbotham has included oDesk on a list of “Five Companies That Should Be on Dell’s Shopping List.” After only five years in business, we should be tops on Dell Computer’s radar? We’re flattered. Hey, maybe in five more years, you’ll see Dell on the list of “Five Companies oDesk Should Buy” …

Last month, Micah Lacsamana offered part one of her extensive look at how to fill out an oDesk profile. Here’s part two–and thanks again, Micah, for giving back to the oDesk community! In a similar vein, Fia C. offers “How to Complete or Revamp Your oDesk Profile.” Check ‘em both out for clever tips that can really pay off.

Lastly, we just launched a new program in which we rank our best providers each month.
See our best designers, software developers, web developers, writers, and virtual assistants who get to show off their oDesk badge.

If you’re buzzin’ about oDesk, send us a link to your blog or message board post and you may win a stylish oDesk T-shirt!

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Paul, Olga, Varun and Shula — you’ve earned this!

	Paul D English French translation | XHTML CSS | SEO Total oDesk Hours: 119 Overall Feedback: 4.8 (Based on 4 feedbacks) Comments: Good job done. Quick response, which in fact we really needed. Will hire back immediately.
	Olga K Fash Flex AIR Facebook PHP JavaScript AJAX Developer, Unix/Linux Admin Total oDesk Hours: 55 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 2 feedbacks) Comments: Olga was by far the best Facebook programmer we’ve had. Olga, you can be very proud of yourself – we know we are!
	Varun M Logotronics (High quality logos) Total oDesk Hours: 11 Overall Feedback: 4.98 (Based on 11 feedbacks) Comments: Varun is a top notch designer offering great value. I hired him due to his positive feedback and I was rewarded by his quality work.
	Shula K Published journalist, clear, compelling SEO copy for websites Total oDesk Hours: 28 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 2 feedbacks) Comments: Shula has been a great pleasure to work with. Get her on board while she still has some time slots available!

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and a high quality individual portrait (not too blurry, no avatars). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

1,165 providers from 67 countries, including Algeria, Argentina, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam, got their first jobs in the last month. These 1165 providers have already racked up 44,588 oDesk hours and over $449,879 in just one month. Congrats to the providers who landed their first jobs in the April!

Want to get in on the earning action? Get oDesk Ready, fill out your profile, and apply to job openings!

This month, our favorite post is from programmer and social media specialist Micah Lacsamana, who offers the first half of a detailed two-part post that explains how providers can best fill out their profiles. Getting into the nitty gritty is a real service, not only to the newest providers, but to old hands who might want to give their profiles a once-over. Thanks, Micah!

Writer Misti Sandefur tells providers how to make the most of oDesk. In three words, “readiness is all.” But she’s got seven tips that’ll serve any provider, not just writers. Mylene Sereno is a brand-new provider who offers this quick report on getting her first job on only her third application, and what she has learned in the process. This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship … Data entry specialist Ambrosia Venus talks about her first experiences on oDesk, and how it’s helping her earn money in an area that, she says, is short of jobs even when there’s not a recession. Welcome to oDesk, Ambrosia, and best of luck! Finally, last month we told you about the changes to our job categories. Pothi blogs about some of the new opportunities, particularly in customer service and related areas.

Want to see your blog highlighted in the newsletter (and win a free oDesk T-shirt)? Submit your posts at buzz@oDesk.com!

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Stephanie, Pavel, Nguyen and Vindhya — you’ve earned this!

	Stephanie S Creative web and print graphic designer Total oDesk Hours: 249 Overall Feedback: 4.97 (Based on 12 feedbacks) Comments: Once more Steph was great to deal with and completed the poster project with great professional skill.
	Pavel I Highly experienced Drupal, PHP, AJAX (jQuery), MySQL web developer Total oDesk Hours: 317 Overall Feedback: 4.90 (Based on 9 feedbacks) Comments: Pavel is a highly skilled programmer who can find creative ways to resolve problems or accomplish the goal.
	Nguyen T FreeBSD, GNU/Linux SysAdmin, Script/Server Apps Programmer Total oDesk Hours: 1,363 Overall Feedback: 4.67 (Based on 17 feedbacks) Comments: Well once again my mind has been blown and job assignment satisfied with expert competency, attention, client consideration, and thorough completion.
	Vindhya R National Award Winning Innovator and Internet Researcher Total oDesk Hours: 350 Overall Feedback: 4.99 (Based on 8 feedbacks) Comments: Nice work. Timely and what I asked for. Thank you Vindhya!

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and a high quality individual portrait (not too blurry, no avatars). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

1363 providers from 67 countries, including Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya and Kyrgyzstan, got their first jobs in the last month. These 1363 providers have already racked up 49552 oDesk hours and over $492,550 in just one month. Congrats to the providers who landed their first jobs in the March!

Want to get in on the earning action? Get oDesk Ready, fill out your profile, and apply to job openings!

Each month we talk about our favorite recent blogs and message board posts about oDesk — and there are free T-shirts involved. Blogging about oDesk? Send us your link at buzz@odesk.com! (and don’t forget, when you blog about oDesk, link back to your profile — you never know when a potential buyer is reading …)

Our favorite post this month is one by Arron Washington. Anyone whose blog url starts with “geek ninja” is probably worth paying attention to anyway, but the post we have in mind is where he talks about the life he’s set up with oDesk. He says he made $40,000 just through oDesk last year, and kept his work week as a coder to about 20 hours, so he could use the rest of his time to pursue his dreams of writing (and maybe make the occasional sandwich). If you check out his blog, you’ll see he’s off to a good start as a writer, too.

Also creating oDesk buzz lately, Search Engine Journal’s Loren Baker talks about how to find a “rockstar” copywriter. Don’t worry, you won’t be hiring actual rock stars. Although, you know, if you could afford Keith Richards, it’d be pretty funny to see what kind of press releases he’d crank out for you. Explain SEO to him, we dare you. No — what Loren’s talking about is how to use oDesk and other resources to find top-quality remote workers. While he’s focusing on writers, much of his advice is readily adapted to hiring call-center staff, coders, personal assistants and more. We’re not endorsing all his ideas — some of which draw tons of flak in a very robust comment section—but we think there are provocative thoughts and solid advice to be mined.

At the rate oDesk keeps growing, we’re always on the lookout for experienced providers offering tips for getting that first oDesk job. Getting started can be a real challenge, especially when you’re new to remote work or the freelance lifestyle. It’s just you and your computer against the world, right? Not at all — Melissa, Alla Kondrat and JC offer proven advice for the new provider. Check out their posts, put their ideas to work and kick-start your oDesk career.

We suggest you check out all these great posts, but then wander back here and let us know what you think. Is there surefire advice for getting those first jobs that our trio of tipsters missed? How did you land your first work? What did you think about Loren Baker’s “rockstar” advice, anyway? And who besides Arron is using the freedom and flexibility of remote work to follow your other dreams — and what are they?

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Denise, Fahd, Des, and Agus — you’ve earned this!

	Denise R Excellent Writer & Editor. I only do top quality work. Total oDesk Hours: 63 Overall Feedback: 4.94 (Based on 8 feedbacks) Comments: “Pays attention to detail, above and beyond!”
	Fahd M (Universal Coders) Web Application Developer,Wordpress/Joomla/Drupal Expert Total oDesk Hours: 164 Overall Feedback: 5.0 (Based on 5 feedbacks) Comments: “He was absolutely exceptional in every way. The quality of his code is excellent, and his determination to solve problems second to none.”
	Des M **Email Marketing**Data Entry**Virtual Asst**Web Researcher** Total oDesk Hours: 263 Overall Feedback: 4.91 (Based on 12 feedbacks) Comments: “She increased my lead traffic within her first 24 hours and has increased our social network. She has a fun personality and does what needs to be done.”
	Agus R Professional Graphic Designer with Tons of Creative Ideas Total oDesk Hours: 992 Overall Feedback: 4.94 (Based on 16 feedbacks) Comments: “Agus does amazing work in a timely and economical fashion. He is our preferred provider.”

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and a high quality individual portrait (not too blurry, no avatars). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

1023 providers from 60 countries, including Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, and the Czech Republic got their first jobs in the last month. These 1023 providers have already racked up 33,749 oDesk hours and over $306,918 in just one month. Congrats to the providers who landed their first jobs in the February!

Want to get in on the earning action? Get oDesk Ready, fill out your profile, and apply to job openings!

Have you heard the buzz? Let’s take a look at the latest online discussion of oDesk.

Our favorite oDesk-related blog post this month is Rebecca Hayden’s explanation of how she fell into oDesk, from being motivated to sign up to please one client to letting her “oDesk days” expand until they were the source of most of her earnings.

Who else said something buzzworthy?

Daniel Gansle offers a step-by-step explanation of how oDesk works that’s perfect for sharing with anyone you need to make understand how our workteam marketplace works.

Jeremy Martin takes on some criticism of oDesk — the difficulty of competing against providers in countries with much lower costs of living — and talks about how he has taken action to get jobs and steadily increase his rate, rather than sitting around moping about it.

Abel Mohler presents his tale of oDesk success, which he sums up best here: “Yes, I never write invoices. I have a service which does all of that for me. I never take money up-front, am always paid on time, every week, and do everything by the hour. In addition, I am pretty much free to set my own hours. Also, despite the current economic slowdown, my earnings have increased, and my future prospects seem bright.”

And over at Drupal.org, they announce the formation of the oDesk Drupal Group. Get the full lowdown from the Drupal site.

Thanks to everyone who posts about their oDesk experience (for a shot at a T-shirt, send your link to buzz@odesk.com!), and here’s hoping all our prospects stay bright!

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter. Upload a photo of your home office on our Facebook Wall to enter our monthly drawing for a FREE T-shirt!

A new feature coming in the next few weeks inspires us to discuss a key technique for project management. It’s relevant to any kind of remote work, but at oDesk the ideas grew out of managing software development workteams. Our co-founder and CTO Odysseas Tsatalos is a firm believer in breaking the development process down to the smallest tasks, and our new task code feature will let buyers and project managers who adopt the technique to more accurately track the time and costs dedicated to each task. So for those inspired by the new feature, we offer eight tips that can make you a better manager:

1. Think small: Break a larger assignment down to manageable tasks. Each takes a few hours—sometimes, a few days, but the larger the task, the harder it is to manage and track, so break things down as far as logic allows. Examples from an engineering environment: “Add landing page to production trunk,” “update the What’s New section on homepage,” or “add fields to database.”
    
2. Go high level: Keep your task description (or codes) to a high-level concept. This way, your reports will be more meaningful. Example: “Write a newsletter article,” “Edit the newsletter” and “Format and email the newsletter” may be tasks for three different providers, but they form a “Newsletter” component owned by your marketing manager. When reviewing the communication efforts at the end of the month, your reports will immediately show how much effort was spent on the newsletter.
    
3. Automate: Tasks should be automatically queued to their correct owners. There are many project management tools available to do that; these days we’re using Bugzilla, which is available in every team room. What system you use isn’t as important as finding one that works for you.
    
4. One thing at a time: Tell providers to devote 100 percent of their time to completing one given task at a time; don’t let them shift among three tasks you’ve assigned them. We find that if a provider focuses on one task at a time, each item gets done faster and better.
    
5. From the top: A provider should do the task at the front of her queue, move to the next, then to any recurring back-burner task once all priority tasks are completed.
    
6. Keep it moving: We have project architects pushing tasks, while development managers are responsible for keeping everybody’s queue full. However you do it, make sure that tasks are being generated and distributed correctly.
    
7. Pay attention: With oDesk’s new Task Code feature, create a set of codes for each task and instruct your providers to select the correct code when they sign in with their work memo. This will let you generate reports that can show you, among other things, how much of your resources go to each kind of task.
    
8. Evolve: With that data, refine the process to perfection.
    

There are a lot of ways to efficiently manage your workteams and to organize the tasks you assign them. We’re hoping that the upcoming Task Code tool will be one more way you (and your team) get the job done.

We’ve got this new feature coming in the next few weeks: Task codes. Buyers break jobs down by small tasks, and a provider logging in selects a code indicating the kind of task she’s working on. That way, the buyer can plan and budget better. We haven’t come up with a version just for the provider’s personal recordkeeping (yet!), but it occurs to us that this is a great way for a provider to approach a job even if the buyer hasn’t embraced the feature.

A buyer might hire you to “build an online store,” but approaching the job in that giant-sized chunk is a recipe for failure. You know you have to approach it one step at a time, and making this process visible to the buyer is a way to ensure solid communication and a smooth workflow. Go back to your buyer with a list of the specific tasks — “build database,” “populate database with product info,” “implement Yahoo shopping cart” — and time estimates for each. If your buyer creates applicable task codes, use them when you sign in. If not, just specify the task at hand on your work memo.

Why go through all this nitty-gritty detail work? Here are four reasons:

1. Manage expectations. Showing each step can make sure the buyer understands why the job will take the time and money you estimate it will take. It prevents misunderstandings or disappointment down the line.
    
2. Involve other team members. If your breakdown includes functions other team members will perform, this helps the buyer organize the team, and raises your stature as a key member. For example, your time may be best spent on building the database but not keying-in the information. Have a data-entry specialist do that while you are focusing on your core work.
    
3. Establish transparency. You’re creating an easy way for the buyer to follow your progress. For some jobs, you may want to ask the buyer to sign off on each step — a simple email will do. Other times, you might be satisfied knowing you’re providing the right information, and tackling the job one task at a time.
    
4. Increase your long-term value. Task codes, or just an understanding of the breakdown, creates a way of looking at the job, a language your buyer knows you speak. In the long term, she’ll want providers who are already on the same page — so start writing that page now.
    

