oBlog Posts

From building a portfolio to moving onward on oDesk towards a profitable freelancing career, Sara Haley shares some perspective from the provider’s view in her eBook series, How to Make Money on oDesk. Here, she shares what she has learned during her time in the oDesk oConomy.

It’s a vicious cycle in the beginning—in order to get a job on oDesk, you need some positive feedback, but in order to get that positive feedback, you need to get a job on oDesk. It may seem, at first, that there’s no way to actually get your foot in the door and get started, but with a few strategies, you can build up strong feedback quickly and easily.

In the beginning, in order to quickly establish an oDesk profile, you’re going to want to look for small jobs with quick turnaround times (like same day jobs) that can provide you with instant feedback and get your oDesk profile developed with some work history and logged oDesk hours.

When it comes to your very first job, you’ll want to work above and beyond the expectations of the buyer. This will not only surprise and delight your client, but up the chances of being hired for future projects they may need outsourced work for. Not only this, but it encourages the buyers to leave you a glowing feedback for all to see—and the best thing you want on your feedback is a line like, “I’d hire them again in a heartbeat for all my freelance writing needs!” The line says it all and will stand out in a sea of sub-par providers.

Avoid getting a bad rating and work hard. And I mean, hard. Especially those first few jobs—you want to get some great feedback going so that you can show prospective buyers that you’re the person for the job, that you have past satisfied customers and that you completed everything as agreed and in time.

When the job has been closed out, both the buyer and provider are offered the opportunity to leave feedback. Be sure to leave feedback for the buyer immediately to remind them that feedback means a lot to you, and chances are, they will reciprocate with positive feedback as well. If, for some reason, you go a few days without feedback or additional contact from the buyer, it’s not considered rude if you send a polite email message to the buyer just reminding them that you’re getting your start on oDesk and feedback means a lot to you. Just in case they forget. Again, make sure its polite and not pushy, and just let them know that getting good feedback at the beginning of your oDesk career will help you gain the trust and work for other exceptional buyers like them.

There is, however, a limitation as to when feedback can be posted, so if you haven’t received feedback from the buyer after the job and you’ve already left them feedback, be sure to contact them soon or your window of opportunity will be gone.

One mistake I see all too often is a new, frustrated provider posting on the forums that they’ve been signed up for months and have yet to get a job. Most times, the major mistake I notice is that their hourly wage is extremely high.

Of course, by having an outrageously high hourly wage on oDesk and a new member profile with no ratings or feedback, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. Just like on eBay, you’re more likely to purchase goods from a reputable, long-time seller with great feedback than you are from a newly registered seller without any feedback at all. Same goes for oDesk—you have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is generally on the more inexpensive side. But don’t fret—once you have a few jobs with glaringly positive feedbacks under your belt, raising your rates will go unnoticed to those looking to hire someone for quality work. I’m a firm believer in the phrase, “you get what you pay for.” You are what you’re worth, and make sure your resume, feedback and portfolio reflects work that corresponds with the hourly wage you are asking. (My eBook series, How to Make Money on oDesk, gives you the steps, the knowledge, and the confidence to get you working for the hourly wage you deserve!)

Just like word of mouth, positive feedback can be priceless. If a buyer sees that you’ve knocked the socks off of your previous clients, it will put you closer to the top of their list of prospective hires.

Sara Haley is a happily married stay-at-home mom to her two children and spends her free time working on oDesk and freelance writing her own eBooks. She is the writer for Omaha-Moms.com and HappyApping.com, as well as the author of numerous eBooks, including her How To Make Money on oDesk series and The Ultimate Transcription Job eBook. She also writes for companies like eHow and Bukisa in addition to the freelance writing and online work she does for her ever-growing list of satisfied oDesk clients. A link to all of her online ventures can be found at sarakhaley.com

We’re happy to announce a few small, yet important changes to the group profiles.

We launched groups several months ago in order to give providers a way to differentiate themselves based on their expertise and give buyers a way to find the experts. Groups are like little expert marketplaces within the overall oDesk network.

So what’s new?
Each group now features new metrics designed to highlight its quality and success:

• Group member average rates and average feedback
• Overall oDesk average rates and feedback
• Total number of jobs posted to the group
• RSS feed of recent job posts to the group

And we’ve cleaned up some of the interface to display group members in a clearer format. We hope you like the changes.

We’re also happy to have some great partners on board as sponsors of groups, including Yahoo!, Network Solutions, Joomla!, Drupal, Salesforce.com, Intuit, Zend, and many more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Freelance animation and illustration are among the creative fields booming here at oDesk, so we thought our talented animators and illustrators deserved their very own list of helpful and inspiring blogs and web sites devoted to their craft. If we’ve missed any of your favorites, let us know!

