Freelance Writing and oDesk: 5 Things Freelancers Do To Bag oDesk Assignments

by Kristine

Most freelance writers start off where they can be sure they’d get paid. Although the freelance writing scene may give you hundreds of potential earnings, scammers and fraudulent buyers are sometimes lurking around the cyberspace, giving you nothing but headaches and frustrations.

However, there are various services online which offer great features for freelance writers, other freelance providers and companies who hire them – such as oDesk. Their assurance of real payments make them one of the most popular outsourcing website nowadays.

I am currently a member of oDesk, where I have a couple of assignments. Although unlike other freelance writers, this is not where I first started working for companies outside the Philippines.

What is oDesk?

According to its Wikipedia entry:

oDesk is a company with a global job marketplace and a series of tools targeted at businesses that intend to hire and manage remote workers. Based in Menlo Park, CA, oDesk was founded by Odysseas Tsatalos and Stratis Karamanlakis. The name is a short version of “no desk” in reference to the company’s intent to enable anyone to work anywhere, anytime.

True to its word, it really enables just about anybody to work anywhere, at any given time. Companies, as well, can source providers from outside their country, saving them money, time and energy.

How does oDesk work?

oDesk works for providers (freelance workers, like me) and buyers (those who offer jobs). Providers make their profiles, then find jobs. They then write cover letters, and wait for the provider’s response for an interview invitation or rejection.

There are two kinds of assignments: fixed-price and per-hour.

Fixed price projects are your usual per article, per word…etc. However, payments are still made under the discretion of the buyers. Per-hour projects, on the other hand, allows providers to work with oDesk’s Team application. Upon logging in, it records all keyboard and mouse activities, takes screenshots of your desktop every 10 minutes or so, and logs every minute in your oDesk Work Diary. This process ensures of correct billing, and sure payments from your buyer.

Providers can also put in their ‘offline time’ if they are working even without logging into oDesk’s application. This can be useful if you don’t have Internet access, but you are still working.

oDesk and Me

Frankly speaking, I find oDesk a bit difficult – especially for new freelance writers and freelance providers. Sure, there are hundreds of available jobs ranging from writing to HTML developing to accounting, but with thousands of providers, it’s so hard to score your first assignment.

I registered on the first week of August 2009, and I got my first assignment on the last week of September. It’s quite hard to compete with other providers especially if they have an established work history and feedback. As for me, a newbie in oDesk but not in freelance writing, it was still frustrating to score that assignment.

However, I’ve learned some things that help me score interviews and hopeful assignments whenever I pitched to a buyer in oDesk.

Links to writing works in the Internet – It helps to tell what you’ve done, where it can be found, and how long you have been writing or doing a particular job. If you have an online porfolio, then it’s actually better.
A good cover letter – There’s nothing more irritating that a canned cover letter. Always customize your cover letter, saying how you’d do the job, why you bidded for that amount, how long it would take for you to finish it, etc. Don’t be afraid to sell yourself, but not too much. Also make sure that you have proper grammar and always get straight to the point.
Spice up your provider profile – Putting your picture, your educational background, your links to your online portfolio and your work history definitely help a lot. If you’re a buyer, do you prefer to get somebody who doesn’t even give effort on filling up his or her profile? I guess not.
Apply until you can – Because of the number of providers and competition in oDesk, you’d want to reach as many buyers as possible. Sending applications to projects, and regularly bidding on jobs would help you find an assignment for you.
Be patient – job buyers do not usually reply at once. Some reply after a few days, or even weeks. As long as they do not end your candidacy, you still have the hope of bagging that assignment.

By doing these things, that high-paying job assignment might just be a click away from you.