Freelancing and Outsourcing Tips, Commentary, Analysis, and News from oDesk

What You Need, When You Need It: The Business Model of the Future

Jenna — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:47 +0000

What do Zipcar, Airbnb and Rent the Runway have in common?

Aside from being wildly successful startups, all three companies have business models based on having on-demand access to assets — what you need, when you need it, without a long-term commitment. From picking up a car for running an hour of errands, to staying in a cozy apartment for a few nights as if it were your own, to wearing a designer dress for a night and then sending it back, these companies make the ownership of assets essentially unnecessary.

If the success of these startups is any indication, this temporary-use model may be the operating model of the future, according to Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath. In a recent article for Harvard Business Review, she discusses how “owning anything may soon be seen as an industrial-age relic.”

While owning something certainly has a number of benefits, they come at the expense of flexibility or liquidity. When things change — which happens frequently in our fast-paced world — ownership can be problematic, she writes. In addition, permanent ownership is often unnecessary in situations where borrowing something will suffice.

McGrath also includes oDesk in this category of on-demand access to assets — in our case, access to talent. The advantages of the oDesk model present “the interesting question of when an employer would hire someone rather than simply pay for the services used on an as-needed basis,” she writes.

McGrath argues for the positive aspects of this trend: the ability for anyone to earn extra money on the side; the work opportunities for those who are physically unable to get a permanent, on-site job; and the freedom to pick one’s own hours and choose whether a traditional on-site job is best for them. While some may consider this shift to be damaging to the workforce, she also notes that regular employment options are not necessarily the gold standard for work security — in some industries, such as retail, there can be a great deal of instability and unpredictability.

“Many of the assumptions about society that we take for granted are based on the notion that relatively stable employment relationships are the norm,” McGrath writes. “When will our thinking catch up with the new reality?”

McGrath’s theory that the access-to-assets model may soon replace the ownership-of-assets model in certain cases relates back to the concept of Work 3.0, which oDesk CEO Gary Swart introduced in December.

Work 3.0 — a world where work is on demand, virtual and remote — is already a reality for many companies, those that are taking advantage of online work to make their businesses more agile and competitive. Similarly, millions of people are also leveraging the growing momentum of Work 3.0 to access work opportunities around the world, and to have the freedom to choose when, where and how to work.

When McGrath’s theory of on-demand access to assets is applied to the world of work, you get Work 3.0 and companies like oDesk. Businesses now have a huge, global pool of talent to choose from, allowing them to create a specialized, on-demand workforce that crosses borders, time zones and skill sets. In addition, the team can come together when it is needed, and dissipate when the project is done — without the need for office-based overhead or a commitment to yearly salaries.

In other words, not only does the on-demand model bring unprecedented flexibility as McGrath describes, but it also brings a significant competitive advantage.

And, in this Work 3.0 approach, the opportunities are boundless.

Jenna Weiner is a marketing specialist at oDesk and an editor of the oDesk Blog. With a background in business and technology writing and editing, she specializes in content strategy and social media marketing.

An Intro to Twitter Chats: Why You Should Follow Along

Amy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:02 +0000

You no longer wonder why people use Twitter — you are a convert. You use it to stay in touch with friends, family members and business contacts. You follow a few professional resources — like @oDesk — and you try to share interesting information on a regular basis.

You are even following a few potential clients to learn more about what they do and how you might be able to help.

With the basics mastered, you can get even more from this fast-paced network by jumping into Twitter chats.

What are Twitter chats?

As a regular Twitter user, you have likely noticed what are called hashtags — keywords or meaningful abbreviations preceded by a “#” that somewhat serve as Twitter’s filing system. These hashtags can also serve as a flag to bring together people who share a common interest, using Twitter chats.

To get a Twitter chat started, a small group of users chooses a date, time and specific hashtag; by tagging tweets with the relevant hashtag, this group can then discuss their topic in real time — and others who see the hashtag can join in.

Online discussions are not a new idea; Twitter is not the only way to connect in real time, and if you want to limit your conversation to a few specific people it is not even the best option. But there are a growing number of niche chats on Twitter, and if you are not yet following one, you are missing out on a potentially significant information and networking resource.

Why you should follow along

The power of Twitter chats is not in sorting out your plans for an upcoming camping trip; they are generally focused on a subject that can be discussed publicly and may be of interest to others. Here are three reasons why you should find one related to your professional interests.

1. Find new experts and thought leaders.

When you go to work-related events, you are likely introduced to new people — not just the people at the event, but others who come up in conversation. For example, you may listen to a great speaker, or learn about a new book or blog post that is generating a lot of conversation. You may get into a great discussion with a seasoned professional who has decades of experience to share.

The same can happen in Twitter chats — except you do not have to leave your desk. For example, if you are trying to start a blog, you may want to follow #blogchat (Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET). Not only is it frequented by successful bloggers who are happy to share their own experiences, but you may learn about other resources by following the conversation.

2. Learn from your peers.

One key benefit to networking (in person or online) is learning from people who are in the same industry as you. What issues or trends have they noticed? How do they handle certain situations?

Sometimes, the only people who can truly understand the highs and lows of your business are those who do the same thing. For example, a recent #PMchat for project managers (Fridays at 12 p.m. ET) discussed whether there is value in pursuing a PMP designation from the Project Management Institute — something only others in the industry can reasonably weigh in on.

3. Build your network and reputation.

Contributing your own opinions to a Twitter chat does more than help you connect with your peers: It is an opportunity to showcase your own knowledge of a particular topic. Over time, this can help you be seen as more than a participant — as someone who adds value to the conversation.

And therein lies part of the key value of Twitter chats — they are not just a great source of information, but also a relevant way to build your brand and professional network, helping you find both partnerships and referrals.

There is no definitive directory of Twitter chats, but this article from Social Media Today lists a number of popular chats and includes a link to a spreadsheet of known groups.

Have you ever participated in a Twitter chat? Do you know of any that may be helpful to share? Please leave your suggestions in the comments section below!

Amy Sept is the assistant editor of the oDesk blog. A communications consultant with more than a decade of experience, she helps connect non-profit organizations and small businesses with the people who need their help – in print and online. She regularly follows a number of chats and is co-moderator of the non-profit focused #smNPchat. Say hello on Twitter: @amysept.

5 Business Productivity Apps for Your Tablet

Julia — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:45 +0000

With a tablet in tow, your office can become more portable – and with this lineup of business productivity apps, it can also become more productive. Here are five useful business apps for each of three different tablet platforms: Apple’s iPad, the BlackBerry Playbook and Android-based tablets.

The Blackberry Playbook

Blaq ($1.99) - Since Twitter is such an indispensable marketing and customer service tool, it is important that you stay on top of it. And that is why Blaq exists: to make your Playbook Twitter experience as easy (and cool) as possible. With a well-designed interface, customizable notifications and in-app link browsing, Blaq gives the native Twitter app a run for its money.
Evernote (Free) - Memory problems? If you are like most entrepreneurs, your brain is on overload. Well, thanks to Evernote, you can outsource at least some of that grey matter work to an app. Evernote is a web-based app that helps you keep track of notes, business cards, presentations, audio recordings and other ideas. It is also available for Android and iOS.
Splashtop Remote Desktop HD ($4.99) – Take your desktop on the road with Splashtop’s nifty app. It allows you to access your desktop applications and use them. You can also stream video and audio from your desktop. Remote Desktop HD is great for staying productive wherever you happen to be. The app connects to both Macs and PCs.
Conqu (Free) - Do you want to manage project to-dos and your personal life all in one place? Take a look at Conqu. It is a robust task management app that allows you to tag entries, sync between multiple devices and people, or delegate tasks while still keeping track of them. No more juggling between different to-do lists!
Navita Translator (Free) - Need to communicate with co-workers located overseas? Try Navita Translator. This app can translate using voice or text from the English, Portuguese, or Spanish interfaces into any of more than 50 languages.

The Android-Based Tablet

Kingston Office (Free) – High-end document editing for free – what more do you need to know? The Kingston Office app allows you to use your tablet to view and edit a wide range of file formats, including PPT, DOC and XLS. It also allows you to copy and paste between apps, something that is a bit of a rarity at the moment.
MindJet (Free) - This app is a marriage between your to-do list and mind mapping software. Using MindJet, you can enter ideas, notes and jobs to complete, then link to files for more information. The app is also integrated with Dropbox for easy backup of files. Time to release your inner creative genius!
Juice Defender (Free) - Battery life. Yes, that is the one big problem with relying on a tablet as your mobile office. But with a bit of help from the Juice Defender app, you can squeeze every last bit of life from your battery. This simple but powerful program manages various power draining functions, such as Wi-Fi and CPU speed, adjusting them as needed. Just think how much more you can get done!
File Manager HD (Free) - Dealing with files on your Android tablet can be a headache. File Manager HD seeks to be the remedy to your file organizational woes. With a user-friendly interface, support for both local and remote file systems, and a root explorer for rooted devices, it is no wonder this app has made top rankings.
Pocket Cloud Remote (Free) - Did you leave an important file on your PC back at the office? If you have Pocket Cloud Remote, there is no need to worry. This app provides remote desktop access, using RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol), VNC (Virtual Network Computing) and Auto Discovery (Google account). It must be good, as PC World awarded it “The Best Mobile Cloud App for Android Tablets.”

The iPad

Instapaper Pro ($4.99) - Need to do some online research, but about to board a long flight? Instapaper Pro allows you to save up to 500 webpages for offline reading. And to make it easier to sift through your downloads, you can also organize pages into folders. But all this usefulness poses one problem: When will you ever get any downtime?
FTP on The Go ($6.99) - Sometimes your website needs emergency maintenance – and you might not have any IT staff to take care of the problem. With the FTP on The Go app, you can use your iPad to download, edit, and upload text files on your FTP server. For those who have the know-how, you can even send “raw” FTP commands when needed.
Zipbox Pro ($1.99) - Sometimes you receive zipped files. And sometimes you need to open them on your iPad. Unfortunately, iOS doesn’t play well with zipped files. If you run into this dilemma frequently, you should get a copy of Zipbox Pro. This app enables you to open zipped files in their associated programs. You can also use it to zip and password protect files for sharing with others.
Dragon Dictation (Free) - Typing on a tablet can be cumbersome and frustrating. That is why taking advantage of the Dragon Dictation app can make your iPad life so much easier. With Dragon Dictation, you simply speak your status update, text, email message or tweet into the mic and the app will transcribe it for you. Languages supported include English, Chinese, Russian and Spanish.
RoamBI (Free) - If parts of your job include dealing with and visualizing data, you will love RoamBI. This free app lets you input company data and transform it into a visual report. RoamBI is especially useful if you often analyze data on the go, or make one-on-one presentations involving charts and graphs.

What tablet apps do you consider indispensable for your business? Share your favorites in the comments section below.

How I Killed My To-Do List

Jenna — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:15 +0000

Hi, my name is Jenna. I am a to-do list addict.

Or at least I was; I am now in the beginning stages of recovery. While I suspect I am not in the clear yet, I have seen the light — and it is calendars.

Regardless of whether you are a freelancer juggling multiple projects for different clients, or an entrepreneur trying to build your business and manage a growing team, your time is one of your biggest business assets and you need to manage it effectively. While to-do lists may seem like the best way to prioritize your time and attention, they are inherently flawed.

Why to-do lists do not work

This is the argument presented by Daniel Markovitz, president of TimeBack Management — a firm that “helps companies radically improve individual and team performance.” In his recent article for Harvard Business Review, titled “To-Do Lists Don’t Work,” Markovitz argues that to-do lists are “simply setting you up for failure and frustration.”

He focuses on five fundamental flaws in to-do lists:

the paradox of choice: being presented with too many options at once is overwhelming
heterogeneous complexity: some tasks are simple while others are complex and more time-consuming
heterogeneous priority: some tasks are urgent while others may seem relatively insignificant
lack of context: a list cannot capture the important pieces of information related to each task that help you decide how and when to work on it
lack of commitment devices: there is nothing forcing you to work on the most important tasks instead of picking off the most enjoyable ones

If you do not have time to read Markovitz’s article (even though it is short and quite compelling!), here is the synopsis: Lists do not capture important information such as the time it takes to do each item or how much time you have available. They also bring out less-than-productive aspects of human nature — we are overwhelmed by too much information, we consistently choose the easiest and quickest items over more onerous ones that may be more important, and we tend to only focus on the highest-priority items until the low-priority ones become critical and more difficult to handle.

Instead of to-do lists, he suggests an option called “living in your calendar.” This means estimating how much time each task on your list will take, as well as its priority, and scheduling the tasks onto your calendar like meetings.

The result? A structured day that takes into account a realistic estimate of how much time each task takes, in the context of how much time you actually have available. You will be forced to make some trade-offs, based on which items take priority.

“It’s an eye-opening exercise: you’ll probably find that it’s tough — if not impossible — to find a place for everything,” Markovitz writes. “But this is the reality of your life. You’ve simply used the calendar to paint a true picture of the time commitments you have on your plate. And whether or not you make these commitments visible, they’re there. After all, if you’re going to be run over by a truck, you might as well get its license plate.”

Living in my calendar

He speaks the truth. Giving this theory a test, I was astonished to see how few items I could realistically get done in a day, when I actually thought about how much time each one would take. While this is sobering, it also has the benefit of showing me – in black and white – whether I can take on any additional commitments.

Before, I had multiple to-do lists — including several long-term ones and a daily one. While I tried to be realistic about what I could get done each day, I always had items left over at the end of the day, which automatically made me feel like the day was not as successful or productive as it should have been.

This is what my day looks like now: I build in time in the morning to go through emails (as well as 15-minute chunks for email processing scattered throughout the day), and then schedule the rest of my tasks — according to priority — around my pre-existing meetings. I know when I am on schedule to accomplish everything I need to do for each day, and I have extra motivation to finish tasks and use my time effectively so I can stay on schedule.

In addition, I am able to adjust my calendar based on what I have control over that day; if I know I need to leave work at a certain time, running behind schedule means postponing a task until the next day. But if I know I need to get something done that day, I adjust the start and end times of my work day accordingly. At the end of the day, it feels like my work has been done and the day was a success, and I plan my schedule for the next day.

And let me tell you, the feeling of being ahead of schedule — essentially, being rewarded with free time I did not expect to have — is an even more satisfying feeling than crossing items off of a to-do list.

I used to think that to-do lists helped me stay in control of my day, but that was nothing compared to running smoothly along a pre-planned calendar of priorities. I urge you to try this method for a few days. If I can do it, you can too!

Have you found success with an alternative to the traditional to-do list? What are your favorite ways to stay productive and efficient? Let us know in the comments section below!

7 Ways to Build Your Skills Online

Stephanie — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:23 +0000

Can you improve your freelance skills without leaving home? Definitely!

There are plenty of web-based opportunities for a solo professional to build in-demand skills. Some of the most marketable skills on oDesk can be self-taught online, including PHP for web development, iPhone app creation, programming languages like C++ or .NET, WordPress for blogs, or English proficiency.

But where do you go to find all this great information? Here are seven ways you can learn, build and sharpen your skills on the web.

1. Enroll in online courses (free or paid)

There are plenty of online courses that can help you hone your skills and learn new strategies to improve them. These courses usually include ebooks, webinars, checklists and activity sheets packed into one package. They are often either given away for free or are included with a membership fee; the best courses may be expensive, but the investment is worth it. Some sites to check out include:

Lynda.com (subscription based) – a popular site that offers training in a wide range of topics, including specific computer programs.
MIT Open Courseware (free) – generally offering more in-depth programs, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has made many of their courses available in digital form. Available materials vary from course to course.
W3 Schools (free) – if you want to learn more about web development, or just figure out how to format your blog posts, this site offers a variety of tutorials and quick-reference information.

2. Develop lasting relationships with your “mentor”

After taking an online course, you may have had an opportunity to establish one-on-one correspondence with the mentor or the industry expert who hosted the course. This can be a valuable opportunity to build a lasting relationship – a connection with a mentor you trust, who knows what he or she is talking about, and who may be willing to help you become a better freelancer every step of the way.

3. Assign and build your own projects

Practice makes perfect, so exercise your new skills regularly with personal projects. If you are a writer, set up a blog or write an ebook. If you are a designer, create logos, themes, and other products that showcase your skills and aesthetics. These projects will successfully display your abilities and what you can offer to prospective clients.

4. Check websites and blogs for tips, exercises, and other advice

There are plenty of websites that share tips, strategies, and neat tricks that can enhance your skills significantly. Writers, for example, can turn to Copyblogger for copywriting and web content tips, the International Freelancers Academy for freelancing strategies, and Daily Writing Tips for articles on grammar, lists of synonyms of common words, and quizzes.

5. Look for podcasts, webinars, video blogs

Building your skills online is not limited to reading and testing what youhave read. In fact, some of the best tips and strategies online are not laid out in written form; you can find a lot of valuable content in the form of podcasts, webinars and video blogs by industry experts in your field.

6. Find inspiration – and learn from it

Who are the leaders in your field, and what is their approach to their work? Most industries host award programs that highlight the best of the best; some organizations even sell publications that contain these award-winning projects for reference. Niche publications often include detailed case studies and interviews with experts about issues that are likely relevant to your work. Take time to study these examples and consider how to use the same principles in your own work.

7. Learn from fellow freelancers and online communities

Why work on your skills alone when you can learn and share strategies with fellow freelancers? There are hundreds of online communities that you can join and learn from, with both new and seasoned freelancers helping each other out. LinkedIn groups, forums, Facebook groups, and niche websites are some of the best places to connect to these resources.

Professional development is crucial if you hope to become an in-demand professional and industry expert. But keep in mind that the fruit of all your labor comes from actually putting these skills, strategies, tips and ideas into action. Release those personal projects, take those online courses, and join a learning community – each step forward is a step towards your success.

Stephanie Gonzaga is a freelancer on oDesk who specializes in writing top-notch web content, such as product descriptions, website copy, articles, and blog posts for clients all over the globe. During her free time, she writes on her blog The Freelance Pinoy, a site dedicated to providing Filipino freelancers with tips, advice, and strategies to help them reach freelancing success.

Use Google Reader Like a Ninja

Amy — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:00:11 +0000

You need to be “in the know” – about your business, of course, but also about the latest industry news, small business trends, what your competitors are doing, and other events that may impact your income for better or for worse.

You set up Google Reader a while ago to monitor dozens of blogs and RSS feeds. Now you have thousands of unread articles and still no manageable way to process all that information. What can you do?

Use folders

Digital communications strategist Tod Maffin has a “Four Bucket System” that he uses to keep things in order, starting with folder organization. “Each folder name is preceded by a number so they sort in order of priority,” he wrote. “In this way, if I don’t have a tonne of time, I’ll just start at the top and be assured I’m getting what I need.”

Create a list of the different types of blogs you follow, then number them according to priority. What information do you need to know every day? What information can wait until the weekend – or longer? You may find it helpful to create a folder called “1- Top Priority” to contain all the blogs you must read daily.

Recommendation: Be selective about the blogs you include in your high-priority folders. If your top-priority folder routinely has hundreds of articles waiting to be read, you may find yourself feeling overwhelmed again in the near future.

Focus on your goal

Prioritizing your blogs will not help a bit if you allow yourself to relax into an hour or two of reading every day. The truth is, you likely have just a few specific reasons for following all these blogs.

For example, your reasons may include:

Staying informed of current news and trends that might impact your business or clients.
Learning new strategies that will help your business succeed.
Getting inspiration for the creative work you do.

Whatever your goals, keep them in mind as you prepare to start reading. Non-profit communicator Debra Askanase wrote about how she uses her goals not just as a filter when reading, but also when occasionally cleaning up the list of blogs she’s following.

Recommendation: Try to skim just headlines and introductions to flag articles that are relevant to your goals. Ideally, save these articles to another service – Evernote and Instapaper are a couple of great tools for this – and read them separately. It is possible that you may miss something relevant, but that is still preferable to spending your time reading everything.

Take action

In his post, Tod Maffin describes the four buckets – act, share, save, and read later – that he is committed to acting on regularly. There is a new tool that can make taking action even easier, even automatically.

ifttt, “If This Then That”, is essentially a recipe book for creating online shortcuts. Launched in December 2010, this San Francisco-based start-up gives you the ability to mash various online tools together in whatever way is useful to you.

For example, with Google Reader you can use ifttt to automatically:

Save any posts you star to your Evernote or Instapaper account
Tweet any items you tag with the term “tweet”
Email any posts you star to a specified email address

There are hundreds of combinations already created, and if you are unable to find the one you want, you can always create your own.

Recommendation: Automate what you can, and commit yourself to the rest. For example, if you decide to save relevant articles to a reading application, make time every day to read through those articles. Otherwise you will just end up with an intimidating pile of curated information you will not want to read, either.

New information is so constantly available that it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Organization, goals and discipline can make the flow a lot more manageable.

How do you stay on top of your news and information? Share your favorite solutions in the comments section below.

Amy Sept recently joined the oDesk team as the assistant blog editor. A professional communicator with more than a decade of experience, she helps connect non-profit organizations and small businesses with the people who need their help – in print and online. She has also discovered that if you would actually like to have a ninja in your Google Reader, it can be arranged.

Hire Like Facebook: Out-of-the-Box Methods to Find the Best Candidates

Julia — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:22 +0000

“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
–Henry David Thoreau

In his recent book, The Rare Find, George Anders details how Facebook discovered that the traditional approach to hiring just was not working. After a bit of head-scratching, they decided to try a different approach: Posting brain-teasing problems that required innovative programming solutions.

These problems were open to anyone, and potential solutions soon began arriving. In a moment of revelation, Facebook discovered that some of the smartest solutions came from people whose resumes would have otherwise appeared underwhelming. A few of those were hired and proved to be more than just good employees – they were superstars.

How can you use a similar approach to find the superstars for your business?

Many organizations, including the U.S. Army, have discovered that in order to find the best candidates, hiring practices must be reinvented. Here is how you can take a page from the likes of Google and Apple to hire better talent.

Look at the whole picture

Academics and job history are important, but they are not the only indicators of success. Dig deeper into the lives of your job applicants – the way they use their free time and the pursuits they find inspiring can indicate volumes about the type of person they are.

If someone is highly motivated and passionate about issues your company deals with, it is likely their drive to succeed will far outweigh any missing academic credentials.

Questions to ask: What are your hobbies? What do you like to read? Where do you volunteer?

Look at personality

When faced with a slate of applicants who have similar skill sets, one way to winnow the list is to look at potential hires’ personalities to see who might be a good fit.

One example of this: Google works hard to find recruits who are not just talented but also a good mesh with their corporate culture. One way they accomplish this is by having some of the potential team members interview the applicant.

If you have multiple team members, consider including them as a part of the interview process. Also, decide what personality type would fit best within your business, then try to identify which applicants appear to have those qualities.

Questions to ask: What are your faults and how do you compensate for them? (Also have your other team members propose interview questions they think are important.)

Look at problem-solving capacity

A good team member is one that can adapt when faced with a new challenge. Facebook’s brain teasers were an innovative way to separate the thinkers from the paper-pushers.

You can do this same thing by finding out how applicants approach and deal with problems, especially outside of their core competency. As a side note, also look for people that want to help your business improve – even when that task is not part of their job description.

Questions to ask: How would you deal with [insert hypothetical situation] and why would you approach it that way?

Look at what has worked

Finally, take some time to evaluate your hiring history. Finding good people is not easy. Mistakes are inevitable. No matter how innovative the company, there is usually a learning curve in discovering what types of people are a good fit. So keep track of which hires have worked and which have not – then learn from your mistakes and move on.

When hiring remote workers, it can be difficult to judge personality and work ethic through a simple email exchange. That is why oDesk recommends making use of the test hire before committing your project (and budget) into unproven hands.

What tips do you have for successfully hiring top people? Share your advice in the comments section below.

Tax Time: Keep the Paperwork Under Control

Amy — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:00:15 +0000

If you run your business as a “sole proprietorship,” your fiscal year ended on December 31 – which means the countdown is on until your date with the tax man. Are you ready?

Staying above the pile of paperwork is something a lot of freelancers struggle with, especially when it comes to tracking expenses during the year. Sound familiar? Here are some tools to help get last year’s documents in order, and maybe make this fiscal year just a bit easier to manage.

In the past, oDesk has provided a lot of solid tax tips for freelancers. For example, you should:

Mark off a business-only space. If you work from home, designating a certain room of your house as your office can allow you to deduct a portion of your home expenses, calculated by the size of the room as a percentage of the house’s total square footage. Keep in mind that the IRS requires the room to be used ”exclusively and regularly” for business. You can refer to this IRS page for more information.
Create a paper trail. Whether it’s stacking your business receipts, filing every bill or tracking any medical expenses, make sure you have a record of anything you might be able to claim or deduct when it comes to tax time.
Consider professional help. If you have a hard time wrapping your mind around the numbers, consider getting professional help – for example, an accountant or tax preparation software. These resources will help you get your documentation right; especially if this is your first year as a freelancer, a professional can really help you make sense of everything.

Some of this advice is tried and true. But is there anything new that might make the paper trail seem a little less like a landslide?

Expense-tracking tools for the app-friendly freelancer

Shoeboxed: If you have a smartphone in your pocket and a random assortment of receipts in a box at home, Shoeboxed could be your new best friend. With their free app for Android or iOS – which does not require an account – recording expenses is as easy as taking a picture. And that box of receipts? For a fee, Shoeboxed will look after that for you, too – just mail in your documents using their prepaid envelopes, and they will scan and categorize them for you.

Receipt Bank: London-based Receipt Bank also offers to take that box of paper and turn it into something you and your accountant will love. Like Shoeboxed, Receipt Bank has a free app, but please note that this app does require an account.

Lemon: If you want a better way to manage your paper and electronic receipts, Lemon might be for you. This newer start-up will give you a Lemon.com email address; send electronic invoices to this address and they will be filed with receipts you have added using the mobile app. They will not enter your paper receipts for you, but the service is free – with premium options on the way – and you can run as many receipts as you want through the app.

One last piece of advice: Confirm how long you need to hold on to all these newly organized documents. For example, in Canada, small businesses need to hold onto records for a minimum of six years and obtain written permission to destroy records before that time is up.

There are new expense-tracking apps coming out all the time. Have you used any? Share your own advice in the comments section below.

Make It a Game: Using Gamification to Build Your Business

Julia — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:00:26 +0000

From senet – a game played by Pharaohs in ancient Egypt – to the more modern phenomenon of Monopoly, games have a powerful draw. And now they are being partnered with business objectives. Yes, it is the hot startup buzzword of 2012: “Gamification”.

If the pairing of “business” and “games” immediately conjures thoughts of time wasted on Farmville, then it is time for you to take a second look. Gamification is all about injecting fun, recognition and/or competition into otherwise standard business relationships – using game-like techniques to motivate employees and customers to help you reach your goals.

Why should you care? People will alter their behavior based on the rewards they receive for doing so. Case in point: Foursquare. Millions of people now make a point to “check-in” at a location just so they can receive rewards in the form of badges and mayor status. These rewards are mostly intangible and valueless, but have still persuaded a whole class of smartphone users to strive to achieve them. That is the power of games.

The Anatomy of a Game

As noted above, do not let the term “game” throw you. Using gamification in your business is about figuring out what you want to accomplish, and finding something that will motivate your audience to help you reach those goals. This has been used for years in the sales industry – high performers are often rewarded with cash, vacations and other desirable prizes.

How could this work for you? Here are a few game-style elements you could incorporate into your business model:

Levels: Reward your customers in greater increments as they achieve new “levels” of status. A great example of this is how Starbucks awards their customers an increasing amount of perks the more they frequent the store.
Progression: Show a status bar or some other progress indicator so people can see how much they have left to do before they reach the desired end. LinkedIn makes use of this technique by using a progression bar to show how much information you have added to your profile.
Status: Everyone likes to know that they have value. For some, status in their community – whether online or off – is an incredible motivator. Many forums use this system by giving increased status to users who contribute most to the community.
Time Limit: Base user rewards on their completing certain tasks within a pre-determined time limit. Certain airlines make use of this by requiring customers to fly on a regular basis in order to keep the reward miles they have accrued with them.
Loss Aversion: Motivate your audience not by rewards but instead by withholding penalties. This can include the threat of losing membership if they do not log-in within a certain period of time, or loss of status in an online community if they let their participation drop off.

There are many more of these types of game mechanics that can be applied to your business. Learn more about them on the wiki at Gamification.org.

Getting started

Are you intrigued by the potential of gamification but at a loss as to what your next steps should be? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

What are my objectives? Game elements should not be instituted haphazardly. Instead, figure out what it is you want people to do. Then evaluate which of those goals would most benefit from gamification.
What would most appeal to my target audience? There is a big difference between what motivates a risk taker versus a more cautious personality. Take time to figure out what rewards would mean the most to your customers; if they dislike it, you could do more harm than good.

For more information, have a look at these resources:

Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete: This book is a good introduction to game mechanics and using them in a business context.
Gamified Loyalty: This online digest provides an in-depth look at current state of gamification.
Big Door: A gamification startup company that provides their developer API and widgets for free.

Now it is your turn. What do you think about gamification? Do you agree that it is the next big thing, or is it another overhyped startup idea? Contribute your thoughts in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. And her favorite game? Settlers of Catan, of course.

Remote Meetings: Make A Good Impression Online

Amy — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:00:01 +0000

Work 3.0 enables freelancers to work remotely, away from clients in another city, state or even country. As a result, while face-to-face conversations may not always be part of your working relationships, good communication is always essential — especially for “long-distance” working relationships.

Luckily, technology offers many options for meeting online. All you need to worry about? Making a good impression.

Before You Begin

Whether your meeting is on camera or audio only, there are a few things you should do before starting your call:

Check your tech. Give yourself at least five minutes ahead of time to make sure your microphone and/or video are working. Even if you have recently used the same program, things like software installations or power outages may require at least a reboot.
Be prepared. Add the person you are meeting with to your contact list in advance. Then, just as you would do before leaving the house for a meeting, make sure you have all the information you need so you do not have to disappear mid-call to look for something.
Dress for success. Being a freelancer offers a lot of flexibility, including the ability to roll out of bed and into your work day. But is this the best plan before a client meeting? In a post for GigaOM, Celine Roque suggests that dressing professionally can make a positive impact on your approach to work. Client meetings are one time when you want to be at your best.
Try to remove any distractions. Whether family members, the television or a noisy air conditioner are in the background, try to minimize distractions as much as possible. While isolating yourself isn’t always an option, try to find a quiet space away from other noises and activities.
Check in. If you are the one placing the call, be sure to ask your contact ahead of time (for example, in Skype’s chat feature) if it is still an okay time to talk — and whether the call should be with video or audio only. Beginning a video call when the other person is not prepared to be on camera can certainly start the conversation off on awkward footing.

Tips For Audio Calls

Smile! Even if the other person is not able to see you, smiling while you talk helps change your tone of voice so you sound friendlier — even more energetic.
Invest in a better microphone. Your laptop or camera may have a built-in mic, but often these mics are not good at filtering out background noise; this can make you more difficult to hear and understand. Some programs, like Skype, let you assess your sound quality using a test call. Depending on your operating system, most computers also have a recording program that you can use to hear what you sound like.

Tips For Video Calls

Preview your picture. By checking that your camera works, you can also check what people will see on camera. Make sure you are visible and in focus, and watch for anything that might be distracting or inappropriate and move it. To take this a step further, is there anything you might want to have visible? Awards you may have received or samples of your work might help set a nice background.
Try not to move around. If you move a lot while you speak, a spotty Internet connection could make you look jumpy and blurry.

What lessons have you learned about remote business meetings? Leave your advice in the comments section below!

Finding Your Fans: Crowdsourced Funding for Your Small Business

Julia — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:00:19 +0000

Is your business idea so great that you find yourself making elevator pitches to total strangers? Does your great idea have so little financial backing that you also scrounge around that elevator looking for spare change? Well, do not let meager resources continue to hold you back. Now is the time to turn to a new source of startup funding – the public!

Thanks to the leveraging power of the Internet, every person you meet is a potential investor. Crowdfunding sites have opened the doors for micro-investors (people who contribute small amounts of money) to be involved in startups; you no longer need to rely solely on venture capital or deep-pocketed investors.

Crowdfunding 101

Here is a simple description of how crowdfunding works:

You have an idea for a product, film, book, album, etc.
You create a business plan, then post your plan on one of the various crowdfunding sites.
You set a goal for the amount of money you need to raise, as well as your timeline for raising the funds.
Investors then have the opportunity to learn more about your project and, if they like it, they can contribute anywhere from $5 to $500+ towards it.

This type of funding will not work for every type of business or product idea. Where crowdfunding shines is in short-term, smaller projects that need relatively small amounts of capital (under $150,000). Examples of successfully funded projects include producing eco-friendly sandals, starting a doughnut restaurant, recording an indie rock album and developing a car-locating iPhone app.

Meet the Investors

Crowdfunding sites are not created equal; each one has a different focus and is best suited for a certain kind of project. Each site also has different fee structures. Here is a rundown of some of the options:

Kickstarter:
Focus: Creative projects in areas as diverse as technology, music or photography.
Fees: 5% to Kickstarter if successful; 3 to 5% to Amazon for credit card processing.
CrowdRise:
Focus: Non-profits and fundraising.
Fees: 5%, plus $1 for donations under $25 or $2.50 on donations over $25.
IndieGoGo:
Focus: Investment in any and every type of creative or entrepreneurial project.
Fees: 4% if campaign is successful; 9% if it is not. You are also charged a 3% payment processing fee.
RocketHub:
Focus: Small business, fashion, music, non-profits and scientific research.
Fees: 4% for successful ventures; 9% if funding goal is not reached. There is also a 4% transaction fee.
ulule:
Focus: The arts and humanitarian projects, heavily weighted towards the European market. Ulule also allows you to fund a project through pre-sales.
Fees: 8% from credit card donations; 5% from PayPal donations.

Tips for Successful Crowdfunding

Posting a project on any one of these sites is simple; receiving all the funding you need is not quite as easy. Here are some ideas about how you can run an effective campaign:

Get advice. This post is just a bare-bones synopsis to get you started. Do your own research by talking to others who have used these sites. They can give insight into what did and did not work in their campaigns.
Lay the groundwork for success. While it is easy to want to post your project immediately, resist the urge. To have a fully-funded project, you need to do some legwork beforehand. First, work to build your fanbase through other social media venues. Second, decide how you are going to reward your investors; think through what would best fit the types of people who would be interested in your project. Finally, think short; the nature of crowdfunding requires projects with relatively short turn-around times. If your product is a long-term investment, get funding for particular steps of the project instead of trying to fund the whole thing.
Have a cool reward. Your investors are also shoppers – offering a reward they will want is a big help. For example, if you are recording an album, give investors an exclusive copy with extras. If you are opening a restaurant, offer gift certificates.
Share more than facts. Share your story. People are not simply investing in a project – they are investing in you. You need to convince them that you have both the passion and the skills to bring your idea to life. So share your story: Talk about who you are and your passion for the project that drives you. Then communicate the product’s story and what makes it different. A great example of this type of storytelling is from Lunatik watches (which received funding via Kickstarter).
Do your own public relations. Encourage supporters to spread the word to their friends, then give them the tools to do so. Devise a good tease line for supporters to tweet and share on their social networks. Make a promo video that can be embedded in blogs. Build a project website they can direct their friends to. Make sharing your story as easy as possible.
Think beyond funding. Not every project will receive the necessary funding – but missing that goal does not mean you have failed. Remember, you will have connected with people who are very interested in your project; leverage that fan base by staying in touch. In some cases, the network you create may be of more value than the funding you were trying to raise.

Thanks to the Internet, the barriers between companies and their customers continue to fall away. Crowdsourced funding is a perfect example of that.

Would you invest in a business through one of these sites? Or have you gotten your project off the ground thanks to crowdfunding? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

5 Tools to Help You Manage Your Clientele

Stephanie — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:00:23 +0000

Have you ever found yourself managing three to four clients (and multiple projects) a day? It is a stressful business, especially if all you have are Excel and Word to organize email addresses, contact information, notes, tasks and schedules.

What you need is a time saver – a tool that simplifies contact management, project management and customer service. What you need is a client management system.

Also known as CRM or customer relations management, it involves organizing all of your contact information and communicating with your clients in a time-efficient manner. Some CRM systems simply integrate email and import contacts while others offer more flexible features, such as customer support, data analysis and social media engagement tools.

There are plenty of client management tools in the market today, so let us start with five feature-rich CRM apps for contractors working with multiple clients.

1. Insightly

Dubbed as the most popular CRM and project management tool in the Google Apps marketplace, Insightly manages all of your contact information, breaks down projects and monitors your business activities. It is famous for its real-time search feature, lightning-speed performance and easy user interface.

Completely integrated with Google Apps, Insightly saves email conversations and documents, keeps track of all of your leads, opportunities and prospects, and provides you with the tools you need to both collaborate and communicate with clients and members of your team. Its free basic account makes it ideal for solo professionals and start-ups.

2. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is another popular client management system that contractors can use to build customer loyalty. Integrated seamlessly with Google Apps, you can sync email, attach documents, import contacts and calendar events, and keep track of leads and opportunities in one centralized workspace. To top it all off, Zoho CRM generates reports to give you an idea of how your business is performing.

Zoho CRM offers a free basic account for up to three users, giving contractors a great and affordable CRM tool to use for their freelance businesses. Check out GigaOm’s overview of how it works and why it might be a great option for you.

3. SugarCRM

If Insightly and Zoho do not seem as in-depth as you would like, consider SugarCRM — a more powerful system that combines social media and customer support into one. Apart from organizing all of your contact information and driving sales for your business, it manages your social media accounts in activity streams and offers online collaboration tools to quickly arrange meetings directly from the app. It has its own iPhone app as well!

SugarCRM is best for contractors who work in small to medium remote teams and who work with multiple clients at once. Pricing plans start at $360/year, but the software is open-source for you to customize it according to your business’s needs.

4. Salesforce

If you run an independent agency and handle small to large-scale clients, Salesforce has more powerful options for you. This CRM system offers a wide variety of features that are both flexible and beneficial for any business of any size. It is available anywhere and accessible to everyone thanks to its cloud-based platform.

Some of Salesforce’s main features include real-time visibility of sales, a powerful social contact center to help provide superb customer service, and secure and private social networks to increase productivity among employees. You can also build apps for your own business using the system’s built-in development tools.

Since it is more feature-rich, it is more difficult to master and more expensive in price. It is best to test out the demo or sign up for a free trial to see if it will work for your freelance business.