THINKING ANIMATION

From - Angie Jones and Jamie Oliff, authors/animators
Asset - Inspiration, buzz, news, CG talk
Read - “Example Animation Review” by Angie Jones

COGHILLUSTRATION

From - George Coghill, cartoon illustrator
Asset – Tips, wisdom, technique and inspiration
Read - “6 Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts for … ” by George Coghill

ILLUSTRATION CASTLE

From - Heather Castles, illustrator
Asset - Business/marketing tips, creative advice, expert advice re: greeting cards and children’s books
Read - “How to Color a Pencil Sketch” by Heather Castles

DRAWN!

From - Various contributors
Asset - Resources, buzz, ideas
Read - “Seeing and Drawing the Figure in Space“

ILLUSTRATION MUNDO

From - Nate Williams and other contributors
Asset - Inspiration, forums
Read – “7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website” series by Thomas James

COLOUR LOVERS

From - Darius Monsef and various contributors
Asset - Colors, colors, colors, trends, forums, feedback
Read - “106 Blue Palettes” by Evad

ANIMATION TIPS & TRICKS

From - Shawn Kelly, ILM artist
Asset – Q&As, tips, and insights
Read - “How Common Is It to Use a Flipbook or PAP?“

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

From - Penelope Dullaghan and various contributors
Asset - Weekly creative challenge, forums, artist interviews
Read - “IF Interview with Tim O’Brien” by Yuko Shimizu

TODAY IN ART

From - Anonymous art community
Asset - International community and feedback, inspiration
Read – “30 Works of Art Painted with iPod Apps … “

VECTOR ART

From - Luis Drukker, Donald Davis and “Toni”
Asset - Inspiration, freebies, tutorials
Read - “How to Skew a Dot Pattern …” posted by Luis Drukker

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

- Tamara

If you’re working with others online, as a small business owner or freelancer, then your computer is the conduit to your work. Your computer’s efficiency correlates directly to the your work productivity. Below are some tips to optimize performance and make the most out of the computer you already own.

Disclaimer: Changes of this type may have the potential to cause loss of data. Before making any alterations to your system, backing up your data is strongly recommended. Proceed at your own risk!

OS and Memory
Memory (RAM) is where programs live while your computer is turned on. Your operating system(OS) is the first program loaded in to memory. You or your OS can then load more programs. However, if your OS has been instructed to load spyware, viruses, worms, or non-essential software in to memory, this can cause your computer’s processing speed  to grind to a halt.

This particular article is aimed at users running Windows XP. However, if you are running a Mac, check out Onyx. In my experience most Mac problems stem from Disk Permissions issues. Onyx is great at fixing these issues.

Malware Cleaning and Prevention
PC Tools Spyware Doctor and PC Tools Anti-Virus, are both available as free downloads. They can help you identify and remove malware from your system.  Once they’re installed they will auto-update unobtrusively and let you know if there are any more problems.

If the above doesn’t work, then the offending piece of software is brand new and really evil. Check out the forums on MajorGeeks.com. Chances are someone else has had the same problem and the solution is there, or they are in the process of figuring it out.

Unwanted Legit Applications
Now, if your machine is still running slow there are probably some programs running that just aren’t necessary.

If you truly do not use the application, then remove the application using “Add/Remove Programs” (Located by click “Start” and then “Control Panel”).

Net Squirrel has a great article on “How to use MSCONFIG” a windows systems tool that can help  you make sure that only necessary programs are running at startup.

Clean Slate
If your problems originate with the “blue screen of death” (windows goes to a blue screen, and there will be a lot of text that you don’t understand), or if none of the tips above have yielded performance on par with your computer’s original state (from the manufacturer), then reformatting and reinstalling may be a good option. This is a sure fire way to get back to a good performing system. Consult your computer’s user manual, or see below. Re-installing windows will cause data loss. Backup.

Microsoft’s Instructions on How to Install/Upgrade/Reinstall Windows XP.

Final Thoughts
Keeping your system in a healthy state isn’t too tough if you do regular maintenance. However, keep in mind that some of the programs above have the potential to cause permanent data loss. Backing up your data is highly recommended before undertaking any of the above. If you are hesitant to delve this deep in to your system, then consider consulting a professional computer technician in your area.

oDesk is discontinuing its integrated SVN repository service.
Even though this change affects only a small number of users, we’d like to describe the upcoming changes and ensure that all have sufficient time to plan them.

When will SVN be discontinued?
Effective immediately, no new oDesk SVN repositories will be provisioned. Existing SVN repositories will be discontinued according to the following schedule:

• December 15, 2009 – repositories will become read-only and no longer accept new commits.
• December 31, 2009 – repositories will be disabled completely and all data will be deleted.

What do I do now?
You may download a copy of your entire repository anytime before December 31, 2009. Click here to download your repository.