Task codes roll out in the next few weeks — keep an eye on our What’s New page. But in the meantime, if you’re not already geared toward thinking about the small pieces that create the big picture, there’s no better time to start.

A lot of businesses think of public relations as the province of enormous corporations, but it’s more—and less—than a fully staffed in-house department. PR is the function of presenting your business and its message in the clearest and most positive light, and motivating the prospective client to see you as a go-to authority. In an increasingly competitive economic environment, every business needs to work harder to get its name out there. And you’d be surprised how far you can get on only a little effort in this digital age. Example? Sure:

We issued a press release about iPhone developer stats, submitted it to a press-release aggregator or two, inspiring post on an Apple blog that got about 800 hits on Digg. That’s not even all the reads, that’s just people who read it, had a Digg account, and were motivated to vote it up.

Underlying every PR campaign is the idea of “owning” your category. When people think of what you do, you want them to think of you. Your public relations campaign is simply the process of getting other people to agree that, yeah, you do own that category. You can reach that goal, and there are talented oDesk providers to help you with specific PR tasks quickly and efficiently. We have experienced publicists and marketing writers, journalists and sharp-eyed editors, plus experts in search-engine optimization (SEO), social networking, business research and more.

Here are 10 focused PR goals and tips on what to look for in a provider:

Do it yourself:

You will need certain expertise, but remember that you’re the face of your company. This list of DIY PR tips will help you get a handle on being your own chief marketer. You don’t need PR people to reach out to journalists, and the most genuine—not the most tailored—pitch is what will succeed. Journalists often view PR professionals as the obstacle between themselves and the story. You are the story, so put your best face forward—your own.

Write press releases:

Publicize new products, promotions or partnerships. You want an experienced writer who knows how to address your message to the appropriate audience—mainstream news media, business writers, tech sites or the general public. A veteran of marketing or journalism can also help identify the right editors or reporters to pitch.

Blog stuff:

Business is about relationships, and a blog lets you open and maintain a dialogue. This is more casual, lower-key and more frequent than a full press-release media blitz; find a writer with experience in blogging, whose samples you like reading, and who can maintain the blog with agreed-upon regularity.

Track your PR:

Distribute your press release inexpensively through PRweb to help get your news on top sites like Google News & Yahoo News, boost your site traffic and search ranks, send your news to top journalists. Make sure you check your campaign results on PRweb, Google analytics (free!) and your own metrics to improve your next effort. Your publicist/marketing writer can handle that, or it might be more cost-efficient to give this work to a personal assistant who has good web skills but perhaps not high-end writing/marketing chops.

Sift the Data:

oDesk regularly releases data from our global workplace on the oConomy page, in blog posts and press releases, sharing our perspective on the rapidly changing economy with a world hungry for such news. Identify information your business collects that could interest the wider world. Find a talented writer with the research skills, or get an experienced researcher who’ll pass the data to a more polished writer. A researcher can also examine trends in your space (online and off) and the general economy to identify improvements to your business strategy. Have her share findings with your audience—or turn them over to your blogger/publicist. Hire a database administrator to improve your data collection about your customers so you can start analyzing it and making interesting observations to share with the world.

Digg Yourself:

Blog items, press releases, news articles—submit ‘em all to sites like Digg and Stumbleupon that let users vote on content they like, bringing it to a wider audience. “Digg” the material you produce and any content that mentions your business in a favorable light. A personal assistant or social media marketing (SMM) provider can keep up with this for you.

Socialize:

Social media sites such as Facebook, and Twitter are quickly being adopted by businesses. “That’s crazy,” an old-line executive will say, but look at all the major businesses doing it. Hire the same assistant/SMM who handles your Diggs.

Go Hollywood:

Hire a video producer to make a short, fun video about your business. Post it on your site and have your SMM professional post and promote it on YouTube.

Create a slideshow:

Any data or announcement that can be rendered as a visually interesting slideshow can be posted for free on Slideshare.com. Have your PowerPoint-adept personal assistant create and post it.

Get Published:

Press releases inspire news outlets to write about you—but many business-to-business publications accept bylined articles in which your top executives can share their perspective and expertise. A publicist can help you brainstorm ideas, identify and pitch to likely venues, and craft the final piece.

There’s a lot that can be done with a small team of skilled providers delivering just the work you need, when you need it. And these days, who doesn’t need it right now?

Public relations—that’s when giant corporations pay someone to explain away their massive oil spill, right? Or when movie stars hire a fancy agency to get them on magazine covers? Well, sure, but when you boil it down, PR is the art of getting your message—and yourself—favorable attention in pursuit of your goals. Your goal is to advance your career, and there are ways to promote yourself without using Angelina Jolie’s “people.” Here are five ways:

1. Maintain a professional blog and offer valuable content to your target clients.

Do some research and come up with unconventional conclusions. Check out free, easy-to-use blog platforms such as typepad.com and blogger.com. And we can’t emphasize this enough—spellcheck before you post, and post with some regularity! Need help setting up a professional-looking blog? Trade services with a talented friend—or use oDesk to hire a WordPress expert or graphic designer for a quick project.

2. Website. Website. Website!

It’s easy, inexpensive and pretty much the minimum of professionalism in most fields. Take advantage of the tons of free tools and tutorials to build and maintain a web presence. Link back to your oDesk profile using one of the customized links so people can easily review your profile and hire you (do the same on your blog!). Need help? Trade services with a friend who knows web design or is a skilled writer who can edit your resume and other copy. Failing that, find that help on oDesk.

3. Be social.

Promote your online presence through social media. Create a free Facebook page that’s suitable for professional consumption (add that oDesk referral link!). Let your network know that you’re available to do work. Use a free Twitter account to send good information to friends and colleagues, keeping yourself in their minds when they need to get the job done. Tweet about professional information, news and good resources—no irritating “Mmm … cheeseburger” clutter. Follow twitters of other professionals in your field to stay on top of trends and news and involved in the conversation.

4. Make yourself the expert.

Conduct research and write an article or presentation about something unique in your professional field. Put it on your blog and Facebook page and tweet about it. PowerPoint it for free posting on SlideShare.com. Link it all to your oDesk profile. Have your friends and professional network Digg it to drive traffic.

5. Leave a comment.

Wherever potential clients might be following the professional conversation, get your voice in there. Post your reaction, with a link back to your site or blog, on blog posts and news articles in your field. Do not just say “good article!” or “I agree!” Have something salient to add, showing that you’re a smart professional who follows developments and synthesizes new conclusions. And run that spellcheck before you start throwing around “salient” and “synthesize.”

You work hard, you polish your skills, you know your stuff—now make sure as many people as possible know it!

Oggetto is a growing web-development company in Taganrog, Russia. Its staff of 15 has years of expertise in consulting, web design, web-programming, server administration and more, but only spun off as an independent company in early 2008. Oggetto’s staff met on oDesk and teamed up to capture even more work in the oDesk marketplace. We talked to Paul Sedacove, the company’s CTO and project manager, about his approach to remote work.

Q:  It can be difficult to create a reputation from scratch over the Internet. How did Oggetto establish itself in the oDesk community?

A: I agree it’s kind of a problem, but we were lucky. We had a couple of customers we knew before and we brought them to oDesk. That allowed us to start with normal rates, and when some first jobs were successfully finished in time, we got very positive feedback. Beside this, our guys successfully passed tests on oDesk and it helped us to represent ourselves as a professional development company.

Q:  The larger a provider company is, the more skills its staffers might have. Did Oggetto set out to be an all-purpose solution for any buyer’s needs?

A: Well, what I have to say on this point is that we do only what we can do the best way. For example, any kind of web-programming work is not a problem for us, but we will never take the copywriting job because English is not our native language and we are programmers, not writers—we can’t do that job better than others. Or we would never take an iPhone-application job, even if it is related to the buyer’s website somehow—we don’t know the technology. This is something like a credo for us, and it’s a very important decision in my opinion.

Q:  How important is customer satisfaction, and how far should a provider go if problems arise, the budgeting goes wrong, or there are unforeseen circumstances?

A: Customer satisfaction is crucially important for us, and I believe it should be so for any company that would like to build a strong reputation. From another side, it can be impossible to do everything a client asks without changing the timeline and/or budget. That’s why we pay a lot of attention to analyses and estimations. We try to give only promises that we will be able to meet. We try to provide as accurate an estimation as we can. If we see some issues prior, we try to notify the about these issues and bring his attention to them. After that, everything we promised should be kept. If our budgeting was wrong, it’s our problem and we need to finish.

Q:  What advice do you have for buyers? When they approach a provider or a provider company, what can they do to make sure they hire the best provider, or get the most out of the job?

A: I’d like to advise them to pay more attention to checking the experience of the provider: check feedback, tests, portfolio. oDesk provides everything to show this experience to the buyer, so the right company will have it. Also, don’t believe cheap prices. It’s the first reason to start thinking, “What’s wrong with this provider?” Qualified providers will never have too-cheap rates. And of course, it’s very important point to get a detailed understanding of what you are asking the provider to do. Only if you have that may the job be successfully realized. If you don’t have the business-logic explanation, nobody will realize your job the way you need.

Q:  What are the signs of a buyer/job you just don’t want to try for?

A: Absence of specifications or a good explanation of scope. We don’t work with buyers who don’t know exactly what they want or can’t explain it. I don’t mean technical aspects—I’m talking about business requirements for the job. Based on my experience, I can tell for sure that if you take a job and you aren’t absolutely clear on the scope, the job will never be successfully done, or at least you will never meet the timeline/budget. At the least, you will have problems and a lot of headaches. So we don’t work with the buyers who ask us to do “something, but something definitely cool.” I’d like also to mention that we always pay attention to a buyer’s oDesk history, and usually it reflects the actual status of the buyer.

Q:  What’s your advice to new providers trying to establish themselves on oDesk?

A: Chose an area and try to be the best in it. Don’t apply to the jobs when you are not 200 percent sure that you’ll be able to perform it. Don’t promise anything that you cannot meet.
And I’d advise them to pay attention to filling out their profile: It’s critically important to represent your skills and abilities in the correct way. Don’t forget to enter information about your background, to populate the portfolio, pass tests, etc. All of it will bring you more chances to get the job.

Q:  Part of your role at Oggetto is as a project manager. What’s the most important skill for being a good project manager?

A: I think a PM has to be a very responsible person. He also has to keep many different projects in his mind; this is a kind of talent, I think. Another key point is availability. I am available for the client 24 hours, 7 days a week. So, if you are not ready to receive phone calls in the middle of the night, this job is not for you. A PM should have some technical background and be a great communicator. He should always be able to find a way where both customer and team are happy.

Q:  The global economy is in serious turmoil. Have you seen signs of the crisis in the oDesk marketplace?

A: Of course the crisis is everywhere—but I can’t state that oDesk has stopped offering good opportunities for providers. There are a lot of interesting jobs there, and oDesk statistics prove it. So, dear providers, everything is in your hands.

So who’s talking about us this month?

Our favorite post came from Angela H., who used her Freelancing Mom’s Blog to write a fantastic guide for oDesk newcomers. Angela joined right after the “Good Morning America” hoopla in November and, like many, found the sudden influx of new talent a bit daunting. She applied herself to getting established (as an executive assistant and business writer) and standing out in the crowd.

This month’s runners up:

• Tim C. shares his enthusiasm for “making money online” and discusses the extra money he pulled in via oDesk and online ad revenue to supplement his regular income.
• Jen Nipps gives oDesk a mention in a list of resources for freelance writers and coders.

Blogging about your oDesk experience? Send us a link at buzz@odesk.com for a shot at a free T-shirt and some free publicity. Interested in writing a post for the oDesk blog? Get the details and send us a note at stories@odesk.com

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Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Viktoryia, Daniel, Tina, and Jed — you’ve earned this!

	Viktoryia Z (ZORQA Co) Graphic Arts & Design, Web Design Total oDesk Hours: 225 Overall Feedback: 4.98 (Based on 9 feedbacks) Comments: “Viktoryia is a very talented designer, all the work she has done for us has been brilliant”
	Daniel R Senior Developer – MCP,MCSD (C#, VB.NET, XML, XSLT, AJAX, J2ME/J2EE) Total oDesk Hours: 1,236 Overall Feedback: 4.55 (Based on 3 feedbacks) Comments: “Daniel is an excellent and smart programmer. He is pleasant and easy to work with.”
	Tina H Excellent Data Entry, Research, Email, Accounting, VA Total oDesk Hours: 570 Overall Feedback:5.00 (Based on 7 feedbacks) Comments: “She is punctual, has an extremely high attention to detail, and is an all around great individual.”
	Jed T Senior Web PHP Developer CakePHP Total oDesk Hours: 883 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 13 feedback) Comments: “I can count on Jed as a member of my team. Reliable, honest, highly skilled Coder.”

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and a high quality individual portrait (not too blurry, no avatars). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

Our goal is simple: Eventually everyone will be an oDesk partner. We got two companies closer to that goal this month, welcoming Central Desktop and Kampyle to the extended family.
 

We shook hands with Kampyle because its on-demand solution for managing and analyzing website visitor feedback is top-notch — something our web developer community needs to check out.
 

And Central Desktop is a great social technology platform for progressive business teams to manage their daily work activities. oDesk is the center of the internet universe for building and managing online teams, and with Central Desktop’s technology on our side, the sky is the limit. Together, oDesk’s platform and Central Desktop’s tools represent the new way to build a workteam in the 21st century.

948 providers from 61 countries, including Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, and Austria got their first jobs in the last month. These 948 providers have already racked up 34,100 oDesk hours and over $331,334 in just one month. Congrats to the providers who landed their first jobs in the January!

