help im new

Great expectations! In 5 days you're ready to give up?? Hang in there - most of us wait several weeks and even a couple of months to get started.  Here's a place to start however:

A)  Your profile: You have not listed anything in your overview - use this area to talk about what you can do a for a client.  Don't focus on your skills here, that's what other parts are for (more detail below);

B)  Your Resume:  You've listed no skills - use this to talk about software you're familiar with, your typing speed, any specialized knowledge that you feel is helpful to a buyer to make a decision;

C)  Your tests:  It would be helpful if you take some additional tests to build up your credibility of knowledge. You might also want to consider hiding your phone certification as it's actually quite low - take it again at a later date;

D)  Portfolio: this is always a sticking point!  There is always the question of how do I get work if I have no work to show.  If you have a blog put a link there, if not consider starting one to highlight your skills; if you have work samples from prior jobs that you can share do so here; if not consider creating some specifically for your portfolio - just think: you can also use them to include with your cover letters.

Feedback suggestion: Since you have no feedback that allows you to establish instant credibility with a buyer consider opening a free LinkedIn account and request referrals from prior employers who liked your work and include a link here in your oDesk profile.  This helps establish credibility as well!

You may want to consider lowering your rate a little bit if needed or bid on a series of fixed rate jobs to get yourself established (though remember that fixed rate jobs don't add hours nor is payment guaranteed).

Make sure your cover letters are pertinent to the jobs your posting for (i.e. don't reuse the same one over and over) and explain why you're the best person for the job.  When posting see what the 'average' posting rate is - for instance: one of the jobs in your current applied for the average rate was $5.56 so chances are that your going to be knocked off the list for that job since your rate is about 2X's that amount.

Hope this makes sense.  Hang in there - it takes some work to get established but it's doable!!

Doreen

I guess you have to try to stick it out.  I am in the same boat so that's about all I can say on that issue.