5. High Rise

37Signals, the company behind popular business apps Basecamp and Campfire, offers its own client management web app called Highrise.

This CRM system takes on the painstaking task of managing client contact info, searching through email conversations, and keeping track of leads and deals for you. With its slick user interface and great features, you can manage up to 30,000 contacts, nurture client relationships, follow-up on prospects, and monitor sales and your business’s performance.

Highrise is a lot cheaper than Salesforce and SugarCRM but manages your client database and business activities all the same. Pricing plans start at $24/month for a six-member team; a $99/month premium account covers 40 team members, offers 30GB of storage and lets you track an unlimited number of business deals.

Whichever CRM you decide to use, the success of your client management operations will depend on how responsive you are to the needs of your clients. Choosing the right system to invest in is an important decision for your business; take time to research and test your options to see which fits your business size, needs and processes.

Have you ever used a client management system for your freelance business? Did it help boost sales and grow your business? If you used other CRM tools, what would you add to this list? Share your experience in the comments section below.

Stephanie Gonzaga is a freelancer on oDesk who specializes in writing topnotch web content, such as product descriptions, website copy, articles, and blog posts for clients all over the globe. During her free time, she writes on her blog The Freelance Pinoy, a site dedicated to providing Filipino freelancers with tips, advice, and strategies to help them reach freelancing success.

12 Ways to Grow Your Freelance Business

Stephanie — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:00:37 +0000

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
- C. S. Lewis

You began last year with a set of goals. They were short – a few words in bullet points – but they nonetheless cemented your plans, aspirations, ideas and dreams for your freelance business.

Twelve months later, your business is in motion and you are ready for the year ahead. You have several active projects, a handful of clients, busy days, and income that is twice or three times as much as it was before you became a freelancer.

What can you do to further improve your business? What did not work last year, and what would you like to work on this time around? What steps should you take to boost your income, attract more clients and win more projects?

Here are 12 great ways to start taking small but significant steps toward success.

1. Increase your freelance rates and fees. Go beyond charging minimal rates for your knowledge, skills and experience; your experience has more value than that.

2. Invest in professional development. Read business books, test out new strategies, buy better equipment, enroll in online courses, and develop new and marketable skills. As a result, you will be able to add to your services.

3. Offer new or additional services. If you used to turn down requests for search engine optimized copywriting, imagine how happy clients will be when you add it to your list of services. You could also consider repackaging your current services into an affordable bundle that new and regular clients will have a hard time refusing.

4. Take on larger long-term projects. Small projects were initially a big help for gathering feedback and building your reputation. Now, it is time to load the big guns and aim for bigger and longer projects.

5. Market, promote and spread the word. Your freelance business should not hide behind the four walls of your oDesk profile. Market your services, promote yourself online and off, and spread the word. Some cost-effective ways to do so: business cards, blogging, and word-of-mouth referrals.

6. Build strong relationships with existing clients. This will encourage them to either return for more business or to refer you to other people. Strive to make every project a success and your work memorable.

7. Get creative when looking for freelance work. Look beyond your job applications on oDesk. If you have problems finding good projects to bid on, pursue social media and word-of-mouth referrals. You may be surprised to learn that you can actually find great people to work with through Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

8. Connect with other freelancers. Working solo can get lonely sometimes. Take some time off to attend local or national conferences, major events, or small gatherings or meet-ups with other fellow freelancers. It’s a great way to meet new people and to bond with freelancers of your field.

9. Likewise, connecting with freelancers is essential if you plan to create your own team of freelancers. If your aim is bigger and more complex projects this year, having your own team of freelancers to tackle different aspects of the project is essential. You can accept projects that require services outside of your expertise, plus the job gets done in half the time.

10. Hire freelance services. Beyond hiring freelancers to partner with (tip #9) you can also hire people to take care of work you do not want to spend too much time on. For example, virtual assistants, bookkeepers and transcriptionists are freelancers you can hire to take care of administrative tasks. You can then focus your time and energy on client and personal projects you are passionate about.

11. Cut unnecessary costs. Monthly subscriptions, unpaid projects, excess office expenses – these extra costs may be the reason your business has not reached its full potential yet. Make a list of all the business costs you have incurred throughout the year and cut items you do not need.

12. Give back to the community. Freelancing is much more than just finding clients and earning money. It is doing work that you are passionate about and which could help your community as well. You can create a useful app, share great tips, or contribute to a cause you believe in.

What strategies have you used to successfully grow your businesses? Share your experience in the comments section below.

Thanks For A Great Year, oDeskers!

Gary — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:18:26 +0000

Welcome to the new year! As we head into 2012, I want to personally thank all of you for making the past year an absolutely amazing one.

I would like to express how grateful I am to be part of such an inspiring and thriving community. From the thousands of innovative entrepreneurs that are building their businesses on oDesk, to the more than 1.5 million contractors that are taking advantage of the boundless opportunities online work has to offer, I am truly inspired by our incredible users.

Last year, you found new opportunities and incredible freedom through online work. As contractors, you earned more than $225 million on oDesk. You built your own successful online businesses, like Josh Warren, whose web development company aims to surpass $1M in earnings in 2012. You took charge of your careers and set lofty goals for yourselves — a great example is Bernard Vukas, who adjusted his rate to his target of $100/hr and left his home in Croatia to live the lifestyle of a digital nomad.

As clients, you created over 1M new online jobs in 2011. You hired thousands of online contractors to access talent as needed, to tap into skills beyond your existing staff, and to scale your businesses rapidly. You filled your teams with trained contractors to fulfill users’ needs, like online ticket forecaster SeatGeek did. You leveraged online work to expand your businesses aggressively, such as local service site Thumbtack.com’s impressive 150X growth.

As contractors and clients, your work on oDesk supports causes beyond your own businesses: thanks to your successes with online work, we have committed online training resources to Connect to Compete (a non-profit supporting broadband Internet access and training, launched in 2011 by the FCC), created the industry’s first international university program for online work training, and dedicated $1M to support entrepreneurs through Startup America.

This was a remarkable year, and we believe it was just the beginning of a massive shift in how the world works. We are just scratching the surface of Work 3.0, a world where work is on demand, virtual and remote. For both businesses and workers, the opportunities and possibilities here are endless.

As our team continues to work hard in 2012 to make oDesk the best online workplace for contractors and businesses, here are a few ways you can make the most of your oDesk experience this year:

Check out some of our fastest-growing categories of work, like mobile development, graphic design and social media. Consider growing your own skill set in these areas, or expanding your team by hiring contractors with these skills.
Get guidance from the online work experts on the oDesk blog — learn how to determine the value of online work, get tips on online hiring practices, and find advice on working successfully with people around the globe.
Join the conversation about online work in our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter communities. Learn from online work success stories, engage with oDesk team members, and connect with your fellow oDeskers from around the world.

We look forward to all the exciting opportunities 2012 will bring, and we can’t wait to share them with you. Thank you again for your continued support, and may the new year bring you happiness, health and prosperity!

Best wishes for your future success on oDesk,

Gary Swart
oDesk CEO

New Year’s Goals for Contractors

Stephanie — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:00:12 +0000

The last year has been a swell ride for us contractors on oDesk:

> a new design for the oDesk navigation bar,
> more affordable withdrawal options for contractors, and
> a beautiful redesign of contractor profiles.

These changes make the system easier to use and help contractors’ marketing efforts; setting up even more success for oDesk contractors in 2012! What do you hope to achieve this year? Is there anything in your life as a contractor that you would like to start, change or improve?

Creating goals can be daunting – take a seat, relax and reflect on how you have managed your freelance business so far. For example, with a cup of hot chocolate in hand and your oDesk feedback ratings on screen, what do your clients love about you and your work? What are the areas they have flagged for improvement? Jot these down and make it your New Year’s goal to work on these aspects.

Here are a few goals for you to consider – they may be a good place to start:

Apply for jobs that are not only of your expertise, but are both mentally and financially rewarding.
Always send personal cover letters that follow instructions, answer questions, and reflect who you are and how you work.
Work with clients who are respectful and communicative.
Refine your portfolio. Throw out old items and include your best work from 2011.
Be more productive. Attend client meetings on time, ignore freelancing distractions, and by golly get things done.
Overcome fixed-price project anxiety.
Establish a fine line between work and play by making sure work stays within your work schedule.

Through oDesk’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, we asked what your goals as oDesk contractors are for 2012. Each was as inspiring and interesting as the other, and we hope we can help you achieve them.

From Twitter

“Work harder, faster, but with caution.” – @CarusoApps

“Continuous projects, right employer, right timing and right kind of work that explores my capabilities.” – @greyzimom

“I’ve decided to spend at least 30% of my income for #poor students because oDesk already made my income 4x.” – @shadhinbangla

“Expand my business, increase my communications with possible clients and try to find more local gigs.” – @MeganWrites1

“Expand my business across the Global field by 80% and 20% focus on the U.S. Generate a stable client base through consistency.” – @wolffe80

From Facebook

“I’d like to learn and then follow tricks of time management. I’ve got loads to do… No, not just working for employers at oDesk. I’m a writer so I want to work sincerely, read books that will help me improve both as a writer and as a person, watch movies to improve my knowledge of general things, resume learning Spanish, spend ample time with my family, multiply everyone’s happiness and live my life to the fullest. I’d like to learn how can I manage my precious time that I have so that I can balance both my work life and my personal life.”
– Tariq Akhtar

“As with all other contractors, We hope to have more dollars on our pockets! I guess it will come naturally. Every single day, we learn new skills, new ways, we learn from our mistakes and many more experiences that will lead us to improve our work output which in turn would lead to good ratings and better and higher rate job offers and so on…As for changes, speaking for myself, less fb more job output, less scolding from my boss.”
– Robuam Bacusmo

“I would like to share the wisdom and life changing experience that oDesk has taught me by adding more contractors under our agency. It is to help friends and people who has the skills but might not know how Odesk can change lives.”
– Leif Brian Gomez Margallo

“I’d like to get things back in balance between my freelance writing and my personal writing. I have several book projects which I need to get back to. This year, I’ve spent so much time on freelancing, I haven’t made much progress on those. Next year, I hope to publish a few more of my titles.”
– Rich Murphy

“Mine would be able to continue a good relationship with my ongoing jobs and if there are any other jobs, whether one time or on going, that will be a good match. By a good match I mean for both the employer and myself. This needs to be a 2 way street or it won’t work well.”
– Janell Williams

Thank you for all of the inspiring responses. Happy 2012 to the oDesk community – and good luck!

The One-Click Interview: How to Hire a Web Designer

Stephanie — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:00:26 +0000

Your website is one of your most powerful marketing tools. Whether you are just launching your business or already have a website (but suspect it has gone stale), there are two words you need to know — web design.

No matter how compelling your content, your website will give you very little benefit if it is not well designed, so hiring a skilled web designer is crucial. Finding the right fit with a freelance web designer can be tricky, so here are four steps to help you find the right one for your project.

1) Know what to look for in a potential web designer

One of the most important things you need in a web designer is a great design aesthetic — but you need more than that. You need someone you can communicate with who is professional, creative and understands basic design concepts.

Make sure you ask to see the candidate’s portfolio. Hiring a web designer without any samples of past work can be risky, especially if your project is large and complicated. If you doubt your own eye for design, you may want to enlist a more design-minded friend or colleague to review each candidate’s portfolio and give feedback about their style, skills and experience level. If you are a designer yourself, make sure their aesthetic matches yours so you can work together seamlessly.

The One-Click Interview Series

Thinking of hiring a graphic designer or a writer for your website’s copy? Check out our previous one-click interview posts:

Pay attention to their use and understanding of basic communication design concepts. Do they know which fonts are easiest to read online? What about line spacing and font size? You may feel comfortable assessing this on your own, but if not, enlist a more seasoned web designer to lead the technical part of the hiring process.

Good communication skills and availability are crucial. Web design projects usually have many different requirements — most of which cannot be communicated effectively just through email. Regular Skype calls can help you effectively convey your ideas and make sure the project is on track, so make sure you and a prospective designer communicate well, that she understands your project, and that she is available to connect on a regular basis.

Are they professional and creative? The hiring process should give you a good sense of a candidate’s professionalism. For example, does he meet your application deadlines and provide the information you ask for? Creativity is also essential in a web design project, so make sure the candidate is able to come up with a wide variety of solutions for a single problem.

2) Ask the right questions during the interview process

Now that you have looked through the candidates’ portfolios and have a good sense of what they can do, the interview is your chance to learn how they do it. Your interview questions should give you a sense of the web designer’s experience in the field and their approach to a project. Typical questions may include:

“What makes a design successful?”
“Can you show me similar projects you have worked on?”

It is also important to find out if he has additional skills that would be useful. You may want to ask things like:

“Do you know how to create a mobile-friendly website?”
“Can you help me choose strong images to use with my main content?”

3) Start with a small assignment

A small paid test job can be invaluable in helping you decide between final-round candidates. Assigning a task that is similar to your actual project is a great way to get a more accurate sense of a candidate’s knowledge, professionalism and creativity — some of the key qualifications you are looking for that may be hard to judge through a portfolio or interview.

4) Help your project be as successful as possible

What makes a big impact for a smooth design process? Communication! Luckily, following step one, you have carefully chosen a web designer that you can communicate with. Make sure you check in on a regular basis to see if your website is going in the right direction. That way, if he seems lost or if the design is not in line with your expectations, you can give feedback early in the process instead of waiting to get a final deliverable that you may not like. How can you make these check-ins easier? In addition to services like Skype, tools like Dropbox can be great for collaborating — especially to share work in progress.

We want to hear from you! Have you ever hired a web designer before? Do you have any particularly unsuccessful or successful experiences to share? What other questions or tips do you think should be on this list?

3 Ways Facebook Can Get You Hired

Jenna — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:32:31 +0000

You use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family members, to see pictures of your cousin’s new baby, to show off your latest vacation photos, or to access discounts and promotions from your favorite brands. But Facebook can actually be a great work resource if you use it well.

Here are three ways it can help you land your next great job!

1. Leverage the power of networking.

Facebook is great for helping you connect with your existing network. For example, if you are seeking a new job or a fresh project, you can post a status message saying that you are looking for new opportunities. Even if no one in your immediate network has an opening, they can pass on your name to others. Just make sure to keep your network relationships strong by regularly interacting there, so it will feel natural to ask your connections for support.

But don’t just settle for leveraging your existing connections — Facebook can be a great tool for helping you build and expand your network. Following professional groups and pages on Facebook can expose you to thousands of other people in similar fields, helping you build your network substantially. “Like” oDesk on Facebook – our community there of successful oDeskers can offer online work guidance, an entrepreneurial support group and an ongoing stream of new opportunities!

2. Build your professional brand.

Branding isn’t just for businesses — building and strengthening your own professional brand may be one of your best assets. Your professional brand extends far beyond your resume or C.V. — it also incorporates your digital and social presence.

Now that you have “liked” professional pages and groups on Facebook, you can build your brand by taking time to participate in discussions that add value to those communities. Sharing tips and best practices, answering other users’ questions, and generally engaging with the group can all help build your status as an expert in that community, which is a great way to make a name for yourself professionally. Just make sure to avoid “spamming” the discussion pages of these groups with links to your website or requests for work on unrelated discussions — not only does this risk having your comment removed by group administrators, it undermines your credibility. Remember, the key is building your reputation by providing value and showcasing your expertise, not by advertising your services. If you effectively build your reputation as an expert in your field, it will help you attract high-quality employers and opportunities.

3. Access new resources and great advice.

Those familiar with “crowdsourcing” — using the collective wisdom of many people to help you solve problems or complete tasks — know that a lot of value can be found when groups of people share advice and resources. Trying to figure out which design program is best for a certain project, or what is a competitive rate for your services? Chances are there are many members of professional Facebook groups who can provide valuable input. Even if you don’t have any burning questions to ask, just observing group discussions can help you pick up tips you may never have found elsewhere.

So what are you waiting for? Start your Facebook networking today! Just make sure your profile is professionally friendly — if yours is linked to your college party pictures or the ones from that infamous tropical vacation, check your privacy settings carefully to make sure potential employers can’t see them.

Need a great place to start? Like oDesk on Facebook! On our page, you will find lots of great resources and advice from fellow oDeskers, as well as helpful tips and fun contests from your friends on the oDesk staff. We’ll see you there!

Are You Taking These Easy Backup Steps to Protect Your Work?

Amy — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:00:53 +0000

You have just put the finishing touches on a big project. You feel great – until the moment your computer tells you that your hard drive is about to fail.

It is moments like this when we remember that we should have had a plan in place – but forgot. Chances are you have been in this situation once or twice. Whatever your unpredictable technology-related issue, one thing seems certain: These problems always come up at the most inconvenient times.

It costs extra effort and stress to recreate work you have lost – especially if your deadline is looming – plus you have other projects to tackle. Here are a few proactive steps you can take to help you safeguard your files and your time.

Create a framework so you can fill in the blanks

While having a plan for every project will not always save you, it can still save time if the worst happens, because at least you have a framework to help you recreate your work. If you don’t already do this, try to make a habit of sketching a rough outline of your project ahead of time.

Get to know your autosave and version options

Automatic backup functions vary from program to program so there is no easy “how-to” guide for this. However, for the programs you use most frequently, check the help files or do an Internet search to check for autosave or version functionality. You may be able to adjust the frequency of these backups by adjusting the settings.

Learn to love working in the cloud

Beyond your many options for saving files to the cloud, there are an increasing number of options for actually doing your work online.

If you need more than the basic products offered through services like Google Documents or photo editors like Picnik, your cloud-based options have been slim – but they are quickly increasing. More industry-focused solutions are in progress: For example, Autodesk is moving at least some functionality to the cloud and Adobe recently launched Creative Cloud.

Old technology can still help

Your external hard drive and stack of blank DVDs may be collecting dust in the corner, but sometimes old tech offers a certain degree of comfort.

If you use Windows 7, for example, you can schedule a weekly automatic backup to copy your main drive to an external disk. This is a particularly good option if your Internet connection is slow or less than reliable – and large external drives are increasingly affordable.

Do you have any creative solutions for recovering lost work? How do you safeguard your important files? Share your advice in the comments section!

Amy Sept recently joined the oDesk team as the assistant blog editor. A professional communicator with more than a decade of experience, she helps connect non-profit organizations and small businesses with the people who need their help – in print and online. For the record, her computer randomly rebooted once while writing this article: She still has no idea why.

What Are You Reading? The oDesk Team Shares Their Recommendations

Jenna — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:00:35 +0000

Looking for a new book to help you pass the time during holiday travel? Or are you looking for a book to give as a gift? The oDesk team may be able to give you some ideas — it turns out we are quite a literary bunch. Here is a quick glimpse into what the oDesk team is reading right now!

The most popular:

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

This biography has captured the attention of readers around the world, and our team is no exception. Four different team members are either reading this book or just finished it (interestingly, three out of four are on the marketing team). Here are some of the reasons why our team has not been able to put it down:

Erica: “Apple is leading the industry in innovative products, so I wanted to get more insight into the man that was the genesis of those products.”

Mollie: “I think he created brilliant products and customer experiences. I’m saddened by his passing, and want to know more about him.”

Not your typical business books:

The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You by Eli Pariser

As you can imagine, here at oDesk we are all quite interested in the Internet and its potential. Keith from our product team is reading a book that certainly reflects this — it discusses how personalization (specifically, personalized filters) can control the information that we see, consume and share online. According to author Eli Pariser, this can impact online privacy and even the way we view our world.

Dancing Corndogs in the Night: Reawakening Your Creative Spirit by Don Hahn

While some members of our engineering team are reading books like High-Performance JavaScript (I’m talking to you, Yiota!), Jeff — our VP of Engineering — breaks the mold by reading this book by legendary Disney producer Don Hahn. Jeff said it has some very interesting insights into creativity, from one of the most creative people of our time — Hahn produced “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” among others.

Not your typical parenting book:

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

This book got quite a lot of attention this year for its controversial parenting methods. While marketing team member Shareen is not sold on becoming a tiger mom, she loved it because “all parents wish there was a formula for raising perfect kids.”

For the food lover:

Maman’s Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an American Kitchen by Donia Bijan

Our CEO, Gary, is currently reading this memoir by award-winning chef Donia Bijan. She tells of her family’s escape to California from the Islamic revolution in Iran and recounts her journey to chef stardom. Interspersed throughout the book are thirty recipes from her childhood and her culinary career. Not only is it a “well-written” and “uplifting” story, said Gary, but he also happens to know Bijan and can attest to her culinary prowess.

For the informed reader:

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

While Michael Lewis’ baseball tale Moneyball is currently captivating movie audiences, his best-selling account of the U.S. financial crisis has enthralled Subha from our product team. She called it “fascinating” and said “she can’t put it down,” mostly because “it is just amazing the stupidity of some of the decisions that were made, and the fact that this all happened in our time.”

The time machine:

The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

This novel, set in New York City in the 1930s, is already a favorite for Jaleh, our VP of Marketing. “The writing is exquisite, and I felt like I was in the 1930s reading it. It captures the era in a stunning way,” she said. This is a great choice for readers who like being transported back to another time, as well as those who “love really good writing for its own sake,” she said.

The classic:

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

One member of the marketing team, Monica, went back a couple hundred years to find her current read. She is revisiting this classic by Elizabeth Gaskell, which she loves because it reads like a combination of two of her favorite authors: Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

The grown-up comic book:

Y the Last Man by by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

Hayden, one of our graphic designers, stuck to graphic storytelling for his recommendation. In this comic series — which comes highly recommended by Hayden — only one man (and his monkey) survives the simultaneous death of every male mammal in the world due to a horrible plague.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Do you have any recommendations to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below!

What To Do Now To Kick-Start Your Productivity in January

Amy — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:00:03 +0000

The holidays are a hectic time – you are busy celebrating, finishing projects before you take a few days off, and making big plans for your freelance business in 2012.

What can you do now – or over the next few days – that will give you an easier start in January without adding too much stress now?

Before you sign off for the holidays, avoid starting the new year in a rut by creating a plan for your first week back.

Start your to-do list now

There is a reason why lists are so popular; they are easy to create and a great way to keep yourself focused.

If you are busy getting big pieces of work done before the end of the year, chances are you have smaller or less time-sensitive items that you are putting to the side – administrative tasks, feedback, or client projects with deadlines in the future.

Start keeping a list of things to do when you get back, like reminders to:

Ensure any out-of-office messages are changed or turned off
Leave feedback for any clients you have just finished working with
Update your oDesk portfolio to showcase a great project you finished in December

Even the little things matter: You might find that simple tasks are an easy way to slide back into your regular work rhythm.

Clean up your email

If you use Gmail or Google Apps to manage your email, the Email Game from Baydin can make cleaning messages out of your inbox a lot more fun. Working in batches of 10, 30, 50 or 100 emails at a time, the Email Game forces you to make a quick decision about each message with a countdown timer. You get points for being fast – and if you do a few rounds, you can compete with your previous scores.

For some people, an empty inbox may still seem out of reach, but this is a fun way to make it a little less daunting to look at.

Break your goals into bite-sized pieces

You have lofty goals for the next year – do you know how you are going to achieve them? Zoom in on what you want and think about what your very first step might be.

For example, if your goal is to double your income next year, you might break it into a few parts:

Attract new clients
Increase your rates
Work more hours

Before you start applying for more jobs and before you bump your rate up, you will want to do one thing: make sure you have a great, up-to-date oDesk portfolio. Your very first step could be to look at the projects you did last year and decide which represent your best work so you can include them in your portfolio.

Updating your portfolio will likely only take a few hours in one afternoon; schedule the time for early January and you will already be one step closer to your goal.

Create a social media content calendar

This year, you finally started promoting yourself through social media: You update your blog regularly and you are pretty active on Twitter. But how many times have you sat in front of your computer wondering what to say?

A social media calendar can make this a lot easier. Make it as detailed as you like; the idea is to pick a theme for a period of time, like a month – or even a week. For example, if you are a designer, you might kick off January by sharing a blog post or series of tweets about your favorite fonts.

What is the first thing you do when you get back to work after a few days off? Add your tips in the comments section!

The New Business Hangout: Google+ For Freelancers

Julia — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:00:49 +0000

You grab a cup of coffee and sit down at your computer. In the next few hours, you will accomplish a lot: rub digital shoulders with potential clients, code collaboratively with your remote team members and grab some inspiration from a fellow artist’s portfolio – all while promoting your brand across the social media landscape.

You might even spend some time improving your blog’s search engine optimization (SEO) while taking care of customer service issues. Yes, it has been a productive few hours – and you have done it all from the comfort of Google+.

Think this sounds a bit overblown? Then you need to spend more time with Google+. Here are four ways to employ this social media “Swiss Army Knife” as a useful tool for your freelance business.

Build your brand identity

As a freelancer, you are your brand. To establish your reputation, you have to consistently promote and build that brand identity. Google+ is a great tool to help you accomplish that daunting task.

Add yourself to search results. Using the author information feature, your photo and Google+ stats could appear next to your blog posts and articles in Google search results. This feature is being tested right now, so it will not work for everyone – but once fully implemented, this will be a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Use as another blogging platform. As with Twitter, you can gain a following by consistently posting good, relevant information. Each post is also assigned a permalink and indexed for search engines, so do not just link to your offsite blog or re-share other people’s posts! Create content on Google+ just as you would on your business blog.
Take time to Hangout. While it might be a little scary to start a Hangout session, it is worth the plunge. The social interaction afforded by Hangouts is a great opportunity to interact with your followers and make some new connections. For inspiration, check out this great post about how musician Daria Musk’s career has taken off simply because of Google+ Hangouts.
Keep all your social media outlets updated. Just because you post on Google+ does not mean you should neglect Twitter. Instead, if you are a Chrome user, you can employ some of the useful extensions listed in this MakeUseOf article. Using these various extensions will make Google+ your one-stop social media updater.

Efficiently collaborate on projects

Collaborating in the past required a tool like Yammer or Skype. Now, there is Google+.

Work in Hangouts. Google+ Hangouts is a useful tool for networking, but did you know it is also a great collaboration tool? By using “Hangouts with Extras” (look for this aptly named button once you have opened a Hangout), you can video chat, work on a shared Google doc, share your screen or even do some brainstorming with the Doodle drawing feature. Best of all, this functionality is free. Look for more add-ons to appear as Google continues to refine this particular offering.
Ask for critiques from your circle of expert friends. Want an easy way to elicit feedback on your latest logo design? Using Google+ Circles, you can share items for critique with a select group of friends. This type of peer review is a valuable way to hone your work.

Optimize for search

Since Google+ context is indexed, any posts you share publicly will directly impact your online identity in search results – and not just in Google. Make use of this fact to improve your search rankings.

Use SEO Keywords. Wise use of keywords can boost your public profile. Make sure you fill in all relevant profile fields, then analyze the keywords you have used. Read “SEO Success“, a past oDesk post on how to effectively use keywords for SEO.
Use SEO Images. It is not just your profile information that is important; the photos you add can also be tagged with keywords. Host your images with Google then embed them images on your website or blog; if you add the +1 button for people to promote the images they like, your photos and illustrations may rank higher in Google Image searches.

Learn from others

At this stage, Google+ is primarily populated by the tech-savvy early adopters. Many conversations are thus more professional and business oriented than might normally be the case. Take advantage of that fact by improving your personal knowledge base.

Follow thought leaders. Staying current in your field is a must if you want to produce an excellent product and attract new clients. Google+ provides a handy interface for learning from experts. Get started by checking these recommendations from TechRepublic.
Take part in interesting discussions. Do not simply lurk – engage as well! Sometimes the follow-up comments to a post are just as valuable as the original article. Share your thoughts and read how others respond. Not only will you grow professionally through these interactions, you will build relationships and engage in some casual networking to boot.

What do you think – is Google+ is the next big thing? Or are you inclined to focus your efforts on Facebook and/or LinkedIn? In the comments section, make your case for the best social media site for freelancers.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Connect with her on Google Plus and let her know how you are making use of its features.

The Power of +1: Rocking Google+ for Small Businesses

Julia — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:42:15 +0000

When Google rolled out Google+ business pages on Nov. 7, the online world was abuzz as companies and freelancers rushed to take part in what entrepreneur and marketing expert Guy Kawasaki termed a “land grab”. But as the dust began to settle, many were left asking: “What now?” Still others wondered whether a Google+ business page was even needed.

There is no question that Facebook is currently the heavyweight champion in the social networking ring – and, as many big name brands are discovering, building your company’s fan base on Google+ can be a slow process.

Creating a Google+ business presence is worth it – if you do it right. The connection to Google and the platform’s key features make it a pretty compelling tool. Here are a few reasons to embrace Google+, and tips to create a page for your business that truly rocks.

Google+ Benefits for Your Small Business

Take control of search results. Imagine having better control over what shows up when people Google your business. Verified Google+ business pages show up in search results, giving you more influence over screen space. This can help push any negative Yelp or blog reviews farther down – hopefully into oblivion!
Improve your search engine optimization (SEO). Since your Google+ business page is searchable, you have another handy outlet for page links and keywords. And this is not just for driving traffic to your website; with the introduction of Google’s Social Extension, your popularity – measured by the number of +1s you have received – can show up under your AdWords text. This can give your trustworthiness a nice boost when customers view your ad.
Target your messages. One of the key features of Google+ is the ability to choose which audience you share a particular message with. The Circles feature allows you to segment your customers by age, gender, location or any other form of classification you can dream up. It is a great way to further tailor your marketing efforts.
Interact with customers. How successful can your business be if you do not understand your customers? Using Google+ Hangouts, you can easily get to know your patrons on a more personal level. Use it to host giveaways, get feedback about products or even host live webinars.

Creating a Google+ Page That Works

Like any other social media outlet, just having a presence on Google+ is not going to do you much good – beyond protecting your brand identity. You can leverage the power of your Google+ business page to drive traffic to your site and increase conversions by following these tips.

Set it up right:

Fill in the blanks. To make the most of the SEO potential, fill in all the information for your business page and include relevant keywords.
Give it a facelift. Use the Scrapbook feature to add personality to your page using photos. You can annotate images, which is another opportunity for effectively adding keywords.
Add yourself to the map. If you have a physical location, make use of the “Local” option. This will help customers find you.
Add in some link love. Include links back to your website in the “Recommended Links” section. Nothing like a little backlinking!

Share effectively:

Use multimedia as much as possible. Google+ is a media-friendly environment; video clips and photos display prominently in news feeds so look for ways to incorporate them into what you share. When posting your own videos, be sure to include a transcript for SEO purposes.
Create multiple pages. Google+ allows a business to have up to 20 different pages. This can be a great tool if your company has various product lines targeted to different customer demographics. You can also use pages for highlighting events or supporting user groups.
Don’t overshare. For a user, it is incredibly annoying to have your feed dominated by one brand. If you overload your followers with posts, they will unfollow you.

Promote your page:

Set up a vanity URL. The Google+ URL – which uses numbers instead of your business name – is not an attractive option for sharing or marketing. Do not use it! Instead, follow this handy tutorial from SumTips to create a much more user-friendly webpage address.
Use management tools. With multiple social media outlets, it can be quite a chore to stay on top of everything. Make use of a media manager with Google+ integration, such as HootSuite or Buddy Media, so you can update regularly from one location. Good intentions aside, if you have to go through one extra step to update your page, you will probably avoid doing it! Let management apps cut the hassles for you.
Spread the word. Your customers and blog followers are not necessarily going to seek you out on Google+ – you have to let them know you are there. Mention it in newsletters, on Facebook, on your blog and any other communication channels you use.
Make use of widgets. As with all social media outlets, the key to value is attracting an engaged following. You can help build that community using widgets to promote your Google+ page on your website. Check out Gregory Ciotti’s great review of the various widget options.

Have you set up your Google+ business page yet? What features do you like and which do you hate? Do you think Google will become the social media destination? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Connect with her on Google Plus and let her know how you are making use of its features.

Google’s Latest Search Algorithm Changes: Will They Impact Your SEO Strategy?

Jenna — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:00:02 +0000

Google recently announced one of the most significant changes to its search algorithm since the Panda update earlier this year. This time the key word (no pun intended!) is freshness.

In a recent post on the company blog, Google Fellow Amit Singhal introduced the search update, which will affect 35 percent of searches.

With this change, Google will now assess which types of searches would benefit from the freshest information and will rank results accordingly. For example, if you are looking for a recipe, results that are even several years old might still be useful to you. However, if you are looking for sports scores, breaking or trending news, or an upcoming event, you will be presented with the newest results at the top of the list – without the need to specify a time period in your search query.

Singhal writes, “Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old.”

The back end of this change is made possible thanks to last year’s introduction of Caffeine, the web indexing system that allows Google to quickly crawl large amounts of information.

What does this mean for you and your website or blog?

Your content should be three things: fresh, fresh and fresh. The fresher your content, the higher it will likely rank. Not only does this have implications for the frequency of your publishing, but also on the type of content you publish.

For example, if you have something to say about topical, trending issues, frequent publishing will likely give your search presence a good boost. Not sure what the current trending topics are? Google Trends and Trendsmap are great places to start.

Does this mean you have to publish a full blog post every hour? Of course not. Including topical references in your press releases and social media updates can help you fill in some of the gaps.

Important caveat: This does not mean you should publish frequent content on trending topics just for the sake of doing so if you have nothing significant to say. Not only can doing this get you excluded from search results (thanks to the Panda update), but it is unlikely to do you any favors in terms of attracting qualified traffic to your site. If you have nothing valuable to say, it does not matter if you are at the top of search results — your bounce and conversion rates will likely suffer.

That being said, if you do have something valuable to say about a topical, trending issue, say it — and promote it. You can give it even more reach by using the appropriate hashtags and cross-promoting it on different channels (social media, your blog, etc.).

In addition to this freshness update, Google’s Engineering Director Scott Huffman recently introduced 10 new search changes.

Most of them are minor, but two may have an impact on your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy:

More comprehensive indexing: This means that long-tail keywords are being given more attention and are more likely to rank for relevant searches.

Original content indicators: “New signals” were added to allow Google to determine which is the original page out of a number of similar results. With this in mind, you may want to make an even greater effort to publish unique, original content. Heavily excerpting other sources instead may cause the article or post to get buried under more original results.

Of course, given the extreme secrecy around Google’s full search algorithm, we non-Googlers can only speculate about the implications of any of these changes. What do you think about these updates? Have you adjusted your SEO strategy in any way as a result? Let us know in the comments section below!

Work 3.0: The Office Has Left the Building

Erica — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:45:43 +0000

Imagine a world where employers have access to the best global talent, with just a click. One where people can work whenever they want, wherever they want, however they want. In this world, businesses can hire talent on demand, without worrying about complicated compensation packages, long hiring cycles or expensive overhead. In this world, people can work with companies from across the globe, instead of just those within commuting distance.

This world is not imaginary — it’s Work 3.0, and it’s already here.

In his presentation last week at the GigaOm Net:Work 2011 conference, oDesk CEO Gary Swart explained what Work 3.0 looks like, and how it is changing the world of work. Though many companies are already taking advantage of the technologies that power it, Work 3.0 is just getting started. Given the tremendous possibilities of this way of working, Work 3.0 will likely become commonplace much sooner than you may think. Here’s why:

Every business runs on talent. “It’s the single biggest lever we all have in our companies, regardless of the size, yet we’re all struggling to find good talent,” Gary explained. Traditional hiring is expensive and time-consuming, especially when you consider how competitive it is to attract and secure the best talent, and that “typically the talent doesn’t live where the jobs are located.”

But the times, they are a-changing. In the past two decades, we have gone from Work 1.0 — rigid, structured, on-premise work for one employer — to Work 2.0, where work is performed on site, but improvements in technology infrastructure have brought more flexibility to the workplace.

And now, with further improvements in software and cloud-based applications, we are passing through the gates of Work 3.0 — a world where work is on demand, virtual and remote.

A number of companies and workers have already found tremendous success with this model — Gary presented two examples — but the possibilities are endless.

“I don’t even think we’re at the knee of the curve of what’s to come,” Gary said.

Watch the video:

Watch live streaming video from gigaomnetwork at livestream.com

Over the next few months, we will present some of our predictions for the future of work as well as our vision for the changing workplace, and outline how to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities of Work 3.0. Stay tuned!

Erica Benton brings nearly a decade of experience as a small business owner and freelancer to her position as the editor-in-chief of the oDesk Blog.

Employers: Quick and Easy Management with Contractor Drop-Down Menus

Shareen — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:20:51 +0000

Have you wondered how to give your contractor a bonus? Or what time it is in your contractor’s locale? Well, we have now made it much easier to do the most common management tasks, all in one place.As part of our ongoing efforts to improve usability and enhance the My Contractors hub, we have added a drop-down menu next to each contractor’s name, where you can easily perform key actions related to the contract. The tasks include: send a message, view the Work Diary, change the Weekly Limit, end the contract, and more.

To take advantage of the new drop-downs, be sure you are using the new My Contractors page. If you are in the old Team Room, click on the link, “Test drive our new Manage Home Page” Let us know what you think of the new drop-down menu, what’s working and what other improvements you would like to see. Visit our community forum post to discuss with other users, or send us direct feedback via our survey.

Introducing the oDesk Skills Dictionary

Mollie — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:37:40 +0000

As a contractor, you are always trying to make a great impression on potential employers. The right words matter in making that impression, so we’re thrilled to announce the oDesk Skills Dictionary — a comprehensive list of standardized skills on oDesk.

Standardization helps ensure you find and receive the most relevant jobs for your experience and expertise by ensuring everyone is using the same terms for the skills they are searching on. This diminishes any cultural and language obstacles encountered when selecting skills on oDesk, and removes the need to list multiple versions of the same skill (“PHP, PHP programmer, PHP developer, PHP expert,” etc.).

As a testament to how important your skills are, they are now showcased at the top of the new contractor profile. Updating your skills will allow you to best take advantage of the new profile design, so make sure you do so. Read more about the new contractor profile here.

How it Works

When selecting skills for your profile, begin typing your skill, then choose from the available suggestions.

Newly registered contractors are already taking advantage of the new system.

For existing contractors, we will guide you through the process of updating your skills. The next time you log in to oDesk, you will be directed to a list of suggested skills from the oDesk Skills Dictionary, based on the ones currently listed on your profile. You will then have until January 13, 2012, to verify the suggestions, rank the skills, and approve your own custom list. The changes will go live on your profile after you complete the transition form. Starting January 13, all matched skills will be transitioned and any remaining non-standardized skills will be removed from profiles.