Want to get in on the earning action? Get oDesk Ready, fill out your profile, and apply to job openings!

A recent perspective discussed how to write a killer job description, designed to bring highly qualified providers rushing at you from all over the world. Now we’ll look at what to do if, uh-oh, it works.

1. Your first order of business is to smartly sift though the candidates queue. Some tips:

• Include a specific instruction or “captcha” in your job description, such as, “Include two URLs to previous jobs in your cover letter.” Applicants who don’t follow instructions, reject immediately.

• Reject ridiculously low or ridiculously high rates/bids — deal with serious people only.

• Remove providers with below-average feedback. Anyone under a 4.0 is in the bottom quartile of all providers. Tread carefully. Of course, a brand-new provider will have no feedback, and that’s natural. If you like her portfolio, give her an interview. If that goes well, you may have discovered a new gem before anyone else!

2. Once you narrowed down the candidate queue, carefully read each provider’s profile.

• Work history and feedback are very telling. A provider who has had only one job, but has billed 500 hours and is still in progress, is keeping her buyer very happy. If a provider has 20 one-hour or one-day jobs on his record, pay close attention to the tasks and feedback. (Hint: you can click on a job opening and see the original job description to compare.)

• Check to see whether he has passed relevant tests. If an interesting candidate hasn’t yet taken a test pertaining to your job, invite him to interview and ask him to take it — it’s free and shouldn’t take more than an hour.

• Review portfolios for the quality, style and range of their work. If someone doesn’t have a portfolio — request one.

3. You can also use the provider search to find more great candidates. Tips on how to do it, and why to bother:

• The best providers are often also very busy — not too surprising. Many of them don’t spend time searching for new jobs. You’ve got to make the first move and send them an invitation.

• Start with the criteria you entered in the job description, then narrow or expand the list by changing the parameters. Entering keyword ‘PHP’ will yield about 17,000 results. More stringent criteria, like “search titles only,” feedback score (set to “at least 4.5”), last activity (to “within 30 days”) and tests passed (to “PHP5 test”) narrows the list to around 300.

4. Now you’ve just got to interview effectively:

• Coordinating across time zones can be confusing at first — consult a world clock when necessary.

• Offer any method of communication you are comfortable with (email, IM, Skype, phone, etc.) and make yourself as available as possible.

• Communicate in the medium the job will require. If you’ll expect written reports daily or weekly, include an email exchange that lets you see the candidate’s clarity and thoroughness. Hiring a customer service rep? Of course you’ll want to hear his phone manner.

• Probe into past or current assignments (you saw them on her profile), ask about anything in the profile that struck you as unusual.

• Prepare a quiz or a set of test questions and give the same ones to all interviewees.

• Give a few finalists a test job. Set a limit to the time to keep costs down, get some real-world proof of their abilities, and show the candidates that you value their time.

The hiring process can be overwhelming, especially when presented with as many as 50 candidates. Few bosses look forward to the task. But there’s a lot of talent on oDesk, and a focused approach can bring fast, successful results. Happy hunting!

PS. We always appreciate your feedback on how we can help you address these challenges — participate in our forums.

So you’ve focused your profile, updated your portfolio and learned to write a persuasive cover letter, all to land an interview with a buyer. Now what?

Here are some tips for effectively interviewing with remote buyers:

• First, the obvious: Be prompt, polite, professional and prepared. Consider the “Four Ps” the unofficial code of conduct in the oDesk marketplace.

• Be flexible. Time zones and communications preferences can be tricky; be willing to adapt to a reasonable time and the method — email, Skype, IM — that the buyer prefers.

• Given that, try to schedule your interview for when you are at your best. Do not interview at the end of your day, when you’ll be tired. Better to wake up early for an interview than to stay up late.

• If you are working on another job, make sure to stop at least an hour before your interview. You want time to wind down, get a fresh start, review any relevant materials, and make sure you’re giving your best.

• Make sure you won’t be disturbed — especially if you’re on the phone (or Skype) and at home, don’t let background noise or interruptions make you seem unprofessional.

• Bring notes. Have at hand examples of past work that are relevant to this job, and have pertinent links and reference contacts at hand.

• Double-check your portfolio. If there’s anything relevant to this particular opportunity that you’d like the buyer to see, get it into your portfolio or be prepared to otherwise direct the buyer toward it.

• Ask the buyer about his experience with providers. What bugs him about providers? What has he valued in remote workers in the past? Discuss how your strengths can make you the kind of worker he’s looking for.

• Are you willing to do a paid sample project, maybe an hour or two of paid work? Suggest a “test job” yourself if the buyer seems to like you, but admits she’s not yet sure which of her final candidates to select. Just being confident in your own skills sends a good message.

• If not a paid project, how about a very quick test, free? If you can quickly provide a small, customized demonstration of your skill set, it might be a worthwhile investment of time — particularly if the job has long-term potential. Just be cautious and don’t give away your work.

• Don’t undercut yourself. If the buyer doesn’t ask you to negotiate over your rate, don’t offer to knock it down. If the buyer brings up rate issues, compromise if it’s worth your while. Suggest a trial rate that goes to full price after you’ve proven yourself, or take the pay cut but build in a bonus for reaching agreed-upon targets.

• If you finish the interview promising to provide additional information or a link to an extra portfolio piece, do so promptly and include a thank-you note.

• Even if there’s nothing more to “deliver,” follow up on your interview with a short and friendly thank-you note. You may also add a line or two (but no more) to strengthen a point in your interview.

If you’re prepared and relaxed — you’re both professionals, after all, and you are both just trying to find a solution to the buyer’s needs — there’s no reason for the interview not to be a success. Good luck!

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Sally, Kay, Katrina, and Imre — you’ve earned this!

	Sally M Sally Milo – Creative Design – What you want, when you want! eBay too Total oDesk Hours: 0 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 1 feedback) Comments: “Excellent work done exactly as I wanted it. Made changes with no fuss and great communication. Will be using again.”
	Kay W PHP wizard Total oDesk Hours: 132 Overall Feedback: 4.78 (Based on 3 feedbacks) Comments: “Kay responded to all emails very quickly, and he never lost patience with my constant requests for revisions on the project.”
	Katrina D Creative and Awesome Graphic Artist : ) Total oDesk Hours: 365 Overall Feedback: 4.90 (Based on 23 feedbacks) Comments: “Katrina goes the extra mile to make sure that you are satisfied and is open to making changes where necessary.”
	Imre T Software Developer Total oDesk Hours: 134 Overall Feedback: 4.80 (Based on 1 feedback) Comments: “Imre started out as beginning programmer on oDesk but proved to be a fast learner and very good worker over the past half a year!”

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and an individual portrait (no avatars or group shots). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

Coder and Web designer Danalyn West started doing freelance Web design in 2002, but it wasn’t until last summer that she dedicated herself to full-time freelancing. She and her husband had relocated for a job that fell through after the move, leaving them both unemployed. “Panic ensued,” she says. Remembering that she’d once used oDesk as a buyer, she spent a week getting her profile as a provider in shape, and encouraged her husband to put himself online, too. “Within a week, my husband got his first job, albeit low-paying at first, and a few days later, I got my first assignment,” she says. She’s kept increasingly busy since then, and has also been an active presence in the oDesk forum and on her SavvyLancer.com blog — offering advice through both forums to freelancers and buyers, particularly regarding the oDesk marketplace.

Q:   In the six months you’ve been active as a provider, what have you learned about marketing yourself to buyers?

A: I learned that Mom lied when she said “don’t judge a book by its cover.” First impressions always count, and on oDesk, it happens with your profile and cover letter. If buyers make it past your cover letter, be able to back it up with a strong portfolio.

Q:  Any tips on developing trust with new buyers? How do you approach your first conversations with a buyer?

A: Just do the job and do it well — that’s the best way to build trust and credibility. Whenever possible, I always like to offer buyers suggestions for improvement (i.e., “Instead of doing that, you can do this and reduce the amount of work you have to manually do by X%”). I can’t tell you how many times this has won me the assignment.

Q:  When you’re choosing which jobs to apply for, what tips you off about the best opportunities, versus the ones you decide not to pursue?

A: There are two things I look for when applying to jobs:

1.  Detailed specifications about the job — I can’t properly bid on a job if all I know about it is, “I need a blog.” When buyers know what they want from the start, it makes it a whole lot easier to get the job done right!

2:  The buyer’s previous job history — If a buyer’s previous assignment history for comparable work is much lower than my current rate, I’ll save us both time by not even applying.

Q:  If a buyer asked you what he/she could do to attract the best providers, what advice would you give?

A: Be detailed in their job descriptions. Not only will it give the buyer a solid foundation to judge candidates on, it will also yield more accurate quotes (particularly on fixed-price jobs).

Q:  You started out on oDesk with a lower rate, and have steadily raised it, yet you’re still quite busy. Has it been tricky, getting your rate where you want it to be?

A: My first job was for $12/hr. Once I had that first hour logged, it put me in the “more than 1 hour” search range, and that’s all I needed to get my foot in the door. I feel I have a strong enough portfolio. I think that, coupled with my feedback score, helps prove my worth to buyers.

Q:  On average, how many buyers are you working for at any one time, or how many projects do you tend to take on in a given month?

A: I’m always working on at least two projects. How many projects I accept depends on how involved the project is. Right now, with five active projects of varying degrees of difficulty, I wouldn’t take on anything highly complex — I’d stick to things that I can knock out in a couple of days.

Q:  You’ve mentioned that you’re phasing out outside clients to focus on work through oDesk — why?

A: The short answer is that I’m a coder, not a collection agency. I absolutely love the billing system here. I like knowing when I’ll get paid, and that my payment is guaranteed. Not to mention that it has cut my Quickbooks time in half, so it’s a win-win situation!

Q:  Is the payment system what you like best about oDesk?

A: Aside from the payment system, I love the community. I’ve made some great friends through the Community Forums, some of whom I keep in contact with even outside of oDesk. There’s a lot to learn in the forums here, and I recommend them to all new providers.

Q:  Which aspect of oDesk would you most like to see improved, and how?

A: As a provider, I’d really like to see an option to favorite (and comment on) buyers. There are some buyers I’d like to make notes on, and I’d love to see those notes on new jobs posted by those buyers.

Q:  Your SavvyLancer.com site offers advice for freelancers. What motivated you to start the site, and how do you find time to keep it up?

A: I started the blog in October/November just to have someplace to write. When the Good Morning America segment aired, and provider signups shot through the roof, I decided to push forward with the site. The community forums is what keeps my topics going — I usually formulate posts late at night (after work) and schedule them for the next morning.

Q:  Beyond “making a living,” do you have any specific goals in 2009 for your work on oDesk and/or SavvyLancer?

A: The biggest goal I have for SavvyLancer is to just keep posting three times a week. Sometimes, with deadlines, family and stress, it’s easy to forget about blogging. For now, my Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule should be manageable enough without frying my brain.

For freelancing, I plan to work for oDesk … they just don’t know it yet!

Hey, check out this month’s buzz: Prolific blogger and oDesk user Doreen Martel talks up oDesk quite often on her “Freelancing and More” blog. Read her latest posts, including a four-point discussion about keeping your portfolio current, and keeping it targeted toward the kind of work you want to get. If you haven’t updated your portfolio lately (and even if you have), take a look at her advice. And while you’re there, read “Why oDesk” for some great thoughts about the value of our marketplace to the enterprising freelancer.

Provider Arlene Cuares blogs from the Philippines about a recent trip to an impoverished rural province, where she contributed two weeks of oDesk earnings to those who’d otherwise have no food, let alone presents, on Christmas — and this despite having not much money to spare herself. Arlene describes having needed such holiday food giveaways herself as a child.

I am paying it forward now. Thanks to oDesk for making this possible. Had it not been for oDesk, I wouldn’t be earning a decent income online and wouldn’t have the chance to save up for this charity work. Thanks to all my previous and present oDesk buyers.

Arlene has our admiration for her selflessness, and our hope that she’s even more successful on oDesk in 2009!

Adam Viener provides a few examples of small tasks he’s had done effectively and efficiently via oDesk providers. It’s a nice window into the experience of a new buyer finding ways to improve his business through oDesk.

Over at Entrepr3neur.com, Marc Javellana posts a couple blogs about using oDesk — one that discusses (and comprehensively links to) the rising tide of non-programming jobs in our ever-growing marketplace, and one that talks about using oDesk’s metrics to determine how to set your own hourly rate. Smart, useful stuff, Marc—thanks!

And don’t forget to send us your links to your oDesk-related posts for a shot at a free oDesk T-shirt!

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803 providers from 49 countries, including Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden got their first jobs in the last month. These 800 providers have already racked up 24,222 oDesk hours and over $238,483 in just one month. Congrats to the providers who landed their first jobs in the last 30 days!

A special round of applause to the top new providers by total earnings:

Jerzy Z, Amanda I, Mishra J, Greg J, Salnan W, Dmitriy L
Alexey E, Anait S, Shushu I, Lester M, Naveen G, Rania A

Want to see your name listed here next month?

Get oDesk Ready, fill out your profile, and apply to job openings! (We will only feature providers with public profiles.)

800 providers from 68 countries, including Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Kenya, Korea, and Kuwait got their first jobs in the last month. These 800 providers have already racked up 24,693 oDesk hours and over $284,764 in just one month. Congrats to the providers who landed their first jobs in the last 30 days!

A special round of applause to the top new providers by total earnings:

Cary P, Ping F, Shelly S, Marigold M, Fabricio D, Ruslan S,
Marharyta K, Synoris A, Igor S, Pavan G, Jerrish V, Prasoon S

Want to see your name listed here next month?