We have also made arrangements with our partner, CVSDude, to offer you a tremendous value and seamless transition to their SVN solutions. By migrating your SVN repository you will receive a full FREE year of CVSDude Team Edition “XS” plan (a $200 value). You can also purchase any of their other plans at 25% off by using promo code “odesk25″. Click here to learn more.

Why is SVN being discontinued?
At the time we introduced the oDesk SVN there weren’t many good offerings for management of private source code repositories. Since then, new services have come to market that offer a far more complete feature set than the oDesk offering at competitive prices.
Our SVN no longer sufficiently serves the needs of our customers and we decided to focus on what we do best, while partnering with top-notch providers that we believe offer quality SVN services and great value.

If you have additional questions please contact Customer Service.

In case you haven’t noticed, there are approximately 3 billion different ways in which friends, relatives, clients, freelancers, employers, and anyone else riding the World Wide Web can communicate. Okay, so maybe I can’t back that number up, but the point is, there are enough communications-based software suites, stand-alone programs, freeware downloads, payware applications, and other nifty add-ons to help ensure that even your mother-in-law can stay in the loop. Some of these applications are basic chat programs, while others offer everything from video conferencing, online document sharing, and even real-time brainstorming and document editing in virtual online meetings. Whether you’re a part-time freelancer with just a couple clients, or a swamped buyer with a large staff of contractors working on multiple projects, these five communications keepers should be close at hand.

Skype

Skype offers users high-quality voice and/or video chat to any other Skype user in the world, free of charge. Let me put that another way: Free international voice/video conversations in a professional, high quality application. The only fees associated with Skype are for calls made to traditional land lines or cell phones, but then again, isn’t that what a normal telephone is for? Skype is one of the most popular online communications tools, and it should be a staple for anyone who makes a living through the internet.

Eyejot

Eyejot is the exact opposite of text-messaging, in that it uses a web interface to send and receive video messages through email. Eyejot is convenient in that it requires no special install or client, it works with just about any web browser, it’s free to download and use, and the video emails can be sent to any valid email address. In an era where people fanatically send text messages over a phone, sending video messages in an email seems deliciously ironic.

Digsby

Digsby is ideal for social networking aficionados seeking a single interface to manage communications across multiple platforms, including personal email accounts, social networking sites such as Facebook, and popular chat programs like Yahoo Messenger, all with a single login. Users can also respond to individual sites through Digsby, or issue a general posting to all sites under the Digsby umbrella.  And since Digsby is free to use, it could be the most convenient piece of communications software you never had to buy.

AIM Pro

AOL’s dressed-up, free-to-use, Instant Messenger professional edition offers some impressive resources for online communications, including video conferencing, integration with Microsoft Outlook, encrypted communications, and when partnered with WebEx (see below), secure online file sharing.

WebEx

Cisco’s WebEx is the only item on this list that actually costs money to use, but it’s also arguably the best web-based meeting software available. It features a relatively simple interface that allows users to set up virtual meetings complete with voice chat and video conferencing, secure connections, file hosting, desktop sharing, and real-time file corrections for anyone participating in the meeting. If your workweek consists of daily brainstorming sessions or regular project updates, shelling out $59 per month for WebEx isn’t such a bad deal.

These are but a few of the tools available to both buyers and providers in the quest to keep the lines of communication open. Have you any other offerings to add? Tell us about the must-have communications suites you use to keep in touch with your associates!

A while ago, we presented 10 Excellent Design Blogs, and we heard from many of you that some of your favorites weren’t on that original list – so now it’s time we added another 10! On these blogs and web sites, freelancers can find freebies, tips, inspiration and ideas on all things design.  Take  a look at our new list of excellent design blogs, and let us know what you think. Did we forget any of your favorites?

CMD+SHIFT DESIGN BLOG

From - Liz Andrade, web designer
Asset - Advice, ideas, Liz’s video posts
Read - “Communication in Web Design” by Liz Andrade

THE DESIGN CUBICLE

From - Brian Hoff, founder, graphic designer
Asset – How-tos, ”Sweet Tweets,” and typography talko
Read - “30 Enticing … Web Designs” by Brian Hoff

FUDGE GRAPHICS

From - Franz Jeitz, graphic designer
Asset - Inspiration, freebies, tutorials
Read - “40+ Great Summer Wallpapers” by Franz Jeitz

YOU THE DESIGNER

From - Gino Orlandi, graphic designer
Asset - Tips, forums, job listings, freebies
Read - “7 Things to Ask Your Clients for Besides Money“

I’M JUST CREATIVE

From - Graham Smith, graphic designer (logo specialty)
Asset - Logo design tips, freelance tips, freebies
Read – “Logo Design Budgets … ” byGraham Smith