The new profile style has phased out skills descriptions and experience information. You may want to make a copy of these descriptions for your own records before updating your skills (to do so, press the View Skills button in the profile editor). For contractors who do not complete the transition form, the descriptions we remove will be sent to you in an email for future reference, as you may wish to put this information in your profile objective, or include it in cover letters when applying for jobs.

FAQs:

What should I do if I cannot find a skill in the Skills Dictionary? How can I add a skill? Don’t worry — there is likely a similar skill already listed in the Dictionary, and suggesting a new one is easy.
How is the Skills Dictionary used within oDesk? It is used to help you attract the right jobs by using the right words.
How will the skills appear in my profile? Take a look at an community forum.

New on oDesk: Streamlined Contractor Profiles

Mollie — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:51:29 +0000

Today we are really excited to announce a brand new design for contractor profile pages!

The contractor profile is at the heart of oDesk. Employers depend on it to assess the capabilities of any contractor, and contractors depend on it to attract employers and grow their careers.

Knowing how important the contractor profile is, we have redesigned it to be more useful and intuitive. The new design presents all key information in one clean, streamlined page; this makes it easier for employers to assess the capabilities of contractors, and for contractors to showcase information they want employers to see.

Here are some of the highlights of this new design:

One simple page. All key profile information is now on a single page.
Skills are at the top. Employers often look to the skills section first to determine if the contractor would be a good fit for the position. We are also standardizing skills across oDesk to make it even easier for employers to identify the right contractor for the job. Contractors: make sure to update your skills so you can get the most out of the new contractor profile design. Read more about transitioning your skills here.
Cleaner, modern design. It’s easier to read, and we’ve removed extraneous information so employers can focus in on what’s most important to them.

Check out the new profile design today, and share your thoughts about it with the oDesk community.

Job Search 2.0: How to Find Clients on Twitter

Stephanie — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:00:50 +0000

Twitter is more than a social networking site: it is a powerhouse of opportunities for freelancers. With a few clicks and the right keywords, you can connect with fellow freelancers, thought leaders in your industry and potential clients.

The key to making these connections is establishing yourself as an expert in your field and building authentic relationships with others. Your goal is not to increase the number of followers you have but to effectively spread the word that you are a freelancer looking for people to work with.

Here are five important steps to help improve your job search on Twitter.

1. It is time to get professional.

Think of the people you want to work with and how you can help them. Then look at your Twitter profile – how can you make it more interesting, professional and inviting for potential clients to follow you?

For example, you could

replace your avatar with a presentable portrait of yourself,
write an interesting description about yourself and your work, and
include a link to your oDesk profile.

2. Share useful, thought-provoking content in relation to your field of expertise.

Whether the content you share on Twitter is your own or from others in your industry, provide quality information that will help or ignite conversation among members of your community.

Share your own insights as well. Your followers may respond to your tweets, adding their own opinions about the topics at hand. Engage them and carry on the conversation.

3. Follow Twitter users who can be potential clients to work with.

How to Really Use Twitter to Find More Freelance Work, an article from Freelance Folder, suggests building your Twitter community by zooming in on businesses you want to work with the most.

Use these three questions to write a targeted list of people to look for:

Who would you like to do a project with?
Does he or she have a Twitter profile? Does the company you would like to market your
services to use Twitter?
Are you already following them?

With these three questions, you can create a concrete list of people to connect with.

4. Keep your eyes open for tweets about job openings and freelance gigs.

Companies are increasingly aware that social media is the new way to find customers and skilled professionals, and many now use social networks to reach out to the right people. Twitter is no exception, so it is important to keep an eye out for tweets about job openings and freelance gigs.

How can you find these important messages?

If you do well with the first three steps, clients or companies may contact you directly, or
Not knowing who to turn to, they may simply tweet job openings to their followers. To spot the latter, take the next step.

5. Use Twitter Search to find freelance gigs.

Twitter’s own search enables you to find tweets and users through specific keywords.

For example, a search for “freelance writer,” “logo designer,” “copywriter” or “WordPress developer” will deliver tweets that mention these keywords. Your job now is to respond to those looking for people with the skills you offer.

The next time you log on to Twitter, keep a look out for potential clients to connect with and freelance gigs to apply for. A simple Twitter search can yield all sorts of opportunities, but it is up to you to take advantage of them.

Do you use Twitter to connect with potential clients and find freelance work? Have you developed a long-term working relationship with anyone? Share your stories in the comments section below.

Treat Yourself! 20 Free Tools for Entrepreneurs

Julia — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:47:28 +0000

Just in time for the gift-giving season, here is a list of things you can get for yourself: 20 tools that will help empower and grow your small business or freelancing career.

Whether you need help giving your marketing efforts a facelift or sorting paperwork, this list has something for everyone. With a price tag of $0, you will not lose anything by taking any of these apps for a test spin. Treat yourself!

Business tools

Enloop - Business plans: The essential tool we love to hate. Having one is critical for your business, but writing one – and maintaining it – is often seen as tedious and complicated. If you find this task a little cheerless, take a look at Enloop. This handy app purports to help you generate your plan, figure out financials, and even predict your chances of success. Plus, once you get your plan together, Enloop helps you share it with other business owners for them to critique.
Dropbox – We have highlighted Dropbox several times here on the oDesk blog, but it is worth another mention. This cloud-based file sharing program automatically updates files and syncs with all of your machines. Perfect for the entrepreneur on the go.
Prezi – Engaging presentations are a must when you are trying to woo customers or investors. Prezi is cloud-based software that lets you create visually-compelling presentations, then share them through the Prezi site or on your own web page. You can also work simultaneously with team members to create a presentation using Prezi Meeting.
StringHub – It is a perfect pairing: College students who want to test their skills in areas like graphic design, programming and marketing, and cash-strapped businesses who need extra help. To bring the two together, StringHub allows a business to submit a project, then encourages students to volunteer to help for class credit. While quality can be an issue, it is still a worthwhile option for simple jobs you need to finish that do not fit into your budget.
Freemind – Need to organize your research on a subject? Looking for a way to plan an article or brainstorm around a project? Freemind is an open source mind-mapping program that helps you order your thoughts in intricate and detailed ways.
Sprouter – Similar to Quora, Sprouter is a forum where you can pose your business-related questions and expect to get answers. The difference? Anyone can answer questions on Quora but Sprouter has a pre-chosen panel of experts that will respond with quality information.

Marketing tools

UnBounce – Customized landing pages are the perfect tool for you use to test your marketing ideas and improve the results of your advertising campaigns. UnBounce is the perfect tool for creating those pages without hiring a web developer. While the company does not offer a long-term free plan, they do have a 30-day trial period – just long enough for you to try out some of your ideas without paying a dime.
BlogTalkRadio – Want to have your own online radio show? BlogTalkRadio will help get you started. All you need is a phone and a computer. You can host guests, chat live with listeners, embed the player on your site and build a fan base. If you have something to say, here is a way to say it!
MailChimp – Ready to start an email newsletter? MailChimp offers a lot of features including Facebook integration, interactive newsletters, custom branding, RSS-to-email and Google analytics. Chances are the free version is all you need: It allows you to manage as many as 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails each month.
Tweet Alarm – It can be a pain to monitor Twitter for @mentions or important keywords; make the process easier with Tweet Alarm. This app sends you an email message whenever a Tweet appears about any subject you have flagged based on keywords you feed it. One of its handy features is the ability to ignore tweets from certain users, a feature you can activate directly from the email notifications.
SnapEngage – When customers have issues, your website is one of the first places they will look for help. Make sure your contact information is easy to find, and give them instant access to your customer support team using the customer chat tool from SnapEngage. With their free version, you are allowed up to 30 chats per month and one live agent.

Development tools

Project Locker – If your development team is geographically spread out, Project Locker is a great collaboration tool for you. Source control and issue tracking solutions are available, plus the program integrates with Basecamp and Fogbugz, so your team can communicate more effectively.
Google Page Speed – This collection of open source tools from Google allows you to test, evaluate and optimize the performance of your web page. It includes Page Speed Mobile so you can analyze how your site works within mobile browsers.
JotForm – Need a submission form? Try JotForm. This easy-to-use form builder uses a drag-and-drop method to build forms. Once you have created the form you need, simply integrate it into your site and any submissions will be sent to you by email.
Gimp – If you do not want to pay the bill for Photoshop, Gimp is your open source (and free) alternative. Admittedly, it is not as slick or polished as its Adobe competitor, but for the price tag Gimp is a surprisingly robust offering and has a dedicated community of users you can turn to for help and how-to information.
Color Scheme Designer – If you make the wrong decision, a task as seemingly simple as choosing a complementary color scheme can make a your website look hideously ugly. If you do not have a natural eye for colors, take advantage of this free tool. The Color Scheme Designer site allows you to create various color schemes then demo how they would look on an actual website.
Cacoo – From infographics to flowcharts, diagrams are an effective communication tool. Cacoo is a web app that provides dozens of stencils, backgrounds and alignment options to help you create the perfect chart for your project.

Financial tools

Harvest – Harvest is an easy, web-based invoicing and time-tracking system. You can get the Harvest app for your Android or iPhone so you can track the time you spend on client projects from anywhere. The free version allows you to track and invoice up to four clients at a time.
Shoeboxed – See that stack of receipts, bills and other miscellaneous papers you keep shoving to the side? You cannot throw them away but who has room to file them all? Cut the clutter with Shoeboxed, an online document storage and management app. With the free version, you unfortunately have to enter the data yourself, but then you can categorize and sort expenses by name or date.
GnuCash – An open source accounting software for both personal and small business use, GnuCash is completely free. It uses the double-entry bookkeeping system to help you keep track of funds. The software has plenty of useful features, but GnuCash does not have the prettiest interface on the market. That said, functionally it is definitely a viable QuickBooks alternative.

Some of these tools have been around for a while – have you used any of them? What did you think? Leave your reviews and recommendations in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Got any great business tools that you have used? Share them with her on Google+ or Twitter.

Effective Networking 101: Insights from the oDesk Community

Jenna — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:30:05 +0000

As many experienced freelancers and entrepreneurs will tell you, networking is one of the most important things you can do to help your business thrive. But this tends to be easier said than done — networking can be intimidating for many people.

So what can you do to put aside your qualms and network like a pro? We asked our users to share their favorite tips for successful networking and got some great responses. Here are our favorites!

1. Tim Lytle, via Twitter:
Be helpful: connect people — recommend someone else if it’s something you don’t do, and answer questions — it may be a future client.

2. Randika Ratnayake, via Facebook:
Try to give out more than what you get, and more than what the client expects. It sounds odd and expensive, but later on it pays you back with interest, so it is an indirect investment for the long term. A happy client is always a free marketing strategy and a tool.

3. Ahaiwe Kelechi C., via Facebook:
Motivational speaking.

4. Maita Alvin Enzo Perez, via Facebook:
The best tip — always keep communication lines open. If you are looking for a job, include all possible ways to contact you. If you already have a job, don’t hesitate to ask questions and clarify if instructions are not clear. This way, you will build strong working relationships with your employers.

5. Jadi Val Akuti, via Facebook:
Article writing and forum posting are the best ways for me … for the forum posting, you can react and interact with people that have the same interests, and you can come up with some ideas and suggestions for your product.

6. Sky Aldovino, via Facebook:
My tip would be commitment and patience … when I got my first oDesk contract I committed myself to it and jobs just came pouring down on me. I still have my first clients up to now when I started 3 years ago and new ones are coming in, too. I have even been personally referred by my clients to their friends.

7. Vaibhav Kanwal, via Facebook:
Build a list by asking buyers to sign up for your mailing list after a successful contract. That way, you can reach out to them later and even offer discounts!

8. Hugh Ghouleh, via Facebook:
People don’t like to network with takers; it might work for a while, but eventually… acknowledging mutual interests can increase your network value substantially.

9. Sarah Jane Valdez, via Facebook:
One should have FUN; networking is one fun way of meeting people, sharing ideas and establishing possible business relationships.

10. Dennis A Deschamps, via Facebook:
Attend a local neighborhood meetup to network with those in the know to alleviate doing what you are not necessarily good at.

Have any of these strategies been successful for you? Do you have other tips to add to the list? Let us know in the comments section below!

New! Use PayPal to Pay on oDesk

Jenna — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:17:52 +0000

Here at oDesk, we are always looking for ways to improve how employers hire, manage and pay their online teams. As part of this effort, we are proud to announce that PayPal is now a primary payment option on oDesk!

In addition to credit and debit cards, you may now choose to use your PayPal account to make payments to contractors on oDesk. As a verified PayPal user, you’re immediately ready to post a job, and pay for online work using your PayPal balance or through your bank account, without any additional account verification.

To select PayPal as your primary payment option, simply log on to your Payment Methods page. Once you’ve used PayPal, drop us a note at billing-feedback@odesk.com and tell us what you think. Or, discuss this new offering with our community.

Planning For a Stress-Free Holiday From Work

Amy — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:00:13 +0000

Whatever your plans are for the next month, chances are you will need to schedule them around some vacation time – whether your own or someone else’s.

If you are expecting to take a break, what can you do now to make your time away from work – and your return – as stress-free as possible? Here are five helpful strategies.

1. Review your deadlines and milestones

Even if you plan to work all month, your clients may not. Review your current projects as well as upcoming deadlines and milestones. If you have any deadlines scheduled for later in December, consider moving them up or bumping them to January. Make sure to check with your clients about their own timelines!

Why does this matter? You deserve a break and so do your clients. Avoid the frustration of last-minute changes – or worse, missed deadlines – by negotiating any adjustments now.

2. Connect with people you have worked with – and say “thank you”

Even if you do not currently have any ongoing projects with certain colleagues, this is a great opportunity to connect with people you have worked with in the past – not just clients but also co-workers and sub-contractors. Let them know whether you are available over the holidays and thank them for their business or support over the past year.

Why does this matter? It is easy to fall out of touch with people you have enjoyed working with once a project wraps up. This is a great opportunity to send a gentle reminder that you are still here and in business – but more importantly, a lot of other people will not bother. That makes this an easy activity that can help you stand out, and also allows you to genuinely thank people who have helped you succeed.

3. Set an out-of-office message

Even with good planning and communication, you will likely still get emails while you are on vacation. Did you know that a lot of email programs allow you to create an out-of-office autoreply?

For example, if you use Gmail:

Find “Mail Settings” under the “Options” icon in the upper-right corner.
On the “General” tab, near the bottom of the page, you will find a section called “Out of Office Autoreply.”
Set the start and end dates for your autoreply and write a message that tells people you are on vacation, as well as when they might expect to receive a response.
Make sure you click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page!

If you are concerned about an ongoing interview on oDesk, here is a tip from the community about adjusting your profile.

Why does this matter? If someone tries to contact you during your time off, this automatic message will let them know that you are away – not simply ignoring them – and makes a commitment that you will be in touch upon your return.

4. Make a to-do list for your first week back at work

Before you leave for your time off, make a list of the priorities you need to tackle when you get back. You may want to put this list together over a few days, just to make sure you don’t miss anything as you are wrapping up. (Hint: One of the top items on your list should be replying to any emails you missed while you were away!)

Why does this matter? Whether you plan to take a few days off or a few weeks, you should give your brain a chance to think about other things – like your family and friends. Knowing that you have already planned what you need to do when you get back will help you leave work behind and focus on having fun.

5. Actually take a break

Many of us are so wired with smartphones, laptops and tablets that checking in on work is literally just as easy as playing a round of Angry Birds. But if you cannot disconnect yourself from work, you will not enjoy much of a break – and you will rob yourself of an opportunity to relax and recharge.

(If you absolutely must check in while you are away, our Holiday How-To For Freelancers offers some great tips.)

Why does this matter? Not only do you deserve a break, you need one! If your life usually moves at a hectic pace, slowing down will give your mind and body a chance to recover so you will be ready to charge ahead in the new year. If you need more proof, read this post about why you need weekends: It is good for you and your business.

What tasks do you do before you take time off? Please share your advice in the comments section!

10 Useful Web Apps for Freelancers

Stephanie — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:00:16 +0000

Is “improve productivity” an item on your long to-do list? Do yourself (and your to-do list) a favor and find yourself some new web applications.

From collaborating with others to tracking your time and budget, you can use apps to trim your usual workload and keep projects organized and accessible wherever you go.

There are literally thousands of apps available, but here is a great place to start: 10 useful web apps that can make life a bit easier and your to-do list shorter. (Bonus: Most of them are free!)

1. Screenr (Free)
This web app can instantly record a screencast – basically, a video of what you are doing on your computer – and generate a link for you to share with others. Screenr comes in handy if you create tutorials, troubleshoot issues that are too complicated to explain via email, or want to show off your work to a potential client.

2. Solo (From $10 per month)
Solo is a great-looking project management tool created for freelancers. Not only does it help you manage multiple projects, it also makes it very easy for you to visually track your projects, tasks and time.

3. Teuxdeux (Free)
Minimalist but attractive, Teuxdeux is a web-based task management app known for its horizontal and calendar-like interface. This lets you add tasks, strike them off, and jump from one day to another – all within one clean view.

4. Google Docs (Free)
Google Docs is one of the best tools available when you need to share documents or collaborate with fellow freelancers. You can easily create and edit a variety of file types like documents, spreadsheets, forms and presentations. A recent update added some helpful new features, including a more-streamlined sharing process.

5. Picnik (Free)
Need to resize an image or crop a photo? Picnik should do the trick. It is a very simple-but-useful editing tool that you can use to crop, resize and automatically enhance your images and photos. It also has an extension for Google’s Chrome browser.

6. Ge.tt (Free)
With 2GB of free space and the ability to share files while uploading, Ge.tt is a file-sharing app that makes uploading and distributing files of any size pretty seamless. You can also reuse links and get statistics for your documents – keeping track of how many times your file has been downloaded, for example.

7. Wave (Free)
If numbers are not your specialty, life just got a bit easier. Wave is a free accounting application that looks after your bookkeeping so you can focus on your work. For example, it can automatically categorize your expenses, and it learns as you use the program. You can also access Wave through its Google Chrome app.

8. Feedly (Free)
Feedly is a multi-platform, cross-browser web app that syncs with Google Reader and displays your RSS feeds beautifully – it practically invites you to sit down and read through every article. Beyond its attractive interface, Feedly lets you share articles via social networks and save content to read later.

9. Simplenote (Free)
If you are looking for a note-taking application that is not too heavy on features, Simplenote is one of the best. Using your free account you can create notes on your computer or phone and organize them using tags or pins – which help keep specific notes at the top of the pile. You can also review older versions of notes and sync your account with third-party applications.

10. Freckle (From $12 per month)
Freckle is a time-tracking tool for freelancers – but it is more than that. It creates easy-to-manage projects (you do not need to set them up separately), generates invoices, and helps you track your time so you can make more accurate estimates in the future. It offers time tracking and project management rolled into one beautiful and colorful app.

There are so many web applications available, which ones are indispensable for your business? Do you use any of these, or do you have alternatives? Share your favorite apps in the comments section below.

How to Ask Your Employer to Leave Feedback

Stephanie — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:00:58 +0000

Is your oDesk profile short on employer feedback? Although it is common practice for both parties to leave feedback as soon as the contract has ended, there are times when employers choose not to.

As a hardworking contractor, you know that feedback scores are essential when applying for jobs – so you may need to step up and ask your employer to leave a comment. Here are five tips to help you make the request:

Tip #1: Give your employer every reason to give you positive feedback.

Finish all tasks, assignments, projects and leftover work within your deadlines and before the contract ends. Exemplary work and great communication skills will surely merit five-star feedback from your employer – and if your employer is clearly happy with your performance, it will be easier for you to ask for positive feedback.

Tip #2: Ask your employer for feedback in a professional manner.

There are many ways to ask an employer for feedback, but you must always do so in a professional manner that isn’t too demanding or annoying. If your main form of communication is email, for instance, you can ask for feedback using this kind of message:

Hello [employer's name],

It looks like our contract is coming to an end in two weeks. It has been a great experience for me, and I look forward to receiving your sincere feedback rating for my services as well as your thoughts on the work experience as a whole.

From there, you can emphasize how receiving his feedback on oDesk will significantly help boost your chances of finding more work and improve your standing as an oDesk contractor.

Tip #3: Thank your employer.

Before ending your message, thank your employer. It is always nice to give and receive appreciation, especially after all the work is done and the project has finally reached completion.

If the project was successful and your employer has treated you with respect and courtesy, do not hesitate to thank him for the opportunity and the experience you have gained. He will likely do the same in his feedback for you.

Tip #4: If the employer is new, help her out by sharing important information.

An employer may not leave feedback because she isn’t familiar with the oDesk system or does not realize how important feedback is. When working with new employers, you can take the initiative and show them how contracts work on oDesk. Share these important links in particular:

How Do I End a Contract? – A step-by-step tutorial for employers.
How to Make an Offer to a Contractor – If your employer plans to hire you again, this explains how she can easily rehire you by making an offer.
How to Give a Bonus or Added Payment – If your employer wishes to give you a bonus or added payment before the contract ends, this tutorial will help.

Note: As soon as your employer is ready, instruct her to end the contract on her end. It is always better if the employer ends the contract first, so she can immediately settle any remaining payments and leave feedback.

Tip #5: If the contract has ended, let your employer know he can still leave feedback.

With a tight schedule and the urgency to move forward, your employer forgot to leave feedback after your contract ended. That’s okay: You can still invite him to leave a comment about your work.

If 14 days have passed since the contract ended, you can enable feedback changes by going to the Contracts page under My Jobs. Once you have done that through your account, your employer can leave feedback by going through his account to the Contracts page under Manage My Team.

Note: You can also negotiate with your employer for a higher rating, if you think you deserve it. Make sure you and your employer mutually agree that the feedback will be changed; it is also possible for an employer to lower your rating instead.

If your employer is unreachable and you have done all you can to ask for feedback, the best thing to do is to leave your own feedback and move on. It may not help your ratings on oDesk, but at least you will be helping your fellow contractors by sharing your own experience with this particular employer.

If you are a contractor, what advice do you have for encouraging employers to leave feedback? Employers, we know you are busy; how can contractors make this process easier for you?

Five Great Places to Showcase Your oDesk Profile

Stephanie — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:00:09 +0000

One of the keys to oDesk contractor success is an impressive online profile. If your profile stands out above the rest (especially in terms of feedback and overall ratings), you are more likely to receive job interview invites from interested employers.

But should your stunning profile remain within the four walls of the oDesk website? Absolutely not! Your profile comes with its very own oDesk permalink, which you can showcase on various online networks for everyone ⎯ particularly employers ⎯ to see.

Let’s take a look at five other places to showcase your profile:

1. Business cards

When marketing your services on oDesk, you send out applications. Similarly, when marketing yourself in person, you give out business cards. Handing out your cards at conferences and other professional networking events is a great way to spread the word about your freelance business.

On your business card, below your name and title, include your oDesk profile permalink. That way, when you hand a potential client your card, he will know how to contact and hire you for a project.

2. Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and more

Social media is one of many popular ways to showcase your profile online, particularly through Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Setting up a profile or a page is easy; sharing links, videos, photos and content can be done with a few clicks of the mouse; and connecting with respected people in your field is easier than ever.

What better way to spread the word about your freelance business than to place your oDesk profile link on these social media sites? You can place the link on your Twitter profile, Facebook page, Google+ page, or all three if you think these are the best channels to market your services online.

3. LinkedIn, Zerply and other professional sites

Networks like LinkedIn, Skillpages and Zerply focus on connecting professionals and companies all over the globe. In other words, your skills, portfolio and online resume are the highlights of your profile.

Feel like you are duplicating what you have already filled out on oDesk? It may seem like it, but creating a profile on these sites is actually a great strategy because thousands of people ⎯ freelancers and employers alike ⎯ are members of these sites, and use them to network with (and even hire) talented people like you.

Choose one or two of the most popular sites and build your network from there. Who knows ⎯ your connections may turn out to be your future clients and partners.

4. Your own website and blog

Your very own website and blog are also great places to promote your oDesk profile. There are plenty of potential clients who do not use oDesk, so you can direct them there through your website and through high-quality blog posts.

You can also use the oDesk Hire Me widgets to attract potential employers whenever they visit your website. Just choose the right size and display, then place it on your sidebar for everyone to see.

5. Guest posts on popular blogs

Do you write as a guest blogger for popular industry blogs, such as those in design, writing or web development? If so, you can use your byline to direct interested readers to your oDesk profile.

As a skilled and talented freelancer with great content to share on these blogs, employers are more likely to hire you over others because they see you as an expert in your field. To them, you know what you are talking about, are aware of the latest trends in the industry, and are a great addition to their team of freelancers.

When you write your next blog post, don’t forget to include your byline and an inviting call to action ⎯ or more specifically, a call to hire you through oDesk.

Where else would you showcase your profile for prospective employers to see? Have these outlets helped you get hired on oDesk?

Bring Your Tech Ideas to Life… Without a Tech Background

Julia — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:47:48 +0000

With a flash of inspiration, you’ve conceived a tech idea that could be a game-changer. Unfortunately, all you have is the idea; the tech know-how to make it happen is completely absent. What should you do?

If this is the predicament in which you find yourself, take heart. You are in good company. Several tech firms, including Squidoo, Yammer and Meebo, were started by founders that didn’t major in computer science or talk PHP code in their sleep. If you are one of those lucky few who has conceived the answer to a tech problem and is entrepreneurial enough to envision a business based on that idea, then this post is for you. Here is how to take your tech idea from a daydream to a successfully executed startup.

Step One: Prove the Concept

I know you love your app idea and cannot imagine that it just might possibly be a dud, but the harsh truth of the matter is that it’s more likely to fail than succeed. So before you waste time and money looking for a developer or technical co-founder, you need to run that big idea through the gauntlet of the following tests:

Is there a similar product already out there? Chances are, you are not the first person to think of this idea, so it’s important to thoroughly investigate all potential competitors to see how their products compare to yours.
How does an initial mockup look? You might not be able to program, but you can visualize. Using tools such as Basalmiq, iMockups or Mockingbird, you can quickly create a wireframe version of your app or site. This will allow you to find any conceptual design flaws early on, and enables you to present your idea to users, developers and investors to get feedback.
What are users’ initial reactions? Your friends and family are unlikely to give you an unbiased opinion, so solicit input from potential users. Find out if they think there is truly a demand for the product or if your idea needs to be modified to better fit market needs. Let these users critique your idea from every angle. As painful as it may be, your final product will be stronger. (Note: If you are concerned about idea theft, have your testers sign a simple non-disclosure agreement.)

Step Two: Self-Education

Once you have determined that your idea is viable, it’s time to prepare for adding team members. While you can hire the talent to compensate for your lack of technical expertise, it is still good to have a basic understanding of what is involved in the development process. It is also helpful to have a solid business plan in place to help you attract top talent ⎯ that’s where the self-education step comes in. Here are some steps to guide you in the process:

Evaluate your skill sets and abilities. While it can be agonizing, the process of self-evaluation is vital. You have to be prepared, both in knowledge and temperament, to guide the development of this product, so take some time to map out your weaknesses. Then do all you can to grow in those areas and/or determine what types of people you need on your team to bring some balance.
Learn the basics of the development process. Grab some books on the fundamentals of software engineering and try to understand the ins and outs of the process. You may also want to add some programming blogs to your RSS feed to help you learn the lingo.
Understand what constitutes good user experience design (UX). Play with every app and website that’s anywhere near the scope of your project. Take notes on what design facets make the experience seamless, as well as which elements don’t work well.
Determine your minimum viable product (MVP). What is the most fundamental functionality that your app or site needs to have? Call this “version 1.0″ and make a list of every action and click that should go into it. For some great reading on this topic, check out “How to Hire a Programmer” by Derek Sivers.

Step Three: Build Your Team

Now it’s time to bring on a team. If you have been serious about accomplishing the initial legwork, you will have a much better chance of both developers and investors taking you seriously. Here are some points to keep in mind as you build your team:

Attend networking events in order to find a Chief Technical Officer (CTO). You want someone who has the background and experience to spearhead development. Remember, though, that technical prowess is not the only thing you should be looking for ⎯ personalities are also extremely important. You need to be able to work together harmoniously through the various stresses that life will throw at your business. It is crucial that you get along, because your CTO can make or break your business.
Hire fellow visionaries. Yes, you do need help; but don’t just settle for anyone. Find people who see your vision and are as passionate about the project as you are ⎯ don’t just hire people who will work for the money and then call it a day. A great place to start is by interviewing some of the software developers available through oDesk.
Get your development team’s input to help shape the product. It’s always a good idea to make your vision as succinct and focused as possible for your development team (hence the previously discussed MVP concept), but it can also be extremely valuable to share your big idea with the team and allow them to contribute feedback.

While I have touched on some of the key ways you can successfully launch a tech product without a tech background, there is much more to be said on the subject. Two very helpful posts to peruse are Vinicius Vacanti’s “Become Your Own CTO,” as well as “Ideas, Execution and Technical Achievement” by Eugene Wallingford.

Have you launched a tech product without having a technical background? If so, I’d love to hear about your journey from idea to product launch. Share your experience in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about start-ups and disruptive tech ideas. When not writing, she’s always on the lookout for the “next big idea” and hopes to be the first to break the story.

The New oDesk Site — Online Work at Your Fingertips

Mollie — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:15:47 +0000

Today we are very excited to announce the launch of oDesk’s brand new navigation and site design! We have been transitioning to this new look for several months, and we have received great feedback from our users. The site is designed to be more intuitive, highlighting the most important features by displaying them front and center. The new design also gives us the flexibility to continuously improve the site to meet our users’ needs.

If you have any questions about the new site, please see our FAQs (for employers and contractors) or the “Where Is” table (for employers and contractors).

The site is now organized around core functions. Here’s a quick tour:

If you have not tried the new site yet, check out these enhancements:

For contractors:

Find Jobs. Found under the “Find Work” tab, this is your home page when looking for work. Get the latest status on your job applications, search for job opportunities that fit your skills, and easily update your profile.
My Jobs. This is your home page when doing client work. Check all your active contracts, track your time billed this week, and see total earnings available to withdraw.

For employers:

Job Postings. Found under the “Recruit” tab, this is your home page for finding the perfect person for your project. See all your open jobs and the latest activity, easily post a new job, and search for the right contractor.
My Contractors. Found under the “Manage My Team” tab, this is your home page for managing contractors. Track who is currently working or see the last time they worked, view total hours billed this week, and see upcoming payments.

If you have feedback about the new site, we want to hear it! Please visit our community forum to share your thoughts.

Hiring Your Right Hand: How to Hire & Use Virtual Assistants

Julia — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:00:12 +0000

Admit it. Sometimes you just need an extra hand (or two) to accomplish all the items currently crammed into your to-do list. It’s a familiar feeling — for every one task crossed off the list, two are added. While you might not have the capital to hire a full-time assistant or the office space to house an on-site secretary, how about a virtual assistant?

A good virtual assistant — which you can find through oDesk — can be your right-hand man (or woman). From answering e-mails and managing social media accounts to setting appointments and providing programming support, the list of tasks a virtual assistant (VA) can help you with is long. And good VAs will not just shorten your to-do list; they can also increase your productivity and, by correlation, your business profitability.

The “Help-Wanted” Checklist

To determine whether hiring a virtual assistant is a good option for you, make a list of the following:

The tasks outside of your core competencies that siphon off large amounts of your time
The items on your to-do list that you never have time to get to
Repetitive tasks that could easily be accomplished by someone else
How you would use your time if the above items were taken off your plate

Take a look at your answers to the first three questions. If your lists are long, you should strongly consider hiring a virtual assistant. On the other hand, if those lists are short, you may need to regularly set aside a few hours each week to knock out those items on your agenda.

As to the fourth question, it’s important to consider whether or not a virtual assistant would save you money by freeing you up to concentrate on other revenue-generating tasks. As with all hires, ROI is important!

Find True (Virtual) Help

You have determined you need the aid a VA can provide — now it’s time to find the perfect match. Here are a few points to keep in mind as you conduct that search:

Look for an assistant who has verifiable references, preferably from other business owners. Your VA will potentially have access to important business and personal information, so you need to be sure they are trustworthy.
Re-examine the list of tasks you need a virtual assistant to do. Based on that list, jot down some of the key skills and qualities your VA needs to have. Then, examine potential candidates’ resumes in light of those essential characteristics.
Craft a straightforward contract that clearly stipulates your expectations for your assistant as well as what she should expect from you. Discuss that document with your top candidates to ensure you’re both on the same page.
Hire a VA for a test run. Assign him some non-essential tasks in order to see how he handles communication, as well as how diligent he is in completing the tasks as assigned. This type of trial run allows you to see if you and your virtual assistant are a good fit. Remember though, even if it’s just a test job, they still need to be fully compensated for their time. Here’s a great past oDesk post on how a test job should work.

Effective Management Tips

If you are used to being a lone ranger, it can be difficult to get into the groove of managing someone else’s time and work duties. But if you don’t, you might find yourself frustrated with your assistant … and it won’t be his fault. Keep everyone happy by following these guidelines:

Make yourself available. One advantage an on-site secretary has over her virtual counterparts is the ease of communication with her boss. Your VA doesn’t have the luxury of being able to poke his head inside your office door to ask a question, so you need to make yourself accessible to him during a set period of time. Also, provide multiple lines of communication. Twitter, Skype, e-mail, and similar channels all make good communication tools, so make use of them.
Set deadlines and priorities. Let your assistant know which tasks are most important as well as when you need them completed. That way your VA’s work can mirror your expectations.
Create a manual of key processes in order to cut down on FAQs. Especially when there are repetitive tasks, having a procedure manual will speed up the training process as well as provide a benchmark for a job well done.
Make sure e-mails don’t get missed. As outlined in my past post on using Gmail, you can employ filters to sort your e-mails in whatever way you choose. Use this type of filtering to put e-mails from your VA at the top of the list.

The Power of the Virtual Assistant

Like the idea of having an assistant, but still unsure of how to use one? Here are 10 ways a VA could lighten your workload:

Keep your social media outlets updated with content you provide
Do research
Filter incoming e-mails to identify good prospects for follow up
Manage your schedule
Make travel arrangements
Work on lead generation
Update mailing lists
Write newsletters
Handle customer service
Do bookkeeping

For more ideas, check out this (very) long list of 101 ways to employ a virtual assistant.

Do you use a virtual assistant? If so, what are some best practices for effectively managing and making use of your assistant’s skills? And if you’re a VA, how can employers make your job easier? Share your advice below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Connect with her on Google Plus and let her know how you’ve made use of virtual assistants.

Your Real Fan Club: 4 Steps to Effective Facebook Marketing

Julia — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:00:51 +0000

So your business page on Facebook has close to 1,000 followers. Don’t get too excited. In fact, let me be the first to break it to you: that fan count is meaningless when it comes to social media success. Effective Facebook marketing is much more complex than a simple numbers game. With all due respect, it’s time for a recount.

For those who would like a simplistic formula to evaluate the ROI of their social media marketing efforts, relying on the “friends,” “fans” or “followers” count seems like a safe bet. Unfortunately, many of the people on that list have checked your page once and never returned. And therein lies the core principle of effective business promotion on Facebook: If they care about interacting with you, you’re successful. If they’re apathetic, you have failed.

So how can you turn a social-media friend into a real-world fan? Here are some ideas:

Reward Your Followers.

A business is only viable if it has customers that find value in its product or service. The same holds true for your business’s Facebook page. The only reason for its existence is to provide value to your customers. One way to accomplish that is to give rewards for visiting.
- Offer “Facebook Only” rewards. Whether the rewards are coupons, e-books or sneak peeks, make sure they have real value in the eyes of your fans.
- Make use of Facebook Places. Similar to FourSquare and Gowalla, Facebook allows users to “check in” at your real-world store, providing you free and easy word-of-mouth marketing to all the user’s Facebook friends. Encourage that sharing by offering in-store deals to users that broadcast their visit. From individual deals to loyalty rewards to charity points, you’ve got some options for implementation. Read more about using Places in this article from Catalyst Marketing.
Learn from Your Fans.

One of the interesting phenomena of today’s Internet world is the widespread desire to make one’s opinion heard. There’s a satisfaction many online users derive from commenting on anything and everything — indulge that desire using Facebook Groups.

When Facebook revamped the Groups feature last year, it provided a great way to interact more personally with small groups of customers. You can use it to set up your own customer advisory panels and/or product testing groups. You could even segment out your customers based on their demographics or interests (such as running enthusiasts or young moms). You benefit from getting focused, real-world feedback. Your customers benefit by getting to make a difference in the way your business operates. It’s a win-win for everyone and it generates more page traffic.
Engage with Your Base.

Don’t get so intent on promoting yourself that you forget the social part of “social media.” For example, do you regularly reply to the comments made on your Facebook page? If not, you’re missing out. One of the strengths of Facebook is the ability to easily interact with customers in a more casual setting. Granted, you’ll always have cranky commenters who have nothing useful to say. Don’t waste your time on them. But your fans who make thoughtful comments, whether positive or negative, should be rewarded with a reply.

But don’t just reply — start conversations as well! Try to ask questions of your followers on a regular basis. Get people talking about the issues surrounding your niche in the market. Giving some direction to the conversation on your page can protect the venue from being nothing more than a complaint forum.
Increase Your Audience Numbers.

And now to backtrack just a bit. While numbers alone do not guarantee an effective Facebook business page, they do help you on Bing searches. Earlier this year, Bing began factoring in your friends’ Facebook “likes” in order to tailor your search results.

For SEO purposes (or, as some have titled it, SSO – “Social Search Optimization”), it’s important to encourage people to “like” your page. Embed a Facebook Like button on your website. Add a link to your Facebook page in your e-mail signature. Regularly add content that’s interesting, funny, quirky or compelling to your Facebook page so people recommend it to their friends. And that’s just for starters. For more ideas on promoting your Facebook page, check out these 11 ideas from blogger John Haydon.

When it comes to Facebook, keep in mind the old adage, “To make a friend, you’ve got to be a friend.” Implementing a customer-oriented approach to your Facebook strategy provides a clear path to social media success. So don’t focus too much on your numbers — instead, focus on your fans.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations.

The One-Click Interview: How to Hire an SEO Writer

Stephanie — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:00:13 +0000

One of the most beneficial business investments you can make is search-engine optimized (SEO) content, which optimizes your website for search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing. If done correctly, your site’s pages can be the first few that pop up in a user’s search results, bringing in more traffic to your site and potential sales to your company.

However, the process of hiring an SEO writer is no small undertaking, as there are important factors you need to take into consideration before making your choice. In this post, we continue with the one-click interview series, focusing today on how to hire an SEO writer.