Get oDesk Ready, fill out your profile, and apply to job openings! (We will only feature providers with public profiles.)

Each month we like to highlight 4 providers who’ve received exemplary feedback. Great job Ariadne, Donny, Kathryn, and Vadim — you’ve earned this!

	Ariadne S Math, Master MOS, Dutch translation, Webex & more. Your 1 stop shop! Total oDesk Hours: 59 Overall Feedback: 4.99 (Based on 7 feedbacks) Comments: “Ariadne Sophia is wonderful. She has dedication and commitment to a job well done”
	Donny G Graphic designer & illustrator Total oDesk Hours: 0 Overall Feedback: 4.97 (Based on 16 feedbacks) Comments: “Donny did an excellent job with the assignment. He followed instructions perfectly and the turn around time was very quick.”
	Kathryn W Highly Creative, Skilled Writer, Educator, Artist Total oDesk Hours: 63 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 1 feedback) Comments: “Kathryn was professional and completed the project in schedule. Always available and willing to follow instructions. Good work!”
	Vadim D Web programmer PHP/Perl/Mysql and Linux/BSD Admin Provider Company: UACoders Total oDesk Hours: 81 Overall Feedback: 5.00 (Based on 7 feedbacks) Comments: “It was great to work with Vadim. Fast, responsive, good communications, good skills!”

Spotlight Providers must have earned a 4.5+ feedback score with a glowing comment on an assignment in the past month, have a 4.0+ overall feedback score, an impressive profile, and an individual portrait (no avatars or group shots). Only oDesk Ready public profiles are eligible.

Want to know how visitors are using your site? Try ClickTale.

ClickTale is the world leader of In-Page Analytics providing e-Business decision makers with the ability to see real videos of their users browsing sessions as well as customer behavior aggregated reports. Clicktale has been proven very effective in improving site usability, reducing shopping cart abandonment and optimizing landing pages. ClickTale will refer its clients to ClickTale-certified developers on oDesk to implement their system, while oDesk will offer the certification test to programmers.

The biggest Buzz this month is Danalyn West. An oDesk provider and buyer who has been managing a freelance career since 2000, the Texan coder and web designer recently launched Savvylancer.com, a site that offers advice to freelancers and the people who hire them, both on oDesk and off. She describes Savvylancer’s purpose like this:

“This site was started after having answered many questions in the oDesk Community Forums by new freelancers. I wanted to have a place where I could post answers to common questions, and point people to these answers if the necessary… While I talk about oDesk a lot, most of the information and opinions presented here can be applied in any freelancing situation.”

Thanks, Danalyn, for taking the time both in our community forums and through Savvylancer!

We’d also like to welcome Livia, a new oDesk provider in Manila who has launched a blog, My Life as a Work-at-Home-Single-Person, describing her experiences and gathering tips. She’s getting her career as a personal assistant and data entry provider rolling, so drop by and trade some advice with her.

We offer congratulations to the folks at Digital Max Solutions, a provider company in Katmandu that does web design and more, for recently surpassing 2,500 hours on oDesk.

And remember, when you blog about oDesk, tell us and you might win a T-shirt.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We wish you continued success in the new year.

A few weeks ago, a single line in a blog post caught our eye. Discussing a busy week during the holiday season, the blogger wrote, “This week is pretty packed for me. Sunday, I bought my mom a brand new wheelchair. Thanks to oDesk, I was able to save enough to buy her wheels! Now it will be easier for her to go outside.” To learn more about her heartwarming story we dropped her a line. The writer is oDesk provider Alisa E, in the Philippines. She joined oDesk this summer, quickly picking up work in data entry, link building and more.

Q:  This is your first experience with freelancing online. What made you decide to try oDesk?

A:  My son was diagnosed with epilepsy and had frequent seizures, so I had to quit my job. My husband introduced me to oDesk. He knew someone who was working on oDesk and suggested that I give it a try so I could still work from home.

Q:  Within days of joining in late August, you’d landed some jobs that are still ongoing. That must’ve been great.

A:  I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve read in the forums that some providers take months before they get an assignment here on oDesk. I am grateful to the buyers who trusted me and gave me work.

Q:  So what did you do right? How did you approach your first attempts at getting work through oDesk?

A:  I followed the tips oDesk posted in the forum: I completed my profile, took some tests, and applied to assignments that I feel comfortable with. I try not to recycle my cover letters because every assignment is different, and when I finish my cover letter, I always ask: “Would I like to hire me after reading this?”

Q:  Is all your work via oDesk now?

A:  I work entirely on oDesk. Occasionally, I have other projects, but most of my work week is dedicated to my oDesk assignments. Nothing wrong with having regular in-office work, but nothing beats being available for your family when they need you the most. That’s what I like about oDesk—my son can just burst into the room and give me a hug while I’m working.

Q:  The wheelchair for your mom—what a great present. Have you given it to her yet, or will she get it at Christmas?

A:  Oh wow! I was so happy when I finally bought my Mom her “wheels”! Before my Mom had the stroke, she loved going outside. Someone gave her an old wobbly wheelchair but we couldn’t go far on it. Early this December, I found an ad in the Internet from someone selling wheelchairs. I took the money I saved and immediately bought her one. And I’m so glad I did! I have already given her the chair, and the look on her face was priceless. Her face lit up when she saw the shiny new chair. She didn’t mind having the gift before Christmas, she was all smiles.

Q:  For 2009, do you have any goals in terms of work or earnings?

A:  oDesk has exposed me to a lot of jobs or freelance work that could be done over the Internet. For work goals, I’ll maximize the resources found online and learn some lessons in basic web design and on Internet marketing. Personal goals, I’d like to save enough again and hopefully contribute to a feeding program for less fortunate kids. Somehow, it’s been my experience that when I give out more to other people, more blessings seem to come our way. And maybe I can upgrade my PC!

Q:  If someone who was just signing up as an oDesk provider today asked you for advice, what would you say?

A:  oDesk works! To make it in oDesk one needs to be globally competitive: be skilled and knowledgeable in your work. You need to have a lot of patience, determination, and you need to give your best in all the work that you do. Also, never lose hope!

Q:  If a brand new buyer company were joining oDesk and asked your advice in posting jobs, or hiring or managing oDesk providers, what would you say?

A:  We are here on oDesk because we want to work, and we will work hard. Let us know what the job entails, what qualifications you need, so that we know if we can live up to your expectations. Give us a chance to tell you what we can do by interviewing us, and if you do hire us for the assignment, do check on us sometimes to ask how we are doing so we’ll know if we are on the right path and so we can serve you better. We need you as much as you need us, and we are here because you are.

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

As anyone who has been tracking oDesk already knows, our community is growing rapidly. In fact, we just passed $50 million in services rendered on oDesk. Kudos to our providers and buyers; we couldn’t have done that without you!

Today we released the oDesk Manifesto for Online Work, the first and only such bill of rights for buyers and providers. Our goal is to show the world that online work is just as viable as traditional work. And since we think oDesk has the best business model for both buyers and providers, we’re publishing this Manifesto to prove it.

oDesk is the only company to offer guaranteed payment to providers and guaranteed work to buyers. The Manifesto is a declaration to professionals who sell their services through the Internet marketplace and the companies that hire them: Don’t settle for less than you deserve.

Check our press release for more information.

When every news report warns of global doom and gloom, the business owner’s first instinct is to cut all extraneous costs. You run your production team lean, run your sales force lean, and everything else goes into the deep freeze. Too many people see marketing as something irrelevant, as vague feel-good fluff that neither makes the product nor closes the sale. That’s crazy talk.When the sales pipeline is running dry, or at least no longer gushing, it’s marketing that fills that pipeline, and even in lean times, targeted efforts can keep your name out in the marketplace and create a conversation (and hey, maybe even hype). This shows you’re a thriving player, not one of many recessionary casualties, and prepares potential customers for the closing move your sales team will execute.We’ve come up with ideas for marketing yourself through the latest social media and the old-fashioned general Internet:

Social Media Optimization:

1. Are you on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter and other social media sites? If not (or if so, and you’re overwhelmed with all of it), you may want a Social Media Optimization (SMO) expert to put your message into the newest and fastest-growing Internet arena.  Have her create a Facebook or LinkedIn group for your company and invite your users; every one of their friends will see that they are related to your company and there is just nothing better than that for word-of-mouth.
2. Keep that SMO expert onboard to troll conversation on Twitter about your company and your industry, so she can send responses and begin threads. Use Google Alerts to be notified when terms relevant to your business are mentioned.
3. Other social media your expert can monitor: Forum and blog commenting, LinkedIn and Yahoo Answers, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and GetSatisfaction.
4. Launch video tutorials for your website. In addition post them to YouTube. Hire a personable, well-spoken provider to help you convert your script to a professional-looking online video using tools like Camtasia or Snapz.
5. Get a blogger to maintain a company blog and to reach out to other blogs to keep your message in the conversation.
6. Do you have a community forum on your website? When users post questions, are they getting an answer? Bring in a moderator for your community forum to make sure that when users take the time to post a comment, they get a response that will encourage them to come back.
7. Hire a writer to create articles relevant to your industry and syndicate them to Squidoo, Business.com and EzineArticles.com.
8. Get a writer with exceptional PowerPoint skills to prepare a presentation that is highly relevant to your industry, and post it on SlideShare.com.
9. Recruit an analyst to prepare a few charts and data about your company and business and post on swivel.com.

  Yeah, times are getting tough, on a global level. When the market changes, you have to respond. In an increasingly competitive environment, you have to compete harder, and better. In recent months we’ve talked about ways to improve your profile and your responses to job postings. The oConomy continues to grow, so we’re assuming someone’s getting it right. Another step toward increased competitiveness and increased success is to tie your oDesk presence more closely to your other marketing activities. We’ve come up with five ways you can lead more potential buyers to your profile:

1.   Link your MySpace/Facebook/LinkedIn profiles to your oDesk profile.  If you’re on a social networking site talking about anything more professional than your Klingon haiku project, then you should have a link to your oDesk profile. It’s a comprehensive display of your skills, your portfolio, and your oDesk test scores and feedback ratings.
2.   Link your professional website to your oDesk profile.  In addition to the advantages listed above, the more clients you drive to oDesk, the more you’ll benefit from the quick, easy and guaranteed payment system, and the better your reputation will get (remember, the best buyers hire those with the most jobs on oDesk and the best feedback).
3.   Blog where buyers blog.  Think about the blogs, forums and specialized news sites your potential buyers visit, and cruise them yourself. When you can add an intelligent comment to the discussion, don’t forget to sign with a link to your personal site or oDesk profile.
4.   Twitter. Seriously.  We’re hearing from an increasing number of professionals who say they put out calls for help, for quick answers to questions, via the short-burst messaging system. It’s becoming the next generation of professional networking. In fact, follow the oDesk Twitter page for an example of how to market yourself.
5.   Google yourself.  If you’ve got a website trumpeting your services, how is anyone going to find it. Look into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to improve your position when people outside the oDesk marketplace go looking for your skills.
6.   Become a subject matter expert.  Go to Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn Answers, respond to questions, get involved in conversations, and link your resplies to your oDesk profile.  In fact, use your referral link and become eligible for a referral bonus. 

These are relatively low-impact ways to keep yourself out in the marketplace, where your potential clients can find you. Now’s the time to be as visible as possible.

And now for our monthly look at the online Buzz from users like you. Our favorite blog posts about the marketplace for online workteams:

• Robert Stanley compares us to the competition in a post that any provider should find useful.
  

  I have been using Odesk for a few weeks now and I can honestly say I like the service, the features, and the providers.

• Tina provides some tips on her blog for work-at-home moms, and she talks about how Sarah Lewis’ ebook, Make Money in Your Pajamas, helps providers make the most of oDesk. 
• We highly recommend John Cow’s second installment on the oDesk community to both buyers and providers. As a new user, he discusses the frustrations of screening providers. It’s a must read for any provider looking to get a leg up your the more slacker-y competition. 
• In case you missed it, Cheryl Ludwig, the oDesk user featured on Good Morning America, gives us the backstory right here on the oDesk blog.

Are you blogging about oDesk? If so, there could be a really stylin’ T-shirt in it for you. Submit your link to buzz@odesk.com, and you may see yourself in this newsletter, on the oBlog, and in a free oDesk T-shirt!

After being out of work for six months, I had the pleasure and good fortune to meet Tory Johnson, a remarkable woman in person and as wonderful as you would expect and hope her to be. Tory shared her job karma with me and inspired me to share it with others.

Tory Johnson is the Workplace Contributor for ABC’s Good Morning America. She is also the founder and CEO of Women For Hire, the only producer of recruiting events for women. She is a bestselling author, with her most recent book being Will Work From Home: Earn the Cash – Without the Commute, co-authored with Robyn Freedman Spizman.

Our meeting transpired from a series of events that occurred, or rather didn’t occur, after I was laid off from my job. I thought it would be no problem to get another job, regardless of the economy as I am the eternal optimist. However, month after month passed by without getting gainful employment. I was frustrated and scared.

One morning, I took a break from job searching and sat down to watch Good Morning America. There was Tory Johnson, speaking about an expo coming my way called Women For Hire. I was unable to attend, so I got on my computer and wrote Tory a letter. Tory responded, asking if I had ever tried working from home. My response was that the online jobs I had checked into were bogus so, no, I wasn’t a fan of the idea. She told me she knew of some legitimate companies and asked if I would check them out and see what developed.

The rest is history. I contacted oDesk and two other companies, did the footwork, took relevant tests and ended up with my first online job. I’ve become a huge fan of oDesk! I truly can’t say enough about it. The people who work at oDesk are remarkable and very helpful! It’s a dream come true. I love the flexibility. There is a plethora of choices of jobs. I plan on working with oDesk for a long, long while. A whole new world has opened up for me.

