How Do you get a Kick-Start in Odesk?

[oscarmike]

Hi!

I am an aspiring freelancer on odesk but i find it hard to land projects because everybody prefers lancers with existing "Odesk experience". I cannot blame them not trusting freelancers with 0 hours but, if thats their mindset, then im doomed to be forever "jobless" there.

So i am wondering if there is a way to have my profile boosted, so i become more legitimate in the eyes of employers?

TIA!

-oscarmike

 

[srishunyata]

Not sure what your asking price but you'd want to make sure it's low just to get some good reviews.

It would also help to know what exactly are you offering via Odesk.

Even so, have you looked around and been actively applying to job offers? If so, you could give a satisfaction guarantee or something similar.

By the way, if you found this helpful please hit the Thank You Button. Being pretty new here I need to gain a little authority and start building a good rep.

Thx

 

[Toples]

odesk has free test which you cna take
if yo uare good i english do that one and show off...

it worked for me with some for SEO

 

[Enklave]

Have a good test results, make a good covering letter, tell them, show them your experience and try to show some examples of your previous work.

 

[ch8878]

What kind of work do you do there ?

I have landed some jobs on there before, but yes its kind of dead now.

 

[esterm2010]

Hi TIA,
Unless you're offering a low competitive skills, Odesk is not a place for a beginner

I have couple of time opening jobs there, had more than 100 proposal a day (which made me loose my energy to read them).
This is what made me stop to check someone's profile:
- 1st line of their proposal
- Their stats
- Their price
- Then if those 3 fit the project, I'd continue reading their proposal details and check their profiles

Hope it help

 

[poweronics]

You may try to contact some person here and ask him to post some work for you at odesk and give you a review also. You can see the Hire a Freelancer section and try to get work from there and then ask the buyer to hire and pay you using odesk.

 

[oscarmike]

Not sure what your asking price but you'd want to make sure it's low just to get some good reviews.

It would also help to know what exactly are you offering via Odesk.

Even so, have you looked around and been actively applying to job offers? If so, you could give a satisfaction guarantee or something similar.

By the way, if you found this helpful please hit the Thank You Button. Being pretty new here I need to gain a little authority and start building a good rep.

Thx

I have low asking price but i personally think that i dont want to go way below my current per hour work rate (im situated in the philippines).

However, i have applied on jobs with an asking rate of about 3 dollars and less; but it seems that higher pay = higher specialty requirements, while lower pay = more (violent the) freaking competition.

odesk has free test which you cna take
if yo uare good i english do that one and show off...

it worked for me with some for SEO

i have completed the following exams so far:
Search Engine Optimization Test 92%
Marketing Terminology Test 87%
U.S. English Basic Skills Test 92%

Have a good test results, make a good covering letter, tell them, show them your experience and try to show some examples of your previous work.

What kind of work do you do there ?

I have landed some jobs on there before, but yes its kind of dead now.

Hi!

I mostly apply at short, relatively easy tasks, i also prefer fixed-priced jobs.

I have read somewhere that the competition there used to be good. But freelancing became cutthroat like piracy. :C

Hi TIA,
Unless you're offering a low competitive skills, Odesk is not a place for a beginner

I have couple of time opening jobs there, had more than 100 proposal a day (which made me loose my energy to read them).
This is what made me stop to check someone's profile:
- 1st line of their proposal
- Their stats
- Their price
- Then if those 3 fit the project, I'd continue reading their proposal details and check their profiles

Hope it help

Nice pointers!

 

[oscarmike]

You may try to contact some person here and ask him to post some work for you at odesk and give you a review also. You can see the Hire a Freelancer section and try to get work from there and then ask the buyer to hire and pay you using odesk.

Good idea bro! havent really thought of that!

 

[poweronics]

Good idea bro! havent really thought of that!

What services are you offering?

 

[BigMarcusStud]

I'm a full-time oDesker. Here are some tips for beginners.

1. Keep your rates low when you're just starting. You can't blame employers for hiring experienced workers over you. You need to give them incentive on hiring you. When I started 3 years ago, I was writing 10 500 word articles for $15. Peanuts but it helped me build a solid profile with solid feedback.
2. Use a good cover letter. Don't copy and paste cover letters.
3. Take all the free tests that you can. A profile with "Top 10%", Top 20%" or even "Top 30%" is very attractive.
4. Use an attractive title and description.
5. Just keep on applying. It took me about 2 weeks of constant rejections before I got my first job.

