Welcome everyone from Good Morning America!
on Thu, 2008-11-13 23:58. Coffee Break Hey All,
oDesk was covered in Good Morning America this morning and we have a lot of new professionals to welcome to the community. We're thrilled with the response so far. Welcome all and we hope you find your oDesk experience to be enjoyable and profitable.
I wanted to recommend the oDesk Insider Blog for tips for freelancers. It has a lot of useful information for new providers on how to stand out in the network, how to write great cover letters, how to get jobs, increase rates, and more.
Best,
I'll echo Josh's
I'll echo Josh's statements...
Visit the oDesk Insider Blog for tips, if you have $20 to spare, buy the book as well. I highly recommend reading all 4 parts of the "Make More Money" series at the oDesk Insider:
www.odeskinsider.com/blog/escape-the-commodity-trap
Have a look at the Tips for New Providers here in the Help section as well.
Remember, you're your own salesperson here...so your profiles, portfolios, and cover letters are extremely important! You can view last month's oDesk newsletter with cover letter writing tips.
You'll find many useful threads here on the forums, too. If you have a general question about how the site works or what to do here, chances are, someone's asked it before. Don't be afraid to search (use the search box at the top, and choose "community" from the dropdown).
- Danalyn
Before you complain about rates, read all 4 parts of the oDesk Insider Blog's Make More Money series.
Good Morning America
I Just happen to have the day off from my full time job and heard your site mentioned on a segment of Good Morning America. I decided to take a look for myself and I am hopeful to be able to obtain a part time gig to supplement my current job.
Good Morning America
I too saw the segment on GMA and couldn't wait to get online and check it out for myself. I have a full-time job that I started 2 years ago to get myself out of the house after being an at-home-mom for 10 years. Then the economy started collapsing and it turned out to be a Godsend that I had employment. NOW, I would like to find part-time work to supplement my income because it's becoming a "struggle" to make ends meet. Thank goodness for modern technology that this kind of avenue is open for people!
GMA too
hey,
i saw the segment on GMA as well - i'm always looking to reach out to new clients so i thought i'd give this a look - thanks for all the start up ideas.
jb
GMA is great !
I thank God for seeing this segment. I have been out of work in over a year and this is an answer to my prayers. 
How about Good Morning China? :-)
I Hope This Works!!
I too heard about this through GMA. I am very excited to be here, while apprehensive at best. This is the kind of environment I know I could thrive in, yet I have read some disturbing posts in the message boards about this being a place to steel others works. I know that once I am able to actually get an assignment, I will do everything in my power to make myself that more marketable.
Again, thanks and good luck to all the newbies.
Tammy
They're exceptions
Understand something - one of the reasons you hear about people 'stealing' others work is because most of us who are successful tend to not do negative (or positive) posts. I think that 99.9% plus of all assignments end very well. Understanding that anything you actually produce while working with a client ultimately belongs to that client. You have to use some common sense when posting to jobs and understand that 'samples' should be generic (i.e. not specific to that client), create a portfolio of prior works (and if they're not able to be used create some specifically for your portfolio), understand that you're competing in a global marketplace and understanding how the pay system works all will contribute to your success. It's pretty simple to figure out if the 'average' rate of pay for a job category is $15 per hour you're not going to make $50 per hour - and so long as you understand that you'll be fine
Doreen
Thanks Doreen. I figured
Thanks Doreen. I figured out the hourly rate thing real fast. Now, I am posting a rate on the average, not what I wish I could make!!
Tammy
Good Morning America
I heard about you on GMA this morning. So here i am trying to work from home with your help. thank you for the inspiration.