Tory asked me if I believe in job karma. I thought for a moment, and said yes. I believe when you put forth your best effort, no matter the circumstances surrounding you, good things WILL happen. I’m very happy with my newfound work, and to put it mildly, I feel like I’ve been let out of a box and I struck gold. I made a promise to help others in need, to guide them with how to attain online jobs, to let them know there really is light at the end of the tunnel. And, I extend that invitation to everyone out there. Help someone! We’re all in this together! Reach out to someone in need. I feel it is my duty to assist others because I was guided by Tory, who in my book is an angel in a human body. That’s karma and it is also my responsibility as a human being.

Cheryl Ludwig
Guest blogger

We were thrilled to be a part of Good Morning America’s Great American Job Fair in Atlanta yesterday (we’ve included some pictures in this post from when we had a few open moments), and if you were watching GMA, you may have even caught a glimpse of our booth during Tory Johnson’s segment about Cheryl Ludwig and her use of oDesk. In fact, Cheryl’s oDesk success story seems to have inspired a lot of people because a massive number of new accounts were created on oDesk yesterday, and we even took the top spot on Google Trends. Therefore, we’d like to take this opportunity to welcome all of our new users! Feel free to examine our Features and FAQs to get a better idea of how oDesk works.

It’s always exciting to spread the word about oDesk, and the interest and enthusiasm that was shown by the people that we talked to helped to make the event a great success for us. Of course, it didn’t hurt to have Cheryl at the table right next to us because she told everyone who stopped by how much oDesk has changed her life. 



Thanks to Tory and Cheryl for all of their support!

Our Booth

Tory Johnson

Cheryl Ludwig

Cheryl on Good Morning America



In the spirit of Halloween, we’re excited to announce that we got our own treat. Last night oDesk was named a rising star in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 program for Silicon Valley.We share our excitement with our entire community, buyers and providers. We could not have done that without you!The oDesk team.

You may have noticed that the economy is on shaky ground pretty much everywhere. It’s been in all the papers. While everyone’s on edge, the small-business owner is probably most nervous — you’ve got all the concerns everyone has, plus the future of your business and employees to worry about. A real challenge is how to make money go further — you can’t slash expenses, because you’re already running lean, and you don’t want to stifle your business out of economic fear.

1. Move customer service to a remote team.
    
2. Move your system admin, network professional or support team from a retainer to hourly pay (for just those tasks that you need).
    
3. Hire writers or graphic designers from rural areas rather than more expensive urban areas.
    
4. Focus on search engine optimization instead of paid search efforts: Showing up at the top of a Google search beats buying an ad slot, anyway.
    
5. Expand the role of your existing team members, online and offline, so everyone participates in stretching your dollar further.
    
6. Free up executive time to focus on higher-value activities: Hiring someone for data entry and other time-consuming, lower-level tasks lets you and your top people concentrate on taking the business forward.
    
7. Buy used equipment from failed companies that need to sell computers, furniture or office supplies. You may even be able to score an amazing deal on that cool espresso machine you always wanted.
    
8. Use what’s free: Trade land lines for Skype, ooVoo or TokBox; use oDesk Share instead of paid web conference tools.
    
9. Use open source instead of paid software: PostgreSQL instead of Oracle, Gmail and Google Apps instead of an expensive in-house email and collaboration server.
    
10. Reduce travel expenses and gas costs by using oDesk Team to work from home when possible.
     

Everyone is worried about riding out the current storm, but you can’t let fear swamp your ability to think tactically. Find value where you can. A rising tide isn’t so threatening when you’re a strong swimmer.

Todd Olson is the cofounder and president of 6th Sense Analytics. The company, formed in 2004, makes analytic tools that give software developers very precise metrics for managing the progress of a project. The Morrisville, N.C., company has eight in-house employees and one contractor. While many buyers discover oDesk through business connections, Todd really had a trusted source — our CEO, Gary Swart.

He came to oDesk because he had a unique problem: a client in Long Beach, Ca., requested integration with a legacy system, and the system — a VAX mainframe — had become so rare that there are very few programmers left who can write code for it. Olson needed someone who both knew VAX and had the newer networking and application development skills the project required. Even with nearly 120,000 providers on oDesk, it took awhile to find the right person. But find him they did, in Florida. So, remotely, a Florida provider worked for a North Carolina company serving a California client, and everyone was happy. (You can read the whole story here.)

Q:  Since that initial project, have you continued to hire oDesk providers — and for what?

A:  We’ve begun to start. We’re looking to outsource odd jobs, tasks that we don’t have skill sets for internally. First, we ask whether we have the skill sets in house for this. If not, we look at oDesk. Second, is this a one-time change? If it is, we look at oDesk.

Q:  At this point, are you regularly relying on the same providers, or do you find yourself hiring from scratch as each project arises?

A:  Honestly, hiring from scratch. We go after specialists, not generalists, so we need to find new folks often.

Q:  Your product includes the ability to monitor the work developers do on a project, much the way oDesk allows buyers to look at providers’ work in progress through the Work Diary. As software creates new levels of transparency in the workplace, what are the key challenges that come along with that change?

A:  The number one challenge is the cultural challenge posed by full transparency. The second challenge is educating people on interpretation of the data. Facts empower better decision-making, but you have to understand that these facts can be distorted or taken out of context to make poor decisions. It’s important, like with any data, to be smart and look at the whole picture.

Q:  With the economy in such turmoil, do you find yourself planning to turn over more work to outsourced workers, or to minimize such projects entirely until the economy clears up?

A:  I definitely think we’ll look to outsource where it makes sense. Hiring a full-time person is a huge commitment for a small company and reduces flexibility. Outsourcing provides flexibility and the ability to be more creative in the sourcing of activities.

Q:  What recommendations do you have for buyers moving forward in this downturn?

A:  First, evaluate your technology needs and see what people you currently have who are absolutely critical and cannot be replaced. For all else, evaluate whether outsourcing makes sense. In the past, I had good people who simply weren’t fully utilized. This is a great opportunity to use something like oDesk. Having a full-time employee and paying benefits for 10 hours a week of work isn’t wise.

Second, don’t shy away from business opportunities due to lack of skills. Often, folks will say, “It will take forever to hire someone with those specific skills,” and they’ll decide to turn down business that requires a unique skill set. Honestly, I never thought I’d be able to support the VAX legacy system the customer requested. I was fully prepared to fail. I was really surprised when I found more than one possible resource on oDesk.

In an economy like this, the companies that respond best to customer needs will do the best.

Q:  What advice do you have for providers looking to continue their freelance success in the face of the current downturn?

A:  Continue to work hard on broadening and deepening skill sets. It’s absolutely survival of the fittest. I think most customers want the absolute best possible resource. Being just another PHP developer or something is not as attractive as being one who has a larger variety of skills, strong certifications, etc.

Q:  What would be your top tip to providers on how to better present themselves in responding to a job post?

A:  List all your skills, even the ones you think are niche or legacy. You never know when someone may be looking for that specific skill set.

Q:  What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned as a buyer, in how attract or select the best applicants?

A:  Be specific in your requests. Conduct a detailed interview and ask how the applicant will solve the problem. Make sure there’s a plan in place and that the individual understands what they are getting in to. The number one cause of failure in any software project is poor requirements. The better you can think about and document what you want, the better the experience will be.

The global economic downturn has everyone nervous. Being an oDesk provider means that you’ve already extended your reach beyond your local market, and the amount of business passing through oDesk’s marketplace is growing exponentially. More businesses are discovering the value of remote workers, and you’re already here on oDesk, building your reputation.

There’s no better time than now to hone your competitive edge, both to increase your volume of business, and to make yourself worth more money to your next buyer. Here are 10 ways to boost your marketability — and your hourly rate — even in this economy:

1. Round up your rate so the buyer sees a flat number (consider the buyer’s markup: If your rate is $20, the buyer is charged $22.22. Raise your rate to $20.70, and the buyer sees $23).
    
2. Request feedback comments and recommendations from past buyers—sometimes happy buyers rush through the feedback process. Ask the buyers you’ve done the best work with for a quick update.
    
3. Study profiles of individuals who have similar skills to yours but charge higher rates: What do they have that you don’t, and how can you get it?
    
4. Expand your skills based on those with the highest demand — consult the oDesk Trends pages.
    
5. Take our free skill tests and get top industry certifications through our collaborators on the partners page.
    
6. Add your rarest skills to your profile. We’ve got more than 10,000 jobs posted at any time — you never know when someone is going to want your expertise at VAX Mainframe programming, or your Arabic-English translation skills.
    
7. Increase your visibility and reputation: Establish solid profiles not only on oDesk, but on LinkedIn and your professional website. Link your expanded portfolio to your oDesk profile, and link your oDesk profile back to your other sites.
    
8. Improve your oDesk profile, especially if you haven’t done so since you originally wrote it. Now you know how buyers think, so give them what they’re looking for.
    
9. Step up your job search: scour listings for things you know you’re qualified to do, write a great cover letter for each application and be responsive when you get the call.
    
10. Don’t undersell yourself and compromise your rate. It’s the buyer’s job to try to keep costs down, but it’s your job to politely stand firm on the rate you know you deserve.
     

There will always be someone with a cheaper rate than yours, and there’ll always be someone costlier. Buyers weigh costs against reputation, skill set, and experience. Set a rate that reflects your talent and your feedback score, and do everything you can to demonstrate you’re worth a that rate in your profile, cover letters and portfolio. Prove you’re worth your premium rate and you’ll keep busy even during difficult times.

Our favorite blog this month was John Cow’s description of his first ventures onto oDesk. For a neophyte buyer, he sure has an intuitive understanding of the process. His first post (stay tuned for more) describes posting jobs, interviewing and using small test gigs to find the best programmer for a longer-term project. Wisely, he knows better than to merely seek the cheapest provider:

I will then cross check the cost per hour, quality and time to come up with my best candidate… The winner may not be the cheapest or fastest, but instead will be the person that has the best balance of all three.

Welcome aboard, John!

Over at undress4success.com, Kate Lister posts about having done a radio interview in which she defended the viability of remote work to a hyperkinetic on-air host. She talked about how oDesk can assuage an employer’s fears over accountability, and notes in the blog post that those fears are every bit as much at play regarding in-house staff. She makes a great case that it’s not in-house work versus remote work—it’s just work, and technology shapes it regardless of venue.

Tiara Mejos is an oDesk provider who blogs happily about the arrival of her oDesk Payoneer card. She gives a quick discussion of the merits of Payoneer and PayPal, especially in dealing with exchange rates in her native Philippines. Most of her oDesk work is as a writer, and we’ll tell you one thing—she knows how to write a catchy headline.

Michael Fauscette, a vice president at tech-economy analyst house IDC, took time on his personal blog to turn a “startup spotlight” on oDesk. Writing for an audience that likes to take a business model apart and really understand how it works, he gave oDesk a quick but thorough once-over, and we fared pretty well:

  So why do I like them?…if you couldn’t guess, this is the most complete and elegantly executed staffing solution I have seen.

Thanks, Kate, Tiara, and Michael!

Lastly, how could we not love a blog post that’s titled I am very proud about being a provider with oDesk? Eliza describes how when she was becoming very worried about mounting bills, a friend suggested she sign up for oDesk. She says she quickly landed her first job, and as far as money worries go, well, her latest post is about buying a new washing machine. So congratulations to a successful new provider!

Are you blogging about us? Send the link to buzz@odesk.com and you might win a T-shirt and be featured in next month’s spotlight!

As anyone who has been keeping track of the oConomy will already know, oDesk is growing rapidly.  Yesterday we announced some exciting milestones including the fact that the value of work done through oDesk has nearly tripled in each of the past two years.  In addition:

• Over 110,000 professionals from 100 countries now offer their services on oDesk with the addition of 86,000 new providers in just 12 months.  Over 50,000 jobs have been filled at an average hourly job size of 390 hours. 
• Over 190,000 qualification tests have been taken by more than 55,000 oDesk providers
• Over 3,000,000 work hours have been logged on oDesk, with 55,000 logged within the last week alone

What’s driving the growth?  We think word-of-mouth has a lot to do with it, so a huge "oThank you" to everyone who has helped to spread the word.

See the full announcement here.

There are hundreds of thousands providers on oDesk. You, however, don’t want 100,000 providers. You may want one provider — the one who offers the best combination of experience, reliability and affordability. And the thing is, you’re competing on any given day with dozens of other buyers to get her attention. On a random day this month, 550 jobs popped up for a search of Graphic Design, and nearly a thousand for PHP. We have a lot of talent on oDesk, and a lot of buyers, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t have first pick. The secret to that: writing a killer job description.

The best people aren’t worried about keeping busy, and they’re not throwing themselves at any job that comes along. They’ve got two priorities: work that is interesting or challenging, and work that can turn into longer projects, so they can spend more time billing hours and less typing up cover letters on spec.

When you get to the point of conducting interviews with hopeful applicants, you’re in control — you’re doing the hiring. When a provider sits down to sift through the latest job posts, he’s deciding whom to apply to — he’s hiring you, in a sense. Here’s how to make yours work:

• Make it interesting — no one wants to be bored, and talented people have multiple options.
• Be open and informative — providers want a strong communicator, and they want to see that you understand the project you’re hiring for. “Need programmer to build website” will not draw the best people. Give details, especially about deadlines and deliverables.
• Identify yourself and your company. If this isn’t appropriate, write a sentence about who you are and what your company does. Specify requirements, including skills tests, so the candidate can take them before applying. Also note required tools, including software and applications, plus time commitments and other necessities. Detailed requirements let the candidate self-assess whether she’ll be a good fit.
• Share examples of work that looks like what you want. Need a shopping cart added to your site? Point to a site whose functionality and design you want to use as a guideline (just don’t infringe on any intellectual property).
• Offer incentives — If there’s the potential for longer-term work, say so. We’ve found this to attract more, and better, candidates. Perhaps you’d like to offer a bonus for reaching a milestone.