CRAZY LEAF DESIGN

From - Various contributors
Asset - Job boards, tips, themes, how-tos
Read - “50 Free Wordpress Designs” by Alex

METHOD TO THE MAYHEM

From - Calvin Lee, graphic design
Asset - advice, social networking from design perspective
Read - “How to Brand Yourself with a Twitter Background” by Calvin Lee

DESIGNM.AG

From - Multiple contributors
Asset - Forums, freebies, community, inspiration
Read - “The A-Z List of Free Grungy and Dirty Fonts” by Callum Chapman

DAVID THE DESIGNER

From - David Hyde, graphic designer
Asset - Inspiration, advice, tips
Read – “52 Fonts to Use Instead of Helvetica” by David Hyde

JUST CREATIVE DESIGN

From - Jacob Cass, graphic designer
Asset - Resources, social media insights, design tips
Read - “10 Twitter Design Lists You Must Follow” by Jacob Cass

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

- Tamara

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

Some of our festivities include:

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

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

OK, so you’re really good with Microsoft Excel.  You can write bi-conditional nested if statements and vlookups that make peoples head spin.  You’re the only person in your tri-county area that can make a dynamic pivot chart with multiple vertical axes that retains its formatting.  Maybe you’ve even created user-defined functions that have replaced your entire secretarial staff, or written VBA subroutines that made your co-workers shed tears of joy.  Well, this post is for you; the lonesome few that have mastered the tools and are solving complex problems at work, but are looking for a way to tie it all together in a way that takes your career to the next level.

I see two distinct paths you can take as an Excel Guru:  The first is you quit your job, become an independent contractor spending 8 hours a day solving complex issues with various implementations of Excel and Business Automation.  Excel consultants such as these are in demand and making enormous hourly rates. The other path is for those who love the challenge of climbing the corporate ladder, taking on more and more responsibility, and eventually leading other Excel gurus .  Both of these routes have one major thing in common: you have to be able to connect your technological savvy with the business needs of your client or boss.

So how exactly do you translate those skills into value-added business skills?  Here’s an example to get you started:

“The Holy Trinity” -  Raw Data Tab / Static Formula Columns / Pivot

Here’s a framework in three steps that works when you are given a weekly raw data feed and asked to make a report.

1) The Raw Data

First make a “Raw Data” tab on your Workbook and paste that data in exactly as it is in the weekly report.  Don’t delete unneeded columns, or filter out erroneous records, we’ll let Excel do that for us later on.  Any steps you take to pre-process the data now are steps that you’ll have to take each week, which means more work and more potential for making “human” mistakes.  “Paste in the new data, hit refresh, and you’re done” should be your new mantra as you design the report.

2) Static Formula Columns

Next you’ll want to make static formula columns on the raw data tab.

You have data like this:

The first thing you want to do is add calculated fields for values that you’ll need to pivot on later.  The trick here is that the Raw Data coming in each week must always have the same number of columns, say A through H, so that you can add your formulas to I, J, K, etc and know that when you paste your new data in next week they won’t be written over.  The most common formulas here are breaking the “Date” field into “Month”, “Data”, and “Year” (as outlined below) but the possibilities are endless.

Once you’ve added the new columns, enter the formulas

Once you’ve entered all of your formulas, “fill” them down to the bottom of the data.  To more easily identify these calculated fields columns later on, I always make them a different color.

Some other examples of useful columns here are:

• City or State using a vlookup with some unique identifier on another sheet
• Actually constructing your unique identifier key by concatenating several other values together, e.g. =A1&A2&A3 (this one can be really useful in certain situations)

Remember that if you’re dealing with a dataset that has a varying number of rows each week, you’ll have to make sure to drag the formulas down to the end of the new data once you paste it in over the previous weeks data.  That’s a heck of a lot less painful that re-creating the report from scratch each week.  If you wanted to really get fancy you could even do a:

=if(iserror(your_formula_here)=true,”",your_formula_here)

Which would make the formulas blank on rows that didn’t contain data.  Then you could pull the formulas down “to infinity” and never have to worry about it again.  Just watch out for bloated file sizes.

3. Putting it All Together
Here’s is the fun part: Now we’re going to take the data, along with its static formula fields, and translate it into something readable and useful by businesspeople. Data-wise, focus on using pivot tables or pivot charts when possible to automate the report.  Also, ask the client if they are interested in a dynamic report (where the user can interact with the data via pulldown menus, etc.) and design accordingly. 

