How to Earn Money from Odesk

Before I teach you how to earn money from Odesk, let me first orient you what Odesk is about.

Odesk or Odesk.com is an online global marketplace for both employers and freelancers. It is where freelancers looking for job can choose and apply from among thousands of job vacancies worldwide. This is also where employers post their job vacancies and choose among the qualified and competent freelancers from all over the world.

Odesk means zero desk because work is done and submitted online, you work at the comfort of your home. Odesk.com was established since 2003, it is owned and managed by Odesk Corporation consisting of high profile individuals of different races. Odesk Corp is headed by Mr. Gary Swart, CEO and co-founder followed by his co-founders Odysseas Tsatalos (also acts as Chief Technology Officer) and Stratis Karamanlakis (VP of Development), supported by Brian Goler (VP of Marketing) and Bin Xu (VP of Engineering and Technical Operations).

Odesk currently have 385,334 registered providers and has 357,215 jobs posted as of this writing.


Some Basic Terminologies

Freelancers are called providers because they provide services while employers are called buyers because they buy or pay for services

Types of Jobs

Hourly-rate jobs are jobs with an agreed rate per hour.

Fixed-price jobs are jobs with a fixed price or pay rate per completed job.

Payment Methods

Odesk Payoneer debit mastercard, Paypal, Moneybookers, direct deposit and wire transfers.

Jobs Available in Odesk
- Jobs related to web development, software development, networking and information systems, writing-translation and transcription jobs, administrative jobs, design and multi-media, customer service, sales and marketing and various business services.

The most in demand people in Odesk are website designers/programmers, web and software developer, website content writers, article writers, bloggers and virtual assistants. But almost all of the job which do not require your physical presence is available like bookkeeping.

How to Earn Money from Odesk

To earn money from Odesk, you should start working through them. Just follow these steps to get started.

1. Register for a free account. Please click this link to join Odesk

2. Read Odesk policies, terms and conditions and take Odesk Readiness Test. This is mandatory, you cannot apply for jobs if you have not taken this test. Don't worry if you fail the first time, you can retake the test over and over again until you get a passing score. It would be best if you can rank high on the test. This will look good on your profile. You need not memorize the policies, you have to understand it by heart in order to pass. This will also be good for you to know all your rights and limitations in Odesk.

3. Create your profile. You need to fill up some required information just like creating a resume. But you really need to do your best in creating your profile because this will be your selling point, meaning this would help you be hired because this is the first hand information buyers can get from you.

4. Take some tests relevant to your skills and if possible, concentrate well to get high scores. This will make your profile more appealing.

5. Select how you want to be paid. I advise you to apply both for Odesk Payoneer debit Mastercard and Paypal. Wire transfer is costly while Moneybookers and direct deposit may not be applicable on your country.

6. Read and watch the videos in Learning Center to fully understand their system and to help you decide whether to apply for an hourly-rate job or fixed-price job or both.

7. Apply to jobs everyday. Don't give up and don't lose hope if you are not hired immediately. Some took a couple of months prior having their 1st project. As for me, I registered May 2009 but I only got my own computer last September so that's the only time I had been able to apply for jobs in Odesk. Luckily, I received my 1st job in Odesk after 10 days.

System or Flow of Transaction

a. The provider search for job vacancies and applies to job vacancies.

b. The buyer browse the profiles of applicants(providers) and invite them for interview.

c. The provider accepts the interview and the buyer conducts the interview.

d. The buyer will select the best provider, the provider will receive a notification that he/she was chosen to do the job.

e. The buyer will give further job instructions or details.

f. The provider works on the job.

g. The buyer will assess the completeness and quality of the provider's work. Once satisfied, the buyer will send payment to Odesk. Odesk will then transfer payment to provider after the payment security period.

h. The provider receives the payment.

Advantages of Odesk over other Online Jobsites

- Their website is user-friendly, very easy to navigate
- They do not ask for a membership fee. They earn 11% commision from our projects paid by the buyer.
- There are a lot of available jobs to choose from.
- The site has useful tools and information like the Learning Center, News and Odesk Economy (Oconomy) status
- The site has an active support team. You can chat live with a support representative or submit a help ticket. There is an open general forum where you can make suggestions or support suggestions by casting a vote. They have already implemented many suggested features in the site. They even re-designed the website to accommodate the provider's request.
- The site has a referral program where you can earn if your referral earns/spends his 1st $1000 as an Odesk provider/buyer.
- You can create your own team or hire providers, outsource jobs for them and earn commission.

The only thing I don't like about the site is the withdrawal fee but overall I'm very pleased and satisfied with my experience in Odesk.