Have you ever sorted through resumes and were appalled by the way some completely fail to interest you? Look at your job description with the same eye. Is it compelling? Does it draw the right candidates and clearly discourage those with, say, insufficient experience or a current inability to meet your deadline? Are you selling yourself to the best talent out there, or just throwing your doors open to whoever is desperate enough to apply?

There are thousands of ways you can ruin a cover letter. Buyers often have to weed through a list of 30 or 50 or 100 candidates. Every little detail that’s off irritates the person who reads your cover letter. It’s your first — and perhaps only — chance to impress a potential buyer. Mess up and you’ll be immediately crossed off the list. Providers who understand this harsh reality can use it in their favor. Want to write more refined and effective cover letters? Follow these tips to help your letter stand out from the crowd (in a good way)!

• Keep it short. If your cover letter is as long as this essay, cut it by at least a third. All the buyer wants to see is a polite greeting, a sentence or two summarizing your profile’s relevant highlights, and perhaps another sentence or two about things that don’t show up on the profile — you recently completed two projects similar to the job at hand, for instance. Then a polite closing.
• Follow directions. If you’re asked to answer specific questions or include a key word in your reply — do it! Beware of typos: Write in word processor, heed the spelling & grammar checks, and read your letter out loud. Try asking a friend to review it before you send it in — even native speakers will benefit from the feedback.
• Never use a canned cover letter. Buyers can tell. The right few hundred words will prove you read the entire job post, including the requested skills, links, and oDesk work history.
• Watch your tone. Even if the buyer writes in a casual voice, you should sound serious, yet relaxed. This is a letter from one professional to another. Don’t be funny, wordy or overly flattering. Be helpful and confident, not arrogant, and especially not needy.
• Easy on the jargon. Use technical terms correctly and cut the marketing-speak. The buyer won’t be impressed by your plans to “actualize” your “proven potential” to “deliver maximal results” to “drive customer satisfaction.” Contrary to some job-hunting guides, you cannot hypnotize the buyer with “energizing” buzz words.
• Link to examples. List and link to or attach work samples to demonstrate your aptitude for the job. If your profile portfolio doesn’t already include the relevant items, don’t forget to add them afterwards!

You’ve worked hard to polish your profile. But the buyer will never bother to look at it unless your cover letter serves as a concise, effective teaser. If Hollywood can boil a two-hour movie down to a 90-second preview, you can get your cover letter under 300 words and manage to leave your audience wanting more.

Speaking of making friends, this ìBuzz@oDeskî thing is really taking off. For months, we’ve been encouraging oDesk users to spread the word through their blogs and message boards, and we’ve given out a carload of T-shirts (up to five a month) to our favorites. This month, though, we hit new heights. Lovely Aquino, a freelance copywriter in the Philippines not only talks about oDesk on Kitchenwitch Writes, the blog dedicated to her work, she also managed to get herself (and us!) into the Philippine Daily Enquirer, one of the country’s top newspapers.

As if that weren’t cool enough, we also had our very first press release submitted by an oDesk provider (SEO Specialist Abdul Hayi Mansoor). If there’s one thing that makes oDesk special, it’s members who go the extra mile. Way to go, Lovely and Abdul! You can check out the rest of the winners in our online edition, and send your own blog entries (or press clippings!) to buzz@odesk.com for a shot at the finest in online-marketplace casual wear!

Just six months after signing up as a provider company, oDesk jobs account for 25% of five-year-old Ahmedabad, India-based DIGICorp’s workload. We talked to cofounder Abhishek Desai about oDesk’s part in the rapid growth of his online custom application development business.

Q:  Some providers describe a learning curve before establishing themselves on oDesk. When did it click for you?
A:  I think the best thing I did was creating my profile and my company’s profile as per guidelines provided by oDesk. Also, I apply to carefully selected jobs that I think we are really capable of doing. And I write personalized cover letters for all my applications. I don’t believe in just copy-pasting readymade cover letters. Because of all these, I can say I hit the ground really fast after becoming a member of oDesk.

Q:  When you’re choosing which jobs to apply for, what tips you off about the best opportunities, versus the ones you decide not to pursue?
A:  We tend to apply to jobs of a certain size, usually four weeks or longer. That does not mean we don’t do smaller jobs — if a job is interesting enough, we tend to pursue it. From the job description a buyer has written, you get to know how much the buyer is interested in really going forward. I like to work with a buyer who is equally excited to have his/her project up and running.

Q:  If a buyer asks you how to attract the best providers, what’s your advice?
A:  Carefully choose them by reading their cover letters first. Make sure you have providers who have written a personalized letter for you. This means the provider cares about your job and he/she has already spent time understanding it. After that, it depends on the interview. Go for the provider who is as passionate for your project as you are.

To read the full interview, click here.

By now you know how our Buzz giveaway works–if you’ve blogged or posted to a forum about your experiences on oDesk, let us know (buzz@odesk.com). Up to five people per month win T-shirts to show our gratitude for spreading the word, and our favorite post livens up this section of the newsletter. We’d like to say a quick thank you to our runners up this month (check them out here and here).

And now for our favorite! Rajesh Mago, a computer engineer and technical writer in New Delhi, not only talks about his experience, but aims to strike up a conversation on his PCTips&Tricks blog. He asks freelancers to discuss their experiences in various online marketplaces and in general, and invites buyers to talk about what they’re looking for in remote workers, and how often they find it. He also talks about his experience with our certification tests and gaining experience in pursuing jobs.

Take a look at his post and give him your thoughts on the oDesk experience. There’s a lot of insight and business acumen among our nearly 100,000 users. We love to see the community making the most of it!

CogWise Software specializes in building Ruby on Rails web applications. Based in Nashville, TN, USA, the company was founded in January 2007 and started hiring oDesk providers last November. The company relies on oDesk to simplify administration and to provide the bulk of its manpower–with only two in-house employees, it has 12 to 15 oDesk providers working on projects at any time.

The company had been known as BluePaw Software, but was rebranded as CogWise just this week. CEO William Bridges says the new company is a fresh partnership with an oDesk provider, and the time was right for a new start. “CogWise is also about building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with clients and building our own internal software projects that my partner and I have thought of.”

Q:  Do you have a small group of providers you work with regularly, or do you tend to seek new providers to suit each individual project?
A:  A little of both. As we’ve grown, we’ve needed more developers. We actually look in the oDesk marketplace and outside, but we always have new developers sign up for an oDesk account, because it makes things a lot easier to manage. Our strategy is to have two or three small teams and some specialists for technology outside our core interest.

Q:  How do you manage your providers? What have you learned about setting timelines, specifying deliverables or managing communication that’s unique to the remote worker relationship?
A:  We use a project management software package called RedMine to foster communication. We usually have one lead developer who sets up tickets, milestones, and the deliverable schedule, and then the other programmers help execute that vision. Remote situations can be difficult and rewarding in many ways. We usually pick a lead that can somewhat overlap the programmers’ schedules if they are in a remote time zone, as proper communication is key. Language and cultural differences must be understood by the lead or by myself. I usually take time to understand those differences for each country we hire from.

Q:  Some buyers describe a learning curve before they began using oDesk effectively. Did you just hit the ground running, or was there a point where you really “got” it?
A:  We had a few rough experiences early on in understanding how to do this as well. Really, the way we solved it is as follows: Since most of our customers are English speaking we pick an American, European or someone who understands Western culture extremely well to lead projects and use them as a bridge. It’s more costly to do things that way, but that person also spends less than full-time working on the project. They are able to explain the technical intricacies going on in the project in a way that can be understood easily to us and that we can quickly plan for.

For the full interview, click here.

Customer support representative, as a discrete job or as one facet of the "virtual assistant" position, is a great opportunity for a provider with strong interpersonal skills and a natural ability to solve problems. But it can be hard to stand out among applicants for a job involving human language and "common" interpersonal skills.

Review your profile:

• Spelling and grammar mistakes can kill your chances. You’re asking to represent someone’s business to the world.
• Mention "customer support" in your skills list or the title. Make sure your profile reflects your interest in the job.
• Take the right tests. Placing highly in oDesk’s Call Center Skills Test and our Email Etiquette Test demonstrates your skills and show you’ve taken time to establish your abilities–you’re not just answering this job post because, "What the heck, I’ve got a phone …"

Nail the interview:

• Be professional, positive and polite. The buyer is thinking, "This is the voice my customers will hear. This is the attitude my customers will encounter."
• Ask smart questions. A customer support person or versatile virtual assistant is a problem solver who deftly cuts to the heart of a matter to come up with a quick, appealing solution. Ask about the kinds of questions callers will bring, the tools and authority you’ll have to solve them, the training you’ll get and the metrics that will provide feedback on your efforts. Can you listen in on a few calls, live or prerecorded?
• Treat the the buyer like a customer. When the interview finishes, ask whether there’s anything else you can do for the buyer right now, and wish her a good day–leave her feeling the way she wants her customers to feel.

Do the job:

• Keep a reliable schedule. If you aren’t able to make a consistent time commitment right now, these jobs probably won’t work out for you.
• Provide frequent reports. There may be a degree of autonomy expected–after all, the buyer is outsourcing the work to you–but let him see that you are thorough and responsible, and provide all the information he needs to be confident in your work.
• Make people happy. You’re a creative problem solver, within the parameters your buyer sets out. Never tell customers, "Hey, I dunno," or "That’s not my department." Be positive, empathetic, and utterly solution-oriented: "I will get back to you with an answer" or "Let me ask my manager."

If you’re a quick-thinking "people person," you could have a lot of success helping buyers keep their customers satisfied. Just make sure that from the minute you apply for the job, you know how to keep your customer (the buyer) satisfied, too.

Outsourcing customer support can be nerve-wracking. If you hire someone to build a website but don’t like the result, you’re out some time and money. Failures in customer support will cost you clients. Yet, if your in-house resources are drawn too thin, you can’t do a good job of managing your customers, either.

There are reliable, responsible people working from home, and the cost savings over hiring and housing office staff are obvious–there’s a reason it’s a growing trend. JetBlue has thousands of people fielding customer calls from their homes, and the airline consistently ranks high in customer satisfaction.

So it can be done. The question is, how do you do it right?

Profile Details: Scan feedback for comments that praise not just work product, but interaction: “a joy to work with,” “an excellent communicator,” “very responsive.” Also look for test scores; oDesk offers certification in email etiquette and call-center skills. Anyone serious about the job will have taken the tests and scored well.

Enjoy the Interview: The best customer service people are extremely competent and genuinely dedicated to helping you out. They’re sympathetic and friendly, but always professional, not chatty. When you interview your candidates, make sure they’re giving you the vibe you want your customers to get.

Asset Allocation: Does the candidate have the time to commit to the schedule you need? Does she have the necessary technology and a quiet place to use it? Does she demonstrate the problem-solving skills the job requires?

Role-play: Practice a few scenarios to see how your top candidates perform. Can your prospective hire listen in on a few well-handled calls? You should definitely monitor the first few calls after you hire her and provide very specific feedback.

Measure Up: Set metrics for customer satisfaction that will let you assess your worker’s success, and provide a mechanism for rewarding her for a job well done.

Picking out an expert in human language and interaction can be harder than finding a programming whizz, but the combination of competitive pricing and premier talent available on oDesk makes this kind of outsourcing a viable, and valuable, option.

As always, we’re paying close attention to the online buzz about oDesk. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen quite a few bloggers talk about their experience with oDesk and recommend it to others. We always appreciate it, and for our favorite posts of the month we show that appreciation with T-shirts. Thank you Greg W (blog), Pothi K (blog), and Ashwin I (blog)!

The post we enjoyed most this month was from Vikki Pusong, a recent arrival to oDesk who does technical writing and blogging from the Philippines. In the blog that she devotes to tips and talk about freelancing, she gives an enthusiastic discussion of the values of oDesk, highlighting payment flexibility and reliability–and even generates a comment thread in which one of her very satisfied buyers drops by!

If you’d like a free oDesk T-shirt, just send us a link to your most recent post or posts about oDesk to buzz@odesk.com. We give out up to five shirts a month, and we always mention our favorite post here, which is a pretty good way to put yourself in front of the oDesk community.

It’s easy to find skilled workers on oDesk–post a job, check out providers’ profiles, interview. It really is that simple, but a few tricks can help you get more from our global network of nearly 100,000 remote workers.

Feedback: The first thing you’ll do is check the provider’s feedback and work history, but don’t just count stars. Look at what your candidate’s impressive 4.5 score really means to you.

• How many people contributed to that rating? Everyone’s gotta start somewhere, but the length of their track records should matter.
• Were they short projects or long? A ten-hour job is one thing, but longer assignments reveal the ability to handle complex jobs, manage relationships and deliver consistently, so weigh feedback on that 200-hour project more heavily.
• Are they getting repeat business? Seeing the same buyer IDs come back is a stronger recommendation than the highest written praise.
• What about ongoing projects? If the provider has a lot of continuing jobs, check whether she’ll have time to meet your deadlines. But be encouraged when a provider is still engaged in a project after logging 400 hours: She’s proven herself indispensable.
• What kind of jobs are listed? Your prospective Java developer lists a full alphabet soup of skills: ActiveX, CSS, J2EE, PHP, the works. If most of his projects have been in PHP and CSS, even dazzling feedback might not qualify him for your six-month J2EE project.