• W.I.F.M.
  • The one question on a person’s mind when they look at your report is going to be “What’s in it for me?” Think about the needs of the person looking at your report, and cater your deign to those needs.  Try to keep out extranous or non-essential information and get right to the point.
• K.I.S.S.
  • “Keep it simple, stupid!” You’ll want to keep the design of your report elegant and simple, yet rich with useful information.  Here are some experts’ take on report design to help you discover the process yourself:
    • Check out Edward Tufte, who is the quintessential master on the topic of data visualization.
    • Check Out John Peltier’s Site for great tutorials on how to build elegant charts and other visualizations in Excel
    • Get some great design ideas from FlowingData.com
    • The Infosthetics Blog
    • Some great ideas for the advanced user can be found on this blog post, over at Smashing Magazine

Here are some other Excel topics we’re considering writing on next… cast your vote in the comments below for which one you like best, or suggest your own idea:

• Upgrading to Excel 2007: Navigating the Minefield
• Statistical Analysis for Excel: The Missing Guide

Over the next month or two, we will be releasing a number of enhancements to make hiring on oDesk easier than ever. Tonight was the first release, a redesign of the hire confirmation page.

The page is now crisper and cleaner, highlighting the most important parameters for buyers. It also turns a three-page process into one page plus a confirmation box. Plus, if we say so ourselves, we think it just looks better!

There is one new field: “Title/Role”. Buyers can now give their providers a title, different than the one listed in job opening. As a result, the unwieldy “Michael Levinson, Looking for top-noch web designer for e-commerce site” can be replaced by the more natural “Michael Levinson, Senior Web Designer.”

Stay tuned for more meaningful improvements over the next few months, but in the meantime, please share your feedback in the comments, or submit a feature request or suggestion in our feedback forum.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a previous blog post we spoke about the growth and performance of the oDesk Customer Success Team, and the progress we have made this year.

As we experienced a doubling of our case load to nearly 10,000 tickets and chats submitted per month, we also recognized the need for improved internal tools to help us achieve operational efficiency, and meet to overarching goal of better serving our customers. After an exhaustive search of more than 15 help desk software solutions, we have selected the one that we feel best meets our needs, as well as the needs of many of our users.

We are pleased to announce the selection of Zendesk as our internal case management solution. Zendesk’s open architecture and rich APIs were a key factor in our decision. We find the SaaS solution elegant, easy to use and learn, and very robust. We look forward to an early 2010 launch of a new customer support portal, which will make use of the Zendesk platform and enhance the experience for all users.

We believe so much in the strength of the winning team of oDesk and Zendesk that we are also thrilled to announce a deeper partnership that includes a new Zendesk Group on oDesk. Within this new group, oDesk buyers will find tried and tested customer service agents, admins and integrators who are experienced with Zendesk. These approved professionals can help transform your help desk and, more importantly, your business. The strong pool of customer service experts available on oDesk combined with the increasing demand for this type of work ensures the ongoing success of this group – we look forward to great things to come from our partnership with Zendesk!

The needs and lifestyle of a freelancer are unique, and we know it’s hard to find advice that deals specifically with your world. So, we’ve gathered up ten websites and blogs we think every freelancer should know about to help make the most of the freelance lifestyle:

JUNE WALKER: Tax and Financial Advisor to the Self-Employed …

From - June Walker, tax consultant
Asset - Tax advice for freelancers in the US
Read - “Get an EIN for Security Reasons” by June Walker

CONSULTANT JOURNAL

From - Andrea Coutu, founder, marketing consultant
Asset - Scam warnings, tax and financial planning info, marketing info
Read - “How Commenting on Blogs Markets Your Business” by Andrea Coutu

FREELANCE LIVING

From - Chris King, author, freelancer; various contributors
Asset - Inspiration, guidance, advice
Read - “What’s Your Business Model” by C.J. Hayden, MCC

ZEN HABITS: Simple Productivity

From - Leo Babauta, Zen master, author
Asset - Productivity advice, work/life balance
Read - “The Slow Secret: How to Make Lasting Changes in Your Life” by Leo Babauta

THE SELF-EMPLOYMENT BLOG: Practical Tips for Success

From - Karen Greenstreet, small business consultant; various contributors
Asset - Thoughts on marketing yourself and your business, inspirational video clips
Read – “It’s So Important to Take Time Off” by K. Greenstreet

FREELANCERS UNION

From - Freelancers Union (Exec. Director Sara Horowitz)
Asset - Insurance, legal advice, retirement and political advocacy
Read - “Unpaid Wages: How to Collect” by Gabrielle

THE ANTI 9 to 5 GUIDE: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube

From - Michelle Goodman, freelancer and author
Asset - Wisdom targeted to women, but good for all
Read - “Recession Ethics for Freelancers” by M. Goodman

UNDRESS FOR SUCCESS: Work From Home Resources and Advice

From - Kate Lister and Tom Harnish
Asset - Advice, scam awareness, resources
Read - “2008 Telecommuting Stats”

