Comments on: Odesk: I am Declaring War On You.

By: I'm Back: What Now...Chris Johnson | Clever Taglines

I'm Back: What Now...Chris Johnson | Clever Taglines — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:30:30 +0000

[...] posts get ridiculously good traffic because they were the first to ring certain bells. (like this stupid post about Odesk - that gets 1200 or so visits a [...]

By: Kennick

Kennick — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:08:00 +0000

I tried oDesk a couple of times, there are some horrible expectations that are expected by some of these buyers. A PSD to HTML file for $50 dollars? Or a complete website for 300 dollars? Its the pricing and the oDesk culture that turns me off.

If you want to make something better I do have an idea.

You can make an invite only job board in where trusted people can post their jobs and apply for them. You set a minimum price range for every project. Workers would have the ability to flag a job post if it is too low. There are hundreds better and premium services that you can offer.

I want to help.

By: Ribbit

Ribbit — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:08:14 +0000

stumbled upon this blog while doing some research too.
i’m a wordpress and gfx designer from the Philippines, i get paid $180 biweekly, it’s been 7 months since i got hired for a permanent position, at first i just needed to work my hours and finish jobs handed to me. i’ve been doing gfx, wordpress, customer support, and SEO…later i was asked by my employer to used odesk cuz he does not want to underpay me $180 when if i worked more than 40 hours, now i get a $2.75/hour rate.
i was very disappointed. having me under monitor while doing my work, makes me kinda nervous and somewhat less creative knowing that someone is monitoring my work, hate the idea of it. it’s like my employer wants to squeeze out every dime of what he is paying me. i do not like the idea of my desktop. or being monitored on my PC activity.

he makes $200-500/site i put up and SEO, and i seldom set up 2 or more sites in a day. and all i get is just a pinch of everything.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:56:45 +0000

Who voted the politicians in that push globalization like this? I guess they were OK with Americans making $1.00 an hour instead of $50.00 per hour Huh? I see they are good at protecting themselves, even with their own special retirement plans. Get ready to learn some new ways to cook shoe leather fellow Americans, the other “shoe” will drop at the rate we have gone so far…

By: chris

chris — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:40:09 +0000

Yes, it’s not for real people. let’s not lament the providers that work for $1/hour, let’s out do them, and out hustle and out add value to them.

By: bcr8tive

bcr8tive — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:52:45 +0000

I’ve only been on ODesk a few months and seeing some peculiar things. One major example is the “buyer” that just replied to my submission for their position with a request to “re-take” a PC Graphics test that I took and received an 85% on, and requested me to provide him/her with “screenshots” of my answers for each question, while “re-taking” the test.

I declined. I have a lengthy resume (over 20 years) and a full portfolio online, and wasn’t aware there was a way to “cheat” on the ODesk tests. To me, this request looked like someone wants to. I’m getting sort of discouraged there as it is. Too many peeople working out of the US are working for a $1 an hour! Sigh~

By: Blossom

Blossom — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:56:11 +0000

I’ve noticed several who have zoomed in on the ‘screen shots’, there are more ‘big brother’ capabilities that a buyer can use to ‘track’ what a provider is doing. I.E., analysis, graphs and keystrokes are just some of the tools.

One of my major complaints; Buyers who post an assignment listed under Administrative VAA (virtual administrative assistant) only to offer the position and you find yourself in a position for a telemarketing assignment! These types of incorrect category assignments are nothing more than a waste of time.

Don’t even get me started on the so called ‘teams’! It’s right up there will the union!

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:57:42 +0000

I just recently looked into oDesk and was completely tuned off by what I found. It wasn’t necessarily due to the (over-bearing to many) accountability practices, but had more to do with the purely price based competition structure. I was amazed that many jobs that would cost $1000+ in the ‘real’ market were being awarded to offshore developers for $2-$6/hour. Ridiculous!

Even the $30/hour rate quoted by Bhagad Jal Park above is significantly lower than can support a true full-time freelancer, if you work in the overhead, your desired wage, and any kind of profit margin. On top of that, there were many buyers that included a ‘work on my project only’ clause – they don’t want freelancers that do this on the side and they don’t want other projects competing for their time. This is ludicrous. A living cannot be made on one project at a time for the rates buyers are willing to pay.

By: If You Were Laid Off, It Was Your Fault.

If You Were Laid Off, It Was Your Fault. — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:24:08 +0000

[...] you to be expendable. Then, when you become a freelancer you whine that scummy places like Odesk are hard to [...]

By: Teresa Schultz

Teresa Schultz — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:26:59 +0000

I joined oDesk in early March this year, 2009, and I’m so glad I did. I’ve taken many tests that they offer that I use to prove my competency skills, and took time with perfecting my profile on oDesk before starting to apply for work projects. My work on oDesk is bringing in a very useful extra income.

However, I do agree that many on oDesk don’t have the correct skills or talents required for projects that they apply for, and are also bidding too low for jobs that should receive much higher pay for. But buyers should always properly check profiles of people they are considering hiring, and should also place great importance on the quality of application letters during the interview process. I’ve read many buyers comments on other profiles that weren’t positive about the work provided, then have gone on to look through the person’s profile, portfolio (or lack of it), and test results, and come to the conclusion that the buyer obviously didn’t do that thoroughly, or wouldn’t have hired the provider in the first place.

Thus said, if a job requirement is small, I see many buyers give newcomers to oDesk a chance to prove themselves, and this is greatly admired, as there are many talented people out there, struggling for an income, and doing their best to find work, and do it well and honestly.

I avoid the hourly work on oDesk, and apply for fixed work only, even while knowing these jobs don’t guarantee payment, but have had absolutely no problems so far.

But go ahead and create another freelance site as there are far too few really excellent ones out there.