Tip #1: Have a clear idea of your SEO strategy.

The One-Click Interview Series:

Hiring a freelance professional, whether in the writing or graphic design industry, can be a challenge if you don’t know what’s involved. Check out our other one-click interview posts, “How to Hire a Freelance Writer” and “How to Hire a Freelance Graphic Designer.”

First and foremost, you should have a clear understanding of what type of SEO content you want for your website. Are you looking for articles about the latest news, or do you want informational content that has a longer shelf life (also known as “evergreen” content)? What are the topics you want the articles to cover? For example, if you decide on news, should it be news about your industry, or about broader topics that are relevant to your target audience? How many articles do you need and how are you going to distribute them across your site?

If you don’t know how to gather this kind of information, you can hire an SEO consultant to lay the groundwork for your strategy before hiring an SEO writer to create the content.

Tip #2: Hire based on the candidate’s skills and qualities.

You need to base your hiring decision on the candidate’s SEO writing skills and professional qualities. Ideally, you should be looking for someone who:

Excels in his profession – he has the writing ability to prove that he can excel in creating search-engine optimized content.
Is creative – she must be creative to generate a list of targeted keywords to integrate into your content, especially if you don’t already have a list to provide her with. In addition, it takes a good amount of creativity to integrate keywords in a natural and effective way.
Understands the content area – he knows where to place the keywords and how to use his keywords in context. Without an understanding of your content area and industry, it’s very possible he could misplace and misuse the keywords, which may affect your business’s reputation.
Understands the search industry – to put it simply, she should have a basic understanding of how users conduct their search, as well as of search engine marketing principles.
Is reliable and professional – obviously, he should perform as a professional — feedback from previous employers should indicate that he is reliable and delivers work in a timely manner.

Tip #3: Ask the right questions.

Narrow down your list of candidates by asking questions during the interview stage. Make sure these questions focus on the candidate’s knowledge, skills, and ability to act on problems or complete tasks assigned to them.

Here are examples of questions you can ask your candidates:

How much experience do you have writing search-engine optimized articles?
How much experience do you have writing about this industry/subject?
Describe your writing process. Do you write the article and then integrate the keywords, or do you integrate the keywords as you write? How do you decide where you want to place the keywords?
How do you handle constructive criticism of and feedback on your work?

Tip #4: Test and evaluate the SEO writer.

There should be a level of caution involved when hiring an SEO writer because you can’t immediately know if he is up to date with the latest SEO trends or if he still uses “old-school” SEO tactics.

Besides asking them to expound on what they know about SEO, you can evaluate candidates by giving them a paid sample test. You could ask them to write a sample article about your business’s niche, or to generate a list of keywords for a fictional company’s website. The important thing here is the writer’s ability to research and write high-quality content, and to skillfully integrate the appropriate keywords.

With these steps in mind, you can now hire an SEO writer who not only has the knowledge and skills needed for the job, but the attitude for success as well. And what better way to start looking for a professional SEO writer than with a search on oDesk?

Stephanie Gonzaga is a freelancer on oDesk who specializes in writing top-notch web content, such as product descriptions, website copy, articles, and blog posts for clients all over the globe. During her free time, she writes on her blog The Freelance Pinoy, a site dedicated to providing Filipino freelancers with tips, advice and strategies to help them reach freelancing success.

Infographics: How Visual Representations Can Boost Traffic

Julia — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:00:33 +0000

The graphic on the left shows one of the most basic of all data visualization tools — the area graph. And even if you didn’t know what an area graph was, simply looking at a picture of one clears up the mystery. Therein lies the beauty of infographics. Using visuals, infographics can communicate abstract concepts with a clarity and impact that far surpasses what text alone can convey.

What does this mean for you? Business websites and freelance blogs alike can benefit from the appeal of infographics. Not only do they provide new layers of communication value for your audience, they also have significant SEO value.

The Marketing Picture

The marketing value of infographics comes from the graphic element, not the text. Unfortunately, search engines don’t index accordingly — they only index text as text. Instead, an infographic’s SEO value lies in its ability to generate backlinks for your site, and thus improve your page ranking. Infographics also allow you to build connections with other bloggers, companies and organizations, as they can become almost as viral as dancing kittens on YouTube.

But don’t run off and start throwing together clip art and numbers in a Photoshop file quite yet. First, take some time to plan all elements of the infographic. The planning stage is essential, because a successful infographic must have the following three key ingredients:

1. Compelling Information

Technically, an infographic can be created about any subject under the sun. Realistically, it shouldn’t be. The power of an infographic is its ability to help us quickly comprehend multiple statistics and complex facts with its visual layout. That depth and focus of subject matter is what often differentiates a so-so piece from a wildly popular one. “What Does it Take to Get a Job at Google?” shows how a piece can give you lots of information in one sitting while still being quite interesting. In a great post on effective infographics, Justin Briggs at SEOmoz outlines the following characteristics of compelling infographics:

Find information that can be organized.
Find information that can be visually represented.
Data does better than just information.
Focus on verifiable statistics I can cite.
Focus on chunkable, tweetable statements.
Focus on content that triggers an emotional response.

2. Great layout that sends the readers on a visual journey

The graphic has to look good, otherwise it won’t earn more than a few seconds of the reader’s time. After all, infographics are primarily about the visuals, right? Make sure you choose your fonts for readability as well as style, and that the graphics flow logically from the subject matter. Also, as much as you can, follow the filmmaker’s mantra of “show, don’t tell. “Happy Birthday, Twitter” is a good example of an infographic that pulls you in and effectively uses graphics to illustrate the data. For more on good design, take some time to read Smashing Magazine’s article on “The Do’s and Dont’s of Infographic Design.”

3. Aggressive and strategic outreach in order to gain backlinks

The most creative, beautiful and interesting infographic is no good if it just sits on your website, lonely and neglected. In order to gain SEO value, you’ve got to promote that baby.

Allow people to embed it in their sites with a link back to yours. Include buttons for sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Post it on Flickr and use a Creative Commons license requiring a link back to you.
Include your company name on the infographic itself, so the infographic is always building your brand.
Promote it yourself on every avenue available, including Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and similar sites.
Search out some influential bloggers who would find it interesting, and send it their way.
Partner with others to create the infographic so you can promote it together. Let the data sources you used know about it as well so they can promote it.

Data Visualization Tools

Now that you know “how” and “why,” the next question to answer is “with what?” There are multiple tools available to help you design infographics, but unless you have a designer’s eye, don’t try this alone. Check out some of the graphic artists on oDesk for help (and read this past oDesk blog post on how to hire a good designer).

Now to the tools:

Many Eyes – a free tool from the IBM Research group.
Google Public Data – allows you to create data visualization charts that are automatically updated when the corresponding public data is updated.
Wordle – not exactly a data visualization tool, but it does create some pretty nifty word clouds based on the data you input.
Stat Planet – create interactive data charts based on geographic information and country statistics.
Creately – a collaborative diagramming app, useful for simple infographics.
Visual.ly – still in private beta, but early demos make Visual.ly look like an exciting option for making infographics that are a bit more artsy than the other tools listed here.

So what are some of your favorite infographics? One of mine is “Caffeine and Calories,” probably because I’m on a diet and am a caffeine junkie! Share yours in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small business owners and non-profit organizations.

Think Outside the Wallet: 4 Reasons Your Small Business Should Use Mobile Payments

Julia — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:00:19 +0000

Cash flow is the lifeblood of your small business. If you can’t keep the money coming in, well, you will probably have to look for a new day job. That’s why it’s so important that you make the invoicing and payment process as painless as possible, both for you and for your clients. Maybe it’s time you tried mobile payments.

Move over, Visa! Whether your business is exclusively online or resides in an actual brick-and-mortar building, mobile and online payment systems can help you save money and increase your efficiency. Here are some reasons why your small business should embrace new mobile payment technologies.

1. Reduce Billing Headaches

If you sell digital goods such as virtual credits in web apps, ringtones or online games, you should take a look at companies such as Boku (named one of the top 50 venture-backed companies of 2010 by The Wall Street Journal), Fortumo and Zong. These companies allow customers to pay for your goods with their mobile number. The charge is then added to the customer’s mobile phone bill. When the customer pays their bill, the phone company will send over your slice of the pie. Adding to its convenience, each of these companies is available for use worldwide. The one downside is that the phone carriers often charge merchants a steep fee (up to 35%). If you are selling virtual products, this doesn’t matter quite as much, as your production and inventory costs are next to nothing. In addition, your customers are much more likely to make a purchase if it’s quick and easy. If they have to pull out their credit card information each time, they are much more likely to change their mind about purchasing. It’s all about convenience.

2. Bypass Credit Card Fees

Forget receiving cash payments — these days, customers expect to pay with their debit or credit card. But for small businesses and freelancers, the credit card fees can take a sizable chunk out of your bottom line. So why not bypass those fees, or at least pay a smaller percentage? Mobile payment giant Obopay allows you to receive payments from Mastercard credit and debit cards, as well as from Visa debit cards. It doesn’t charge you anything, but does charge the customer a small convenience fee; you can, however, choose to absorb that fee yourself. If most of your payments are small, check out Venmo. This innovative company is trying to upset PayPal by offering what it calls a more social experience. With Venmo, you can charge customers by sending a “bill” to their e-mail address, mobile phone number or even Twitter handle. Payment processing costs nothing for them or for you, but there is a $2,500 monthly limit for both making payments and receiving them.

3. Cut Down on Bookkeeping Hassle

If you are one of the four million small businesses that use QuickBooks, Intuit’s GoPayment could be a perfect solution. Intuit, the financial software giant that produces TurboTax and Quickbooks, has also jumped into the mobile payment fray. GoPayment provides a card reader for your Android, Blackberry, iPhone or iPod Touch, which allows you to accept credit card payments from Discover, Visa or MasterCard. One of the great things about GoPayment is its integration with Quickbooks. Credit card transactions made through GoPayments can be easily downloaded into the accounting software — no more having to type in payments manually! This, to me, is an awesome feature as I’ve discovered that when I have to enter transactions manually into my accounting software package, I often mistype amounts or completely skip over transactions altogether — and what a pain that is when trying to reconcile the bank statement!

4. Turn Your iPad Into a Cash Register Someday our kids will hear the word “cash register” and wonder what type of antiquated device it was. Well, thanks to Square, that day is growing closer and closer. Square has released a card reader/app combo for iPads that is an elegant alternative to the traditional check-out register. You can accept credit cards using the free card reader or manually enter cash transactions. Customers can sign receipts on the screen and then have those receipts e-mailed or texted to them. As you would expect from this type of cash register, analytics plays a big role. You can instantly track product sales by type, customer, day, etc. Finally, customers that you trust can bypass the credit swipe altogether and instead set up a tab-based system in which they simply pay by their name (which is linked to their credit card in your system).

Finally, let me give a shout out to the oDesk payment system. If you do hourly work, oDesk is an excellent platform to ensure that you will be paid on a weekly basis. No more waiting around for checks or haranguing deadbeat clients with reminder e-mails. oDesk has consistently provided me the fastest payment schedule I’ve ever had in my freelance career.

Mobile and online payments are exiting the realm of theory and prototype and are instead entering into the real world. Have you taken advantage of any of these mobile payment options? If you have used one of these (or any of their competitors), tell me about your experience in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small business owners and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business.

Siri for the Android: 4 Voice Command Apps

Julia — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:00:09 +0000

I love my Android phone, but watching Siri in action recently gave me a case of iPhone envy. Yeah, yeah, I know I have Google Voice Actions on my Droid, but that’s nowhere near as cool as Siri. So I set out to determine whether there’s an Android equivalent to Apple’s soft-spoken mobile assistant. Here are the results of that search.

iris (free): Developed in just eight hours, this app is still in alpha mode, but is already being hailed as a “Siri-killer.” That, I think, is a bit overblown. While iris can answer questions, make phone calls and send texts, that’s about all it can do. Even the completion of those tasks is a bit buggy — in my tests, I found that results were 50/50 in accuracy. Still, the app is in the early stages of development and shows a lot of future promise. I am interested to see where iris will be in another six months or so. Maybe Siri will have to watch out after all.
Vlingo (free): Vlingo is a bit more Siri-like than iris, in that it actually works fairly well with other apps — allowing you to open, say, Pandora and start playing your favorite channel simply by using voice commands. One key difference: Vlingo does not speak back to you, so you do have to actually read the answer. Just a year ago, that would not have even been an issue, right? (This shows how spoiled the wonders of technology are making us.) All in all, I found Vlingo to be incredible. I love it. I’m addicted.
Speaktoit Assistant (free): The Speaktoit Assistant has a face (which is customizable), a voice (also customizable) and a lot of knowledge. I liked the conversational feel of Speaktoit, and my kids get a kick out of my phone talking to me. Like Vlingo (and Siri), the app will do tasks such as give you directions, text someone, control apps and make calls. However, I got a bit frustrated with how often the app seemed to have a hard time understanding questions and commands. I was also a bit annoyed by my avatar’s appearance. It felt cheap and cheesy, so I opted for the giant microphone icon. All that aside, it was definitely a useful app, especially for the price tag.
Jeannie (free): Jeannie is another personal assistant with a customizable voice and a bit of attitude; she actually has a Siri-like sense of humor. This clever little app can be in constant conversation mode, allowing you to speak commands at will without having to tap a button. I’ve heard that Jeannie isn’t as full-featured as Vlingo, a claim which is worth testing. Several users are also complaining that the app has a glitch that makes it occasionally pinpoint your location as New York when that just ain’t so.

As I use these various voice command apps, I can’t help but feel like I have stepped into my favorite futuristic science-fiction movie. As the artificial intelligence technology improves, I predict Siri and its virtual assistant ilk will have us talking to our smartphones with the same ease as we now have when using them to listen to music and browse the Internet.

It’s your turn. Have you used one of these apps? If so, what do you think? And which would you recommend as a good Siri alternative?

5 More Ways to Give Yourself a Raise

Stephanie — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:00:30 +0000

You’ve learned new skills, refined your specializations, earned numerous 4-5 star feedback ratings, and are in-demand than ever since working as a freelancer. Thinking of giving yourself a raise in freelance rates today for all that hard work? Go for it!

The thought of increasing one’s freelance rates can be a bit scary, of course, but it shouldn’t be something to shy away from if you believe it’s time to raise the bar up. You’ve worked hard to get to where you are, and that kind of effort deserves a well-deserved raise.

We’ve tackled 10 ways to give yourself a raise and to give yourself an edge over the competition, so let’s take a look at 5 more ways to give yourself a raise and to bring your freelancing career to the next level:

1. Increase your hourly rate AND your fixed price fees.

This is, of course, the best way to give yourself a raise on oDesk. You can increase your hourly rate by changing it in your Profile settings and your fixed price fees by bidding higher on fixed price jobs.

You can do this by estimating how many hours it would take to do a particular project (considering you already have experience) and multiplying that with your new hourly rate. Don’t forget to factor in all other expenses and particulars when quoting a fixed fee.

2. Inform your clients about your price increases.

This is to let them know beforehand, in case they decide to bring in new and/or recurring business in the future. There is a possibility that they’ll want to hire someone cheaper to cut costs, but if you’ve built good working relationships with them, price increases shouldn’t be an issue. Heck, they probably were going to increase your hourly rate anyway.

3. Narrow down your choices of freelance jobs.

Back when you were still an oDesk newbie, you didn’t mind applying for jobs left and right. Whether the tasks were administrative or involved writing long 450-word articles, it didn’t matter so long as you had the skills to do the job.

Now that you’re established and your rates are higher, apply only for jobs that truly match your best skills and whose employers are willing to pay your ideal freelance rates and fees. Employers will especially welcome freelancers who specialize in a particular skill, since the skill level, knowledge, and experience are more refined and of higher quality.

4. Raise your standards as a freelancer by ignoring jobs that prioritize price over quality.

Now that you’re more experienced, you can now decide if a project is really worth your time and talent or not.

With that said, don’t fall for job posts that will only hire candidates with bids lower than your freelance rates. If an employer asks that you lower your hourly rate for him to hire you, choose to negotiate or move on to other job posts instead of agreeing to it.

5. Open your doors to more long-term projects.

Apply for bigger projects that require work for up to 6 months, rather than sticking to small short-term jobs. Besides gaining much more experience and securing a stable source of income, your feedback scores (if good) will increase your overall oDesk rating significantly. And when that happens, expect more work to come knocking at your doorstep.

Raising your freelance rates is a big step towards earning more income and growing your business. Although your chances of winning projects may slide a bit due to cheaper rates from other contractors, it shouldn’t be a problem if you know deep down that your present skills and experience level are worth the raise.

Are you planning on increasing your rates today? If you feel hesitant, what’s keeping you from doing so? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

The Endpoint Matters: 10 Ways to Ensure Data Security

Julia — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:00:05 +0000

Is your client’s data safe? This question should keep you awake at night if you’re not sure. As a self-employed freelancer, there’s no IT department to fall back on. You’ve got to be on top of endpoint security or else you risk your clients’ ire and mistrust in the event of a security breach.

So what can you do to ensure your client’s data security? Here’s 10 ways to protect yourself against information theft:

Identify Sensitive Data – Do you even know what types of sensitive data your clients have entrusted to you? From passwords to proprietary information to source code — take time to identify the data items that require extra vigilance. It’s called risk assessment and is the first step in successful endpoint protection. This review process will also assist you in pinpointing security holes.
Protect Your Computer – A firewall and up to date antivirus software is foundational. If you don’t have those in place, then you’re leaving the door wide open for the not so nice to walk right in and help themselves. For bare bones protection, check out AVG’s free anti-virus software and ZoneAlarm’s free firewall.
Choose Your Password Wisely – Sensitive data should always be protected by a password. Unfortunately, many users choose a password that provides little protection against the experienced hacker. A beefy password is characterized by containing more than one word, using symbols or numbers and being 8+ characters. For more on the ins and outs of a successful password, read “The Anti-Hacker Password Plan.”
Isolate Important Client Data – As previously mentioned, client data must be protected by a password. There are several 3rd party utilities that can accomplish this, including Protected Folder and TrueCrypt. Don’t store important data in multiple, unsecured locations. The more places you keep it, the more places you have to protect that are potential security risks. The only exception to this rule is keeping backups.
Prepare for Disaster – Hurricanes, fires, earthquakes. As this year has proved yet again, natural disasters happen. And if you’re not prepared when one hits, your business will be in a world of hurt. That’s why you need backups of all mission critical data. It’s fine to keep a backup copy on site. But it’s absolutely vital that you also keep one off-site in a secure location (i.e., not the trunk of your car). Cloud-based backup is another option, but it has some definite cons that are beyond the scope of this post. For more on that, read “Is Cloud Based Backup Safe,” as well as the post’s accompanying comments.
Avoid Dangerous Downloads – With the current proliferation of apps, it’s easy to be a little too trusting about the programs you download. This is one area in which being paranoid is a good thing. Check and double check the safety of your downloads — make sure they’re from a reliable source. That goes for links sent by friends via email or social media too. Accounts are getting hacked right and left, so even a link sent by your best friend should be treated with caution.
Ban Peer to Peer Software – P2P programs might (and that’s a big question!) have a place on your personal computer, but should NEVER be used on a machine that contains client data. The potential dangers of these file-sharing programs include firewall penetration, malware or virus infection and data theft. It’s a risk that should be completely avoided. And yes, even Spotify has been a source of trouble, according to this e-Week.com report.
Protect E-Mail Attachments – You worked all night on the code for the client. The next morning, you sent it to them…but inadvertently e-mailed it to the wrong address. That’s potential trouble, unless you’ve encrypted the file. If there’s e-mail attachments that are for your client’s eyes only, use the open source software program, 7-Zip. It’s an endpoint security program that will encrypt and password protect your e-mail attachments.
Handle Paper With Care – Paper documents might be hacker-proof, but that doesn’t make them safe. Yes, non-digital thieves still exist. So instead of just throwing that wadded up document in the trash, take the time to shred it. If there’s important info on the paper, then it deserves to be trashed with care.
Delete Metadata – Did you know that files you send could contain hidden information that could open you up to a brute force or social engineering attack? That concealed data, otherwise known as “metadata,” is descriptive info attached to a digital file. If your project is quite hush-hush, you might need to be extra careful about the metadata you’re sending out. For more on this, check out “Metadata Defense in Word” and “Removing PDF Metadata”.

When it comes to endpoint security, you alone are responsible. Don’t fail yourself or your clients by being lax in this area. I’ve covered some of the ways to ensure data safety. What are others that I’ve missed? Add to the post in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. In the midst of writing this post, she realized her anti-virus software desperately needed updating. Connect with her on Google+.

Tips for Contractors Working on a Fixed-Price Project

Stephanie — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:00:08 +0000

Projects aren’t always billed by the hour. An employer may want to pay on a per-project basis instead, to closely manage the budget. He may also want to test his potential hires first by letting them do a small paid test job.

Unfortunately, the fixed price model is often misunderstood and abused, and the last thing you need is a dispute for unpaid work, so let’s take a look at tips for contractors working on a fixed price project:

Evaluate the employer’s background on oDesk. I encourage contractors to make a habit of looking at the employer’s feedback and payment history before agreeing to do a fixed price project. If the employer is a regular oDesk user, read the feedback ratings of past contractors. If his profile is still fresh, make sure to discuss all the details with him during the interview before saying “yes.”
Make accurate project estimates. There’s less flexibility in the fixed-price setting, so take into consideration every aspect of the project before agreeing on a price and timeline. If it is necessary, don’t be afraid to go over the employer’s budget a little or extending the deadline so long as you agree on these things as you go, and ultimately deliver a great product. Top quality work is much better than a poorly done rush job.
Ask for payment up front. Seasoned freelancers know how important it is that they’re paid for their work, so securing an upfront payment isn’t a mere option for them. You can ask for a 30% to 50% upfront payment at the beginning of the project. Once the deliverable is ready and handed over, you can then request for the remaining balance.
Break the project (and payments) down into milestones. Make things easy for your employer by breaking the project and the payments into pieces or milestones. Once a milestone is finished and the employer sends partial payment, you can move on to the next milestone.
Communicate often. There is a large brick wall between you and your employer, so communication must be strong and transparent. Send work progress reports to let him know how the project is doing, or hold weekly or monthly meetings to discuss about more in-depth details.
Establish trust through honesty and reliability. For example, set an ideal deadline for your employer’s project and follow that deadline. Follow your employer’s instructions, take note of his feedback of your work, and never do anything to break his trust in you. This means never running away with the project, his budget, and lying about your shortcomings. Trust me, employers appreciate and value complete honesty.

Although protecting yourself is important when working on a fixed price project, your first priority should be establishing a higher level of trust between you and the employer.

Show your employer that you can are a true professional and you mean business by being honest, transparent, and reliable. Your employer will then respect and trust you to want to pay your professional fees upfront and hire you for another project in the future.

Every contractor handles fixed price projects differently, so I’d love to hear what your strategies are when working fixed price. Do you ask for upfront payment, or trust your employers completely? Share your experience in the comments below!

Flash Mob Marketing: Using Location Based Social Media to Reach Customers

Julia — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:00:58 +0000

It’s the 3rd quarter and the game is tight. Your team is barely hanging on. Wondering what others in the crowd are thinking, you pull out your smartphone, open up Yobongo, and begin chatting about the quarterback’s performance with those around you. Midway through the chat, a nearby restaurant chimes in to let everyone know about the happy hour specials available afterwards.

Location-based social media. Foursquare and Gowalla were just the beginning of a new onslaught of apps, all geared towards allowing people in a certain geographic location to interact. Most of these apps are still in their infancy, but they’re worth considering for their marketing potential. I mean, what better time to reach out to a customer then when they’re just down the street from you? Here’s a rundown of some of the available apps and ideas on how you can put them to use:

Yobongo (Available for iPhone and iPad):

In Brief: You’re never alone … at least not if other Yobongo users are nearby. This app shows you other users who are in your general geographic area and allows you to chat with them. If people are using it, you know they’re interested in making connections. A great way for the social butterfly to network.
Business Angle: If your business is at a physical location, then have a staff member monitor the Yobongo chatter in your area and occasionally chime in to share specials and offer useful input. If you’re a freelancer, mention your work during chats. You never know when the chat includes someone who has a job requiring your expertise.

Localmind (Available for iPhone and Android):

In Brief: Got a question about a location or an event and want to ask someone that’s actually there? Localmind purports to get your question answered by its users or your friends on Gowalla, Facebook Places or FourSquare, as long as they’re at or near the spot.
Business Angle: In a recent FastCompany interview, Localmind’s founder pushed his app as an awesome tool for businesses. He extolled its virtues, saying, “We can connect business owners with customers who are clearly interested in the business .. .[they’ll] be able to offer temporal deals, location-based promotions, and in-store real-time offers.” For freelancers, Localmind could also provide a networking tool, allowing you to present yourself as a local expert and gain some new contacts. Think of it as Quora on the hyperlocal level.

LoKast (Available for iPhone and Android):

In Brief: Similar to Yobongo, LoKast encourages RT chats and content sharing based upon proximity. Web links, songs, videos and photos — all are part of the “local casting” that LoKast seeks to enable. This app is also a good way to share content between Androids and iPhones.
Business Angle: One of the chief benefits of LoKast over its rivals (at least as I see it) is the ability for stores, restaurants, events, etc., to create their own digital LoKast space for customers and attendees to interact on. This allows the business to freely share relevant specials and answer customers’ questions, thereby increasing sales and making connections with patrons. If you’re a business that uses LoKast, you’ve got to advertise it and encourage customers to download the free app. Otherwise your digital space will stay empty. For a freelancer, LoKast could be an easy way to share your demo reel or portfolio when talking with others at an event.

Sonar (Available for iPhone):

In Brief: Culling through your FourSquare, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn data, Sonar shows you who’s nearby that you know as well as those who are friends of your friends. It then allows you to message or send a tweet in their direction.
Business Angle: Sonar allows you to connect with your professional online network with face to face meetings. It also alerts you (based on mutual friends) to others who might be worth meeting. If you attend industry events, Sonar could be the opening needed to make real life connections.

Trazzler (Available for iPhone and online):

In Brief: With a tight economy, there’s quite a few families who would rather vacation close to home and save a few dollars. Enter Trazzler. The company is working to be a recommendation engine for locals with some Groupon-style deals thrown in.
Business Angle: Promote your location on Trazzler! Whether you work with a local visitors’ bureau or an event venue, make sure your place is featured on the site. Check out the info about writing for their site to make sure you’ve got their style down.

Locally-based social media apps are quite the rage for venture capitalists these days. The space is definitely getting crowded and it’s hard to know who will end up on top. Have you used any of the above mentioned apps? Are there others you prefer that I didn’t mention? And is it time for small businesses to take them seriously or should they wait until there’s a clear leader in the market? Share your answers and any other thoughts on the subject in the comments section.

In Case of Emergency: Crisis Planning

Stephanie — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:00:32 +0000

When it comes to remote work, there are bound to be a few “surprises” along the way that could change the course of your project completely. It could be a family emergency, a sudden power outage due to bad weather, or even a shift of priorities.

These things can turn your schedules, deadlines, and product launches around in an instant, so the best way to prevent these things from affecting your work too much is to do a bit of crisis planning beforehand.

To start, here are seven useful strategies that you can consider when crisis planning:

Contact Details – Make it a habit to save primary and alternative contact details of your contractors or clients in case of emergencies that will force you out of your office chair. Write down your contractor or client’s mobile phone number, landline number if available, and his or her work email address.
Substitutes to the Rescue – Freelancers and small business owners should have contact details to other freelancers or project managers/assistants who they can trust and rely on to take over while you are gone. That way, the workflow continues to run smoothly and there is an overseer who can keep things in order till you get back.
Mobile Internet Access – In case your home/office internet connection suddenly bogs down, mobile internet access can help you stay online and keep in touch with your contractors or clients. Common practice is using your mobile phone’s 3G connection to access the internet, but you can certainly apply for a mobile wifi plan if your carrier of choice offers it.
Back-Up Solution – Since remote work is done on the internet, you need a back-up solution ready to sync files and other project materials for everyone on your remote team to view and access to wherever they go. Dropbox, SpiderOak, and many other file sharing apps are certainly good tools to use for this purpose.
Early Submission of Work – As much as possible, strive to submit work either ahead of schedule or on the deadline to avoid delays, suspension of launch dates, and the like. In the case of small business owners, do your best to encourage your contractors to submit work on time.
Emergency Funds – A sudden medical emergency or inevitable bankruptcy can leave you in a very stressful financial situation. Make sure to have an emergency fund ready for disposal, in case there are accounts to settle. If budgeting your earnings to create an emergency fund is difficult for you, have a look at our tips for budgeting your freelance earnings.
Smart Investments – Be ready to spend a portion of your income on investments that will save you in case a remote work crisis comes your way. For example, you can invest in a sturdy laptop to be able to take your projects wherever and whenever you’d like. Knowing the best wi-fi hotspots and internet cafes will certainly make work on-the-go smooth and convenient.

Effective crisis planning can make a difference for you and your freelance business. Whether you’re a freelancer or a small business owner, having a solid plan to tackle project hiccups and emergencies can prevent even the worst mishaps from disrupting the overall workflow.

What other crisis planning strategies can you add to this list? What is your best strategy when handling emergencies and work issues? Share them in the comments below!

Skype Empowerment: Using Apps to Make Skype More Powerful

Julia — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:00:11 +0000

Gotta love Batman’s utility belt. I mean, that guy has almost everything he’ll need for any probable (and improbable) event. I’d love to put it as tops on my Amazon wishlist. But sans that, I can always turn Skype into the VOIP version of the belt. Yes, using third-party apps, I can trick out Skype in some pretty nifty ways that might give even the Joker pause.

Skype recently launched a 3rd party app store with the goal of encouraging developers to make the Skype experience a better place to be for its 30 million plus users. At this point, there’s not a lot listed, but what’s there is definitely useful for power users. Hopefully, the app store will attract more developers and will make Skype the swiss army knife of VOIP software. Here are five apps to check out for small businesses and freelancers:

IDroo (Non-commercial version/free; Business/$12 per month) – I’m just a hands-on kind of person. If you describe something to me, I have a hard time visualizing it. If you show me a picture — boom! I got it. That’s why I love programs like IDroo. This app provides an online whiteboard feature for Skype. Now you can do more than just show a schematic — you can illustrate its flow by drawing on it. Or do some hands on brainstorming. Or even do some tutoring for clients that aren’t too tech savvy.
Group Screen Sharing (Once a month/free; Multiple meetings a month / $5.00 per month) – Currently Skype only allows you to do group screen sharing with Skype for Mac, and even then you must have the premium version. Well, now there’s an app for all the rest of us. Aptly named Group Screen Sharing, this app allows you to show your screen to up to 50 Skype contacts at once. Another great choice if you have a client that needs some extra hand holding. Also useful for making web presentations to a large group.
Clownfish (Free) – Need to speak to a Skype contact in Arabic, Danish, Hindi or Slovak but don’t know how? Enter Clownfish. This translator currently works with 23 languages and has more in the works. If Clownfish is running, it will automatically detect the native language listed in your contact’s profile and translate your chat session with them into that language. It will also encrypt your conversation for those hush-hush chats … but your friend must have Clownfish running on their end to decrypt it.
Pamela for Skype (Basic/free; Professional/$25.91) – As a freelance journalist, I sometimes conduct lengthy phone interviews. I need to quote my subjects accurately, but my notes just aren’t reliable enough. That’s why I use Pamela for Skype to record my calls (with the subject’s permission, of course!). The software was a snap to set up, integrates with Skype beautifully and enables me to capture my interviews without a second missed. I use the professional version which has no time restrictions. There’s also a free version, but it can only record 15 minutes at a time.
Virtual Call Center ($49.95/user per month) – Need a low-cost call center software? Then check out On State’s Virtual Call Center app. This program features analytics, auto-call back and support for SIP, Skype, Google GTalk and XMPP. You can also prioritize calls based on why the customer is calling and route to the appropriate agents based on their skill sets. It’s completely cloud based, so there’s nothing to install (which translates into no headaches on your end).

Even aside from these third-party apps, Skype is being used by innovative companies to make the customer experience more personal and relevant. If you need some inspiration, check out Glaser Design’s virtual, Skype-powered showroom or Hendricks Park’s personalized shopping and style services made possible by Skype video chats.

Have you used Skype apps? If so, which ones have you found to be the most useful? Which ones have you hated? Share your Skype stories in the comments section.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Connect with her on Google Plus and let her know what your favorite free VOIP software is.

Negotiating Work Contracts

Stephanie — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:00:14 +0000

Work contracts are essential in a sound and transparent working relationship. They set the “ground rules” for both parties (managers and freelancers) to prevent common remote work issues. Can you name a few? Unpaid work, demanding too much, delayed payments — the list goes on.

In short, work contracts can save your life and your freelance business.

So how can negotiating and creating work contracts be done effectively? Here are tips to help you draw up a secure and effective work contract for every freelance project:

1. Consider the complexities of the project before drawing up the contract.

Ideally, you’d discuss these complexities during the first interview or meeting. List all of the nitty-gritty about the freelance project. Some of these details may include:

The work process or methodology
The technology used to build the project
How long the project will take
How much the cost (expenses) of the project will be
The number of skilled individuals necessary

As you discuss these details together, see how you can adjust and work around to fit within your ideal schedule, estimated time of delivery, budget, etc.

2. Clarify and commit 100% to the agreed terms and conditions.

As soon as all of the important details are laid out, it’s time to establish the ground rules.

Communicate clearly your work schedules, payment schedules, working terms, payment terms, deadlines, the final project cost, and everything else significant to the project. Make sure that these schedules and terms work for both parties (since you are already aware of what is involved), how long it is going to take, how much it will cost, etc.

The most important factor here is the conscious act of committing to these terms and conditions from start till end. The minute every important detail is clarified, discussed, agreed upon, the contract signed, and the work commences, it is expected that you wholly commit to these rules.

3. Discuss plans of action in case of violations or disputes.

Yes, the main goal of drawing up contracts is to avoid project disputes and violations, but it’s always good practice to have a plan of action in case a dispute or violation arises. This will not only save you weeks of renegotiation and clarification, but time and money as well.

Here’s an example: If you [freelancer] receive notice that the company [manager] is folding up and the contract will soon come to an end, a plan of action will not only help you complete unfinished work, but also secure you the money due for your services. If communication isn’t a problem, you can arrange a formal meeting to discuss about important details, particularly payments and the deadline of the latest revision of the work. You’ll also find that going back to your agreed terms and conditions can help solve these problems too.

4. Ask all possible questions before signing.

Signing a contract blindly would just lead you to a dead end with absolutely no way out. You don’t want to be in that situation, so it is important to ask all possible questions before lifting your pen to sign.

Even if the questions sound trivial, don’t hesitate to ask and point out whatever it is that seems unclear to you. Who knows, these questions (and their answers) might just save you from a crucial issue or a stressful problem after all.

5. Provide availability times and contact details.

Knowing when and how to contact your manager or freelancer helps whenever you have questions, if you need to formally discuss work issues, or if you need to follow up on important matters, such as delayed payments or submissions. It will save you a lot of time and effort from hunting them down all over the internet.

Provide your work-only contact details (an email address and phone number will do) and your best available time, while making sure that you are given the same information as well. Let the other party know that communication and reliability is valuable to you, and that you hope that both will always be intact throughout the entire project.

Have you ever encountered problems or issues when negotiating contracts? If yes, what were they? Let’s hear them in the comments below!

Market Yourself as an Expert: Using Quora, LinkedIn Questions & StackExchange

Julia — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:00:55 +0000

Would you consider yourself an expert in anything?

Does your expertise relate to your business?

Are your potential customers looking online for answers related to your expertise?

If you can answer “yes” to all three of these questions, then perhaps it’s time to use your inner wellspring of knowledge as a marketing tool.

When you’re looking for the answer to a burning question, are you more likely to pull out an encyclopedia or to Google for the answer? Yeah, that’s probably a dumb question. The Internet IS the encyclopedia for most. While there’s plenty of information to be found there, much of it is less than stellar. But several relatively new question-and-answer sites are seeking to change that. They’ve tapped into the power of both social media and crowdsourced quality control to create a virtual encyclopedia of practical knowledge. From Aardvark to Facebook Questions to LinkedIn Answers, there’s a plethora of truly helpful places to find the solution to almost every problem.

The growing popularity of these sites offers small businesses and entrepreneurs a new marketing opportunity: that of branding themselves as experts and thought leaders by simply answering questions. Here’s some general guidelines on how to go about doing that, as well as a specific look at three popular Q&A platforms, Quora, LinkedIn Answers and StackExchange.

Q&A Marketing 101

The trouble with social media marketing is that there is a fine line between useful promotion and marketing spam. That principle also holds true with question and answer sites. Here’s some guidelines to keep in mind as you work to build your expert status:

Determine whether answering questions is a worthwhile marketing endeavor. Yes, it can be mildly addictive and yes, it can be useless. If the people you’re trying to reach aren’t reading your answers, what good is the time invested? So before jumping in headfirst, take some time to browse the Q&A sites. Determine if your target audience is even there, then proceed accordingly.
Your answers must be informative and helpful. Marketing spam is useless on these sites. In fact, it’s worse than useless! Most of the sites allow other users to rate your answers and thereby rate you. If you’re obviously trying to sell something, you’ll probably receive low rankings, thus defeating the purpose of participating in the Q&A process.
Don’t overtly self-promote. If people feel that you’re just trying to plug your business, they won’t trust your answers. Remember, a good reputation is precursor to sales.
Provide complete answers. Yes, you can link to your blog, but your answer on the site must be a sufficient enough summary that your answer can be properly rated. Any included links should be treated as “for further information.”
It’s not just about you. Answering questions and gaining traction as an expert allows you to advance causes you’re passionate about. Do you think sustainability is a big deal? Than promote it by answering questions on that topic. Want to encourage social entrepreneurship? Then help out by contributing your thoughts.

Using Quora:

With a Facebook style feed and a Twitter style “follow” feature, Quora can be addictive as you browse the answers provided by a veritable who’s who list of business and thought leaders. Even actor and tech geek Ashton Kutcher is there busily answering and rating questions.

The demographics of the site make it a particularly interesting hangout. Compared to its competitors, Quora’s user base is young, affluent and educated, according to a Compete.com report. And at this point, the questions and answers are by and large thoughtful, serious and geared towards professionals.