Portfolio: Feedback lets you see whether a provider’s work made the buyer happy. The portfolio lets you see whether their work makes you happy.

• Is it good enough? Do you like your prospective writer’s “voice”? Do you find that prospective web designer’s last site attractive and easily navigable?
• Is it big enough? Does the portfolio contain work of the scope you’re hiring for?

Skills: Scores on oDesk skills tests expose work style as well as competency.

• Can he back up his skills? Does the candidate list 100 skills on has taken only 2 tests? Chances are, you need a well rounded resource. If he has taken tests in some subjects but not those that pertain to your job, don’t hesitate to ask him to complete other tests. It should take the provider only 30 minutes and it is both a sign of interest in the job as well as a yardstick for you to compare candidates.
• Does she have enough tests? Don’t just look at the test scores; make sure the candidate has a good range tests too. Note that we display the score and percentile (score better than X% of test takers), not the percentage (score X% correct).

A provider’s profile puts a lot of data at your fingertips, but to extract some of the best information, dig a bit below the surface. It’s worth the effort if it leads you to a provider good enough not only for this job, but for the one after that, and the one after that…

You’ve mastered the basics: You’ve maximized your provider profile by listing your skills, posting a portrait, taking all the relevant skills tests, and filling your portfolio with your finest work. You’re applying for jobs, but maybe you’re spending more time applying than you are interviewing. Maybe you’d like to lower the ratio between jobs you apply for and jobs you get. Maybe you’d like to minimize the occasional bad relationship–the buyer who changes terms, makes unreasonable demands, turns out to have no communications skills whatsoever. Job postings on oDesk aren’t like a newspaper classified or on some sketchy job board–there’s a lot more data that can help you spot serious buyers, figure out where to focus your resources, and to enjoy the work that you get.

What is the job? Carefully read the job description and what’s between the lines: is it well thought out and thorough? Do I believe that the buyer is a good communicator? Will she clearly outline tasks? Does the buyer come across as professional and will not “leave me hanging”? Is the job in an industry that is rife with fraud (e.g. porn or gambling?). If it’s in such an industry, can I find the company name and website?

Who are those people? Scope out the competition–who has already applied? If the buyer has been initiating contacts, those providers may have the inside track. Either way, check out the skills, feedback and pay rate of your competition. If you don’t think your profile stands comfortably against those who have already applied, you might prioritize responding to postings where you’ll be better positioned.

Who gets the job? On past listings with multiple candidates, did the buyer go with the cheapest or the most qualified? For the new listing, which of those would you be?

Amount agreed vs. amount paid: If the buyer routinely pays out more than the up-front estimate, this may mean she pays bonuses or raises. It may also mean she routinely fails to understand the complexity of a project. If you’re already tight on time, you’ll definitely want to determine which it is during the interview.

Timing: When a past job was estimated to take a week, but the hired provider took a month, that might have been the provider’s fault. If you notice this consistently across this buyer’s back listings, it’s probably the fault of an overtaxed or under-communicative buyer. This doesn’t mean you don’t want the job; just know what kind of situation you’re likely to face.

Applying to every job within your skill range becomes a job in itself. The amount of time you spend looking for work is overhead–it’s a resource going out, rather than money coming in. Using oDesk’s transparency can help you spend less time applying and more time earning money.

India’s Sun Softwares does graphic design and web development. It started with one person in 2003 and now employs 20. Owner and CEO Tarun Verma credits a lot of that growth to oDesk. Sun signed up as an oDesk provider in July 2006, but Verma says his company didn’t start using oDesk effectively until the following January. Today, about 60 percent of Sun Softwares’ work comes via oDesk buyers.

Q: It’s important for a provider to find a client he or she can work well with. Besides looking for a project that fits Sun Softwares’ expertise, what do you look for when you see a job post?
A: We try to look for projects that are required to be built from scratch using the latest technology, and we look at the client’s comments in the job postings. At times we see some harsh comments in the job post, and we tend to ignore those posts, as there are high chances of project failure due to the client’s attitude. Some job posts call only for bug fixing–we ignore them, as it’s difficult to take those projects to completion which are already in some kind of mess. We pursue the full projects and the projects with complete specifications. The projects which are posted with complete specifications show that the buyer is really keen and would be very good to work with, as the scope has been clearly defined.

Q: When you interview with a first-time client, how do you make sure you’re understanding the project requirements and the buyer’s needs?
A: We try to get detailed specifications from the buyer, URLs of example websites, wire diagrams of screens, expected time for completion, expected budget. If the client does not provide the complete details, then we build a prototype to make sure we are trying to do what client wants. It’s very important to get the complete picture that is in a customer’s mind to make sure the project gets to completion in time.

Q: How would you advise a new buyer who asked you how to find the best providers when several applicants may have good basic feedback scores?
A: My advice would be to look closely at the portfolio links, expertise of providers, other experiences and history on oDesk, rating and comments of buyers. Buyers can choose the best providers by looking for well-laid out profiles, a good history at oDesk, and good ratings and comments from past buyers.

For the full interview, click here.

We’ve begun passing out T-shirts to our favorite blog or forum posts mentioning oDesk. This month’s winners are:

• Aleh S for writing the aptly named blog post “…because oDesk is better!“.
• Teodolfo L for being “Addicted To Online Income Opportunities“.
• Jennifer W for chronicling her “Journey to Freedom“.
• Paul K for discussing the advantages of using oDesk for buyer and provider companies.
• Lawrence S for providing my favorite quote of the month:
  “What I like about oDesk is the elimination of payment issues – on both sides. If youíve read anything at all about freelancing online, the over riding issue always seem to be getting paid… oDesk has all but eliminated those types of problems.”

Remember – if you haven’t gotten your T-shirt, send your latest blog or forum posts mentioning oDesk to buzz@odesk.com!

The Vision: In 1996, Jan Zands was answering phones at a Hollywood studio, trying to manage the high volume of incoming and outgoing calls with paper and pen–an overwhelming challenge. “A film producer will make about 40 calls per day and receive another 40 per day — and in Hollywood, a lot of people don’t return calls,” Zands explains. “It’s necessary to have a good system for tracking calls and what they are about, but at the time no such software existed — I saw an opportunity that a lot of other companies could benefit from as well.”

Zands saw a way to build something better, and went into business building and installing FileMaker databases to handle call tracking. He soon realized that this was a cumbersome and expensive proposition for users. ìI needed to make it into a web-based application”, he said.

The Problem: Good programmers are hard to find. Starting in 2001, Zands tried newspaper ads and Craigslist postings, then costly consulting firms and Internet-based offshore companies. Repeatedly he’d hire programmers who seemed reliable, but would end up leaving their work incomplete. “My biggest challenge was finding programmers that were affordable, but also skilled enough to finish the entire job,” Zands said. “I was wading around in the ocean of providers for over five years until I found oDesk.”

The Solution: He found oDesk in April last year. “I went on oDesk and it was awesome! I posted my job and got about 20 responses within a day,” he said. “I was able to find people at the rate I needed and was also able to look at testimonials so I was certain that these people would finish the job.” That helped eliminate the biggest frustration he’d been experiencing. “It was so important to see on a provider’s profile that there were jobs with start dates, end dates and positive feedback.”

To date, Zands has hired 11 providers, in India and Ukraine, paying rates between $12 and $20 an hour. Exactly a year after joining oDesk, the project that had languished half a decade launched. The product is online now, offering a way to not only track the status of incoming and outgoing calls, but to instantly access the log of past calls to and from a client. The company boasts Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and Fox Television Studios as clients.

Zands credits oDesk with helping his company get Phonesheet’s software and site out there, and with maintaining and improving both. He praises oDesk’s reliability, ease of use and easy, dependable payment options, but what matters most is what all that helped him make.

“The end result,” he says, “Is a great product.”

Most oDesk assignments start small–you’re hired to complete specific projects. But when you prove to buyers they can rely on you, they start giving you more hours and increasingly vital tasks. Soon you may find yourself fully integrated with their in-house staff, and that begins to change the relationship between buyer and provider. We’ve been there–oDesk hires providers to work with our in-house staff, and on some projects, one type of worker is virtually indistinguishable from the other (click here to read more about Team oDesk).

When you’re hired to, say, write a discrete piece of code, the buyer may not care when you do the work–as long as the Work Diary and memos look good, and you get good code submitted on time. But when you’re needed for more real-time collaboration, you have to reach an agreement to be available during some or all of the buyer’s business hours.

But how will you be available? Is IM enough? Do you need to have a Skype account? A webcam? When you’re out, will you leave an away message telling the team what time you’ll be back? Will the buyer’s in-house staffers do the same?

If you are a freelance professional, the buyer trusts you to work around your daily life. Maybe you don’t log on until after midnight, or frequently suspend sessions to handle family needs. But once you’ve agreed to be available at set times, you must take extra steps to create a distraction-free work environment, just like the “in-house” telecommuter opting for a home office instead of a cubicle. Flexible freelancers are masters of clever workarounds, but as the team becomes more interdependent, everyone needs to understand that expectations evolve.

Integrating yourself into the buyer company’s daily workflow can seem like a daunting move, but by thinking each challenge through, we’ve found that it’s easier than you’d expect for far-flung team members to become close colleagues.

Most oDesk assignments start small–you hire a provider to complete a specific project. But when the provider proves he can be relied upon, you start giving him more hours and increasingly vital tasks. Soon you may find your remote provider fully integrated with your in-house staff, and that begins to change the relationship between buyer and provider.

We know–here at oDesk we hire providers to work with our in-house staff, and on some projects, one type of worker is virtually indistinguishable from the other (click here to read more about Team oDesk). Add to the mix workplace flexibility that allows traditional employees to telecommute instead of coming to the office each day and you’ve got a team requiring an entirely new set of management skills. Here are a few lessons we’ve learned on the job.

When you hire a provider to, say, write a discrete piece of code, you may not care when he does the work–as long as the Work Diary and memos look good, and you get good code on time. But when you need more real-time collaboration, you have to reach an agreement for the provider to be available during some or all of your business hours.

But how will he be available? Is IM enough? Does he need to have a Skype account? A webcam? When he’s out, will he leave an away message telling you what time he’ll be back? Will your in-house staffers do the same?

You trust your provider to work around his daily life. Maybe he doesn’t log on until after midnight, or frequently suspends sessions to handle family needs. Once he’s agreed to be available at set times, you have as much right to make sure he’ll have a distraction-free work environment as you do for the “in-house” telecommuter opting for a home office instead of a cubicle. Flexible freelancers are masters of clever workarounds, but as the team becomes more interdependent, everyone needs to understand that expectations evolve.

Of course, you’ll continue to manage your provider using oDesk Team–the Work Diary and payment functions are vital. But did you realize you can have your in-house staff logged into Team as well? Getting all the staff for various projects onto one Team page, so everyone can see who’s available and when, helps consolidate and improve management functions. Just go to My oDesk » Team Admin and invite them to become company users with Team Room access.

Integrating your remote providers into the company’s daily workflow can seem like a daunting move, but by thinking each challenge through, we’ve found that it’s easier than you’d expect for far-flung team members to become close colleagues.

Stuart Hibbert from icomplete was kind enough to interview with oDesk and share some of his insights into how to successfully use oDesk as a buyer. His interview was included in a recent oDesk newsletter.

Based in Swindon, England, icomplete.com was conceived by three founders who, after many years of running successful small businesses, wanted to pass on their knowledge to help other companies improve their image, save time, and increase profits.

Their Software-as-a-Service Business Suite incorporates CRM (contact management), calendar, task management, collaboration tools, telephony and website widgets, plus real-life personal assistants to answer calls and undertake tasks clients don’t have time or expertise to do themselves. The beta version is due out soon, to be followed by the commercial launch in the United Kingdom – starting at just £25 ($50) per month – there are no upfront costs, or contract tie-ins. An advertising-supported ‘free’ version will also be available worldwide (minus some of the enhanced features).

CEO Stuart Hibbert is responsible for the day-to-day running of the business and specifically the product and technical teams. “Ultimately,” he says, “the buck stops with me.”
As an oDesk buyer:

Hibbert has been using oDesk for nearly a year, hiring developers within several disciplines; Java, AJAX (JavaScript) and Asterisk; as well as product testing and technical writing. “We started off with just a couple of Java developers back in June 2007,” he says. “We wanted to understand how outsourcing would work for us and which service best suited our requirements. We initially worked with two remote management services, but we liked oDesk so much that we moved those developers over to oDesk too. Our team is now nine providers strong. We tend to have a regular stable of providers – however, for certain skills we do regularly post to the community at large to see if there is new talent available.”

Q: What has been the biggest challenge in using remote providers?
A: To date we have been using individual providers rather than teams, which we feel gives us more flexibility – but at the same time means that we are having to project manage everyone separately. Which, given different time zones (+9 hours in Sydney to -8 hours on the west coast of the United States), is quite challenging – but rewarding when we get it right.

Q: In what way has oDesk made it easier to manage remote workers?
A: Several ways:

* Hire – Instant access to a wealth of providers located around the world. We ask all providers to undertake tests in the field which is most closely associated to the position they are applying for. We read the feedback which has been provided by other buyers.
* Day to day management – The Work Diary is invaluable to us, allowing us to be able to manage remote workers efficiently.
* Payment – We don’t have to worry about the payments to providers who are located across the globe; oDesk manages this all for us.

Q: Do you manage all your oDesk staffers directly, or have you pulled back and hired a project manager through oDesk?
A: A combination really. So far I have managed directly, but as we are developing the business I find that I have less time available. So we have just promoted one of our providers to become team leader, someone who knew how we worked and could see the vision of what we wanted to achieve.