 

[oscarmike]

I'm a full-time oDesker. Here are some tips for beginners.

1. Keep your rates low when you're just starting. You can't blame employers for hiring experienced workers over you. You need to give them incentive on hiring you. When I started 3 years ago, I was writing 10 500 word articles for $15. Peanuts but it helped me build a solid profile with solid feedback.
2. Use a good cover letter. Don't copy and paste cover letters.
3. Take all the free tests that you can. A profile with "Top 10%", Top 20%" or even "Top 30%" is very attractive.
4. Use an attractive title and description.
5. Just keep on applying. It took me about 2 weeks of constant rejections before I got my first job.

Thanks kabayan!

 

[H3ktor]

1. Take Test and Score to the top 1%-2% and employers will send you private high end job offers. I usually get a lot of such works.
2. Be specific to a few skills. People don't like to hire people with a lot of designation and skill. It has been proved inefficient over time.

 

[Sites4u]

What are you good at and What kind of work are you looking for?

 

[Bartholomew]

Depends on what you can do.
I was in similar situation a few years ago on rentacoder (now vworker) site, and got my first job in a week or two after registering. It's all depends on who you are, what you can do, what other can do and how you show yourself.
If you, for example, a software developer, find a small, but non-trivial job what most people are afraid to apply for, apply for it, tell the employer that you know how to do this job, describe step by step what you're going to do, tell about yourself that you never worked on 0desk but you're in IT business for 5 (10 years) and did a few similar jobs already in real life. Be calm and confident in your application message. No desperation, no aggression. Speak as you would speak with equal.

Don't go for low bids on your first job! This is a sign of desperation and low skills. What you should do is to tell the employer that you see that it will take you, for example, about two hours to complete this job, no more. Аnd your bid in this case has to be $40-$50. The trick is that the job itself should look enough hard to be completed in even 4 hours. So the employer sees your high hourly wage as a sign that you're not a desperate noob who is ready to work for peanuts, your confidence in fast turnaround for a hard job as a sign that you're a professional who knows what he's doing, and sees that total sum the same or lower than what he would pay to other applicants, who, he think, will do this in 5-6 hours for $10/hour.

To be able to do this trick you really should know what you're doing, be able to do the job faster than most other people and do a significant part of the job even before the employer accepts your bid.

 

[oscarmike]

What services are you offering?

Hi bro, my gig is about writing a 400+ word article for a fiverr.

1. Take Test and Score to the top 1%-2% and employers will send you private high end job offers. I usually get a lot of such works.
2. Be specific to a few skills. People don't like to hire people with a lot of designation and skill. It has been proved inefficient over time.


nice input bro! i'll take that into consideration!

What are you good at and What kind of work are you looking for?

were doing article writing (we also had a keyword research gig but ms sucks now)

Depends on what you can do.
I was in similar situation a few years ago on rentacoder (now vworker) site, and got my first job in a week or two after registering. It's all depends on who you are, what you can do, what other can do and how you show yourself.
If you, for example, a software developer, find a small, but non-trivial job what most people are afraid to apply for, apply for it, tell the employer that you know how to do this job, describe step by step what you're going to do, tell about yourself that you never worked on 0desk but you're in IT business for 5 (10 years) and did a few similar jobs already in real life. Be calm and confident in your application message. No desperation, no aggression. Speak as you would speak with equal.

Don't go for low bids on your first job! This is a sign of desperation and low skills. What you should do is to tell the employer that you see that it will take you, for example, about two hours to complete this job, no more. Аnd your bid in this case has to be $40-$50. The trick is that the job itself should look enough hard to be completed in even 4 hours. So the employer sees your high hourly wage as a sign that you're not a desperate noob who is ready to work for peanuts, your confidence in fast turnaround for a hard job as a sign that you're a professional who knows what he's doing, and sees that total sum the same or lower than what he would pay to other applicants, who, he think, will do this in 5-6 hours for $10/hour.

To be able to do this trick you really should know what you're doing, be able to do the job faster than most other people and do a significant part of the job even before the employer accepts your bid.

very good points bro!