BRAZEN CAREERIST: Advice at the Intersection of Work and Life

From - Penelope Trunk, entrepreneur
Asset - Solid career advice for those at home or at work
Read – “Focus on Learning in the Face of Recession” by P. Trunk

EXPIREMENTS IN LIFESTYLE DESIGN

From - Timothy Ferriss, author
Asset - Inspiration, motivation
Read - “How to Respond to Criticism” by T. Ferriss

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

- Tamara

 
 

We are pleased to announce our best Providers for October 2009! We have over 350,000 Providers on oDesk, but these ones stood out as the cream of the crop this month, as they performed the most hours of work with the highest feedback rating. They have been given special badges recognizing their achievement.

oDesk Buyers, you might want to get in touch with these Providers soon…they just completed assignments and are available now, but probably won’t be for long. Click on their profile to check out their work and contact them for an interview!

BEST FREELANCE DESIGNERS

Top 25 Freelance Designers for October 2009 were:

1 Arvind T. PHP/IIS/MS SQL, joomla, PHP, Drupal, MySQL, Ajax, XHTML 2 Susan B. Silver Cat Studios – Audio/Video/CBT Production; Script/Copy Writing; 3 M Paul 3D artist/animator -3DSmax, Zbrush, After Effects, Flash… 4 Vivek Acharya Programmer in Iphone/VB.Net/ASP/C#/PHP/Joomla 5 Kim M. Senior Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, and InDesign 6 Abdullah Al-Baki Ultimate 3D Modeler and Architectural visualizer 7 Anna P. Graphic Designer 8 Mick D. Web Expert, Photoshop,Flash Animation, HTML/CSS, Web2.0, Logo Designer 9 Xenia S. Search Engine Optimization, Blogging, Social Media Marketing 10 Herbert M. Fine Artist, Over 600 oDesk Hours, Perfect Rating, Great Portfolio 11 Guillaume Le Taeron 3D for game & Illustration, Iphone game development, Android 12 Bill Whitney Illustration, animation art, for corporate presentation and law cases 13 Stanimir S. <+> Creative Freelancer 2D & 3D Designer (Architecture) <+> 14 Anait Sagoyan ►► PROFESSIONAL LOGO & WEBSITE MOCKUP DESIGNER WITH HIGH-END PORTFOLIO 15 Agnes B. creative logo designer always in time/strong in marketing & branding 16 Daniela C. ARCHITECT – 2d and 3d- DESIGNER 17 Jonathan Antonio ODESK TOP DESIGNER / ILLUSTRATOR 18 Nikolay Atanasov 3D Generalist / Post prduction 19 Johlett Van Der Merwe Unique & Noticeable Print Design & Fine Art 20 Srujith Kudikala Microsoft Certified .NET programmer, PHP/MYSQL, ORACLE,JOOMLA 21 Joanna C. Listed #1 Best Freelance Designer Sept 2009/Joomla/Zencart/Graphics 22 Wajeeha Hussain 3 years experienced and professional Graphic Designer+editing expert 23 Alexey Medvedev ○●○●3D MODELING║VISUALIZATION║ARCHITECT║GRAPHIC║CAD specialist○●○● 24 Michelle Gamboa MICHELLE@WORK 25 Jashan K. Web2.0, Mockups, Logos, Prints, Illustrations, HTML, DHTML, CSS, Flash BEST FREELANCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Top 25 Freelance Software Developers for October 2009 were:

1 Vikas S. 4yr Exp. Sharepoint,C#.Net,VB.Net,SQLServer,AJAX,WebServices 2 Alexander M. Microsoft Certified C#.NET/ASP.NET/J2SE/J2EE Senior Developer 3 Ivan T. Sr. .NET Developer / Technical Architect, 6+ years of experience 4 Gurpal M. ASP.NET/Ajax and DotNetNuke Professional 5 Ravi K. ASP.NET+VB+VB.NET+AJAX+RSS 6 Luis Gomez Sr. Developer in C#, C++, MS SQL, Website Development & Administration 7 Alex Bowling Wide Array of Experience 8 Yuriy E. 4000+ oDesk hours, Senior C#/.Net Developer 9 Anatoly Mikhailov RubyOnRails/Ruby, jQuery/Prototype Developer | xHTML, CSS Designer 10 Shrish T. Silverlight and ASP.NET 3.5 expert 11 Denis S. .NET and java Developer 12 Amit Agrawal Programmer / Developer 13 Pankaj Singh Java Developer 14 Vlad I. .NET 3.5 (C#, ASP.NET), C++(STL,Boost, ATL,MFC,WinAPI), Java 15 Cantor Fan 7+ years experience/J2EE/EJB/Java/Oracle/PHP/ERP/Twitter 16 Budugu N. Top 10% in Testing – QA, iseb Trainer, Online Research, Admin Support 17 Amrik Singh ASP.Net/VB.Net/C#.Net/VBA programmer 18 Meteonic Innovation PMP/Sys-Engg/Architects/Designers/System Test ::C,C++/Games/Android 19 Rodion Bykov Adobe Air/Flex/Coldfusion/MSSQL/PHP/MySQL development & management 20 Jan K. ❶ Experienced Flash / Web / Joomla developer ★★US Based★★ 21 Ross C. Senior iPhone/C/C++/Web/Python Developer 22 Ajit J. Expert DNN Programmer 23 Alexey Verenikin Web design & development, 10+ years of experience 24 Sandra Qiu oDesk certified iPhone expert (1st!) 25 Nelson T. Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML, CSS BEST FREELANCE WEB DEVELOPERS