Q: Is it difficult to give up a certain amount of oversight and direct involvement?
A: Sure it was difficult. I am one of the founders of the business, so what we are doing is “my baby.” It is always difficult to give that up. But for the development of the business and for the good of the team, it is best.

Q: We’ve rolled out some new features lately to help with this process, such as Create Team. Is there anything you think oDesk should do in the future to help facilitate a buyer granting more autonomy to teams of workers?
A: More collaboration tools. Providers tend to use email as the primary way of communicating – which can take time for them to “construct” their thoughts logically. Tools that would help to decrease this time would be great. Also, a diary of when providers are ‘planning’ to work – this way buyers would have more visibility as to when providers would be working, especially on an international basis when you have things like different public holidays and such like – would help with current and future planning.

Q: What tips or advice would you have for someone considering signing up as an oDesk buyer?
A: My advice:

* Understand what you want to achieve – be as specific as possible in your briefing/specification.
* Put in proper project management – failure is usually as a result of buyers and providers not communicating effectively.
* Give your providers more than one task at a time – this way if they are waiting on anything, then they at least have another task to work on.

Q: From a buyer’s perspective, what advice would you give to a provider wanting to increase success through oDesk?
A: My advice:

* Get tested. If you say that something is your key competency, then find the associated test on oDesk and take it. Generally, if someone applies for a position, if they aren’t tested we will generally reject them without looking much further than that.
* Check that you match the skills that are being sought. If someone says that they are looking for you to have certification on a particular test or a certain amount of history and you haven’t, then you are more likely to be rejected.
* Make your cover letter specific to the role you are applying for. So many times do we receive generic cover letters which bear little or no resemblance to the position they are applying for.
* Do the best possible job that you can for the provider. They will then give you a glowing feedback report which will help you to secure future work easier.

We’ve begun passing out T-shirts to our favorite blog or forum posts mentioning oDesk. This month’s winners are:

• Airish A for her blog ‘My So-Called “Freelance” Life’.
• Chris T for great use of his oDesk Certified badges.
• Janette P for her post on the advantages of using oDesk to work at home.
• Ryan J for my favorite quote of the month:
  “I personally had never heard of oDesk until I stumbled upon it in some offbeat manner, but it looks like a service suited for people in my field of work. oDesk is a service that brings together businesses and I.T. Consultants, Programmers and Designers and if I had actually taken some time to read computing magazines or tech news sites in the past year or two, I would have already known about the service.”

Remember – if you haven’t gotten your T-shirt, send your latest blog or forum posts mentioning oDesk to buzz@odesk.com!

Based in Swindon, England, icomplete.com was conceived by three founders who, after many years of running successful small businesses, wanted to pass on their knowledge to help other companies improve their image, save time, and increase profits.

Their Software-as-a-Service Business Suite incorporates CRM (contact management), calendar, task management, collaboration tools, telephony and website widgets, plus real-life personal assistants to answer calls and undertake tasks clients don’t have time or expertise to do themselves.

CEO Stuart Hibbert is responsible for the day-to-day running of the business and specifically the product and technical teams. “Ultimately,” he says, “the buck stops with me.”

As an oDesk buyer:

Hibbert has been using oDesk for nearly a year, hiring developers within several disciplines; Java, AJAX (JavaScript) and Asterisk; as well as product testing and technical writing. “We started off with just a couple of Java developers back in June 2007,” he says. “We wanted to understand how outsourcing would work for us and which service best suited our requirements. We initially worked with two remote management services, but we liked oDesk so much that we moved those developers over to oDesk too. Our team is now nine providers strong. We tend to have a regular stable of providers – however, for certain skills we do regularly post to the community at large to see if there is new talent available.”

Q: In what way has oDesk made it easier to manage remote workers?
A: Several ways:

• Hire – Instant access to a wealth of providers located around the world. We ask all providers to undertake tests in the field which is most closely associated to the position they are applying for. We read the feedback which has been provided by other buyers.
• Day to day management – The Work Diary is invaluable to us, allowing us to be able to manage remote workers efficiently.
• Payment – We don’t have to worry about the payments to providers who are located across the globe; oDesk manages this all for us.

Q: Do you manage all your oDesk staffers directly, or have you pulled back and hired a project manager through oDesk?
A: A combination really. So far I have managed directly, but as we are developing the business I find that I have less time available. So we have just promoted one of our providers to become team leader, someone who knew how we worked and could see the vision of what we wanted to achieve.

Q: Is it difficult to give up a certain amount of oversight and direct involvement?
A: Sure it was difficult. I am one of the founders of the business, so what we are doing is “my baby.” It is always difficult to give that up. But for the development of the business and for the good of the team, it is best.

Q: What tips or advice would you have for someone considering signing up as an oDesk buyer?
A: My advice:

• Understand what you want to achieve – be as specific as possible in your briefing/specification.
• Put in proper project management – failure is usually as a result of buyers and providers not communicating effectively.
• Give your providers more than one task at a time – this way if they are waiting on anything, then they at least have another task to work on.

Click here for the full interview.

As an oDesk buyer, finding the right provider is as simple as posting a job in our robust marketplace and sitting back to wait for the dozens of applications to flood in, right?

Well, yes, but it’s not always the best way. It’s certainly the foundation of filling a job, but it’s also about as modern as a Norman Rockwell painting. Hanging a “Help Wanted” sign or putting an ad in your local paper and waiting for resumes is as quaint a 20th century custom as you could come up with. It’s the default position. In the online era, and with as powerful a tool as oDesk, you can do much more. We’ve got about 67,000 providers, but most of them are not who you’re looking for on any one project. On the other hand, we have about 73,000 jobs, with about 300 new ones posted per day. You’re sure to get worthy candidates applying to yours, but some really great providers will no doubt miss your listing. Good providers keep busy, and some people you’d love to talk to might not be checking new posts the day or week yours goes up.

oDesk, unlike the newspaper classifieds and the sites that recreate them online, doesn’t force you to wait for the right worker to come to your rescue. We recommend – especially when you’re looking for a more refined skill set – searching for candidates in our provider database and directly inviting them to interview. This lets you pick candidates based on skills and feedback and relevant work, and it gives you a shot at finding someone who might not have happened to apply to your posting. Great providers might get started with good marketing, but they thrive on word of mouth and repeat business. They’re busy. Taking the initiative to find the most suitable candidates gives you a better shot at bringing in the best person at the best rate.

There are potential downsides to this more proactive technique, of course. When you wait for candidates to come to you, they might not all be right for the job, but you know they’re available. When you make the move to contact a provider, she might be completely booked. You can improve your hit rate if, when checking out a candidate’s skill set, test scores and feedback, you also check his current number of jobs. But don’t be afraid of finding someone too busy – good providers network, and may well know someone who is skilled and available. And that ideal-but-swamped provider may be part of a company that can offer colleagues with the same qualifications but more time.

Another tip: Tweak the search engine. Say you’re looking for a web designer; a casual search yields upward of 11,000 providers. Not only is that a lot of pages to click through, but every other buyer looking for a designer is getting the same initial results, meaning the first few providers listed may be buried under interview invitations. To sift the data better, sort by different key qualifiers: number of feedbacks received, hourly rate, total hours worked, availability or other factors.

There’s nothing wrong, of course, with just posting your job and finding the best candidates among those who respond. But if an initial round of submissions doesn’t bring you a candidate who quite fits your needs, or if you’d like to see what a more aggressive approach can bring, we recommend it. We’ve seen higher fill ratios for jobs and higher success ratios when buyers hire this way.

The whole point of oDesk is to put powerful information tools in both the buyers’ and providers’ hands. Don’t hesitate to make the most of them.

We’ve begun passing out T-shirts to our favorite blog or forum posts mentioning oDesk, and this month has produced a good crop focused on advice for providers. You can find all our favorites this month posted in our forum, but our top choice to highlight is Gemma Baltazar’s, from her Lady Programmer blog. A programmer and developer, she’s been posting tips for the freelancer, comparing PayPal and Payoneer for providers in the Philippines, using Yahoo mail with oDesk, discussing time management and examining how she communicates with offshore buyers. That latest post breaks down communication techniques in everything from technological challenges to etiquette tips-a good read for providers and buyers alike.

Remember-if you haven’t gotten your T-shirt, send your latest blog posts mentioning oDesk to buzz@odesk.com!

Sarah Lewis runs Abundant Media, Inc. (currently producing Findable Blogs) in Boise, Idaho, with two employees, about 15 contractors (more than two-thirds of them via oDesk). She also works as a provider on oDesk as a WordPress developer. With her experience on both sides of that relationship, she has recently written an e-book designed to help providers make the most of oDesk. “Making Money in Your Pajamas: A Freelancer’s Handbook from the oDesk Insider,” a practical, step-by-step guide to freelancing online using oDesk, with a particular focus on creating a profile that attracts buyers, and cover letters that win jobs.

Q: You’re both a provider and buyer on oDesk. In which role did you start, and how did you come to wear both hats?
A: I started as a buyer, looking for help with my quickly growing business. As I reviewed cover letters and profiles, I realized that many providers have excellent skills but don’t know how to best promote themselves. I knew what attracted me as a buyer, but I wanted to see if my observations were universal, so I initially set up my provider profile as an experiment (it worked; I applied for three jobs at higher-than-average rates and got two of them). Now I’m using my provider profile as an alternate marketing method.

Q: Having written an e-book for oDesk providers, what piece of advice do you think providers will find most surprising?
A: You don’t need to be the lowest bidder. Many freelancers try to compete on price, but that’s a mistake.

Q: Have you seen results with the techniques you’ve written about?
A: My book editor, an oDesk provider, made some changes this week to his profile based on the book’s advice, and has already seen increased interest from buyers.

Q: What’s the first giveaway, when dealing with a new provider, that this person is really sharp, or is really not what you’re looking for?
A: The speed and attention to detail in their communication. I usually have a good idea going in about their skills, but work ethic can be hit-or-miss. My pet peeve is providers who don’t read or follow instructions.

Click here for the full interview.

Buyers hiring their first remote providers might feel as though they’re going in blind. You find someone with a good rating, a profile listing the skills you need, and perhaps some encouraging scores on oDesk’s performance tests. But even after a chat or two, you’re still hiring someone half a planet away and entrusting him or her with tasks essential to your business. It’s an unnerving risk, a roll of the dice. But there’s no reason not to stack the odds in your favor.

When you buy a car, you test drive several before settling on the one for you. You don’t buy a house until you’ve had a good walkthrough – perhaps several. You don’t hire a new staff member without reading her resume, chatting on the phone, holding an in-person interview or two, and checking references. And you probably do it for several people before you settle on the right hire. It’s the same process with remote workers – only the strategies change. Instead of face-face communication, you use Web conferencing and Skype. Instead of seeing the person at work in the next office, you have the Work Diary. And instead of a three-step interview process that includes a technical test, you hire a few providers for a literal test drive. Contact a handful of likely candidates and give each a small trial before putting a long and vital project in anyone’s hands.

If you need a PHP programmer for a project that will take more than 1000 hours, you can’t afford to find out at hour 48 that you’ve hired the wrong person. Instead, contact three likely candidates and tell them you’re in the process of settling on the right provider. Hire each to do a simple project, something with a time limit of a few hours. It can be discrete pieces of your greater project or just a sample task. Ask for a Web page that will take input of name and gender and output “Hello, Mr. Smith.” Throw in a time-of-day element to get “Good evening, Ms. Jones.”

Make the test investment commensurate with the project’s scope. For a smaller project, use a simpler test. Hire your candidates to assess your site and suggest specific improvements. Give them, say, an hour or two to report how they’d make your site more useful to your customers, or more attractive, specifying how they’d carry out the effort, with cost/hour estimates. Their ability to grasp your objectives, communicate viable solutions, and demonstrate their level of detail and creativity may be as telling as their ability to provide clean, effective code.

Know what you’re looking for when you judge their introductory efforts:

• Is their work product clean, attractive, effective?
• Does it match your instructions?
• Was it timely? How did they compare with the estimates they gave or limitations you set?
• How was their communication during the project?
• Did they use the work diary well? How does their Work Diary look?

The process of hiring a remote provider requires you to refine the strategies you use to recruit an in-house employee, but there’s no reason to be any less careful and selective.

Dmitry Feduleev’s first experience with oDesk was as an employee of an affiliate. His employer, Deimand, worked mostly in its local market in Russia, but the small unit Dmitry was in also took jobs through oDesk. Last year, an entrepreneurial urge drove Dmitry to found his own company, BelVG, through which he manages a small team of mostly Facebook application developers working exclusively through oDesk. As both a current employee at Deimand and the owner of BelVG, Dmitry has a unique perspective on the oDesk provider’s experience.

Q: Last year, in addition to your Deimand work, you launched BelVG. How did that start?
A: When I started, I was working with just two of my mates, making one project for a U.S. customer. In May 2007, Facebook opened its developer’s area and I got my first BelVG project involving that. This thing interested me, and I asked my guys to learn it. We started to develop our first Facebook applications, and from there we started to grow. Now we have ten Facebook developers, three xHTML developers, and two designers.

Q: When you’re communicating with buyers, which methods are most useful for you – email, chat, Skype, etc?
A: Skype calls are the most useful things for getting whatever I want quickly, but usually it’s Yahoo chats, and email for storing all my to-do’s.

Q: As a business owner, how do you see the business climate for 2008?
A: I think this is going to be the year of business social networks, where people come not only for fun, but to make money. Also, the main streams of this year will include open social applications, Facebook applications with real substance – not only for fun – and ad startups based on this social stuff.

Read the full interview.