Here’s some tips for use:

Your bio summary shows up next to your name when you answer questions, so make it good. Also, your Quora profile is a key marketing tool for potential customers to find out more about you. Make sure you fill it out completely.
Create different bios for different areas of expertise. This is a great way to tailor your message.
If you’re looking for local traffic, then tune in to the city or region specific channels.
You can embed your Quora activity on your website. Brent Logan has written a handy tutorial on how to do this.

Using LinkedIn Answers:

This hotbed of business professionals is a great resource both for advice and for connecting. If you’re looking to reach consumers, this probably isn’t the best place to invest your question answering time. But if you’re looking to make some B2B connections, LinkedIn Answers is the place to go. Here’s some tips on usage:

Answering questions is a great way to build your network on the site. Leverage that connection power even further by referencing others in your answer. Don’t be insincere, but if there’s someone you’ve been wanting to connect with that gives good advice on the subject, then refer to them in your answer.
Keep on top of relevant questions using an RSS feed. Jason Falls over at Social Media Explorer has a helpful how-to post on this.
If you have trouble keeping your profile updated, connect your Twitter feed to it. Then when leads look for more info on you, they’ll see an active profile.
Asking questions is also a good way to connect with others in your industry. Don’t be so focused on your own know-how that you miss the opportunities that a simple question can open up.

Using StackExchange

StackExchange sprung out of the success of StackOverflow, a collaboration site for programmers and developers. As such, it’s a very focused and intense community. Not much frivolity going on here. There’s 64 different topic communities, many of them geared around tech and science topics.

You’ve got to know your stuff here or you’ll be called out on the carpet pretty quickly.
The founders encourage you to ask and answer your own questions, if you’ve overcome an interesting or common problem. This is a great way to contribute to the community and to market your expertise.
If you’re linking to a product as part of your answer, make sure you divulge any business connections. Mentioning your own product isn’t taboo, but the community’s moderators insist on transparency.

Now here’ s my question for you: have you used Q&A sites for business promotion? If so, what were the results and what advice would you give others? Post your answers in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Connect with her on Google Plus and answer some of her burning questions.

Managing and Beating Deadlines

Stephanie — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:00:13 +0000

Deadlines are important — stressful, but important. Without proper deadlines and an effective time management strategy, your entire workflow will shake uncontrollably until your clients decide to say goodbye to doing business with you. You don’t want that to happen, nor do you want your reputation ruined by your lack of time management skills.

To help you transform deadlines into a positive aspect of your freelance business, here are a few tips to help you effectively manage them for success:

1. Take your deadlines seriously. This means giving each deadline top priority and committing yourself to beating every one of them, no matter what. Although it’s understandable to feel relaxed with a lot of time on your hands, don’t allow yourself to slack off to the point of procrastination.

2. Schedule reasonable deadlines. Another important step to managing deadlines is being reasonable about them. Scheduling a three-day project to be submitted overnight is just insane, even for the most skilled and experienced professional. Take into consideration every step needed to create a high-quality project, add an hour or two as a buffer for emergencies, and finalize an exact date and time for submission. That way, you won’t have any reason (besides life-and-death scenarios) to miss the deadlines you’ve set for yourself.

3. Communicate your deadlines clearly. A lot of today’s deadline mishaps are usually caused by a miscommunication and the misunderstanding of deadlines. Telling your client, “The final product will be submitted two to three weeks from now,” will not save you from all the possible bumps on the road that could slow you down and hamper your progress.

4. Don’t wait for tomorrow. Simply put, if you can finish either a part or the entire project today, why wait to do it tomorrow? Doing things early always alleviates stress and pressure, plus you get to do other projects or give yourself a day or two of rest before passing on the work to your clients for review.

5. Start. A blank sheet of paper, empty workspace where the creative process begins — most will find the starting point very intimidating, like making that first jump from the springboard or the first step towards the podium. It works the same way with work under a strict deadline, and the trick is to pick up your pen and start. Start drawing, start typing, no matter how large or small the project may be.

He who begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin. — Horace

6. Prioritize the important tasks. Look at your task list and see which task or project phase is the most important. Mark them as “high priority” and aim to get them done first. You’ll realize that once the difficult and time-consuming tasks are done, you’ll be able to finish off the easier and smaller tasks quickly.

7. End. A project’s end is just as important as its beginning. Without a final decision to the creative process, you’ll find yourself revising and revising your work till there’s no time left to do so. Create a project roadmap or a plan of action to help you maintain focus and to tackle each phase of the project, one by one. You’ll then be able to put all of the project pieces together successfully and on schedule.

When you think about it, managing deadlines simply boils down to knowing how to prioritize, focus, and push yourself to start. What good will organizers, email notifications, and post-its do when you’re prone to putting things off till the last minute? Begin and end each project wonderfully by setting reasonable deadlines, doing your best to produce quality work, and beating each and every one of those deadlines on time.

Let’s hear from you now. What are the most common problems to managing and meeting your deadlines? What internal or external factors are causing these problems?

A Day in the Life of a Freelancer

Stephanie — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:00:52 +0000

Freelancer |ˈfrēˌlansər|
noun
A person who pursues an occupation without a long-term commitment to any particular employer.

Such a simple, straight-to-the-point answer … but come on. We all know that being a freelancer isn’t just about looking for short-term work. There’s a whole lot of adventure down the freelancing road, a journey that only a true freelancer can endure and understand: battles against distraction, the hunt for unpaid invoices, saving the remote team from the wrath of procrastination, and achieving freelance success.

But the question still stands: What’s a day like in the life of a freelancer? Let’s have a look and see:

06:00 – 07:00

I stir, waking up to chirping birds and ongoing construction outside (not a good combination, trust me). Fumble with my smartphone till I see the screen clearly. Good, no messages.

07:30 – 08:15

Sit down to have my morning coffee, breakfast, and my daily RSS feeds. The doorbell rings, but I refuse to answer the front door. That pesky door-to-door cleaning supply salesman can’t possibly know I’m home at 8:00 a.m. on a Monday!

To spread the work throughout the day, I take out my organizer and list all tasks to be done and how many hours to allot for each. I then note the overall estimate of hours for each of my three projects in order to balance everything out.

08:30 – 09:10

Clicking on my mail client, I wait till all the messages are pulled in, then slowly work my way from bottom up. I send progress reports to my three employers, enumerating finished tasks, as well as a short reminder about the next milestone payment. *crossing my fingers on this one*

09:30 – 11:20

Work begins. I attend a brief tele-conference meeting with my employer to discuss project updates, minor problems, and known issues. I take notes, balancing another cup of coffee with my pen and phone.

Once we wrap things up, we engage in a minute or two of small talk about the broken sewer pipes keeping the employer’s in-house team away from the office — guess everyone is working from home today!

Once we hang up, I work on each task, ticking off completed ones from my task management app. I then move on to the fixed price project and do the same.

11:30 – 11:50

Putting my work aside for about 10-20 minutes, I search for open job posts on oDesk. There are plenty to choose from, but I constantly remind myself to go for projects that have verified payment methods, good feedback, and that will utilize the best of my skills and abilities.

12:00 – 12:30

Lunch break! Feeling a need to socialize in between bites, I open my Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ accounts to see what’s new and interesting. I share awesome stuff, respond to @mentions, and comment on Facebook posts before getting back to work. But before I go, I tweet to my followers to refer me if anyone is looking for a creative, trustworthy, and reliable freelance writer.

12:45 – 12:47

The phone rings. Someone of the HR department of a company calls to ask if I’m interested to apply for a full-time 9-to-5 position. I respond, “Thank you, but you’ll have to look for someone else. I’m a freelancer now.” Fist pump!

13:00 – 14:45

Working hard on my third project. It requires a keen eye for detail and a touch of passion. Energy levels are peaking, the creative juices are flowing like the Niagara, but all is lost when the phone rings once more.

This time it’s my sister, asking if I’d like to come over to watch her try on two new outfits for her dinner date. As much as I’d love to watch and comment on how lovely they look on her, I politely decline and promise to go over tomorrow (gotta remember to put that down on my calendar).

15:15 – 16:00

I’m at my favorite coffee shop for a good dose of café mocha. I sit down in a comfy spot, pull out my laptop (can’t live without it, really), and start brushing up my freelance skills through books and online courses.

Suddenly, a friend walks by and greets me with an unusual level of excitement. She asks, “Stef! How have you been? I thought you disappeared from the face of the earth! Were you able to get a new job?” I answer cheerily, “Yes, I’m a freelancer now.” *awkward silence* (Somehow I thought she’d take this as good news, but it seems there are still people who think “freelance” is just code for “unemployed.”)

After that rather short conversation, I decided finish off my coffe, stash my laptop, and head home.

16:30 – 16:45

I check my inbox once more to see if there are any urgent messages. Fortunately, I received an invitation for an interview from a potential employer in need of a writer for his team. Should I apply for it? Does the job fit my skill set? It sounds interesting, so I respond with a few more questions and hope for the best.

17:00 – 17:30

I tie up my good ol’ running shoes and head out for a 15-30 minute jog. After being stuck in the house and in front of the computer for months, it’s time to crank the machines and burn those calories.

18:30 – 19:00

Dinnertime. I make sure that all my tasks are complete and ready for the client as soon as he logs in to check. I put up the virtual “Closed” sign and spend the rest of my night with my family.

21:45 – 21:47

The husband catches me checking my work email on my smartphone. Oops!

I’d love to hear what your typical day as a freelancer is like. Is it more systematized than mine, or just as crazy and hectic? Share your stories in the comments!

Stephanie Gonzaga is a freelancer on oDesk who specializes in writing topnotch web content, such as product copy, articles, and blog posts for clients all over the globe. During her free time, she writes on her blog The Freelance Pinoy, a site dedicated to providing Filipino freelancers with tips, advice, and strategies to help them reach freelancing success.

Transitioning to an Online Job: 5 Challenges (And 5 Solutions!)

Guest Blogger — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:00:29 +0000

The advent of the Internet has brought on the information age, where anything and everything can be found and transacted online. We can access information, enroll in schools, purchase airline tickets, connect with people, pay our bills, and do just about anything in this virtual world.

Business transactions can be done anywhere in the world, with just two requirements: a laptop and a strong Internet connection. Millions of people are now shifting their career directions towards online employment, and I’ve made that shift too.

If you have had previous work experience in the traditional offline working world, you will encounter more than a few changes as you slide into virtual reality. So, to help you navigate them, here’s compilation of the challenges of transitioning to an online job, as well as real solutions:

Challenge #1. Solitude

In the offline environment, I used to talk to clients, my boss, my colleagues, the janitor, the messenger, the security guards, and every other breathing being in the office. I now found myself alone with my laptop. It was just me, my laptop, and my dog. I needed human interaction. We mortals are social beings. Ever wonder why social networks are so popular?

How to overcome this challenge:

Show up at team gatherings, parties, and get-togethers if possible. This promotes team building and camaraderie. It’s actually nice to be able to meet one’s colleagues face to face. It makes you realize that you are working with real, living human beings.
Participate in official email threads and work-related group discussions. Gmail and Gchat are great communication tools, so take the time to acknowledge emails and chat messages. Let your teammates know you’re alive!
Keep your work environment happy. Brighten up your room with furniture and color. Hang a constellation of our solar system on your ceiling. Decorate your wall with a million colored thumbtacks. Put a mirror in front of your work area, so you can see what you look like whenever you get acknowledged for a good job. Do whatever works for you. Bottom line: Be happy!
During offline hours, go out and socialize. Take time to connect with your family and friends. Go up to a stranger and make a new friend. Your schedule is more than flexible, so you will be able to accommodate anyone and everyone.

Challenge #2. The Need for Self-Discipline and Time Management

In an online environment, we are responsible for managing our own time. There is no boss to yell at us if we arrive for work late in the morning. Along with this flexibility of time, I needed to discipline myself and manage my activities, so that I’d get my 40 hours in for the week.

How to overcome this challenge:

Focus on your priorities. This is work. For many, this is their bread and butter. If you take care of your work, your work will take care of you.
Make a daily work schedule along with break periods. This should give you more structure, and keep you from the pull of your bed’s gravity.
Plan your work week ahead of time. Anticipate what is bound to happen. Experiment in order to come up with the perfect schedule. You will see that 40 hours per week is more than doable.

Challenge #3. ISP Problems and Interruptions

There are two things one needs in order to operate in an online job: a PC and a strong Internet connection. When my Internet connection would go crazy, I would go crazy as well. Our work is synonymous with our ISP, and we are responsible for our connections.

How to overcome this challenge:

Back yourself up with a prepaid USB. This will be an important investment. Aside from being a backup, a prepaid USB will allow you to take your work with you as you choose.
Run to the nearest wifi zone or coffee shop. This may be expensive; however, losing work hours will be a more expensive option.
Consider switching internet service providers. If intermittent Internet connection is a chronic problem, you may want to seriously consider this.
Pair up with an online work buddy. If you know a fellow freelancer in your area, call on him or her, and agree to help each other out when the other’s Internet connection bogs down.

Challenge #4. Is This a Real Job?

What is our basic definition of a job? According to Wikipedia, a job is a regular activity performed in exchange for payment. We report to work, and we get paid to do our work. So why didn’t an online job feel real to me? I reported to work, and I got paid to do my work. The fact is, an online job streamlines all of the overhead that comes with offline jobs. There is no office. We don’t have uniforms. There is no paperwork. However, if we go back to the definition of a job, an online job is as real as it gets.

How to overcome this challenge:

Stick to the definition of a job. You do your work; you get paid. People will understand.
Set up a proper work environment. Get yourself a work desk. Withdraw your earnings every two weeks. Dress up in proper work clothes. (Pajamas don’t exactly give one the feeling of being in a job.)

Challenge #5. Boredom

One of the difficulties I’ve had was to slow down my pace of activities. I became quite restless. I was used to the hustle and bustle of office work: filing, submitting papers to my boss, walking to the next floor to endorse a client to the proper department, and simply getting up and hovering over an officemate’s computer to get information I needed. I now found myself sitting in front of my laptop 24/7.

How to overcome this challenge:

Vary your work schedule. The flexibility of our work hours allows you to arrange your work schedule according to what works best for you.
Ask your team leader to give you other tasks to do. Chances are, they’ll be more than willing to have colleagues help burn down the backlog — ask your employer for more work.
Pamper yourself at a salon or spa. Exercise. Grab a fruit shake. The instant boost will do wonders for you.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of people out there who are looking for an opportunity to work online. Consider yourself lucky to be working at a job that allows you to work at home and be with your family, a job that gives you the flexibility of time so that you don’t have to get up at 4 a.m. to get to the office on time, a job that spares you from traffic and all other stresses. Count your blessings; boredom is one of them.

In conclusion, this transition is actually a very rewarding one. If you wish to discuss further the transition from offline to online work or the challenges you’re having, please let us know how you’re doing in the comments below.

Karel Nadela is the associate deputy director of the proofreading team at Thumbtack.com. She joined Thumbtack in 2011, and loves reviewing team members’ work and assisting the deputy director in tasks related to overall improvement in performance and camaraderie.

5 Steps to Budget Your Freelance Income

Stephanie — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:00:36 +0000

Managing finances can be frustrating for freelancers, but it is essential if you want to keep your freelance business running.

The number one reason why you need to carefully budget your freelance income is that it is often unpredictable. Depending on how you work and how many contracts you’re billing, your income could vary drastically from month to month.

Some freelancers would consider hiring an accountant to do this type of work, but you can budget your freelance income yourself by following these useful steps:

1. Define your projected monthly income.

The first step is to determine how much you are earning as a freelancer. Ask yourself, “How much have you earned and spent per month so far?”

One great way to do this if your income tends to be unpredictable, is to take your entire freelance income from the previous year and divide it by twelve. Only been freelancing six months? Add it up and divide by six. With the estimate in mind, you can now create a budget plan that will help you manage your income for the kinds of expenses and investments you will be making this year.

2. Open two bank accounts: business and personal.

As your freelance business grows, you’ll notice that a portion of your income is now spent on various business expenses, whether it is new equipment, software, office supplies, mobile phone bills, etc.

As such, it’s important to segregate your income by placing a portion into a business bank account and another portion into a personal bank account. Doing so will help you monitor how much money will go to business expenses and how much for personal spending.

To give you an idea of what a business expense is, here are common business expenses freelancers spend for:

Equipment (e.g. computers, all-in-one printers, furniture)
Software
Office supplies
Bills (e.g. electricity, water, internet service)
Marketing expenses
Training and career development (e.g. e-books, courses, seminars)

3. Give yourself a monthly salary.

So how do you effectively distribute your income between your business and personal accounts? One way to do this is giving yourself a monthly salary.

Get Rich Slowly founder J.D. Roth wrote an interesting article on the99percent.com regarding budgeting irregular income, and one of the tips he provided was giving yourself a monthly salary for the entire year. Roth had this to say:

“On a set date each month, write yourself a paycheck. Leave the rest of the money in your business account. At the end of each year, three things happen.

First, you reset your salary. Based on the previous year’s numbers, your income might increase — or it might decrease.

Next, you use the “extra” money you’ve been accumulating in your business account to pay taxes. I could write an entire article on budgeting for taxes with an irregular income, but for now let’s just note that it’s very important that you remember to account for them, especially if nobody else is withholding them from your paycheck.

Finally, if you have anything left after paying taxes, you pull this money out of the business account as personal income. It is, in essence, a year-end bonus. You can use it for whatever you see fit: debt reduction, long-term savings, a Mini Cooper.”

You don’t have to follow Roth’s advice to the letter, of course. You can revise the system in ways that are more suitable to you and your circumstances.

What’s important here is that you set aside money for your business expenses and taxes in your business account, while your “salary” is for personal expenses, long-term savings, leisure, and anything else that you’d like to buy or invest in.

4. Get thrifty. (You aren’t likely to regret it.)

Unless you’re earning top dollar consistently every month, you need to assure yourself that your freelance income will be able to support your freelance biz and your current lifestyle. If you’re struggling just to cover your monthly expenses, and you feel you’re spending more on leisure than in your business, you may need to cut your costs and set your priorities straight.

Make a list of all your personal and business expenses, then cross out items that are of less importance to you and your business. Are your monthly and yearly subscriptions worth it at this time? Do you think you can live without buying premium clothing, games, and other leisure items every week?

Once you have your final list of items to spend on, make sure that you don’t betray this list by buying or adding new, unnecessary items. Keep telling yourself to stick to your monthly budget, to wait and be patient, and to only buy when necessary.

5. Create an emergency fund.

We may have survived the recession, but that doesn’t assure us that nothing could affect the economy again. For all we know, the recession could hit us once more, so, to protect yourself, you need to have an emergency fund. This is money you will use for all sorts of emergencies in case your monthly income won’t be enough to fully pay for your expenses. It will help you keep your freelance biz afloat while you’re busy finding more work and more ways to sustain your monthly freelance income.

If you’d like to open a special bank account for your emergency fund, try to open one that offers a high interest rate. That way, your emergency savings will earn interest during the months when you don’t need to touch it.

Is budgeting your freelance income part of your business routine already? What budgeting tips can you share with the freelance community? Share them in the comments below.

5 Red Flags to Watch Out for in Job Posts

Stephanie — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:00:59 +0000

Searching for online jobs can be an adventure: Click on an interesting job title, read the job post, contemplate the project details, then take action. If you get the job, congratulations! If not, your journey continues.

Now and then in your adventures, a few bad apples may rear their heads. Fortunately other freelancers have gone before you. They’ve learned how to spot potential trouble in a job post, and now you can too. Here are some job post red flags you don’t want to miss.

Red flag #1: Hints of Illegal Activity

Watch out for job posts that involve illegal activities, such as buying pirated software, plagiarizing content, answering surveys falsely, providing personal information, etc.

You wouldn’t want to get yourself into trouble, especially if a lawsuit could be slapped your way. If you feel that the job post is just going to lead to malicious software, plagiarism, or a legal case, move on to the next post or flag the job post right where it hurts.

Red flag #2: Unreasonable Budgets

So you’re looking at a job post one day, and you noticed that the job requirements are pretty heavy.

The employer needs 100 500-word articles per month. It’s going to be a long-term fixed price project, and he promises that there will always be a stable stream of work for the contractor hired.

As your eyes scan through the post, they spot the ultimate catch of the deal: The job poster won’t accept bids over a certain (terribly small) amount — an amount lower than you have ever agreed to before.

You have two choices at this point: 1) apply and potentially accept the job and work at that unfortunately low rate or 2) reject the unreasonable budget and move on to other sensible job posts. If you ask me, I’d rather find jobs that require work of the same intensity, but that will compensate me well for it.

Red flag #3: Simply Inappropriate Posts

There are job posts out there which are simply inappropriate because they violate the policies of the job post host. On oDesk, it’s appropriate to flag the following:

Job posts offering payments outside of oDesk
Job posts asking for help with school work
Job posts with profane language
Job posts asking you to pay a “fee” of any kind

You can take a look at oDesk’s list of violations in the Job Postings Policy.

Red flag #4: Bad Employer Feedback

Every job post has a bit of background info on the employer hiring, such as the verified payment status, how much the employer has spent on oDesk, and most importantly the employer feedback ratings.

If the employer’s feedback isn’t very good, and feedback from past contractors that go along the lines of “This guy didn’t pay me for my work!” or “Very uncooperative, demanding, and does not treat his contractors well,” it may be best to stay away from this employer.

Red flag #5: A Non-Verified Payment Method

Be wary of employers who prod you to work, if their payment methods aren’t verified. On oDesk, without a verified payment method, an employer can’t pay you for your work no matter how impressed he is with your performance.

The best way to handle a situation like this is to remind the employer about it. You can say something similar to:

“Thank you for hiring me to work on the project! I noticed though that your payment method hasn’t been verified yet. Please understand that you won’t be able to pay me for my work if it isn’t verified by oDesk. I can prepare the materials needed for now, but will only start working as soon as your payment method has been verified.”

By making sure that your employer’s payment method is verified, you can rest assured that he will be able to pay you for your work once you start logging hours.

Keep an eye out for these red flags in job posts whenever you’re scouring the job boards for jobs to apply for. It will save you a lot of time and from a lot of stress and problems. Good luck!

Do you notice these or any other red flags when browsing for jobs? I’d love to hear your stories and experiences!

Where the Jobs Are: Hiring in the Bay Area

Erica — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:28:25 +0000

We recently provided data to the Wall Street Journal about the online hiring trends in the San Francisco Bay Area. While the article listed out the information on the growth of the Ukraine as a source of talent for Bay Area employers, there are a few additional compelling nuggets of data to be found:

- The United States has held the #2 spot for online workers since 2009.

- Small countries are growing and dominating as a group: work is spreading across more countries, as the number of countries included in the “Others” category grows.

- China joined the top ten countries in 2010, leapfrogged Canada for the #9 spot in 2011 (to date).

“We’re seeing rapid growth in online work over the past 7 years and now that growth is being distributed more evenly, in the sense that a wider range of countries are participating. Early on, India was incredibly dominant in the space, and–although still important and the largest country overall (in hiring statistics beyond the Bay Area)–we’ve seen tremendous growth in Eastern Europe, the Philippines, and even certain parts of Africa.” – John Horton, oDesk staff economist

Check out our infographic below to see the overall growth in online hiring from the Bay Area, and detail on how various countries are performing in the online work space.

Erica Benton brings nearly a decade of experience as a small business owner and freelancer to her position as the editor-in-chief of the oDesk Blog.

How to Go from Part Time to Full Time

BrianM — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:00:18 +0000

Many contractors use their freelance career to supplement a full-time income, or mix remote work with part-time office or retail jobs. Making the jump to full-time contracting — and making a good living at it — takes some special, but entirely attainable, skills.

We recently asked two contractors how they made oDesk their full-time career. Both came to remote work after recession-fueled layoffs and are now such busy full-timers that they routinely turn down new job offers.

Meet & Greet
Jill Jankoski, an administrative assistant from North Carolina, was laid off twice from jobs with real estate and construction companies that were hit hard by the recession.

Jill Jankoski

“I started thinking about working for myself, mostly because there was no other option,” says Jankoski, adding that she applied to more than 1,000 in-house local jobs before turning to online work. “I set up my profile on oDesk and got my first job. And now I’m having a ball. I love working through oDesk.”

Dennis Peacock was also laid off. A web developer in rural Wisconsin, he didn’t find a lot of local options. “As I already did freelance work and enjoyed the freedom it gave, when I came to oDesk I was looking at turning freelancing into a full-time career.”

Both succeeded at exactly that, maintaining a mix of steady clients, frequent return employers, and entirely new jobs. Having reliable, steady work is a big plus, Jankoski says.

“I have clients I do work for on a weekly basis that I know will be there indefinitely, so there are hours that the money is pretty much guaranteed for,” she says. “Also, I get invited to interview on a relatively regular basis at this point, so I take some of those and see where they go. On the flip side, I look for work I consider interesting that fits my skill set. If I’m not slammed with work from clients, with projects going continuously for a few weeks into the future or longer, I’m looking.”

No Magic Formula
To hear these two tell it, once you have begun to establish yourself on oDesk, the leap to the next level is less about luck or genius than it is about simple hard work, the patience to stick with it, and to act not just a worker, but as a business owner building a one-person company.

Being Serious About It

Jill Jankoski says discipline is what lets someone go full-time as a contractor.

“When someone wants to be a full-time freelancer and make a living at it, they’re serious about it. To thrive full-time, you’ve got to be driven, literally self-motivated — you’re not just saying it — and self-directed,” she says.

“You’ve got to have excellent time management skills,” she adds. “And you’ve got to be able to communicate clearly both by phone and in writing, keeping clients abreast of what’s going on, the status of projects and any issues that might make a deadline impossible to meet. Clients should never have to ask, because you’re always ahead of them.”

“I would say the biggest change between part-time and full-time work online is that you just have to stay motivated,” Peacock says. “Actually, I would say anyone who can succeed as a part-timer already has the skills to do full-time online work. Stepping up to full time is just a matter of putting in more applications to jobs.”

The Key Differentiator
We asked both contractors what singular quality they felt kept them both busy on a steady, sustainable basis, and they had similar answers.

“Be dedicated to your clients, “ Peacock says. “I cannot list how many times being really dedicated and helpful with a client lead to great reviews, and especially more work.”

“You can’t do the work half-heartedly,” Jankoski agrees, “because your work is your reputation, and if you’re not at the top of your game, it’ll come back to bite you.”

Early Efforts
Contractors still getting established in the virtual marketplace might find it hard to relate to a pair of contractors whose experience and high feedback ratings mean that employers approach them with jobs. But Peacock and Jankoski say they both got there the hard way — with pure persistence.

Dennis Peacock

“I had a pretty simple rule,” Peacock says. “If I didn’t have 15 out of my 20-slot application quota out there, I spent time looking through the jobs ’til I did. As long as you are pushing applications out to the best jobs to suit your ability, and making sure that your clients give feedback on completed projects, you will tend to find work fairly quickly.”

Sometimes you have to look for the overlooked opportunity, Jankoski notes. “When I first started, I used to look at jobs that had been posted for two or three weeks but they hadn’t hired anybody. There had to be a reason for that, and it gave me the idea that they hadn’t found the right person, so I would apply.”

Peacock specialized in quick-turnaround jobs in his early days. “I started bidding on things that I could turn out in a day or two and get the feedback. That really pushed me over the edge into successfully competing, and now I am getting invitations every week and working steadily.”

With more and more people turning to full-time online contracting, either out of necessity or as a lifestyle choice, it’s good to see that path to success isn’t hard to find — you’ve just got to have the persistence to walk it.

Have you made the jump to full-time contractor? How’d you do it? If you’re thinking about it, what’s holding you back?

Brian McDonough has been a writer and editor for more than 15 years, and has managed teams of in-house and freelance writers for newspapers, magazines, corporate newsletters and web sites. He has been working with oDesk for three years and counting.

oDesk and Big Commerce: Your Online Store Made Easy

BrianM — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:00:30 +0000

BigCommerce is one of oDesk’s biggest successes — for contractors and employers alike. The fast-growing SaaS e-commerce platform became an oDesk partner six months ago. In March, we rolled out our oDesk Group for BigCommerce developers — a place to find vetted experts in customizing the popular platform for small businesses eager to establish a powerful, professional virtual storefront.

By mid-September, the group had secured its spot as our largest developer group. The employers — many of them brand new to oDesk — have given us very positive feedback on these developers and their skills. We sat down with a pair of employers to find out why the combination of BigCommerce technology and oDesk talent was so effective.

Something for Everyone

MineralTiles’ Adriana and Henry Maia.

Entrepreneur Henry Maia of MineralTiles.com says he’d been using one of BigCommerce’s generic templates for a year when he finally decided to make the improvements that would make his site stand out. The Doral, Florida, entrepreneur says he waited a year to make the move because he had figured it would be difficult to find a good contractor, and if he did, it would be someone he couldn’t afford. Turns out he was wrong on both counts.

“After an hour of research, I found someone that I believed to be the perfect match, and he was,” he says. “We worked together and it was a great experience. I had him redesign my website and also integrate social media, and I have more work lined up for him.”

Maia and his wife, Adriana, run an online tile sales site, and says he’s not very tech-oriented, so it makes sense that he’d be attracted both to BigCommerce’s user-friendly technology and to oDesk’s global talent pool. But Sean Park-Ross’ Calyx is a web-development firm, skilled and experienced in building websites of all types, that turned to oDesk and BigCommerce to build its own e-commerce site.

“We turned to oDesk … because at the time all our in-house developers were a bit stacked with other work and we needed some extra help quickly to meet our deadline,” says Park-Ross, managing director of the South African firm. “The designer we chose proved to be capable, understanding and efficient, and delivered us the development work we needed to a high standard and on time. And, as more bits and pieces and fixes trickled in, he adapted and delivered those well, too.”

Works Great, More Fulfilling

While Maia has no background in web design, and Ross’ in-house staff are professional web developers, both find BigCommerce and oDesk a powerful combination.

Calyx founders Sean Park-Ross and Stuart O’Brien.

“BigCommerce is a fantastic store platform and, in our opinion, one of the best platforms available at the moment for small to medium-sized online retailers,” says Park-Ross, whose clients have included Conde Nast Traveller, Vogue.com, Oakley sunglasses and Pepsi Max. “It’s packed with features and is a lot easier for us to customize for any client around the world with its region specific options than some other platforms we’ve used.”

Both men say they’ve seen sales pick up since oDesk helped them polish their BigCommerce sites. Maia notes that he gets a lot of compliments from other companies in the business, and many peers assume his home-based business is much larger, simply because of how impressive his site is.

Making the Magic Happen

So how does an employer add oDesk to BigCommerce and create a vibrant website — in a fast, easy, cost-efficient process? Maia and Park-Ross have a few tips.

“Don’t be afraid of hiring someone online,” Maia says. “Do your homework: visit the contractors’ portfolios, take a look at the tests they have taken.”

Ross agrees that a lot of factors — all evident in the contractor’s oDesk profile, and through interviewing top candidates — go into finding the best person for your job.

“Don’t just look for price when you are hiring contractor,” Park-Ross says. “Pay a little more for a contractor who has better reviews and is fairly established.”

“As long as you find the right person with relevant experience, and work well with them, oDesk is a brilliant tool to increase your productivity bandwidth for e-commerce development,” Park-Ross says.

“I had many projects that were in the drawer and I started pulling them out it since I found oDesk,” Maia adds, ticking off press releases, SEO, new web development and more. “I keep on my iPad a list of projects that I intend to hire for from oDesk.”

Have you had experience with Big Commerce or other web development projects? How do you make the right hire, and manage the project? Tell us about it in the comments.

Brian McDonough has been a writer and editor for more than 15 years, and has managed teams of in-house and freelance writers for newspapers, magazines, corporate newsletters and web sites. A group unto himself, he has been working with oDesk for three years and counting.

Time Saving Tech Tools

Julia — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:00:14 +0000

“All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that.”
-Baltasar Gracian

Honestly, I don’t ever have enough time. Between phone calls, emails, blog work and all the myriad other tasks that demand attention, the 24 hours in my day rushes by far too quickly. And rarely do I get everything done that was scheduled for my waking hours. (Guess that’s part of the joys of modern life.)

But while the wonders of technology have conspired to make us busier, there’s also some very nifty tech resources that can help us reclaim some of that lost time. Here’s my list of time-saving tech tools that will help you finally have enough time in your day. Well, maybe not enough time. But they’ll at least help you get more time!

RescueTime (Free): Think you might be wasting time but not sure where or how much? Then download RescueTime. RescueTime is an app for your computer that runs in the background and quietly records all your activity. While that sounds a little creepy, trust me. It’s here to help. At the end of the day, RescueTime will give you a report on how you’ve been using your online minutes. This type of report can be eye-opening when you see how much of your workday is wasted on non-productive activities.
TweetDeck (Free): Yeah, the social media dashboard of this free program is a time-saver in and of itself, but that’s not why it’s on this list. Something I love about TweetDeck is the ability to preschedule tweets. I can spend 30 minutes planning the tweets for the week and then set them to publish at various times. But TweetDeck isn’t limited to just Twitter. You can also use it to schedule Facebook status updates, Foursquare check-ins and LinkedIn posts.
Blog Post Schedule Button: This isn’t a specific tool per se, but more of a tip. If your blog is an important part of your marketing/SEO efforts, then write and schedule posts in advance. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger spends 1 day each week writing meaty blog posts. He then schedules them to post throughout the week. This method accomplishes several things. First, it guarantees your blog will get regular updates — important for SEO purposes. Second, it keeps the rest of your week from getting sidetracked by blog maintenance.
Dragon Dictation (Free): Typing is slow. Talking is fast. Dragon Dictation has released a great iPhone app that allows you to compose e-mails, texts, notes, tweets and even Facebook updates, all by speaking into your phone. No more messing around with tiny touchscreen keyboards. At the moment, the app is free, so now is the time to get it. Blackberry users have their own, slightly less featured app, Dragon for Email.
ConnectedHQ ($9.99/month): Got a profusion of contacts scattered amongst various social media sources? ConnectedHQ will be your virtual Rolodex. This app pulls and consolidates your contacts from Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Outlook, Google, Mac Address Book and Evernote. It allows you to make notes on each contact, plus keep track of all communication that’s transpired with them. No more wondering which social media program stores that graphic artist’s contact info. It’s easily accessible with ConnectedHQ.
NudgeMail (Free): Yes, I use a to-do list. Yes, I use Google Calendar. But it’s far too easy for me to forget to check those sources. Email is the only program I check consistently throughout the day. Enter NudgeMail. This little program allows you to email yourself reminders at specified times, or to email appointments to your Google calendar. Better yet, it can help you keep important emails from getting buried. Just send them to NudgeMail with a specified time for the service to send it back to you. The program is free, so give it a look!

Time is such an important resource that we need to do all we can to maximize it. What time-saving tools do you use? Share them in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. Always in search of the next great business idea, she often wastes time blog hopping and following website link rabbit trails.

Email Etiquette for Distributed Teams

Tamara — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:00:34 +0000

Communication for distributed or remote teams can be quite email heavy — I mean, it’s not like you can yell your question to the next cubicle over, right? And most of us do avoid Skyping or getting on the phone if a quick email can suffice. So how do you make those emails count?

1. Have a professional email address. It doesn’t take a genius. Hotbabe50@hotties.org is not going to convey the right message to your remote coworkers. Use your actual name or business name or occupation — something simple, something people can remember.

2. Keep subject titles specific and concise. Don’t title your email “hello”, unless you really are just saying hello. Here are some examples of the right way:

Subject: The Gambino Project Deadline
Subject: Will be out of office May 1

3. Always greet. Granted, after you’ve been exchanging emails rapid-fire all morning with the same person, you can stop saying, “Good day to you!” each time. However, as a rule, always say a casual hello, greeting your coworker by name, before launching into business.

4. Get down to business. Keep it quick. If it’s taking you more than two or three paragraphs you should probably be doing it by phone. Emails are for sharing information quickly — not writing manifestos.

5. Watch your style. Caps are yelling — always. Don’t use them. Ditto for exclamation points. Unless they are following a positive statement, they should not be used.

6. Set up a signature. While you should always, always sign your name, you should also have an automatic signature set up that looks a little something like this:

Jane Contractor
Graphic Design & Custom Art
Phone: 555.555.5555

7. Know when an email is not appropriate. Just as in number four, there are times when email just won’t do. Quitting your job, offering constructive criticism, giving negative feedback or opening a difficult conversation are things best done by phone or Skype.

What rules of thumb do you follow in your remote work emailing? Tell us in the comments below.

Tamara Rice is one of several freelance writers on the oDesk Blog team. She joined the oDesk marketplace in 2009, after more than six years on staff at an award-winning national magazine.

How to Reset Your Job Post-Vacation

Erica — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:00:38 +0000

Rides at a theme park don’t last forever, no matter how much we like them, and neither can your vacation. Eventually, all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, returning to work afterward may feel a bit like getting off that roller coaster — dizziness, inability to focus, and the hint of a stomachache may all occur on The First Day Back.

The beauty of returning from vacation, however, is that it’s a chance for a fresh start. Instead of dreading your post-vacation inbox and to-do lists, here are some tips to help you seize this opportunity to reset your job and take your productivity to a new level:

Tackle the Inbox. Whether you come home to dozens or hundreds, you are bound to be behind. Commit your first day to blitzing through your emails. Be ruthless when it comes to filing and clicking items into the trash. This is not the time to read that supposedly hilarious forward from your cousin — trash it or stick it in a “read when bored” folder. Stay on task and keep moving, giving tidy, professional responses to emails when necessary or adding items to your to-do list as needed.

To-Do List Dos and Don’ts

Don’t write long explanations for tasks. This is a quick list, not an entire book.
Do be clear. If you won’t remember what “corner graphic” is about when working down your list, elaborate enough so that you will.
Don’t put anything on the list that you’re capable of accomplishing in the next three minutes, because if it’s that easy, you should just stop and do it now.
Do prioritize clearly. Rating tasks on a scale of 1 to 4 sometimes works –- with the 4s being your urgent tasks and the 1s being the tasks that can handle the back burner.
Do consider trying an online task program like Remember the Milk or HiTask, if you haven’t already –- you might find they beat the old pen and paper hands down.

Assess Your Priorities. Now that you have caught up on anything work-related that transpired while you were away, it’s time to figure out where you’re at currently. What projects are due? What questions do you have? Add these to your to-do list, but begin to shuffle things around to reflect the urgency and importance of what needs to be done now.