Top 25 Freelance Web Developers for October 2009 were:

1 Evgeny M. PHP/MySQL/DHTML/Ajax Developer/Project Manager 2 Tatiana D. PHP, MySQL, Drupal Developer, Team Leader 3 Alexander D. Expert J2EE/JBoss, PHP/MySQL, AJAX, SMARTY Developer 4 Olexiy O. Java/J2EE Architect / Senior Developer 5 Dmitry A. ASP.net/Mobile – Professional Experience 6 Dora M. Dora 7 Vladimir K. ColdFusion/MSSQL/PHP/Smarty/mySQL developer 8 Denis S. 9 Fahmi A. Full PHP Experience 10 Igor G. Java Developer 11 Yaroslav O. Senior (around 3000 oDesk hours) PHP/MySQL/Ajax, Project Manager 12 Alexander Aristov Self-motivated software developer (j2ee, JSP, javascript, ASP, .NET) 13 Mircea C. Senior Delphi Expert Software Developer, with JAVA, C# .NET and PHP 14 Misha B. Drupal/PHP/MySQL/HTML/JS/CSS 15 Jane Durm Sales & Marketing, Management, Admin. Assistant, Customer Service 16 V K. Unmatched Silverlight and ASP.NET 3.5 Professional 17 Maninder S. HTML/ XHTML/ CSS Developer, Certified Wordpress Professional 18 Gurdeep Dhillon PHP/MySQL/Ajax Drupal Joomla Wordpress ECommerce Rails UberCart Expert 19 Denis Statsenko Greatest PHP/MySQL/AJAX/Symfony/Smarty/osCommers/Joomla developer 20 Vladimir Fedorov Flash & Flex developer 21 Andrey Z. Experienced PHP/Python/Django/Coldfusion/Flex web-developer 22 Yogesh S. Certified ASP.net|C#.Net|VB.Net Developer|SQL Server 2005|VB 6|VBA 23 Alexei Shulga PM & Zend certified PHP,MySQL,Ajax,CakePHP, CI, ZF senior developer 24 Durrab Khan Sr.Software Lead & Architect | Flex/AIR/Spring/Java/J2EE/J2ME/Android 25 Sri Vardhan Gogineni Developer BEST FREELANCE WRITERS

Top 25 Freelance Writers for October 2009 were:

1 Deborah Hemstreet Specialist in Online Help, Manuals, Presentations, and More! 2 Chitra Raghavan Business Research Analyst 3 Christopher Subijano TOP 10%! Superb SEO Writer/Link Builder/Business Consultant/Engineer 4 Deepa Ashith TOP ODesk Writer/Business Analyst/CopyWriter 5 David Tong Senior Technical Writer, Photography Instructor 6 Manal Sh Accountant , Bookkeeper ,E-learning , English>Arabic Translator,Moo 7 Cc M. Professional – Project Management, Design, Content, Data Entry 8 Georges D. Forex trader / MQL coder / English – French – Arabic translator 9 Jayne W. ♣♣♣ Microsoft Office Expert ♣♣ Researcher ♣♣ Teacher ♣♣♣ 10 Jamie M. Data Entry, Data Mining, Copy and Paste Work Expert 11 Graham Land Creative/Copywriter, research, travel, branding, SEO, Swe-Eng trans. 12 Michelle Grace Data Entry/Researcher/VA/Social Bookmarking/DocumentEditing/WebContent 13 Ramon B. Excellent WRITER, resourceful ADMIN ASST, first-rate TRANSCRIPTIONIST 14 Ray Kirstein Voice and Production Pro 15 Jason Spidle Professional Writer, Web Programmer and Certified Project Manager 16 Bryan D. Experienced Email support, Research/Writer, Graphic Designer, CSR 17 Sally R. On the ball administration, research, writing, editing and data entry 18 Betsy Pickering Creative/Technical Writer | Native English Speaker 19 Ed Q. ۞ Data Entry Expert/Autocad Capable/Virtual Assistant/Video Editor ۞ 20 Maria Revillo English to Spanish translator 21 Susan Campbell Trusted Content Writer – Articles,Sales Pages, eBooks, Website Content 22 Geefe A. efficient and committed business writer/researcher/virtual assistant 23 Faith M. Multi-Skilled eBook Writer/Blogger/Spinner/SEO/LinkBuilder/Top Tests 24 Ronald Uy Result Oriented/ Hard Working/ Professional/WordPress Writer-Blogger 25 Roselyn M. Data Entry/Research/Social Bookmark/Article Submission BEST VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS

Top 25 Virtual Assistants for October 2009 were:

1 Roshni K. Kashwork :Writer, VA, Data Entry, CRM, Project Manager, Admin Support 2 A R. Virtual Assistant/Data Entry/Data Mining/Research/VA/PA/eCommerce 3 Suresh M. Virtual Assistant,Data Entry,Data Mining,Excel,Web Research,PA&VA 4 Marc A. Data Entry, Directory Admin, part-time Writer, and more… 5 Sujata John Data Entry Specialist – Freelance Data Entry Professional, India 6 Hazel S. Smart, versatile and capable native english speaker 7 Livia R. Data Entry-Virtual/PersonalAssistant-Directory Submission-Researcher 8 Benedetta De Rose Professional Translator 9 Angela S. I am your Experienced and Professional Administrative Assistant 10 Desiree L. Expert Fr/Sp Translator, Social Media Marketer and Content Manager 11 Lizza M. ***Virtual Assistant, Researcher & Data Entry Professional*** 12 Abigail Paladin Admin. Assistant, 6Yrs as Call Center Agent, ESL Tutor for Japanese 13 Kaye A. Accounting/Bookkeeping/MSOffice/Data_Entry/Craigslist Proficient 14 Kevin Ochoco FREELANCE I.T. Technician / Data Entry / Customer Support 15 Manolito Sulit Online Media Strategist, Project Manager, ITO/BPO Provider 16 Marcela N. Data Entry, Social Bookmarking, Researcher 17 Minhaz P. oDesk 5000+ hrs, Data entry specialist, Link builder, Banner designer 18 Rachel L. Reseacher, Data Entry, Social Bookmarking,Facebook 19 Abraham Jozsef Experienced oDesk Provider – Data Entry, Research, MS Office, Admin S. 20 Nouman K. VA,Web-research,HTML,CSS,Craigslist and Data Entry Expert 21 Michael B. Expert in Data Entry, Article Writing, SEM, SMM, SEO, Tech Support 22 Daizy Raisinghani Data Entry Expert 23 Travis B. American! 5 Star Rating! Highly proficient with broad set of skills! 24 Simolyn S. ~Virtual Assistant/Customer Service/Telemarketer/Researcher/Recruiter~ 25 Lily Roy Legal, Administrative Support, Reserching, Writing & Data Entry

These rankings will be generated each month, and stored in the oConomy under “Rankings”. October Rankings will be published on December 1st. Congratulations again!

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

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

Helpful Non-Blog Links

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

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

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

Runners-Up:

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

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

Piggybacking off our recent post on the Top 10 Must-Read Affiliate Marketing Blogs, today we’re happy to bring you our list of the Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Events.

These events bring together some of the smartest, most-experienced minds in affiliate marketing.  The industry is all about relationship-building and networking, so these events are a must for advertisers & publishers alike.

Affiliate Summit

Focus: Provides educational sessions on the latest affiliate marketing industry issues.
Next event: January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV

Commission Junction University

Focus: Brings industry experts, advertisers and publishers together to share knowledge and experiences.
Next event: TBA 2010

PubCon

Focus: Educational conference for those involved in all phases of internet marketing.
Next event: November 10-13, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV

A4U Expo

Focus: Affiliate marketing experts from around the world come together to discuss the industry.
Next event: May 18-19, 2010 in Munich, Germany

PPC Summit

Focus: Aimed primarily at pay-per-click marketers, though many affiliates do use PPC in their strategies.
Next event: November 4-5, 2009 in Chicago, IL

Of course, we’d be remiss we didn’t mention our own recently launched Affiliate Program.  We’re excited to partner with affiliate marketers, but we are even more excited to introduce the world of affiliate marketing to oDesk. Publishers can use oDesk for all of their day-to-day needs, since oDesk is a great place to find web developers, graphic designers, blog writers, virtual assistants, and online marketers (SEO, PPC, and social media experts).

Once you sign up for our program, we will:

• Pay you $10 for each new business you send us that signs up & verifies a payment method.
• Pay you 10% of all of the money we make from those businesses for the first year after they sign up. (our average job size is $5,000!)

We look forward to a long-term, fruitful relationship working together.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Future Of Work View more documents from Jeff Brenman.

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