What's New
We’re upgrading the security of our site in efforts to better serve and protect all users. As part of this ongoing initiative, we’ve introduced a higher standard for password strength. In order to bring all of our existing users up to the new standards, you will be redirected to the change password screen after you log in.
Thanks for your cooperation.
oDesk has just launched a User Referral Program to reward existing users for referring friends and colleagues to the site.
What is it?
When you refer a new user — either a Buyer or Provider — and he or she spends or earns $1,000 on oDesk, we will pay you a one-time reward of $50. There are no limits on the number of friends you can refer.
How can I join?
You are already enrolled!
The new “My Referrals” tab in your My oDesk interface allows you to:
- invite individual friends through email
- embed a referral link or banner in your emails, websites and blogs
The “My Referrals” tab also gives the details of all referral activity, including the total rewards earned and the amount earned through each individual referral.
Read more >>
The Account Activity Tab offers complete visibility into your financial transactions on oDesk. However, many buyers have told us you need to be able to print official invoices for each transaction. Now you can.
Go to your Account Activity Tab. You will see that the Ref ID column for all of your Hourly and Fixed Price transactions is now linked. These links generate a PDF invoice for each individual transaction.
Increases in weekly limits will now take effect immediately! No more waiting until the following Monday to get back on a regular work schedule. Any decreases in weekly limits will still take effect the Monday after the limit change.
How will it work going forward?
Please note that the 2 overtime hours in the example above will not be billed, but any hours worked after the limit change will be billed and paid as regular hours.
Buyers can change weekly limits at any time from the My Assignments tab.
Why did we do this?
Back when we first planned this feature, we thought the best approach would be to enforce all changes in the next week. We felt that would be a fair approach to allow buyers and providers to agree on expected weekly workloads and not allow for frequent and erratic changes in weekly limits.
However, a number of buyers have used the limits in a manner we did not fully expect. On initial hire, the buyers may set a relatively low weekly limit and raise it once they feel more comfortable with the provider. Frequently, these increases are happening within just a couple days after the start date. So, we’ve changed the functionality to allow increases to take effect immediately. We believe this is a win-win feature for buyers and providers.
oDesk has just launched email Job Alerts. You can now receive daily email alerts for all new jobs posted on oDesk that match your profile categories.
Setting up Job Alerts: 
Be sure to update your categories to ensure that you don’t miss out on any of your favorite job opportunities on oDesk.
Update Your Categories Now>>
oDesk has launched a new job category system that improves provider search and job search. With this change, all oDesk providers and job listings will be classified into one or more of our new job categories. This system gives oDesk providers one more way to be found by oDesk buyers and one more way to search oDesk job listings to find the opportunities that are right for you.
Posting a Job with the new category system: 
You can now narrow your job and provider searches based on the categories that interest you. Use Advanced Job and Provider Search to narrow searches by category: 
Providers: To add yourself to a job category: 
We have already categorized all providers that had skills listed on their profile, but we encourage all providers to login and make sure you add all of the categories for which you would like to be found.
We hope these new features make it is easier for the right people to find each on oDesk.
Since we launched the new billing and payment system, the most pressing request we have had, from buyers and providers alike, has been for greater visibility into your financial history on oDesk. We are pleased to introduce the Account Activity Tab.
How can I use the Account Activity tab?
- See what you owe and when the payment is due
- See past statements
- Analyze your oDesk spending by provider, affiliate, or transaction
- Download your activity to .csv for analysis in Microsoft Excel
To check out the Account Activity Tab, look under My Account.
We’ve built new functionality into the console application for buyers and providers to easily pay milestone payments for any amounts on fixed price projects. Buyers can initiate payments at any time and for any amount. Providers can see immediately when milestone payments have been made and approved. Both sides can track the agreed amount, amount paid to date, and amount remaining.
This should alleviate some of the concerns around getting paid on fixed price jobs. Providers may even want to request a small payment before starting any work to ensure that the buyer is serious about completing the project. It’s up to you how to use the feature.
We’ve also prepared a short play for you:
(Act I – working on a fixed price project before today)
Provider: “I finished the first phase, can you pay me 25% for reaching the milestone.”
Buyer: “I don’t see any way to do that on oDesk, I’ll just pay you the full amount at the end”
Provider: I’m nervous, this buyer might not pay me.
(Act II – working on a fixed price project after today)
Provider: “I finished the first phase, can you pay me 25% for reaching the milestone.”
Buyer: “Sure, happy to. Good job.”
Provider: “Thanks, I’ll keep working now.” /*thinking*/ I feel much more comfortable now that I’ve received some partial payment.
Buyers can now add additional company users to your Team Room. You might want to consider doing this if you are jointly managing a project or if you have other local developers that you’d like to be able to work with your oDesk providers. Adding new users takes just a few seconds.
Go to My Account – Company Info – Add User (see screensnap)
If you’d like to add more managers to your team, they will be able to post jobs, hire providers, and update financial information.
If you’d like to just add other local employees, contractors, or non-oDesk providers, do not add them as a team manager.
Once you add a user, they’ll receive an email invitation to join your team and their registration can be completed in just 2 minutes. Then they can join you and your oDesk providers.
We recently made an update to the feedback system to accurately calculate affiliate feedback scores. As most of you have probably figured out by now, the individual feedback scores are weighted on a dollars-earned basis.
For example, if I’ve completed 2 projects:
Project X: $5,000 earned. 5-star feedback
Project Y: $100 earned. 1-star feedback
My total feedback score would be a (($5000 * 5) + ($100 * 1)) / ($5000 + $100) = 4.92
The feedback score for affiliates has historically been calculated as a simple average of the feedback scores of the individual affiliate contractors. It has been updated to be dollars-weighted for all projects completed by the affiliate contractors, past and present.
For most affiliates, this should not cause a significant change in total feedback score in either direction, but you may notice that it has moved slightly.