Identify Your Cringe-Triggers. When you look at your newly organized to-do list, which items make you wish you were still on vacation? Take some time to think about why you don’t like these tasks and whether or not it’s necessary for you to do them anymore. Can they be delegated, eliminated, or can you simply say no? Seriously consider the power you have to create love for your job by just eliminating the parts you hate.

Proactively Seek Change. Don’t allow yourself to slip into the patterns of procrastination that may have bogged you down pre-vacation. Now is the time for a much-needed reset, so put these changes as high on your to-do list as you can. If it means talking with your boss about shifting certain tasks to another employee, set the date for that talk now — not later.

Embrace Your Work. Maybe pre-vacation you felt the burnout of the daily grind. Hopefully time away reset your motivation levels, but if you’re still lacking enthusiasm it’s time to wrap your arms around those feelings. Try to remember what drew you to your job to begin with (even if it’s as basic as the money on payday). Set this motivation in front of you, on your computer wallpaper, or as a sticky note on your desk. Practice gratefulness for your job, your coworkers and your life, for whatever reasons you can.

We’ve all felt that tension of The First Day Back. Turn yours into an amazing fresh start and reset your job to kickstart a new work life.

Any advice for the first day back from vacation? Share yours or respond to these tips in the comments below.

Erica Benton brings nearly a decade of experience as a small business owner and freelancer to her position as the editor-in-chief of the oDesk Blog.

Using Gmail for Your Business

Julia — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:00:45 +0000

If you’re like many small business owners, Gmail is your email tool of choice. It’s cheap, easy and available everywhere. But do you know how to make the most of it? Here’s a collection of tips, tricks and tools to take your business Gmail account to the next level of efficiency.

Brand with Gmail

Your email address says a lot about you. Here’s how to protect your brand:

Choose a professional name. When setting up your Gmail business account, choose your address carefully. Select a name that reflects favorably on your business and doesn’t make you sound like an amateur. Example: startrekfan2215@gmail.com sounds like a personal address and can cause potential customers to question your reliability. A better address for a Star Trek memorabilia store might be startrekcollectibles@gmail.com.
Use your own domain. If you’re got a website with its own domain, then you can setup Gmail to send and receive emails using addresses from that domain. If you don’t have a business domain yet, you can buy one through Google for $10/year. One benefit of sending emails this way is that you’re advertising your website with each outbound message. For more info on how to set this up, read “Using Your Domain Based Email with Gmail” from Emagine Web Marketing.

Search with Gmail

Needing to find a certain email … sent four years ago? Never fear. Gmail has some great tools that will help you find what you need and find it fast.

Start labeling. Instead of folders, Google has opted to endow Gmail with labels. Labels are different from folders in that you can assign multiple labels to a conversation. Try doing that with a folder. Also, a labeled email can reside anywhere, including in Sent or Drafts. When you consistently label messages with the appropriate tags, you’ll consistently be able to sort through them quickly.
Employ operators. Sometimes when I’m searching for a particular email, my query brings up way too many messages, most of them irrelevant to my search. That’s when it’s time to switch to the advanced search options. By using search operators, you’ll be able to hone in on the right message with just a few keystrokes. Here’s the list of these nifty search operators. Use them well and use them often.

Organize with Gmail

While email has many advantages over snail mail, it has one disadvantage. It’s delivered constantly. Without some help, you’ll become afflicted with inbox overload, a dreaded time-sucking disease. Here’s the prescription that will save your (email) life:

Click the stars. By clicking the little star icon next to a message, you’re indicating that it is important and needs to be dealt with. Take that organization method up a notch by using “superstars” from Google Labs. The Superstars feature allows you to choose different icons for use next to your email messages. For organizational purposes, assign each icon a status meaning (i.e., purple question mark = “waiting for response” or red exclamation mark = “needs immediate attention”). This method will transform your inbox into a to-do list with just a few clicks of the mouse. For more on effectively using superstars, check out this “Gmail Stars” post from David Lano.
Train your inbox. Priority Inbox is the semi-automated way to organize. Google uses an algorithm based on various factors to determine whether or not an email is important to you. If you’re using Priority Inbox, you’ll then see your inbox broken up into several different panes. The top pane is set to be the important stuff. The second pane shows emails you’ve starred. The third is creatively titled, “Everything Else” and that’s exactly what it contains. You can help the process along by indicating (through a click on the “important” or “unimportant” buttons) whether or not a conversation truly is important to you. Gmail will learn from your actions and tag messages accordingly. Mashable has some good tips on better productivity using Priority Inbox.
Filter it. If you’ve implemented the labeling system mentioned above, you can then employ an even more powerful tool set to whip your inbox into shape. Combine Gmail filters with the Multiple Inbox feature to automatically sort incoming emails, assign them the correct label and put them in a separate inbox. While I like the Priority Inbox, it’s just an algorithm. Using filters, labels and superstars is a bit more work, but much more useful (to me) in the long term. For a good example of filter utilization, read this article at Switched.com.

Now it’s your turn. What do you think of Gmail as a small business communication tool? Share what you like (or what you don’t like) about Gmail in the comments section below.

New tools to manage your applicant list and find your best candidates

Mollie — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:20:13 +0000

It’s exciting to receive a lot of applicants to your job. But, then you need to turn your attention to figuring out who is the best fit for your job. And, the more applicants you have, the harder this can be. We’ve learned that most employers at oDesk do a quick, initial assessment of each applicant, shorten their list to their top candidates, and then review their shortlist in more detail. To make this process easier, we’ve added some new tools.

From your applicant list, you can:

See a summary of each applicant. Quickly flip through each of your applicants without loading a new page.

For applicants that are a good fit, shortlist them. You can then review in detail only these shortlisted candidates.

For applicants you are less interested in, hide them. You can unhide them later if you need more candidates.

Here’s a view of the new Quickview pane, or see our short video here.

If you have big applicant lists, we know list management is critical. Along with these new tools, you can also still decline applicants that are not right for your job, and flag applicants that aren’t appropriate.

We think these new tools will lead to easier list management and faster hires – which is good for employers and contractors. Let us know what you think, in our community forum.

So, You’re New on oDesk – Now What?

Stephanie — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:00:57 +0000

It’s exciting. No, thrilling — isn’t it? Your brand new oDesk username sparkles in your eyes, your dashboard is now filled with possible jobs to apply for, and your profile is just waiting for all the wonderful goodness of your background and experience as a professional.

You’re ready to sweep the oDesk market off of its virtual feet with your valuable knowledge and skills!

… Now what?

Let’s take a walk, shall we?

Get to Know oDesk First

First things first, don’t just jump in and start applying to your heart’s content. You’re up against 800,000 other contractors, some having been around since 2008 and with much more oDesk experience. In other words, the competition’s going to be dead fierce.

As a newcomer, you must prepare. And the best way to prepare is to first understand how oDesk works.

Here are the first few pages to visit:

The Contractor’s Map Through the World of oDesk
The Learning Center: Contractor Video Tutorials (if you’re not fond of reading)
Contractors 101: The oDesk Essentials (if you love to read)
oDesk Team 3: The Contractor’s Manual

Your Profile: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Now that you’re familiar with how oDesk works, your next step is to turn your oDesk profile (yes, the yellow oDesk card with your photo in it) into the best thing employers have ever seen.

While I can’t promise that it will bring in jobs in a matter of days, a good profile will certainly keep your chances of finding and winning work on oDesk high. Naomi N. offers helpful tips for newbies on how to improve one’s profile, so let’s take a look at some of her profile tips:

Overview – It should introduce you to the client and establish your objective. It should answer the question, “Why you should hire me over the other guy?” If it doesn’t answer that question, it’s not a good overview.
Hourly Rate - This rate should reflect the level and quality of work that you provide, and should be a fair reflection of a going rate for the field/category you are interested in. If you’re not sure what to set your rate at, look through other providers, or the oConomy pages, figure out how much you would be paid for the exact same job at an office, or do a search to see if you can find out what the average going rate is for that field.
Take and Show Tests – Some clients won’t even look at you if you’re not oDesk-ready – so take that test! Beyond that, take any other test that will help show just how good you are at something. How is a client going to know that you’re the best web site designer if the only test you took was an English skills test and a telephone etiquette test?
Build a Portfolio – A portfolio is a great way to display your work. If you build web sites, place some links in there to web sites that you’ve built. If you’re an artist, throw together some logos and interface designs. Writer? Post a link to your blog. Once it’s up, keep it updated.

The Quest for The First oDesk Job

You’ve learned all there is to know about oDesk and are equipped with an impressive profile. Excellent!

The next step will be the deciding factor of your career on oDesk. It will open the gates to freelance opportunities, experience, and will pave the way to freelancing success.

Your next step is to find and win your first oDesk job.

There are heaps of advice all over the oDesk website to help you land your first oDesk gig, but all would depend on how you handle each and every application. If you write personal cover letters that address the employer’s needs and requirements, if you provide relevant portfolio pieces, and if you can prove that you are a contractor he (or she) can rely on, I’m sure your future employer will want you to be a member of the team.

But, if you simply send generic cover letters that don’t make sense, if you never respond to interview invitations (rare as they may be), and if you feel like quitting because no one’s giving you a chance … well, my friend, your actions will speak for themselves.

Before you head back to your desk, here’s 15 Tips for New Freelancers for a good dose of inspiration and a quote for encouragement:

“Everyone who got where he is has had to begin where he was.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

How did you get your first job on oDesk? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Secrets of the Successful App

Julia — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:59:32 +0000

In case you haven’t heard, developing apps for mobile phones isn’t exactly a cash cow for your business, according to a study from the Communities Dominate Brands blog. While there are a few great selling apps that make a crazy amount of money in a short time (played “Angry Birds” yet?), the majority of apps barely pay for themselves.

That bit of depressing news doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create an app though. In fact, as the number of mobile users continues to skyrocket, more and more customers are going to be making use of apps and mobile websites. The potential for profit is out there — you’ve just got to take advantage of it. Here are four secrets of how to generate cash flow through mobile app development:

1. Make a Niche App

App development is such a hot field right now that that there are many variations of the same theme jockeying for attention. So before you create your own take on, say, the mobile camera lens, think long and hard about how your particular idea will differentiate itself from its multitude of competitors. While it might seem profitable to create simply a variation of an already successful product, the truth is that if people have found a product that works for them, they’re unlikely to change unless there’s a REALLY compelling reason.

But if you can a fill an empty niche? App buyers will be willing to pay for something that meets a need in an innovative, game changing way. So think outside the box. Take the time to scrutinize potential competitors to make sure you’re not just replicating what’s already been created.

As Joshua Condon at the Inc. Technology blog pointed out in his post on the dangers of creating broadly useful apps, “Selling a niche app that just one or two percent of platform users are willing to pay for can still make for a solid payday, and cuts down the likelihood the vendor will look to add the functionality into the next iteration of their OS.”

2. Design for Love

A great idea will only translate into profitability if it’s easy to use and provides a consistent user interface. In other words, the customer has to love not just the idea behind the app, they have to love the app experience itself.

GigaOm recently published an article about Color, a much-heralded product that generated large amounts of start-up funding but didn’t deliver in usefulness. The tech blog notes, “An app can’t just hope to profit by being at the intersection of a number of promising mobile trends. Developers still have to … remember that user experience, especially the one following first launch, is still the key to wide app adoption.”

How do you do this? First, conduct user tests early and often. Use real-world users as your guinea pigs instead of fellow developers. Focus on which parts of the UI confuse and/or mislead them. Second, use standard interface design. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to scroll bars, radial buttons, progress indicators, etc. Third, don’t make the user register as the first step. Many app users have little patience for anything that slows down their initial use of the product. Delay them too long, and they might give up for good.

For a more in-depth look at UI design issues, check out an excellent post on interface design mistakes from Jakob Nielsen at Alertbox.

3. Choose the Correct Revenue Model

There are lots of ways to make money with an app besides selling through one of the big app stores. Here are some of the options:

Offer a free lite version and a paid full version
This is a model that dates back to the days of shareware. (Anybody else remember those once ubiquitous programs?) Give your users a limited use version of the app for free, then offer a full version for a (reasonable) price. In order for this to work, you’ve got to have devoted users that love your product and can’t imagine life without it. Pre-sales user testing is integral to determining whether this will work for your business model. One great benefit of the “try before you buy” option is that it involves a low threshold of customer risk, thus making new users more likely to try you out than if they had to fork over $9.99 from the get-go.
Use ads integrated into a free app
Ads are moderately profitable. The level of revenue you can command through in-app advertising depends on how many times the program is downloaded and then how many times it’s used after download. If people use your app again and again, great! If they only use it once or twice, you’re in trouble. One way you can determine how well your free app is doing is by integrating analytics into the product and tracking the results for several weeks. You may discover that selling the app would be more profitable than trying to generate ad revenue.
Have an app that drives people to your business
Some apps generate revenue by allowing mobile customers to shop your online store from the comfort of their handheld phone. There’s an ease of use in apps that’s hard to duplicate through mobile sites alone. That’s why developing an app that makes shopping at your online store as easy as possible is an important revenue generator. People are beginning to abandon their desktops for smaller, lighter computers, especially tablets and smartphones. You must be prepared to reach out to this new wave of customers.
And the de facto option: generate revenue through app store sales
In order for this option to work, you’ve got to generate good buzz! More on that in the next section.

4. Spread the Word

No matter what type of revenue model you choose, your app will only start bringing in money when people begin using it. That’s why you’ve got to spread the word through marketing. First, create a SEO page for the app that links to the download site. Second, send out press releases to app review sites (and if you need help drafting press releases, check out some of the PR specialists available for hire on oDesk). Let some high traffic bloggers review your app and provide them several copies to offer as giveaways to help generate buzz. Finally, follow mentions of your product in social media venues and respond to customers’ questions and feedback as quickly as possible. Remember, all the standard rules of word of mouth marketing apply — make use of them!

In truth, there’s no hard and fast guarantee that your app will be the next big hit. But if you don’t apply the above points, I can guarantee that your app will be a failure. Maximize your chances of success (and a good cash flow) by putting this post into practice. And maybe you’ll discover that money really does grow on virtual trees.

What have you learned about successful app development? Tell us about it in the comments below.

How You Can Help oDesk Customer Support Help You

Stephanie — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:00:25 +0000

Who do we call for help whenever there are problems with payments and withdrawals? Who do we send our bug reports when something strange happens to the oDesk Team 3? Who saves the day when the oDesk site bogs down or when an employer or contractor violates a user policy? oDesk Customer Support, of course.

These guys are the people who answer our questions, mediate disputes, and ensure that our user experience with oDesk is always 100% smooth and easy. Call them the oDesk Supermen, if you’d like.

Unfortunately, we users tend to forget that oDesk Customer Support is still a team of people, humans who can only go as far as answering tickets and handling live chat sessions everyday. A slight delay in response or a vague answer can spark a nasty remark or a day-long rant over at the forums, but I think we can be more constructive in our approach as customers.

Let’s help oDesk Customer Support help us. After interviewing members of oDesk Customer Service and Support, we’ve managed to get a clearer perspective of how the CS team works to better understand and help them resolve issues and problems on the site.

The most common issues reported to oDesk CS

So far the most common issues users report to CS include:

Account/registration requests (closure and suspension)
Payment inquiries (payment disputes, cancellation, returning funds to credit card, not receiving funds after withdrawal)
Problems when hiring contractors (in the case of employers — apparently there are contractors who still scam employers and disappear out of sight)

The good news is that we users take full advantage of the resources oDesk’s customer support has already put out there for us. It seems 75% of the issues reported are unique cases, with only 25% already addressed in the oDesk Help Center – this means most of us are reading through common issues before hitting the panic button.

Some issues that need direct assistance from a CS representative

If you encounter a technical problem that can’t be solved through the oDesk Help Center, want to close your oDesk account permanently, or have issues regarding security (security answer resets, etc.), contact oDesk Customer Support. Period.

These are the kinds of user issues and requests that only the CS team can help you with. You’ll save more time and energy if you let them handle these types of problems.

Files/data users should provide when seeking help from oDesk Customer Support

To speed up the process of analyzing and processing reports and issues on oDesk, have these types of files or data on hand:

Tech issues: Team logs, OS specifications, and browser information
Work-related issues: information/proof/documentation that could assist oDesk CS in analyzing the problem (contract ID, transaction date and amount for payments, emails, messages, screenshots, etc.)

I personally encourage fellow oDesk users to save messages, IM archives, possible screenshots, and emails from the start of the contract up to the end. All these can act as proof of your claims just in case something goes wrong and you find yourself in a dispute with your client/contractor.

Factors to consider when reporting an issue to oDesk Customer Support

As much as the CS team would like to completely solve your problems on the site immediately, you have to consider certain factors.

For instance, the amount of time an issue will take to be resolved would depend on who’s available and in charge of handling it. Is your issue more likely to be handled by someone outside of the general CSS department? Did you report the problem during a holiday or on the weekend when some of the departments are not available?

Instead of stressing too much over the wait, just be patient and occupy yourself with work. If you really need to get in touch with a representative, you can use the Live Chat feature if it is available.

Tickets or Live Chat?

We’re given the choice to either use the ticketing system or the live chat when contacting oDesk CS. Although they’re both good communication lines, one can be more useful than the other depending on the issue at hand.

Tickets are best for:

oDesk Team 3 issues in which logs must be submitted
Request for a security Q&A reset
Account closure
Issues involving sensitive/private information

Live chat is best for:

Guidance and best practices
Level 1 tech support issues
Problems with withdrawals

Tips from the oDesk Customer Support Team

If we expect oDesk Customer Support to provide the best help possible for all of our issues (and on a timely manner), what should we do to help them facilitate our requests quickly and successfully? Here are a few helpful and specific tips:

Be aware of any system or network-wide issues. Check the ‘Alert’ area at the top of the Help Center homepage.
Consult relevant Help Center articles for guidance before contacting CSS.
Proactively provide information upfront that will be useful to CSS in resolving the issue.
Summarize the ‘question’ (subject) of the issue as clearly as possible (while still being brief) when prompted to do so in ticket creation.
Be as descriptive and clear as possible when explaining the issue in the ticket.
Use the English language, if at all possible.
Ensure that the severity selected clearly represents the urgency of your issue.
Refrain from creating duplicate tickets.

As an oDesk user, what are your opinions and experiences with the oDesk Customer Service and Support team so far? What other tips and suggestions can you provide that could help facilitate problems and issues on the site better?

New for Contractors – My Jobs Application on oDesk

Nazila — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:45:59 +0000

Following the launch of our new navigation and Find Work application, we are pleased to announce the launch of our second contractor-specific application: My Jobs.

On the My Jobs application, you will have access to all the tools that allow you to successfully manage and complete your active contracts: My Jobs, Contracts and Reports.

Let’s take a closer look at the new My Jobs application…

My Jobs Home – NEW!

Here, you will see the list of jobs that you have been hired for, the time you have logged, and your earnings for each position.

Track work progress
See all your active jobs and easily message your employer.
Manage proactively
Review your jobs that are starting soon.
For Hourly Jobs – See the hours and earnings logged so far this week and review the Work Diary, Timesheet and Contract Details for a particular job. Easily know when you’re approaching (or have surpassed) a weekly limit.
For Fixed-Price Jobs – Review the total payments received next to the original bid price.
Track financial activity
Review current earnings and time logged.
Conveniently access your available earnings.

Contracts

On Contracts, you can easily review the details of your work contracts – both current and past.

Access details about your contracts – rate, weekly limits, weekly and total hours worked, etc.
Search on all contracts – both current and past.
Download contracts in CSV form for easy integration with accounting systems.

Reports

Reports gives you a set of snapshot views into your work history.

Timelogs – An easy view into the payments and the work done during the week.
My Weekly Time Sheet – A summary of work done by you for each employer during a given week.
My Timesheet – A detailed report of work done by you during a custom time period.
Time Analyze – A configurable report of hours or earnings during a selected time period.

We’d like to hear from you–what’s your perspective on our new navigation and My Jobs application?

Send us direct feedback via our survey or visit our community forum post. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to Create Blog Posts & Podcasts That Work (and Real-World Examples to Imitate)

Julia — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:00:36 +0000

Have you tried to start a blog to promote your business and no one seems to read it? Or have you jumped into the world of video and/or audio podcasting and gotten frustrated because your audience has slowly tapered off? Well, don’t give up on your efforts quite yet. Maybe it’s time to take a second look at your blog or podcast’s content and style.

While both podcasts and blogs are powerful tools, simply throwing random “blah blah” into one of these media tools is no guarantee of success. You’ve got to have a plan to provide compelling and interesting content that keep your audience coming back for more. Take a look at the following examples to find ways to improve your blog and podcast content:

1. Divergent content rules.

In all honesty, the blogging world has gotten quite crowded of late. There’s a blog in almost every genre for almost every audience. That’s why you’ve got to set yourself apart. Take a look at blogs that are covering similar information. Then take a second look. How could you set your blog apart?

A great example of this type of innovative blog can be found at Footnoted.com. There are quite a few blogs covering the financial world, but Michelle Leder discovered a niche. She began exploring the financial and legal minutia contained in SEC filings, then blogged about her discoveries. Because her information was unique and timely, she was able to transition from a free information portal into a site that offered both free and paid content. For more info on how she did it, read this Inc.com story on how to build a blog based off your personal brand.

2. Don’t sell to people. Teach people.

Because one of the purposes of your podcast is business promotion, it’s easy to get caught up in selling. Unfortunately, few listeners will tune in regularly to an infomercial podcast. Instead, make your goal to teach people. By presenting useful, relevant information, you will position yourself as an expert. And when your audience is convinced of your credibility and knowledge, they’ll be more likely to buy from you.

As an example of this, check out Wine Library TV. Gary Vanyerchuk’s goal with his highly successful podcast series was to educate consumers about all things wine related. In doing so, he’s also boosted his own wine company, Wine Library. But brand promotion hasn’t come from constantly hawking his store. Instead, it’s come naturally from customers that view Gary as a trusted expert and so choose to buy from him.

3. Give your audience a say in the content.

So you’ve figured out your niche and are providing your audience the information they want to know. Now take your blog or podcast a step farther: incorporate your readers and listeners into the very fabric of the presentation.

The first example of this is a Wired Magazine contest held several years ago. One of their writers went into hiding, and readers were offered a cash reward if they could find him within 30 days. Did it work? Without a doubt. A whole community sprang up around the search, daily checking the Wired website, talking incessantly on Twitter and connecting with each other through Facebook.

While you may not want a squadron of bounty hunters on your tail, you can still involve your audience by making them a part of problem solving. Don’t just talk. Ask questions too. Then let them share their knowledge with you and the rest of your listeners.

The second example comes from the podcast produced by Greenfeet.com. The podcast producer, Valerie Reddemann, makes it a point to involve listeners by reading their letters and e-mails during the show, and even interviewing them on occasion. When your listeners help create your content, they’re automatically going to be invested in following you and in encouraging their friends and family to listen as well.

4. Have a guest, be a guest.

No matter how great your content is and how hard you work to engage your listeners, it’s still important to do some guerrilla marketing of your blog or podcast. One especially effective means of generating new traffic is through guest blogging.

Guest blogging works one of two ways. First, you can invite other bloggers or business owners to write a post for you and then include a link to their site as part of the deal. They’ll usually return the favor and point people to your site in order to read their post. Not only does this technique increase your blog traffic, but it also allows you to cover subjects on your blog that while not your specialty, are still of value to your audience. If you’re looking for talented guest bloggers, check out some of our oDesk freelance writers.

Second, you can guest post on other blogs. This is a great way to build your blog’s reputation as it’s no longer just you promoting your work. It’s another blogger that recognizes the value of your content and wants to share it with his or her readers. That type of recognition give you a new authority with both your existing readership and with the traffic generated from the guest blog post.

Some blogs, such as Problogger, issue an open invitation for guest post submissions. For other blogs, you might have to pitch them on the idea. But if you can provide well-written, relevant content for their readership, they’re likely to be open to the suggestion. Here’s a great article on Problogger about how to successfully guest post. And as for examples, check out the stats on this post about the results of guest blogging.

By focusing on uniqueness, involving your audience, sharing useful information and networking with other bloggers and podcasters, you’re going to create a media source that works. Check out the examples listed above for a more in-depth look at each technique. Then share your own! What methods have you discovered for growing and maintaining your audience?

A Five-Question Guide to Measuring Social Media Success

Julia — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:00:47 +0000

Social media failures — the Internet landscape is cluttered with tweets, status updates and ad campaigns that are nothing more than a monumental waste of screen space. Entrepreneurs who could be working to improve their product and business are instead fixated on the goal of social media success. But in that process, they’re draining away their most valuable resource: their time. Are you one of them?

Social media is an interesting beast. Few would question its value in reaching and retaining customers, but equally few can provide hard numbers on ROI. John Wanamaker, a businessman in the early 1900s, stated his frustration in terms many entrepreneurs would echo:

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Well, I’m here to say that the answer is fairly straightforward. But only if you’re asking the right questions. So here’s a guide to the 5 right questions, whose answers will assist you in evaluating the success (or failure) of your social media campaign:

Should I Be Doing Social Media Outreach?

The question isn’t whether or not to have a social media presence. It’s whether or not you should be the person in charge of that outreach. Unless you’re a consultant in this field, you’re probably going to have a learning curve. Multiply that learning curve across multiple social media platforms, and you’ve got a huge time investment ahead of you.

For some, time isn’t an issue. You’ve got a few extra hours to invest. But for others, your plate is already full. Social media outreach is going to be a distraction that you can’t afford to have. You’ll end up burned out and your business will suffer. Definitely not a success by any measurement standard.

The answer in that case is to delegate the job. Whether you hire a social media consultant or enlist an employee, just make sure you give the job to someone who has the time and know-how to do the job right.
Who Am I Trying to Engage?

Determining your target audience is an important metric in evaluating social media success. By narrowing your demographic focus, you’ll be better able to choose platform (LinkedIn vs. Twitter), engagement style (teen humor vs. soccer mom tips) and performance indicators (brand awareness vs. increased sales).

Remember also that you’re not trying to be a social media celebrity. It’s the quality and makeup of your audience that counts. You don’t need the world to follow you … just your target customer.
What Is the Goal of Audience Engagement?

There’s a variety of reasons companies use social media and not all of them are directly related to increased sales. Other audience engagement goals include:
- Improving customer service
- Raising brand awareness
- Increasing search engine rankings
- Managing reputation
Whether you’re trying to generate revenue or produce brand advocates, the important thing is to know the goal. This is especially pivotal at the outset of your social media ventures. Pick one thing to do and do it well. Clear results spring from clear objectives. And success can only be measured when there is a target to hit.
What Are My Benchmarks?

You know your goal, you know your audience. Now it’s time to know your progress. You do this by establishing key performance indicators, also known as KPIs. These indicators are the mile markers on your journey. When they’re reached, you’ll know you’re on the right path.

The important part of this step is to make sure your benchmarks are directly tied to your campaign goals. For example, measuring follower growth and retweets isn’t helpful if your goal is to increase revenue. On the other hand, this type of measurement is a perfect way to measure brand awareness. Other goal/benchmark pairings include the following :
- Reputation management – increase in positive mentions, increase in page “likes”
- Thought leadership – backlinking, email list growth
- Customer service – decreased time between complaint and resolution
- Revenue increase – track conversions, compare sales before, during and after campaigns
For more on determining appropriate benchmarks, check out this post on 48 social media KPIs. Also worth a read is this article comparing quantitative and qualitative KPIs.
Are My Investments Corresponding to Returns?

Once you’ve launched your campaign, then it’s time to monitor results. But don’t get too focused on simple numbers. Those results need to be viewed in light of the big picture. What I mean is this: you reached a benchmark of 100 new followers. But what type of time and money investment did it take to gain those followers?

This type of ROI analysis is important because it help you gauge whether or not your social media strategy is as efficient as it could be. If you discover that the cost per follower is higher than you’d wish, maybe it’s time to try a new approach.

For those of you who are consultants, what other advice would you offer for effective social media campaign measurement? And for business owners, how have you calculated your ROI with social media efforts? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Connect with her on Google Plus to talk more about social media and its impact on your business.

Overcome the 5 Pitfalls of the Virtual Office

Julia — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:00:41 +0000

Andy Beal, CEO of Trackur, recently blogged about the 5 Biggest Pitfalls of Running a Virtual Office, and the points he makes deserve a second look. While it’s easy to be all gung-ho about the virtues of remote work, there’s often a lot of accompanying headaches. Thankfully those headaches don’t have to turn into migraines. Here’s our take on how to overcome those pitfalls without a bottle of Tylenol.

1. Maximize Efficiency

Efficiency suffers when staff members aren’t available at critical junctures. But this problem isn’t unique to virtual offices — it just requires a slightly different response then the on-site office

First, remember that emergencies always strike at the most inconvenient times. With that in mind, create a tiered system of employee availability. Mission-critical staff need to have some method of being contacted at all times. Other staff members should also have “office hours” during which they’ll always be available, even if they’re not actually on the clock during that time.
Second, be as completely cloud based as possible. Even when an employee is unavailable for an emergency meeting, if all their work, notes and progress status is available through a cloud service, then there’s at least a modicum of efficiency that can be maintained.
Finally, avoid lone ranger projects. Always have two employees assigned to each important project, even if only one person is primarily responsible. This doubles your chances of having a staff member available when a crisis occurs. Using a tool like Soonr allows teammates to keep abreast of each other’s progress even without frequent check-ins.

2. Educate Your Customers

Let’s face it: Many potential customers expect that a truly successful company would have an office space. And while perceptions are changing, you’ll still have to be proactive about educating investors and customers alike. Be upfront about your company’s structure. Don’t try and hide the virtual nature of your business. Jason Fried wrote a great article about the importance of honesty and transparency in customer relations. One of his points definitely rings true here — a customer who’s not comfortable with your structure is probably not a customer you’d want anyway.

Make your company’s virtual status one of its selling points. From maximized productivity to increased flexibility to greater cost savings – all of these directly benefit the customer. So sell them on it! It might be worth the time to create a comparison chart that shows the practical differences between your company and a brick and mortar competitor. (Not naming any names, of course!)

Also, spell out how you’re going to offer the location based perks they expect. Whether it’s face to face meetings or being able to review work product while chatting with the designer, it’s important that your customer knows they’ll get to be just as hands on in the virtual world as if they were sitting in your fifth story corner office.

3. Fight the Social Fight

It’s challenging to build a connected team environment when everyone is separated by time and distance. But there are multiple social networking tools that can make both project collaboration and office gossip sessions a real-time event. Some of those tools include:

TeamLab for free collaboration and project management
CampfireNow for group chat capabilities
Google Plus for casual socializing without becoming Facebook friends

For more helpful tips on the subject, check out this past oDesk post, Maintaining Culture in Your Remote Team.

4. Security Is Everyone’s Job

As soon as you make a new hire, establish procedures and best practices for secure remote work. I don’t have much to add to Beal’s points from the original article here. As he states, it’s vital that each and every remote worker is educated on the importance of safeguarding company and client info.

Security concerns are another great reason to set up team social networking tools. This will lessen the chance of sensitive information being discussed in public forums such as Facebook or Twitter. As far as remote workers’ computers go, consider setting up a VPN to further minimize risks. And if an employee messes up? Have legal counsel in place ahead of time so that you’re not frantically Googling lawyers in an emergency situation.

5. Employ Smart Micromanagement

Staff members need a manager that knows how to balance trust and accountability. This is where the beauty of oDesk’s time tracking system comes into play. You don’t have to question whether or not the work is being done or not — you can just check on work diaries to ascertain what your employees are up to.

This also brings us back to point number 3 — as you build relationships with your staff, you’ll be able to discern who’s the self-motivated workaholic and who needs a bit of hand holding to make sure the project gets done. Different employees will by necessity require different levels of management. Take the time to figure out who needs what. For further reading on this subject, Prospero’s World has a good post about the human dynamics needed for successful remote team management.

And now it’s your turn. What problems have you encountered in running a virtual office? And what solution solved those frustrations? Get the conversation going in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Connect with her on Google+ for more discussion on the realities of remote team work.

Work Texting: The Rules of “Wexting”

Tamara — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:00:21 +0000

That’s right. I said it. Wexting. Work texting has become part of our lives, especially when we work remotely from our employers or employees. But this is not your teenage niece’s texting, make no mistake about it. Texting, it may be, but because it’s work-related, there is a certain amount of professionalism required.

The Work Texting Rules:

Rule #1: Don’t use texting lingo. Unless you’ve been working with the individual on the other end of the text for a really long time, and they are already aware of your actual spelling abilities (we’re talking years invested, not weeks or months), you really should avoid text lingo like “up 2 u” or “OMG.” No, really. You should. And while we’re at it …

Rule #2: Greet the person on the other end. Just like emails, you are expected to say hello. Need two great reasons to take the time to do this?

It confirms the recipient is the intended recipient. What if their phone doesn’t recognize yours? What if they are sitting there wondering, “Was this text meant for me?” Say hi. Say their name.
It’s polite. Just like in emails or phone calls, acknowledging a greeting is the right thing to do. In a texting/wexting conversation that is ongoing over the course of a few minutes, it’s totally fine to drop the greeting after the first of the texts.

Rule #3: Sign your full name. That’s right. Just like in Rule #2, do not assume the person on the other end has you programmed into their phone and doesn’t need you to identify yourself. Sign your name. Also, as in #2, it’s not necessary to sign 5 texts in 5 minutes. But sign the first one. Please. (And thank you.)

Rule #4: Never text unless you’ve been given permission to do so. Some people don’t have a text plan. Your text might cost them money. Also, some people just don’t “do” texting. So before you just text a cell number assuming you can, get permission to do so and ask under what circumstances it’s okay to do so. (Maybe “emergencies only” will be the answer.)

Rule #5: Think first. While texting your friends over every little detail of life may be normal for you, texting should be a last resort for work. Think: Does this require so much dialog that it deserves a phone call? Think: Do I have to convey so much information that I should put it in an email instead?

Rule #6: It should always be about work. You may get to be really friendly over the years with your remote coworker. But unless you’ve really gotten close, it’s a bad idea to text personal details of your life or questions about theirs unless it’s really things that have to do with both worlds. Texts like these are totally acceptable:

“Hi, Jane. Going into labor. Talk to you after the maternity leave. – Daphne”

“Hey, Joe. My condolences about your grandpa. Don’t worry about the deadline. Have a safe flight. – Jerry”

So there you have it … the rules of work texting. Want to ignore them? Wext at your own risk. Tell us about your wexting practices and opinions in the comments below!

Tamara Rice is one of several freelance writers on the oDesk Blog team. She joined the oDesk marketplace in 2009, after more than six years on staff at an award-winning national magazine.

Open for Business? How Google+ Can Help

Julia — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:00:51 +0000

In less than a month after launching its beta roll-out, Google+ has garned 25 million unique visitors. To get some sense of how quickly the Googleplex’s latest offering is attracting new eyeballs, consider this: Twitter took 30 months to reach this kind of audience and Facebook took a full 35 months. What does this mean for your business’ social media strategy?

The rapid growth of Google+ demands that you pay attention to it. After all, 1 million new users a day is nothing to sneeze at. But while the search giant’s social media outlet is important, it’s still the new kid on the block. And as such, there’s a lot of uncharted territory and uncertainty about what the future will hold. Here’s some pointers for how to make use of Google+ while it’s still in beta:

Don’t over invest. I hate to start with a negative, but this one’s important. Google+ is cool, growing fast and has lots of potential … but it’s still small comparatively. If you’ve only got so much time during the day to invest in social media, then put the majority of that time where it counts. You know where your customers are — don’t leave them hanging by spending too much time on Google+. Besides, once the business pages roll out, you’ll have to start all over again (see next point).

Let your customers get to know the face behind the business. Since Google has imposed a ban on business pages for the moment, everything your business does on Google+ must be done as, well, yourself. (Sidenote: Google is making preparations to allow businesses to have accounts, forecasted by VentureBeat for sometime in Q3 2011). While this could be seen as a negative, I believe there’s great potential to connect with your customer base in a truly relational way. Make it clear to your customers that your personal Google account is not just a front for your business. Be a real person with them. Share hobbies, music you love, what restaurant you ate at recently, etc. As you connect in this way, you’re likely to develop a greater rapport and to build goodwill for your business because it’s no longer a faceless entity. It’s you. And you’re now a friend.In this regard, here’s a great quote from Mat Honan at Gizmodo:

“I’d argue that the most successful people and brands using social media are precisely the ones who are the most real, and the most deeply personal. Reveal something about yourself, even if it’s that you are an idiot, and people will follow. For a social network to work, it has to be fascinating and fun.”
Connect with your remote team. One of the strengths of Google+ is the varying ways you can communicate. From video chats (termed “hangouts”) to wall conversations to group mobile chats, all lend themselves to ease of interaction. And while it’s all great, the “circles” feature is what really takes Google+ to the next level. You can separate your contacts into various social groups, termed “Circles”. Then when you want to share a link, photo or what you had for dinner, choose which circle(s) to disseminate the info to. No more worrying about whether or not to “friend” your remote team coworkers. Just put them in the “Remote Team” circle and then make use of all those great conversation features. I think Google+ has the potential of fostering a more connected and engaged remote team. You’re now able to easily interact via social media, no special programs needed. Have fun together, converse, share … yet still keep your private and business lives separate. (If anyone has used Google+ with their remote team, I’d love to hear more about it for a future blog post.)

Utilize for SEO. There’s a lot of buzz out there about what Google+ means for SEO. At this point, no one knows for certain. But there are a few ways you can make use of the now ubiquitous “+1” icon to promote your website.
- First, use Google’s webmaster tools to help promote your website. Add a +1 button on your pages so that people can recommend your website as a valuable source of info in search results.
- Second, make use of the callback mechanism. There are lots of ways to implement this (watch this interview with Google’s Timothy Jordan for more on that), but one idea is to put the +1 on actual product pages. Then as users recommend various products, use that info to customize suggestions for other products they might be interested in.
- Finally, when you make public comments on your Google+ page, Google appears to index those and add them to search results. So consider Google+ another blogging platform and keep the info you share relevant, interesting and keyword friendly.

I’m just hitting the tip of the iceberg on what Google+ means to your business. Stay tuned for more posts on the subject once the business profiles become active. Until then, do you have any tips for making use of Google+ for business purposes? If so, share them in the comment section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and non-profit organizations. She especially enjoys covering stories about the intersection of technology and business. Connect with her on Google+ and let her know how you’re making use of its features.

How to Quit Your Freelance Gig

Stephanie — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:00:52 +0000

Being a freelancer enables you to do many things that traditional employment can’t. You can set your own work hours, create your own workspace, and can choose how many projects to work on. But there’s one other power that most freelancers don’t exercise, and that’s the power to quit their freelance gigs.

Hold on a minute, why would I want to quit a freelance gig that brings in income? That’s crazy!

Maybe, but there are scenarios where you, the freelancer, must decide if your current freelance gigs are worth your time and effort. For instance, you’ve just raised your rates and would rather work on projects billed at that rate, or your employer is becoming difficult to work with. You may also have upcoming plans that will force you to be away-from-keyboard for a long time. It can be any of these situations.

If you feel that it’s time to quit any of your freelance gigs, here’s how to do it professionally and gracefully:

Think hard about your reasons to quit before making decisions. If you can honestly say that you still love working on your freelance gig, consider alternatives to quitting, such as asking your employer for a raise or arranging a conference call to discuss work issues.

Call or email your employer to discuss leaving. Your employer deserves to know why you’ve decided to quit working on his project, so get your employer’s attention as soon as he’s available. You can inform him personally, over the phone, or by email — depending on your current situation. In the end, make sure that you and your employer agree to the specifics of your leaving arrangement (what work you will finish, what you will not, your last day of availability, etc.), be sure that there are no hard feelings, and explain why you need to quit. It’s not important that your employer affirms your decision, only that you are content with it.

Finish what needs to be finishedand pass on any important documents or files to your employer before you leave. It is only right that you fulfill the remainder of your responsibilities as a freelancer, and hand over important files that your client will need to continue his project. Depending on the type of work that you do, you should return or submit any of the following:

Copies of usernames and passwords to admin accounts

Files (PHP, CSS stylesheets, etc) needed for the employer’s website

Articles, website copy, blog posts, and other types of content already paid for

Mock-ups and the final designs for the employer’s logos, images, etc.

Sincerely thank your employer. Unless you’re quitting due to a serious dispute, don’t forget to thank her for the opportunity to work on her project. At the end of your message, you can say, “Thank you [insert client name] for your kind understanding. I hope you will find a new contractor as soon as possible, and I wish you all the best in your endeavors.” Whatever works for you, it’s always best to leave with no regrets or resentments.

Don’t forget to ask for a recommendation, a.k.a. feedback, by making a kind and professional request to send you a letter or (even better for freelancers) leave feedback in your online portfolio, LinkedIn profile, etc., about what you had to offer them and how you performed. This shouldn’t be a problem, if your employer is not in disagreement with your decision to quit. (Get this recommendation now, not later, even if you already have another gig lined up.)

Have you ever quit a freelance gig before? How did it go? Was your employer understanding or difficult to deal with after you broke the news?

oDesk’s Chrome Extension – now search on demand for contractors and jobs

JohnH — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:09:10 +0000

One of the nice features of browser extensions is that they let you quickly access features & information from web-based services without having to visit the actual service providers’ pages. As an oDesk employer, often times I’ve been browsing the web and had a “I wonder if I could hire an oDesk contractor to do X” moment. I imagine that oDesk contractors might have similar “I wonder if there are any jobs available for skill X” moments.

Both of these contractor and employer use-cases seemed like natural features for a browser extension, so I hired an oDesk contractor who specializes in browser-extensions to help us make a prototype.

We started with a limited–but slick–set of features, all running off our APIs:

Clicking on the extension logo brings up a quick contractor & job search dialog
If you highlight words on a page and right-click, you get a “Search in oDesk” command that returns a list of contractors or jobs with that highlighted skill.
On StackExchange sites, an oDesk logo is inserted next to the skills associated with a question; clicking on that logo brings up a search.

Add the oDesk extension to your Chrome browser today.

This is still a prototype, but we think it’s a great way to find contractors and jobs when you are in a “moment” and not on the oDesk site. If our community finds it useful, we will look to add more features (and potentially make a Firefox or IE version). Give it a try and let us know what you think in our community forum.

Finding Time for Work That Makes You Happy

Stephanie — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:00:31 +0000

Being freelancers, we’re in control of how we spend our work hours each day. Some would work consistently on client projects, while others divide their time between billable projects and activities for self-fulfillment and personal happiness.

Although the latter is often viewed as “work for free,” many freelancers willingly do so because 1) it saves them from the wrath of being burned out, and 2) they love what they do and love dedicating time and energy to do work which brings them happiness.

Fulfilling work could be anything: from setting up fundraisers to offering to proofread your friend’s next book to building a website for your favorite nonprofit organization. All you have to do is identify what kind of work you’d be willing to set time aside for. Here are a few examples to inspire you to get up from your chair and do work that makes you happy:

A freelance writer works for at least five hours a day writing blog posts and website copy for various clients on a wide variety of subjects. Although her freelance work pays well, she particularly likes writing about home and lifestyle topics–something that she doesn’t get to write about for work. To solve this, she creates a blog where she can share her tips, advice, reviews, and plenty of other topics revolving around her own interests.

A freelance business consultant finds himself constantly working with medium to large companies to help them improve their business tactics and strategies. Although the work is time-consuming, he doesn’t back down on an opportunity to meet self-made entrepreneurs, startups, and individuals with a dream. As a way of helping these people, he shares classic business tips to those who approach him, usually via email or phone.

A freelance designer is very active in a nonprofit organization that works to provide education to less fortunate children and scholars. Passionate about providing education to the needy as well, he offers his design services twice a month, creating high quality brochures and pamphlets for the organization’s cause. And to kill two birds with one stone, he uses this opportunity to showcase his best designs to prospective clients.

A freelance web developer makes it a point to work according to her set work schedule, from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM. She’s disciplined herself with these hours in order to spend the remainder of her day writing short stories for children, creating educational apps for the iOS, and babysitting her nephews and nieces for her sister. What most don’t know about her is that she can never have children herself, but nevertheless, she finds joy and contentment in making other people’s children happy. So, she makes time to do it.

A passion, an experience, and even a challenge can push you to do work that makes you happy, even though there is no monetary gain at the end of the day.

You can, of course, showcase your “soul” work as samples to interested clients, attracting projects that utilize your freelance skills or that you enjoy. But in the end, what matters is that you are truly happy with your weekly activities, whether they all involve a neat paycheck or not.

As a freelancer, do you take time off to do work that makes you happy? Is it a project in line with your freelance services, or is it just a project you contribute your time and dedication to? Share your stories in the comments below! I’d love to hear from you.

Friendly Firing: Letting Your Freelancer Go the Nice Way

Tamara — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:00:43 +0000

While some may argue that there is no nice way to say an early goodbye to a contract employee, we would argue that some goodbyes are certainly better than others. In fact, there is a way of doing things that can lead to a better work experience (though no longer shared) for both parties, if handled with care.

So, if you’re feeling the need to free your freelancer, here are some tips to help you keep that goodbye as clean and friendly as possible:

Have a Personal Touch.

Break the news in conversation, not by email. This means either face-to-face via Skyping or picking up your phone. Your freelancer deserves the courtesy of a live person giving them the bad news, if at all possible. And set up a specific time to talk (“I need to speak with you, when can you be available?”), so that the freelancer is not caught off guard in the middle of his childcare carpool.

Be Brief.

When giving the reason for your unexpected parting, don’t get bogged down in details. You are not obligated to teach the freelancer any career-altering lessons (the firing will be enough). State the facts as simply and politely as you can. For example if the work was always late, explain that your deadlines were suffering and it’s time to move on. Focus on your needs, not their shortcomings — there is a subtle difference.

Offer Notice When Appropriate.

If you feel comfortable allowing the freelancer to finish whatever projects he is on or allowing him to continue another week of work, you will be doing the person a huge favor by not instantly cutting off his paycheck. However, there will be times when this sort of kindness is a bad idea — hopefully you’ll know these cases when you see them.

Offer Severance Pay When Appropriate.

In cases where you can’t allow the freelancer to continue a minute longer, sending her off with a day’s wages (or a week’s) is a nice gesture, but severance pay is a rare courtesy for freelancers, not a legal requirement. (Unless of course you have a contract that stipulates otherwise.) Consider how long the freelancer has worked for you and how much of their workload you’ve been supplying. If you’ve been her only client for over a year, you should consider the kindness of severance pay, provided you can afford it. (And by all means, get it to her as quickly as possible.)

Be Gracious.

If there is anything you can thank your soon-to-be former employee for, by all means, say thank you now. Say it again later in writing.

Sometimes when it comes to saying goodbye, less is more. Write down a very concise speech including all of the above elements and practice what you will say with a coworker or friend. Letting someone go is rarely easy, but hopefully doing this hard thing will lead to a better future for your company and eventually for the freelancer as well.

Ever had a good experience letting your freelancer go? Share your tips for a friendly firing in the comments below.

Tamara Rice is one of several freelance writers on the oDesk Blog team. She joined the oDesk marketplace in 2009, after more than six years on staff at an award-winning national magazine.

Employers can now pay with PayPal

Mollie — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:08:05 +0000

We have great news about your payment options. Whether you are in the U.S. or one of the many countries supported by PayPal, you can now use PayPal to pay for your work on oDesk!

Here’s how it works:

Use PayPal to pre-fund your oDesk account balance, with any amount you choose.
Your balance is drawn down as you accrue charges.
Add to your balance at anytime.

Currently, PayPal is only available to U.S. or international employers with a verified credit card on file with oDesk. For U.S. employers, you will need either a PayPal linked bank account or PayPal balance to fund your payment. And, please note, payments are currently only accepted in USD.

Go to your Payment Methods, to Pay with PayPal now.

This is just one of the many enhancements we’re making to the way you pay. Look for more options to pay with PayPal coming soon.

We’re interested in your feedback! Take our short survey to share how you want to pay. Or, discuss this new offering with our community.

Ask oDesk: What Are Employers Thinking?

Tamara — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:00:23 +0000

We’ve selected two burning questions, chosen from a recent conversation about what an employer’s perspective is like. Community members whose questions were chosen will receive oDesk t-shirts.

Vikas B. asks: What is the most significant thing an employer looks for during hiring process?

We recently asked oDesk’s Whitney Priest, the manager of enterprise services, what she looks for during the hiring process, and here’s what she said:

“It’s as if there are three legs of a stool that need to be balanced: 1) availability, 2) price, and 3) track record. An employer has to balance these. We aren’t likely to find all three in a contractor. If someone has a really long track record on oDesk, they probably don’t have a lot of availability. Or an employer may find someone with a really long track record and excellent feedback, but might have to pay a little more than they want to for that person. On the other hand, a contractor with a good price and availability may not have a track record on oDesk yet. So there’s a little bit of risk for the employer on that one. We can rarely get all three qualities, so we may have to give a little on the third.”

Thanks, Whitney! (And thanks Vikas for asking!)

Keith G. asks: What would make [an employer] eventually reject an application of a certain contractor?

I can tell you from experience there are a few obvious answers (zero qualifications, zero experience, bids that are outrageously high), but it’s the not-so-obvious answers I think you’re looking for. Certain things will cause you rejection at the application phase:

Not following the job post’s instructions. If the employer asked for work samples and you sent none, don’t expect great things. Pay attention to what the employer is asking for.
Not pointing out how your skills match their needs. If your cover letter does not indicate how your experience and qualifications will help meet the needs of the job post, you might as well kiss the interview phase goodbye.
Not showing professionalism. Not everyone expects perfect English, but they do expect professionalism. Don’t be impolite, but don’t beg for the job. Don’t be short, but don’t let your cover letter drag on forever either.

Other things will cause sure rejection by smart employers during the interview phase, and they include:

Not being prompt. Respond to emails quickly. Return phone calls quickly. Never be late for a Skype interview or conference call. Watch the clock.
Not being friendly. If there isn’t a smile in your voice (you can hear pleasantness over the phone, you know) and a personal nature to your exchanges (i.e., “have a great day”) you are likely to lose out to someone who seems nice to work with.
Not seeming interested. You might really want the job, but if you don’t ask questions and engage, you’ll lose out to someone with more enthusiasm. No need to fake it, but do know that if you aren’t interested in what the employer’s company does, you’ll probably lose out to someone who is.

Thanks Keith and Vikas for your participation! What would you like to know about how an employer thinks and makes decisions? Ask your questions in the comments below!

Tamara Rice is one of several freelance writers on the oDesk Blog team. She joined the oDesk marketplace in 2009, after more than six years on staff at an award-winning national magazine.

The $8,000 StartUp, Pt. 2

Guest Blogger — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:00:51 +0000

Yesterday, Josh Breinlinger brought us The $8,000 StartUp, Pt. 1, and shared steps zero through two. Today he continues with steps three to five for startup success …

Step 3: Financial Commitment
It’s real easy to brainstorm ideas with friends, colleagues, family, etc.; but there is a critical step that starts you along the path to reality. I believe it’s Financial Commitment. The instant you start spending your own personal money rather than just time on your startup, you’re on the path. And the clock will start ticking much, much faster. Suddenly, all the lessons of the Lean Startup really start making sense as you realize that you need to cut features and ideas like crazy from your full vision. If you want to launch quickly, and you should, you need to really figure out an MVP.

“If you’re not ashamed by your first release, you’ve released too late.” – Reid Hoffman

So, chances are that to take your idea to a prototype, you will be committing your own money and maybe a tiny bit of friends’ and family’s money. You need to figure out how to get to a working prototype on an extremely limited dollar amount. I suggest thinking about the biggest risks for your startup and arrange them in descending order of biggest to lowest risk. Figure out how to address the biggest risk as quick and as cheap as possible. I had budgeted $20K max, and it ended up costing $8K thanks to my awesome oDesk team of Den Markin and Gaston Soto.

How It Started …

I work full time in the venture capital industry and frequently meet business-minded folks who are brainstorming ideas for a startup. The conventional wisdom nowadays is that the idea is not worth much by itself. Business founders are frequently stumped as to how to take their idea to reality and desperately seek the mythical “technical cofounder.” I decided to take a different approach for my idea. See part 1 of this post here.

Step 4: A Prototype
With my team and spec in place, it was a pretty straightforward process to get to a working prototype. Site design work went in parallel with most of the backend work. Each module was intended to take about a week or so of development and each one was tested as it was completed. It’s definitely very important to break your project down into manageable chunks of work that you can evaluate each week. The worst scenario is to get one to two months into development and not even be sure if you have anything that’s really working.

You can see it here:

Step 5: Launch
So once you’re confident that your prototype is generally working, it’s time to launch (at least an alpha, beta type launch). Tell your close friends, write a guest blog post at your former employer’s site, look for potentially interested users every day on Twitter, and seek a bit of PR to cover your launch once you feel ready.

Have you learned anything you’re going to implement with your next big idea? Tell us what you think of these steps in the comments below!

Founder of QwikTalk, VC at Sigma Partners, Head of Product and Marketing at AdRoll, and director of many things at oDesk, Josh Breinlinger started his career in mechanical engineering after getting his BS at MIT. After four years in that industry, he made the move to Silicon Valley to join startup-land and hasn’t looked back. His focus is on P2P marketplace sites, crowdsourcing, and marketing.

The $8,000 StartUp, Pt. 1

Guest Blogger — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:00:46 +0000

I work full time in the venture capital industry which means I meet hundreds of great entrepreneurs. Frequently, I’ll meet business-minded folks that are pitching or brainstorming ideas for a startup. The conventional wisdom nowadays is that the idea is not worth much by itself. Business founders are frequently stumped as to how to take their idea to reality and desperately seek the mythical “technical cofounder.”

I decided to take a different approach for my idea. I turned to oDesk (my alma mater as I like to think of it). I worked at oDesk in a variety of roles from 2004 – 2010 and feel like I learned more each passing year than I did in my full four years of college. So I’m sufficiently biased, but I will share my experience as accurately and objectively as possible.

Step 0: The Idea
I had kept a list of startup ideas in a Google Doc for about two years. Every time I would awake from a dream or have some stroke of genius in the shower or feel some massive pain point at work, I would jot it down in a private Google Doc called “Josh’s Startup Ideas.” But really, this was an ongoing thought process. Talking through the idea with some of my good friends led me to select the idea behind QwikTalk as the most promising one to pursue. The concept is to allow users to quickly call experts. For example: excel experts, mechanics, or veterinarians. It’s launched as of yesterday — so I’d be thrilled to have you give it a try and would welcome any feedback.

Step 1: A Spec – A Work in Progress
Once I had the foundation of an idea, I really had just a one- to two-sentence description of a problem and a solution. A week or so of work during evenings at home turned this into a workable specification document. My spec was about eight pages in a Google Doc. Mostly it consisted of breaking down the entire vision into discrete modules of work to facilitate an easier development roadmap. A couple workflow diagrams and descriptive text about intended user functionality, and let the developer fill in the best implementation.

Step 2: An oDesk Team
For most any web development project, you’ll need a lead developer and a lead designer. I found both on oDesk in two different ways:

Lead Developer. I was fairly technology agnostic — I didn’t care so much whether we develop in Rails or PHP. I also happen to know that Zend offers a rigorous certification process. So, I looked at the Zend Certified group on oDesk and invited half a dozen candidates to take a look at the job. I also erred on the side of the experienced and correspondingly expensive developers. Anyone that could command $20 – $35 per hour on oDesk I felt had proven themselves. I received responses from a few, had Skype chats mostly to test business fit (do they understand the idea, seem passionate about the work, communicate well, etc). Then I asked them to produce a time estimate and outline for the project and return it to me in three days. This is the first test — if they can’t perform this simple task quickly, accurately, and on-time then I will end things with that candidate. Once I was down to two proposals that I liked, I asked a good technical friend to review the proposals with me and selected our lead developer, Den Markin. He has been incredibly dedicated and productive. I could not ask for anything more.
Lead Designer. I had a bit of a false start on this one. Designers are tough to interview in the traditional sense, so I really scoured the network and looked at portfolios and asked for some sample work. I asked candidates to include a representative sample of their work in the cover letter — a tactic that very easily weeds out many candidates since they can’t even follow this one instruction. I ended up picking a designer living in Germany and asked him to spend <8 hours coming up with a homepage mockup. He produced something that I really wasn’t very happy with so I went back and invited more candidates to do a homepage mockup. I got one I was very thrilled with from Gaston Soto down in Argentina and hired him to the team.

The thing that has impressed me most about both Gaston and Den is the amount of energy and passion that they share for the project. I believe it’s not just freelance work to them — they truly are passionate about helping the company succeed …

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of The $8,000 StartUp, where Josh will break down steps three through five!

What steps have you taken with your startup? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below.

6 Tips for Working in a Remote Team

Stephanie — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:00:01 +0000

A long time ago, you used to be the only one managing your time, your work, and your communication lines with the employer. Nobody besides your employer told you what to do, called to see if you were available, or checked if you’d finished your tasks for the day.

Suddenly, you’ve been hired and assigned a specific role within a remote or virtual team. This team is composed of other freelancers who work at their own schedules and who are in charge of other aspects of the client’s project. You realize that working in a remote team has its own unique challenges, and that it’s important that you are aware of who you are working with and what your responsibilities are as a member of the team.

But we know it’s not always easy to adjust to working in remote teams, let alone build rapport and trust with other virtual professionals, so we’ve listed 6 tips to help you build good team relationships and work smoothly with others in a remote team:

1. Respect your teammates.

Heed Confucius’ Golden Rule when working in remote teams. If you want your teammates to treat you with respect, trust, and openness, you must do the same when dealing with them. Think of them as classmates, thesis partners, or colleagues that you care for and respect wholeheartedly.

2. Familiarize yourself with how the team works.

Get to know the system the team is built on, learn the technologies used to collaborate, and find your spot within the circle. At this point, you should already note down when everyone logs in to work, the availability of those who you’re working closely with, and how to communicate work updates, issues, and other important updates with everyone in the team.

3. Be on time for meetings.

Meetings are an essential aspect of a team. It gives everyone a chance to know and discuss about important work issues, changes, and other necessary details related to the project and the team.

There are meetings when only a selected number of people are needed, and there are meetings where every single member is required to attend. If your presence is a must, don’t make it a habit to make a grand entrance every time your employer/project head calls for a meeting by logging in late. Do your best to always be on time, so that:

You’re fully aware and knowledgeable of the important details of the meeting.
You have enough time to listen and share your thoughts about what was discussed.
You don’t keep your fellow team members waiting.

4. Provide contact information in case of emergencies.

A family problem, a busted computer, or other similar situations may pull you from your workstations without notice, so you should have one more line of communication for the team to use.

Provide usable contact information, such as your mobile number, email address, or Skype ID, to both your employer and the members of the remote team in case you’re not around and they need to contact you regarding project issues and critical emergencies.

5. Complete and fulfill your assigned tasks and responsibilities.

Now that you’re a member of a remote team, your main goal is to complete all tasks assigned to you and to fulfill your responsibilities as the web developer/copywriter/QA/whatever freelance track you specialize in.

Your assigned work may be directly related to someone else’s, so it’s important that you finish off your own tasks for the project move forward. And if you constantly fulfill your duties, everyone will consider you as someone who does his job and is reliable at all times.

6. If there are problems or issues, bring them to the table.

It’s inevitable that there will be conflicts and misunderstanding between team members. For instance, one of your teammates may have experienced an issue coming from your end, even though you know that you’ve done everything correctly. In cases like these, nothing good would come out of hiding and grumbling behind people’s backs.

The best way to handle arguments and disagreements is to bring everything to the table. Listen to what your teammates have to say about the problem, then share your own concerns in a professional and calm manner. If the employer should be involved in the discussion, offer to gather everyone for an important meeting to clarify everything once and for all.

It takes time to adjust to a remote team, but with these 6 tips and a positive attitude towards working with others, you’ll see that being in a remote team of professionals can be fun, meaningful, and a great learning experience after all.

What other useful tips can you share to those who are new to working in a remote team? I look forward to reading your comments!

8 Easy Steps to Successful Remote Team Management

Guest Blogger — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:00:38 +0000

A distributed core workforce is changing how we think of work culture. Say goodbye to water cooler chats and 5:00 p.m. quitting times, and hello to Skype conversations, meeting Webinars, and time zone differences. But in this new working world, how do you maintain a healthy work culture in your remote team — even across international lines?

We asked oDesk experts Mike Barnett, director of Customer Service, and Ron Aquino, senior manager of Marketplace Trust and Safety and Risk Operations, how they do it every day:

Step #1: Communicate

Each morning, Barnett says a Skype conversation begins with his 50 contractors around the globe.

“Communication plays a key role in healthy work culture,” Mike says. “There is a Skype chat going on constantly. If our reps aren’t sure [about something], they can ask their peers or team leaders to answer issues that come up.”

Step #2: Debrief

Aquino debriefs his 45 remote contractors on new projects and defines any unfamiliar corporate lingo. That way, his remote team feels included and knows what’s going on in the company.

“If there’s a project with a weird acronym, we don’t assume they know what we’re talking about,” he says. “If I bring up a project, someone will say, ‘I’m not aware of what that is—can you go into detail?’ Over-communicate. Don’t assume anything.”

Step #3: Take Questions

Aquino listens to and fields any questions his remote workers may have, promoting what he calls “a culture of asking questions.”

“The importance is amplified when you have remote contractors from different countries,” he says. “I’ve communicated to all our reps that I expect a lot of questions or there’s a chance they’re missing something.”

Feedback and suggestions are also welcome, allowing remote workers a voice in the company.

“I try to reward people who bring up issues,” Aquino says. “It’s having an open door and listening to all concerns. If contractors know you’ll listen, they’re more likely to engage.”

Step #4: Review Work

Both Aquino and Barnett review remote workers’ progress to see how they’re meeting measurable goals and expectations.

“What we ask for is progress, priorities and problems. Let us know what you’ve done this week; let us know if you have problems,” Aquino says.

Mike Barnett, oDesk

Barnett says proper management would prevent most of the disputes between an employer and a contractor that land on his desk.

“We provide all the tools to help,” he says. “Even locally, you’re not going to look at somebody’s computer six times an hour, but that’s available to you within oDesk. When employers end up in a dispute with a contractor, it’s odd how few looked at the contractor’s work diary. They could have seen there were problems much earlier.”

Step #5: Think “Team”

Barnett and Aquino follow the oDesk policy of including remote workers live in any team meetings, training classes and company meetings that day. Mike has seen how attending meetings and learning about company goals really brings remote workers onto the team.

“Each quarter we have a meeting where we get everyone on the phone line and talk about goals for next quarter until the end of the year. We’ve even had the CEO join our call to talk about oDesk goals. Our reps really feel like they’re a part of the company.”

Step #6: Reinforce Values

Though meetings help instill company values, Barnett looks for opportunities to reinforce those values and the code of conduct contractors agreed to when hired.

“If a rep can’t do their shift, we expect them to find a replacement or communicate with a team leader. We expect them to be professional, follow our own internal policies and be role models in the marketplace.”

And because contractors do all their work within the oDesk application, Aquino says company values tend to stick:

“We hire all our contractors from our own marketplace and pay them through our system, so they get to see the value of what our tool does.”

Step #7: Offer Advancement

Ron Aquino, oDesk

One thing some employers forget to do, Barnett says, is regularly encourage remote workers’ advancement on a company career path.

“We offer a career path within Customer Service,” he says. “Everyone started off as a junior rep or trainee and worked their way up through a published and available career path we have. That makes them feel there’s a long-term commitment. Our attrition rate is incredible: Out of a team of 50 people, last year we only lost one person.”

Step #8: Self-Evaluate

At the end of the day, Aquino says what matters most is his performance as a manager. Did he have the right priorities, the right attitude?

“You have to view remote contactors as a core part of your team,” Aquino says. “If you’re not taking them seriously, you’re at a disadvantage. If you manage them correctly, you can absolutely get the same level of contribution, efficiency, and quality as if they shared your physical location.”

Have you picked up any tried and true steps for managing and setting the tone for your remote team? Please share them in the comments below.

Andrea Bailey Willits is a Nashville-based writer for magazines, websites, small businesses and non-profits. Learn more at AndreaBaileyWillits.com.

Out of the Office Savings: How Remote Work Technology Can Save You Money

Julia — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:00:35 +0000

Remote work is an industry game changer. Whether you’re a solo freelancer that occasionally needs to outsource or a small business owner with employees who could occasionally work from home, there’s inevitably going to come a time when making use of remote work tools will directly impact your business’ bottom line.

When it comes to saving money, the benefits of embracing remote workers are well documented. From savings on office space and infrastructure to maintaining productivity during inclement weather or natural disasters, remote work is an important tool. Here’s a roundup of current remote work technology and how you can effectively implement it to make the most of potential cost savings.

Project Management:

Remote work will save you money by allowing you to use skilled workers who often cost less than local hires. The key to keeping those cost savings is effective project management. You’ve got to be able to stay on top of what’s being accomplished in a systematic way. Here’s two tools to check out:

TeamLab (Free): Open source and free! What’s not to like about this project management tool? The software’s developers initially created it for themselves, then found it so useful they decided to offer it for free to others. TeamLab allows you to create and schedule project milestones to keep your remote workers on track. It also includes a wiki, instant messaging and time tracking. Finally TeamLab is an online portal, so there’s no issues with installing software on team members’ computers.
Project2Manage ($6.95/month): A bit like Google Docs, Project2Manage give you a one-stop repository for storing team files and creating documents. It also allows you to give your remote workers different levels of access to the said repositories. It includes the standard project management features, such as messaging, to-do lists and deadline reminders.

Money Saving Tip: Efficiency is key to savings. One way to make sure tasks are moving along as needed is to assign work in small chunks with short turn-around times. That way you’ll be able to stay on top of work accomplished, and if there IS a problem, you’ll discover it sooner.

Communication:

Remote collaboration on projects saves money by keeping productivity high. After all, you only pay your remote worker for the time actually worked — not for interoffice chats and water cooler visits. But while social conversations are reduced, you still must make good communication channels a high priority. There’s always the usual software suspects, like Skype or Google Chat. But here’s a few others to consider as well:

Campfire Now ($12/month): Campfire Now is a chat program designed with group collaboration in mind. According to the developers, the program is “network-agnostic,” meaning you don’t have to worry about everyone trying to find a common chat client to use. Campfire Now saves chat history, allows you to upload files and review them together, plus it offers an iPhone app for chatting on the go.
TightVNC (Free): Got someone coding for you? Use TightVNC for remote software demonstrations. This program allows you to see and control the desktop of a remote computer, exactly as if you were there. Another option is Gbridge, a program that allows you to not only share desktops, but also creates a secure VPN using Google’s gtalk protocol.

Money Saving Tip: Using online communication tools is significantly cheaper then conference calls when you’re working with freelancers from other countries. But while it might be tempting to rely solely on email and its ilk, making use of real-time communication tools is important. Why? Once again, it all comes back to efficiency. With real-time conversations, whether through chat functions or Skype calls, your team can get on the same page in a matter of minutes versus the hours and/or days that getting email responses can take.

On that same note, make sure your communication is effective. For more info, check out this past oDesk blog post on successful remote team communication.

Training:

Remote work saves money by allowing you to hire specialized skills just for the projects needed. You don’t have to keep a graphic designer on staff when you only need their talents a few times a year.

Assist your virtual staff in focusing on the job at hand by being upfront about your preferred work flows and organizational procedures. Don’t assume they’ll automatically pick up on those unspoken ideals. Take some time to train your remote staff with these tools:

Vyew (Free): Vyew is a webinar tool, allowing you to make live presentations to your virtual staff and giving them the opportunity to ask questions and interact during the online “class.”
Go2Webinar ($99/month): Another webinar tool, Go2Webinar costs a bit, but is useful if you want to create a slew of training material all at once, then make it available to your remote workers as needed.
Dropbox (Free): While this isn’t exactly a training tool, Dropbox can be a great way to distribute policy and procedure documents to everyone who needs them. And when you update a document? Dropbox will automatically update the copy that each virtual worker has on his or her machine.
MediaWiki (Free): Your remote employees aren’t the only ones who will be learning. Remember that you hired them for a purpose, and they can help train you in best practices and new technology as a part of the collaborative working process. A great way to capture this body of knowledge is through a wiki. You can set up a free wiki using MediaWiki, the software that powers the Wikipedia family of sites. For more info on effectively using wikis, check out the online O’Reilly guide to using a wiki.

Money Saving Tip: Before you begin hiring, prepare all your training materials. Even the best contract worker can only live up to the expectations they know about. It’s not their fault if your lack of instruction means multiple revisions, thus incurring extra costs for you.

Have you worked with virtual employees in the past? In the comments section below, share best practices that you’ve learned, as well as collaboration tools that made the job easier. Also, you can connect with other employers on our oDesk Facebook page to learn what’s worked for them.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small business owners and non-profit organizations. Remote work technology has allowed her to collaborate with fascinating people from a wide variety of locales. You can find her talking about technology and business on Twitter at @JuliaCamenisch.

Test Jobs 2: How to Hire Marketing Help

BrianM — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:00:09 +0000

A business can’t thrive without marketing — you need your potential customers to know about your business. Yet few small and mid-sized companies have the budget to have marketing experts on staff. That’s why various marketing positions are among the most popular hiring categories on oDesk. When you’re looking for someone to write content, get your message into the media, or represent you on the increasingly vital social media platforms, a test hire is a great way to make sure you’ve found the most suitable candidate.

On Monday, we reviewed the basics of using test jobs to find the best contractor, with specific looks at how oDesk hires web developers, project managers, software developers and more.

Erica Benton, oDesk’s marketing communications manager, gave us the rundown on how she uses test jobs to hire writers, public relations representatives, and social media experts, after the jump.

How to Test a Writer

“Make them write,” she says. “Writing test hires are the easiest to do. But you really have to make sure the test work reflects what the actual work will look like.”

That means that if you’re hiring a blogger to write about new technologies, don’t assign him to write about establishing good work habits. For Benton, it’s easy to make use of these small assignments. She gives a focused assignment and a small, reasonable time limit, and if the result is good, she publishes it and gives the writer more assignments. “In writing, I’m usually not hiring for massive projects, but I need reliable writers who can regularly deliver smaller pieces,” she says. “When I have a bunch of candidates who look promising, I may give them same topic to compare how each handles the subject. Other times, it’s more that I have only one likely candidate but I’m not entirely confident in making a full hire. In that case, she’s competing against the expectation that her profile set for me.”

How to Test a Social Media Expert

“I hire most frequently for a ‘social media concierge’-type role. These folks monitor our social media channels and respond with guidance and links to useful material,” she says. Because she doesn’t want to turn unproven candidates loose on oDesk’s social networks, she has developed a standard test. “I give each candidate a Google spreadsheet with about 50 user questions or comments, all derived from real posts — the wording, the tone, the English level, all exact,” she says. “I ask candidates to go through the sheet and tell me which blog post, community discussion, or Help Center page best addresses the user’s question, and ask them to formulate a response with that link.” She’s testing them, she says, on their ability to read and understand, to search the mass of helpful content in our blog archive, community forums, and Help Center, and to pick the best material. “That’s the number one characteristic you hire social media people for,” she says. “Judgment.” She says she gives each an hour and tells him to do as much as he can. “It’s not about quantity — I make it very clear when I assign it that the intention is not to complete the entire thing, but see how well they respond to the questions there in front of them.” How each person responds to the test is very revealing. “Some only respond to things they know answers to, or they find the similar ones and go ahead and fill in the same answers,” Benton says. “There is value to that — we do get a lot of similar questions over and over, and our concierges will get a lot further having recognized that there’s a lot of repetition.” Anyone who completes at least 15 questions in that hour is a likely candidate, she says. “Then it comes down to judgment: which content they choose to share and also how they present it to that user. I look at tone, language, and word choice.” She notes that you can train people with shaky mastery of English to improve their written communication, but that judgment and the ability to find the right answer have to be there from the start.

How to Test a PR Specialist

“I hire a range of PR people, but the position I’ve done the most test hires for is outreach specialist, reaching out to the media on behalf of our company,” she says. “I test hire by asking each candidate to fill in a spreadsheet naming local publications, which reporters and editors there are the best to pitch our story to, and to provide the contact info.” She gives the candidates a bit of background about oDesk, and from there she wants to make sure they know the top publications in their local areas and which reporters to target. “It’s about their ability to understand our business, do the web research, and find the contact info. I give them an hour, in which they should be able to come up with five or ten names.” If they pass that initial test, she then hires them for another hour to write a test pitch. “If you were reaching out, how would you contact them, what would you say?” she asks. Much of what results isn’t perfect, but the hope is that by working together over time the pitch is one that can be polished. And the initial research test can prove very valuable. “Say I test five people to do press outreach for oDesk in Pakistan,” she says. “Those five come back in the first phase with 35 unique names, but I only hire two to move on to write the pitch. Then, whoever I actually hire gets the 35-person list to build from. There’s some repetition in that investment, but it’s not completely wasted work.”

A Little Success Insurance

The test hire requires you to build a little extra time into your hiring process, and it requires a little extra expenditure — though in most cases you can make sure that money is spent on useful work that accomplishes your business goals. It also allows you to make sure someone with a good resume and a great interview style is really as skilled, and as good a fit with your company, as he seems. It’s an investment that lets you get a little work done while you find the best way to get a lot of work done. Employers: Do you have a test-hire technique? Contractors: What’s the best test job you ever faced? Let us know in the comments.

Brian McDonough has been a writer and editor for more than 15 years, and has managed teams of in-house and freelance writers for newspapers, magazines and web sites. He’s been freelancing with oDesk for three and a half years. You can test anything but his patience.

Presentations Everywhere: 6 Presentation Apps for Your Android, iPad or iPhone

Julia — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:00:19 +0000

Making a business presentation used to involve an array of equipment — a projector, a screen and a laptop loaded with a (hopefully) glitch-free PowerPoint or Keynote presentation were all customary fare. But in the new technological world of smaller and lighter, who wants to lug around all that stuff?

Thankfully, it’s become less common. In fact, making presentations using web based software is now standard. And thanks to smartphones, those presentations can be viewed (or given) while on the go. No more being tethered to a desk chair! While some of that equipment still has to be occasionally toted along (just wait until they release the iPad with a built in projector!), these apps make the presentation process much simpler and more interactive.

iPhone/iPad Apps:

Keynote ($9.99): Not just for your Mac desktop, the Keynote app allows you to work on presentations from your iPad or iPhone while on the go. And not only can you edit those presentations, but with the iPad dock connector, you can hook your iPad up to a VGA connection on a projector and show your slides in the boardroom. Beats hauling a MacBook around any day.
Fuze Meeting HD (Free): Fuze Meeting is a conferencing based app that available for the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, and Android platforms. It allows you to give video and/or photo presentations via a browser-based interface. It integrates with various chat programs and allows you to use Dropbox to share files. It’s even got a virtual red laser pointer you can use! How cool is that?
Conference Pad ($4.99): You’ve got to be at the meeting location for this app, but it’s still pretty cool! Conference Pad allows you to display a presentation on up to fifteen iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches using either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth for connectivity. Your iPad functions as the controller. The slight downer with this presentation app is that your slides must be in PDF format to work, plus you’ve got to buy a copy of the app for each device. Conference Pad also includes that cool red laser pointer feature, plus it allows you to roam around the conference room while talking. (That should keep everyone focused, right?)

Android Apps:

Mighty Meeting (Free/Basic; $4.99/Pro): Mighty Meetings encourages you to ditch the laptop. Instead, using their free app, you can upload your presentations (including video) to the cloud, and then share them with other mobile meeting attendees. Presentation viewers don’t have to install their own copy of the app or sign-up for an account — they can view the presentation through either a direct email link or by entering the meeting ID on the company’s website. Attendees can communicate through the chat or voice functions. The free version is pretty limiting and you’ve only got a 14-day trial window in which to conduct meetings. But hey, since it’s initially free, it’s worth a try, right?
Slide Rocket (Free/Lite; $24/Pro): Slide Rocket is a multi-functional tool, allowing you to not only share presentations but to create them as well. The slide creation aspect of the program has been compared to PowerPoint with a key difference being that it is web based instead of software based. You do have the option of importing PowerPoint slides, though that’s not always a successful process! This app could be especially useful when you’re collaborating on a presentation with coworkers in other locations.
Join.Me (Free): This nifty app is all about screen sharing. Lots of it, in fact. You can demo a product, discuss a design or show off a presentation with up to 250 viewers. Plus, your viewers can get in on the action as you can choose to share control of your screen with them. The free version is amazingly functional, making me wonder how many people will opt to pay for the few extra bells and whistles that the pro version provides. And in case you’re worried about security, the meetings are sealed up with 256-bit encryption, so you should be pretty safe from uninvited hackers.

Do you have experience with any of these presentation apps? Or is there one I missed that blows the rest of the field away? Share your reviews below in the comment section.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance writer and editor for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small business owners and non-profit organizations. Now that she has a new Android phone, she’s excited about being able to ditch her laptop bag on occasion and still be able to interact with clients. You can find her on Twitter at @JuliaCamenisch.

The Test Job: How oDesk Hires Contractors

BrianM — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:00:47 +0000

When employers hire remote contractors, the same fear they face with in-house hires — Am I hiring the right candidate? — is often magnified, because hiring and managing remotely is a new skill for some. Remote work, however, offers one solution that generally isn’t available with an in-house candidate: the test hire.

We’ve been advocating the idea of “test driving” a contractor relationship for years. Here’s the nutshell: Before you hire someone for a job that will span 100 hours, hire her to a two- or three-hour test job that lets you assess her skills, timeliness and communication style. Or test several top candidates and then hire the best for that major project. In general, you get the best return on that investment if the test job is work of actual value — something you can use, rather than merely a skills test.

But there are a lot of ways execute that idea. Since oDesk has about four contractors for every in-house employee, we thought we’d turn to our own managers for tips on how to effectively test prospective workers. After the jump, we’ll talk about web designers, software developers, project managers, product analysts and customer service reps.

How to Test a Web Designer

Shipra Kayan is an interaction designer at oDesk, and she hires web designers and user interface prototypers for long-term relationships.

: Shipra Kayan, oDesk

“For those hires, I’ll usually have a project in mind. I break off a chunk of the project that I feel like the candidate should be able to do in five hours,” she says. “I give them the small task and a 10-hour limit. Anything less and you’re really not giving them a chance. I don’t do fixed-price test projects because I want to understand how fast they are at turning things around, what times of the day they work, etc.”

Kayan says she relies heavily on oDesk’s management tools during the test process. “I stalk the work diaries, and have sometimes already made up my mind even without talking again to the candidate or seeing the end results,” she says. “If things are not going well, I contact them and stop the project immediately, paying them for the hours worked to date.”

How to Test a Project Manager

Matt Cooper, oDesk’s vice president of marketplace operations, says the key to test work is to “closely replicate the work that will be done on the main job.” He uses this technique to hire project managers:

: Matt Cooper, oDesk

“A prospective project manager is given a scenario and asked to create a 30-minute presentation on how they would drive the program,” he says. After his typical interview process, which involves a detailed job posting, emails following up on promising applications, and Skype interviews, he hires his top three candidates for the presentation assignment. “In some cases, where it’s a lower-level job, I may test more. I’d say three times the number you need to hire is a reasonable ratio.”

The scenario he gives is actually the one he’s hiring for. This not only lets him identify the best candidate, but to take the best ideas from unsuccessful candidates — he paid for ‘em, after all — and incorporate them into the project.

“I usually do the test projects as a fixed price assignment, paying $100 for the presentation, setting the expectation that it should be three to four hours of work,” Cooper says. “At the hourly equivalent, it’s equal, if not a slight premium, to what they would have earned in the full job.”

How to Test a Software Developer

Matt Cooper isn’t the only person at oDesk hiring developers, but you can’t beat his technique:

“We hire developer candidates on a real two-week project, with one of our existing developers looking over their shoulder,” Cooper says. “They work on real projects under supervision, and at the end of the two weeks, the other developers review their work and either vote them in or out.”

This has the collateral effect of building esprit de corps, making other developers — in-house and remote contractors — feel like they have a real stake in building a successful team, but mainly it gets quickly to the heart of whether a candidate is worthy.

“It’s been very effective,” Cooper says. “You don’t vote to hire someone if you think you’ll need to clean up their mess. And it has a ‘Lord of the Flies’ vibe that I find entertaining.”

How to Test a Customer Service Rep

Mike Barnett runs oDesk’s Customer Service department, and he says that a traditional, discrete test job doesn’t quite do the trick, but a well-governed probation period covers similar ground.

“We have a trainee program,” Barnett says. “Before we hire any rep we conduct an extensive interview over Skype, at least voice and ideally video.”

The customer service manager usually does the first interview, and a team leader — a senior rep out in the field managing the day-to-day workflow — handles the second interview.

: Mike Barnett, oDesk

“We’re looking for the following skills: customer-service experience, strong writing and typing skills, a customer-centric mindset, empathy, strong listening skills, problem solving skills, and technical competency,” he says. “We ask them to demonstrate these abilities, or we look for them, during the interview.”

New reps are hired as trainees for 90 days. They’re limited to 20 hours per week and, after initial training, are deployed to help customers. Their team leaders are constantly monitoring and coaching them, and a group Skype chat lets everyone offer help as questions arise. After that 90 days, a trainee is either promoted to CSR Level 1, with the weekly limit bumped up to 30 hours, or the contract is ended. Barnett notes that the strong interview and training processes have ensured that he has never had to replace a trainee at the end of the trial period.

How to Test a Project Analyst

Subha Shetty, our director of project management, hires contractors for a number of jobs, including product analyst, lead generation and documentation. She recently hired someone to evaluate our time tracking tools.

Shetty notes that she starts with a simple assignment and a low hourly limit, but makes sure to give the contractor everything necessary to succeed. “That includes a list of specific tasks for the short term, a clearly agreed-upon time frame, and a consistent communication pattern.”

To pick someone for the fairly large job of evaluating our time-tracking tools, Shetty assigned a leading candidate to do a portion of the project before deciding to hire him to complete the work.

“I broke down the overall project into chunks and gave him the first chunk as a test,” she said. “It was to select the vendors to do the competitive analysis. I then judged his methodology, analytical ability and actual choice of vendors. I gave him five to 10 hours for this job. This helped me determine the quality of work and deliverable.”

Because she was satisfied with the results, Shetty increased the contractor’s weekly limit and assigned him the rest of the job. She mentions that how many candidates she tests depends on how many strong contenders she finds. “If it’s a job for which the talent pool is more readily available, like lead generation,” she says, “I test with two to four candidates, giving them the same task and comparing their results.”

Tests for All Tasks

Every job requires a slightly — or dramatically — different test job, but there’s still no better way to see whether an apparently qualified candidate can handle the job than to observe her doing the job. If these test-hire tips aren’t enough for you, come back on Wednesday. We’ll pick the brains of oDesk marketing guru Erica Benton as she tells us the best way to use test jobs for key marketing positions, such as writers, public relations specialists and social media experts.

Meanwhile … tell us about how you test-hire candidates, or if you’re a contractor, tell us about the best experiences you’ve had with test jobs. The comments are open!

Brian McDonough has been a writer and editor for more than 15 years, and has managed teams of in-house and freelance writers for newspapers, magazines and web sites. oDesk has been testing him for more than three years. So far, so good.

New for Employers – see custom contractor matches

Mollie — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:38:51 +0000

Want a little more help finding the right contractor? Employers, we’ve got a new offering tailored just for you. After you post a job on oDesk, if we find contractors that match the skills you’re looking for, we will present them to you for consideration. If you see someone you like in your short list, you can then easily invite them to apply to your job.

You don’t need to do anything special to see these matches, but your results will improve by writing a detailed job description. When you include specific skills in your job posting, we’ll instantly show you a list of well-qualified contractors with those skills. If you’re not sure you want to invite the resulting contractors to interview for your current job, you can save them to your Saved Contractors for later review, or move on to search for more contractors filtered by category, feedback, price or other criteria that matter to you.

This matching is intended to supplement your own detailed contractor search and evaluation, and will give you a jumpstart as additional contractors apply directly to your job.

Try posting a job today and see your customized list of contractor matches! If you have feedback, please visit our community forum to share your thoughts.

______

Note, if you are an oDesk contractor, you can improve your chances of being shown in these custom matches! Be sure your profile is up-to-date and includes the specific skills supported by your portfolio and work history. Learn more on our forum post for contractors. This is one more way we are working to match you up with the jobs that suit your skills, and introduce new employers to qualified contractors like you!

The One-Click Interview: How to Hire a Graphic Designer

Tamara — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:00:01 +0000

Need to hire a graphic designer as soon as possible? Consider these must-ask questions and can’t-be-ignored red flags specific to graphic design.

1. “What program do you use and are you certified?” There’s no right answer, of course, unless you have a personal preference, but this will help you gauge the professionalism of your potential hire. Are they using something that’s free? Like the free download of paint.net? (Probably not the best sign.) Or has this person really invested in their career by buying top-of-the line software. Are they certified in any particular program like Adobe InDesign or Corel? How you interpret the answer is up to you, but understand that owning the best software doesn’t always guarantee skill.

The One-Click Interview Series:

It can be difficult to hire someone for a position you aren’t well acquainted with. For example, if all you’ve ever known is software development, hiring an accounting clerk might be a challenge. That’s why we’ve developed The One-Click Interview series — to help make hiring outside your skillset even easier. Check out How to Hire a Writer.

2. “What can you show me from your portfolio that is similar to what I want?” This is not about getting free ideas out of the person. This is about seeing similar work. If you want business cards, ask to see their business cards. A brochure? Make sure you see what they’ve done in that regard. Be sure they have experience creating the type of work you need.

3. “What format/file type will you use to turn in your work?” This is important depending on what you plan to do with it. If they are creating a button for your website and your web designer wants to get it in the form of a jpeg file, then you need to be sure that’s what you’ll get.

4. Show the designer some samples of things you like. Graphic designers are not mind readers. Show each person you interview a few links to concepts or layouts that are similar to what you are looking for. Be sure to get a feel for whether or not they can deliver what you want. (By the way, you should probably pass on any interviewee who criticizes the type of artwork you want.)

5. Ask about the designer’s work schedule. Proper design projects will require a lot of back and forth between you and the designer you hire. You’ll want to see the progress at specific check points (sketch, mockup, rendering, etc.). Be sure that you understand when the designer is and is not working, so that you don’t become frustrated by a designer who is never available to talk when you are.

6. “How many hours do you expect to spend on the project?” You may or may not know what is realistic for your project, but getting the estimation from several interviewees will start to give you some answers.

8. If you decide to hire the designer, pass him one assignment at a time. Starting off slow will allow you to weed out the bad hires and discover the great ones before making any kind of long-term contract commitment.

Ever made any big mistakes hiring a graphic designer? Share what you’ve learned about interviewing designers in the comments below.

Tamara Rice is one of several freelance writers on the oDesk Blog team. She joined the oDesk marketplace in 2009, after more than six years on staff at an award-winning national magazine.

How to Win Your First oDesk Job

Stephanie — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:00:09 +0000

You just finished signing up on oDesk, added your chosen payment withdrawal methods, and are now applying for jobs. You’re ready to start earning income and building your freelance business! Unfortunately, most employers prefer those with more experience, with feedback scores, and with at least 100 oDesk hours. So what does a newbie have to do to win his first oDesk project?

1. Complete and enhance your oDesk profile.

It could be that your profile isn’t really standing out among the twenty other applicants bidding for the same project. With so many contractor profiles to sift through, you can’t afford to be like everyone else.

Your first step therefore is to complete all of the necessary details of your oDesk profile. Enhance it right after with an appealing overview, a clean and detailed resume, and your best portfolio samples.

2. Take and pass skills tests with flying colors.

One of the best ways to prove yourself on oDesk is to pass two types of tests:

The oDesk Readiness test, and
Free skills tests that match your specializations

It’s not enough that you take and pass these skills tests though. There are employers who are more attracted to shiny 10% and 20% badges, so do your best and aim for higher percentile rankings. (Psst: Hide test scores that aren’t that great. You aren’t required to display them.)

3. Learn how oDesk really works.

The Help Center is the best place to go to for information on how oDesk really works. Knowing how to log time, use the Work Diary, send messages, apply for jobs, and price yourself properly will help boost your chances of winning your first project.

How? For the simple reason that you’re a self-starter who knows what you are doing. Employers will see just how efficient and quick you are to learn, and that you won’t be a problem to work with. There won’t be any need to file disputes for incorrect logged hours, misuse of the Work Diary, and the like.

4. Personalize and proofread every cover letter you send.

What could be more irritating and embarrassing than reading a generic cover letter full of spelling and grammar mistakes? If your cover letters are simply generic templates with blanks to fill in, the employer will simply discard your application and move on to others who can communicate his goals and requirements better.

With that said, spend about 15-25 minutes reading the employer’s job post and noting down important details (answers to the employer’s questions, for instance) that you should address in your cover letter. While writing, make sure that you either use your word processor’s spell and grammar checker to proofread your cover letter, or re-read and revise it yourself. If English isn’t your first language, ask a friend or family member who’s more proficient to help you.

5. Apply for jobs that you are confident, knowledgeable, and interested in.

One of the most effective ways to win your first oDesk project is to go for those that fit your skills set, your expertise, and your interests. Imagine yourself applying for a job you had absolutely no experience for. How would you answer your employer’s questions? How will you understand the terminology being used? Do you have the technology (e.g., software) needed to create the project?

Go for projects that make your eyes sparkle and your adrenalin pump. If you feel your hands itching to apply to a job post and your brain churning ideas for how to create this employer’s project, don’t ever stop yourself from trying.

6. Accept rejection and keep applying.

They say that a new oDesk contractor has to go through 60 rejected applications before winning his first project. I’m not saying you have to count to 60 before you can earn your first job, but you should be ready to accept rejections of all kinds and to never give up. Keep applying to jobs that interest you and that you’re knowledgeable about. Who knows, your next application may turn out to be your first big break after all.

Bonus: One of my favorite tactics is to keep an eye out for newly posted job posts. Being one of the first 5-10 candidates to apply can increase your chances of winning the project, since the employer/hiring manager is pretty much awake and attentive when browsing through the first few applications. Just make sure to follow points 1-6 first before sending off an application.

What was your experience like when you won your very first oDesk project? Was it easy, so-so, or difficult? Go ahead and share your stories in the comments!

What to Do When Your Contractor Goes AWOL

Erica — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:00:37 +0000

So, the project you assigned out seems to be going well, until suddenly one day you stop hearing from the contractor. It’s as if she dropped off the face of the earth. Not returning calls, not returning emails, missing set milestones, empty work diaries — and she’s literally on the other side of the world, so it’s not like you can knock on her office door. What’s happens to your project? What are your next steps?

Assessing the Situation

The reality is that your next step depends on how long you’ve been working with the contractor and how you feel about his or her work. Some questions you need to ask yourself are:

How firm is my deadline? Do I need to find another contractor quickly, in order to prevent a minor business disaster in-house?

Am I interested in giving the contractor the benefit of the doubt and waiting things out? Is their skill and our work relationship worth the indefinite wait?

Did the contractor tell me about a vacation or other plans that would explain the silence? (Check your previous correspondence.)

Freelance Focus

oDesk recently covered this topic from the perspective of remote workers. Check out What to Do When an Employer Goes AWOL.

While a good contractor should hold to your milestones and check points, life is full of unexpected distractions: a parent is hospitalized, a child is ill, an earthquake takes down their power and internet — life’s just like that. If you know what city your contractor lives in (and you should), it’s worth checking the weather and news reports for that region. The reason for your employee’s lack of communication may be simpler than you think. An ice storm, heavy rains, or other inclement weather can all impede communication lines.

Keeping Forward Momentum

After taking a good look at where the project stands, your needs, and any natural disaster that may be inhibiting your contractor’s ability to communicate with you, you’ll have to make decisions. Sometimes it means hiring another contractor in a short time frame and having them finish the job. You may find in the process that you’ve discovered a valuable resource for future remote work — or you may find yourself missing the work of your original contractor — but you will have averted total disaster and can move forward, which is important for the life of your business.

If you have hired your contractor through an online service like oDesk, you have the option of ending the contract with your AWOL employee immediately. A week of silence can sometimes be explained away with good excuses, but any longer — assuming there hasn’t been a natural disaster of epic proportions — should raise the sort of red flags that move your trust level with the contractor into uncomfortable territory, signaling the end of the working relationship.

Looking Ahead

Whether you keep your replacement contractor or take your original contractor back when she resurfaces with good excuses, the bottom line is that you need to take managerial steps to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

Be clear with your contractor(s) that communication is sacred in a working relationship, and that you value their honesty more than their silence. Was your technical writer dumped by her fiance and couldn’t get up off the couch? It’s an understandable excuse, but remind her a simple text message or email would have clued you in and you’d happily have given her time without thinking any less of her as a worker.

Set the pace of communication by not going AWOL on your contractors. If you are known to not answer their emails or calls for days on end, you’re setting a precident they may follow. Keep them clued into your schedule and life, and they are more likely to follow your lead and keep you clued into theirs.

Teach your remote workers how to treat your deadlines, milestones, phone calls, etc. You do this by actively pursuing them. If your software developer missed a deadline, email him the next day to check on the project. If another 24 hours passes, call him on the phone.

Own the pace and depth of communication, and you are not likely to see your projects hijacked again by an AWOL contractor.

Tell us how you’ve handled remote workers that go missing in the middle of a project. Is it an unforgivable red flag? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Erica Benton brings nearly a decade of experience as a small business owner and freelancer to her position as the editor-in-chief of the oDesk Blog.

Search Update

Nazila — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:00:14 +0000

Search is a frequently used and very powerful tool on oDesk. Be it contractor search or job search, oDesk’s primary concern is in creating the best match. When we deliver relevant jobs to strong, qualified contractors, we succeed in delivering good matches. And when matching works, we all win.

Today we focus on contractor search and share with you our thinking on the elements of a successful contractor search.

Are you an employer interested in finding the best contractor for your open job? Are you a skilled contractor making sure that you rank well in contractor searches? Read on…

What is oDesk contractor search made up of?

Our search currently focuses on 3 primary factors:

Keyword match: To determine the match, we examine a contractor’s entire profile, including the objective, skills listed, tests, and past jobs to determine if the contractor would be a good match for this particular search.
Availability: With our search algorithms, we give preference to contractors who are actively and appropriately applying to jobs.
Effectiveness: Effectiveness measures the contractor’s ability to select and be hired for appropriate jobs. New to oDesk? Consider creating the best profile that you can and applying to jobs that match your skills and capabilities. New contractor profiles are ranked based on skills and availability.

We’ve been testing this new search for a couple months and have seen very strong results. Employers are seeing more relevant contractors for their specific jobs, resulting in more invitations and more hires.

Try contractor search today and let us know about your experience. We are listening.

What are some of the things that you can do to get the best search results?

Search tips for Employers:

When searching for contractors, start by selecting the appropriate job category and sub category. Include relevant search terms and use the filters on the search page to further refine your search results.
When posting your job, provide a detailed description of the job, your requirements and expectations, and fill in the specific skills you’re looking for in the “Skills” field.
When reviewing contractors, look at the whole picture. Rates are important and can signal the level of experience and quality the contractor offers. But, more important is reviewing the contractor’s skills, past work history, tests taken, and portfolio items to identify whether they are right for your job. Contractors new to oDesk won’t have a history and feedback on oDesk. But, they may still be a great match for you. Feel free to ask them for references.

Search tips for Contractors:

Choose your job categories carefully.
Focus on a small list of skills. What are you best at? What are you an expert at?
If you are available, be sure to apply to relevant jobs (see KEYWORD MATCH above).
Keep your profile up to date. As you conclude jobs, add the experience to your profile information.
If you are unsure of your availability, consider not applying to jobs.
Be responsive to the invitations that you receive from employers. If you are not interested in the job, politely let the employers know that you don’t see a fit with the job.
When hired, do high quality work that meets your employers’ needs. By doing so, you are more likely to get strong feedback scores and comments, be retained for additional work, and earn more dollars. All of these will increase your ranking in search.
New to oDesk? Focus on completing your profile and taking tests that differentiate you. Choose your job categories carefully and focus on a narrow set of skills where you are an expert. Apply to appropriate jobs and show your commitment to the job application by creating specific cover letters addressing the needs of the employer. Detailed profiles, specified skills and appropriate job applications increase your standing in search.

Let us know about your experience with contractor search. We are eager to hear your comments. For more details, or to discuss search with the community, please visit our community forum.

4 Ways to Create a More Successful Portfolio

Stephanie — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:00:52 +0000

Your portfolio plays a very important role in your quest for good freelance work on oDesk. This particular section displays your past and present projects, pieces that you’re particularly proud of and that should encourage employers to hire you.

Normally you might just upload screenshots and files and choose the right categories, but it’s possible to tweak your portfolio in ways that will really convince the employer to hire you as his contractor. Here are four excellent tips on how to make your portfolio work better for you:

1. Have a portfolio piece for each service you provide.

You’re a freelancer who specializes in Service A, B, and C. If you’re aiming for employers looking for these three services, showcase work where you used each of your specialties in particular.

For example, I’m a copywriter that loves working with product descriptions, blogging, and website copy. To show employers that these are the services I provide and that I’m good at, I upload three to five portfolio items that display my latest product copywriting, blogging projects, and website copywriting projects. Each one is categorized separately and has their own unique project description.

2. Write a well-written description for each portfolio piece.

Utilize the project description textbox by writing a brief but interesting story of how your project came to be. You can start by writing what your main task was, how you tackled the employer’s problem or met his requirements, and other important details about the project.

What’s important here is that it’s short and concise enough to tell the prospect what you did with this project, what skills you used, and how you successfully nailed the employer’s goals. One or two short paragraphs should do the trick.

3. Update your portfolio with the latest screenshots and links.

A screenshot of your latest published article, website, or logo, plus a link to each, will certainly help keep your chances of winning freelance projects high. The employer can easily take a look at the screenshot to see what the project looks like, and then click on the link to see the actual work up close.

If you’ve made any changes to your old portfolio pieces, make sure to take and upload a new screenshot of it and that its URL is correct.

4. Delete or revamp old projects that don’t reflect your skills as a freelancer.

Chances are you have old projects in your portfolio that you’ve outgrown already. Now that you’ve honed and improved your skills, you wouldn’t want your future employers to see obsolete projects that don’t truly reflect how good you’ve become.

Your best bet would be to either revamp these old projects using your latest skills, or delete them all together. If you feel that these projects still matter to you, you can edit them by applying new techniques to make them look shiny and new again. Otherwise, just delete these projects and make room for new ones.

Here’s a bonus tip: Don’t settle. Every project you bring to the table comes with a hefty side dish of experience and growth, both of which will make you a more valuable professional in the market. This improvement is what you want your employers to see, so don’t ever hesitate to push out excellent work each and every time. As soon as your employer gives permission to use the finished project in your portfolio, upload the screenshot, paste the link, and point it out to the next employer in line.

Take a look at your portfolio right now. How is it doing? Is it bringing in new interview invitations, or does it need a fresh start? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Rules for Reviewing Freelancer Profiles: Find Your Best Hire!

Tamara — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:00:51 +0000

Scanning dozens of contractor profiles can be a daunting task whether you are just getting your business off the ground or have been a hiring manager for years, which is why we went to oDesk’s Manager of Enterprise Services Whitney Priest for her advice.

Whitney joined oDesk in January 2010, and currently works with our larger enterprise customers and manages marketplace services (like oDesk Payroll and recruiting).

Here she narrows her advice into four easy-to-remember rules for researching profiles:

1. Scan skills and experience for similar projects. If any past oDesk project was a publicly posted job, you can click on the job title in the work history and see the job description. “If you’re hiring a php developer,” Whitney points out, “and all the jobs listed on the profile are in another programming language, the contractor’s work history isn’t going to be much help. Look for similar projects.”

2. Examine the work history for feedback. Sometimes employers rely too much on test scores and stated skills, overlooking the feedback and references on the actual work history. “Looking at prior work experience and feedback on oDesk is valuable,” Whitney advises, “However, if the employee doesn’t have a lot of experience on oDesk, I recommend reviewing their resume and asking for references from a previous employer. Whether it’s an email address — a company address not a personal one — a phone number, or written reference, it’s good to at least ask.”

3. Watch the feedback and work history for repeat customers. Whitney cautions that while this shouldn’t be used to exclude potential hires, having repeat employers is a great indicator that the freelancer meets expectations. Whitney says even if you can’t see that an employer has hired the contractor more than once, check their feedback for signs of potential rehires. “Sometimes an employer will say something like, ‘I’ll definitely use this person in the future,’ ” says Whitney. “Having repeat customers is always a good sign.”

And the fourth rule of researching profiles …

4. You have to do MORE than research the profile: Interview, interview, interview. “You can’t just hire from the profile,” says Whitney. “It’s important to interview people, just as you would in your office.” She is quick to point out how many cues and indicators about a person can reveal themselves in the interview process. “You can gauge a person’s communications skills when you start interacting with them,” Whitney notes. “And part of the interview process is seeing if the contractor can put the interview on her calendar and call in on time.”

What do you look at when scanning a freelancer’s profile? Tell us your red flags and attention-getters in the comments below.

5 Profile Mistakes Keeping You Unemployed

Guest Blogger — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:00:26 +0000

I’ve been hearing about oDesk from my group of small business owners for months now and have only recently taken the plunge. As a marketing consultant and online publisher, I’m usually looking for article writers, copy writers, transcriptionists and people who know WordPress and some SEO. It’s not hard to find those people, but choosing the person that’s going to be a good fit for my project can sometimes be difficult.

oDesk has a fantastic database that helps people who hire narrow down the list of choices, but even then, there are often so many people to choose from at different price points, that the description that candidates write about themselves and a picture often become the items that drive a hiring decision.

The following are five easy-to-fix mistakes that are keeping you from getting hired or making more money — and how to fix them:

Mistake #1. Not thinking of yourself as a product. Even though everyone on oDesk is in the service business, you have to think of yourself as a product. Think of your picture and profile as the packaging, your description as the package design (or the copy that gets the potential customer excited about the product), and your skills and knowledge as the features and capabilities of the product.

When your potential clients are searching the database and results pop up, it’s like looking across of grocery shelf filled with boxes. So your job is to describe and design yourself in a way that attracts exactly the kinds of jobs that you are best at and clients will hire you for again and again.

Mistake #2. An unprofessional picture. You must have a professional picture as part of your profile. It doesn’t have to be professionally taken, but it should be a headshot, meaning that it’s taken above the shoulders. Dress as you would going into an interview. In so many ways, when a client sees your pictures, it’s as if you just walked through the office door. So look your best and have a friendly smile. oDesk isn’t Facebook, so avoid using overly casual pictures with silly clothes or hats.

Mistake #3. Your description is about your goals and not my needs. As a potential employer, I’m coming to oDesk with a specific project. If a description starts with your objective to grow your business or the kind of client you are looking for, I pass this by because it doesn’t match what I’m looking for. The way to get chosen is to focus on the keywords that best describe the tasks or skills that your ideal client is looking for. For example, if you are good at interviewing and doing market research on the phone, write that down because that is the task clients would be hiring you for. Your goal is to describe the talents and tasks that you love to do and that clients would want.

4. Your description is too conversational or just a list. Your description is the only face-to-face conversation you will have with a potential client. Don’t count on them calling you for an interview unless the description sounds like a professional introduction. The best and most appealing descriptions are those that are friendly, a little conversational (not overly so), and loaded with tasks, capabilities, and talents. Great descriptions are written in full sentences and say things like, “I’m great at writing keyword rich articles that sell.” Or “I can complete an hour-long transcription in two hours from the time you give it to me.”

5. Too many different skills and abilities in the description. While it’s possible that you have many skills, talents and abilities, it’s best to focus on the ones you love to do most or the ones where you perform the highest quality work. Placing too many skills in an overview description won’t attract more customers, it will attract less. When potential clients see too many skills, they won’t know which ones you do best. Focus on what you want to be known for. You can list the others, but don’t describe or “sell” more than five unrelated skills — especially when these skills are different such as programming and copywriting. If that is your talent than only focus on those two and don’t confuse people with more.

These are the five top areas that I look at in helping me choose a contractor. If you look closely, you’ll see that so many of the mistakes come from treating the profiling forms as forms and not conversations with an employer. When you treat your profile as a conversation with a potential employer, more ideal employers will be drawn to you.

Ivana Taylor of DIYMarketers.com is the President and Chief Marketing Officer of Third Force, a strategic marketing firm that helps small to medium sized companies get and keep loyal, profitable customers regardless of price. She is the author of popular marketing blog called Strategy Stew where she dishes out marketing how-tos for small business owners and in-house marketers.

5 Types of Productivity Tools for Freelancers

Stephanie — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Keeping productivity at a maximum has long been a big problem for freelancers. There’s just so much going on the Internet that we’re thrown into an abyss of noise and activity, often leaving us wondering what we should (or shouldn’t) do next.

But with the right productivity tools, you can manage and organize yourself without feeling stressed and lost under a large pile of work. In this post, let’s tackle five different types of productivity tools and how each can help you work more in less time.

1. Note-taking

Note-taking is important for freelancers because it helps gather and save important information that we may need in the future. With notes, you can write down instructions from your client, save log-in information, web clippings, and the like.

Most freelancers can already work with a notepad and pen, but if you’d like to create, save, and sync virtual notes, you can use note-taking apps like Evernote, Simplenote, and Springpad. The advantage is that you can share notes and collaborate with teammates easily, plus you won’t have to worry about losing an important note in the trash bin.

2. Task Management

A project is broken down into several tasks, and handling several tasks or to-dos all at once can be quite daunting for the average freelancer. That’s where task management comes in.

Creating handmade checklists or using a task management app can help you manage your everyday to-dos. You can use a feature-rich or minimal task management app to help you slowly complete projects. I suggest Teuxdeux, Remember the Milk, and Wunderlist.

3. Calendars/Schedulers

A calendar or scheduler helps by scheduling and organizing your important appointments, events, and meetings easily. It keeps you organized and makes sure you don’t forget next week’s Skype meeting through built-in notifications.

Traditionally, you’d have a planner or a wall calendar to mark important dates down. But for freelancers who use the computer everyday, you can use Google Calendar or your computer’s built-in calendar to schedule events and meetings with clients, teammates, etc.

4. Time Tracking

Time tracking is a kind of tool that tracks the amount of time spent on a particular activity. The oDesk Team application is a good example of a time tracker, since it records how many minutes are spent on a particular project and the description of that activity, and guarantees you payment for the time tracked in the application.

If you prefer to use a time tracker other than the oDesk Team, you can use a stopwatch or try out a purely time tracking app like Freckle and Klok. You can then use the data to see the average amount of time it takes for you to do a particular task. How you become more productive through time tracking depends on how you use the data — and may require some math skills!

5. Project Management

Project management is actually a collection of all these tools summed up into one interface. You can use project management apps to manage tasks, schedule activities, attach and share files, track time, and much more. Some of the more feature-packed apps even have CRM and invoicing built into the system.

Although these apps are a bit pricey (usually under paid plans), project management tools are great for businesses and big teams who need to work efficiently with others. If you belong to a remote team and manage so many people, emails, files, and activities, subscribing to a project management app can definitely make things easier for you.

With the right set of productivity tools that fit your needs as a freelancer, you can sustain your productivity levels, free up more time, and complete projects on target.

Keep in mind though that no matter how advanced or innovative the productivity tool may be, its effectiveness depends on how you do your work, how focused you are in getting things done, and how you use these tools to your advantage.

As a freelancer, what other productivity tool has helped you finish more work in less time (and under less stress)? Do you use an particular productivity app that you’d like to suggest or recommend to the community?

New for Contractors – Find Work application

Nazila — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:02:31 +0000

Following the launch of our new navigation scheme, we are pleased to announce the first contractor-specific application: Find Work.

Find Work Application

Find Work brings together in one place, all things necessary for a successful job search.

Here you can find a list of appropriate jobs that match your skills, your saved searches (Find Jobs) and the ability to modify and present yourself via profile information and test results (Profile and Tests).

The Find Work application also helps you manage the jobs that you have applied for (Job Applications) and keep track of interviews and next steps on a job search.

Let’s take a closer look at what is available and what is coming soon.

Find Jobs

Suggested Jobs: Here you have a list of jobs that may be of interest to you. This list is created based on the categories that you have chosen.
Saved Searches: Get a daily email of the jobs you’re interested in. You can create a saved search easily.
New messages: Note that your active candidacies and job invitations are now listed in one convenient place for you. New messages are called out.

Job Applications

Details about your active job applications, including active candidacies, invitations and sent job applications are listed here.
Active candidacies are job applications that you are discussing actively with employers.
Invitations to interview are initiated by employers based on your job applications or via finding you in the marketplace.
Sent job applications list all the jobs that you have applied for, where a response has not yet been received.

Profile

The more you tell employers, the easier it is for them to determine the fit between your skills and their job. Complete your profile and watch the green bar grow.
Be sure to keep your profile up to date. Have you done any exciting projects lately? Take a moment and add them on to your profile.
Don’t forget portfolio items. They show the type of projects that you have done and indicate your level of experience and success.

Tests

Tests are a quick way of showing mastery of topics and your skills. Taking tests helps identify you as a serious and committed contractor. Over 340 tests currently are available from oDesk.

We’d like to hear from you. What’s working and what’s not working with our new navigation and our new applications?

Send us direct feedback via our survey or visit our community forum post. We look forward to hearing from you. (see screenshot below)

SEO Success: Target High-Value Traffic

BrianM — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:00:35 +0000

Looking to drill a little deeper into the basics of search-engine optimization, we chatted with Acquisitions Director Adrian Fung, who recently took charge of oDesk’s SEO strategy. His focus, he says, is less on boosting our search ranking than on reaching the right potential oDesk users.

“There’s a lot of ways you can drive more traffic. But not all traffic is actually useful to you.” Fung says. “If you’re a service provider or an ecommerce site, you want people who are ready to buy what you’re selling.”

The question becomes, then, how does a small or medium-sized business target those people? The first step is understanding how your current visitors arrive at your site, and what they do once they get there. Then you can improve your site to draw more high-value traffic. There are two good ways to better understand current traffic, Fung says. The first is to look at your actual site traffic, and the second is to analyze the performance of your paid keyword advertising. Let’s start with site analytics.

Look at Who’s Looking at You

“There are a number of good tracking tools, the most common being Google Analytics,” Fung says. “It lets you see which visitors are converting on the pages you want them to be on. You can slice and dice by specific keywords to see which words drive the best traffic.”

So if you’re a small business selling umbrellas, look at who’s actually been buying your umbrellas. Those who came via search engines — which page did they land on? What keywords brought them there? Does your traffic show that people who readily buy your product use a different search term than those who only pass through?

“You can check specific conversion goals like that — did they sign up, did they buy,” Fung says. “You can also measure how people are engaging in terms of how many pages they view, how long they spend on your site. That’s especially important if you’re more a content provider than a retailer.”

Study Your SEM

Search engine marketing allows a business to have its ads appear beside search results for certain keywords. It’s an alternative, or supplement, to “organic” search results, and it’s more than just a way to get your name at the top of a search page. Fung says it’s also a way to quickly, effectively test which keywords work.

More SEO Resources

A lot of sites claim to give you the inside scoop on SEO, but Fung points to SEOmoz as a smart, robust blog. Start on the blog, or check out categories on analytics, page/site optimization, or keyword research.

“The problem with just looking at organic search is that its not easy to influence,” he says. It’s hard to test alternative keywords through organic search if you’re not currently ranking highly on those keywords. “Paid search helps. If you have a program, the results you get for various keywords will help you understand which are most effective. If you don’t already do SEM, this is the time to start.”

oDesk has had an SEM program for about five years, Fung notes, which provides him a lot of data to apply to organic SEO efforts. “We’ve identified keywords there that generate high traffic and a good amount of conversion,” Fung says. “We’re driving a fair bit of volume through our paid campaign, and we’re working now to refine our organic SEO efforts around what we’ve seen work best in paid SEM.”

Optimizing your site around your most effective paid keywords can not only save on your SEM spending, but get you more traffic, because people tend to put more trust in an organic search result than a paid placement.

Empower Your Pages

Once you know exactly which terms bring the traffic you value most, you have to do another round of site optimization, this one designed not just to make you rank highly for “umbrellas,” but “buy umbrellas,” “designer umbrellas,” or “colorful umbrellas” — whichever terms have proven most effective. You also have to figure out which pages you want those highly motivated visitors to land on.

SEO for Your Blog

A blog is not a direct sales channel. It’s about creating relationships, providing information and establishing your authority on a topic. When optimizing your business site’s blog, don’t use the same ready-to-buy key terms — those aren’t the people you want on your blog, and the blog is not where you want those people to land.

“Our blog is for people, existing oDesk users and potential new users, looking for tips and expertise around what we do,” Fung says.

For oDesk’s blog, Fung says, our most engaged search traffic comes from terms that include “tips” and “how to” and other calls for informational content. We optimize the blog along those lines. But we’d want someone searching for “Hire Java Developer now” to find a page on our main site that quickly explains oDesk’s value proposition and prominently offers the ability to sign up and search for contractors.

“Your visitors have different levels of intent, so you want to draw them to different pages,” Fung says. “The more serious their intent is to purchase, the more you want to draw them to pages most closely associated with that action.”

“Select certain pages to optimize around those keywords, then figure out how we can give them more authority within google,” Fung says. “There are many schools of thought on tactics. In general, make the page as relevant as possible to users with those keywords. Relevance has to do with content, keyword density, how the content relates. Having the keywords show up in the page’s title and headlines help, as does where that page links, internally and to other sites.”

It’s not a trick, though some dubious SEO experts sometimes resort to increasingly ineffective chicanery to “fool” Google’s search algorithm. It’s simply about creating a page that immediately tells someone looking to find and buy a colorful designer umbrella that she has landed on the right page. The title, text and images should all make that instantly clear, and the visitor should be able to quickly navigate to the product she wants and click to make the purchase. But if your site sells umbrellas; rain hats, overcoats and galoshes for men, women and kids; and sun parasols, you probably want to make sure the person searching for “buy designer umbrella” lands on a different page than the searcher for “buy children’s rain boots.”

Satisfy the Surfer

As with general SEO efforts, the attempt to optimize for particular traffic — whether it’s to draw the committed buyer in general, or to promote each of your offerings with maximum effectiveness — is about the customer, not the search engines’ algorithms. There are basic techniques that help the algorithms recognize the elements of a web page, but it’s the human visitor who spends the money, so keep your site focused on pleasing the human, not the algorithm.

“It’s definitely not about lame tricks like random link insertion or keyword-dense gibberish,” Fung adds. “Remained focused on the context of a good user experience. Google has gotten a hell of a lot better about figuring out what’s the right context.”

Thoughts and resources on focusing your SEO and SEM? Hit the comments!

Brian McDonough has been a writer and editor for more than 15 years, and has managed teams of in-house and freelance writers for newspapers, magazines and web sites. He has been working with oDesk for three keyword-dense years and counting.

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