As I want you to know more about the world of Virtual Assistants, I created this short post to introduce you to one of the best freelance site, oDesk. As mentioned before in my previous post, its lifetime sales volume is more than that of other sites that offer virtual assistant/freelance jobs like elance.com, guru.com and freelancer.com. And aside from that, it is where I built my virtual assistant career, so here is my little introduction to oDesk to give you an idea of what it is.
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| Photo Credit: Flickrcc |
What is oDesk?
oDesk is a freelance site where you can be paid for your services by the hour or by fixed-price bids. Anyone can simply post their online resume; portfolio (for Free) and a client get to post their job so that they can get a contractor to do that particular task. Categories on the site include: programming, administrative support/customer service/business services, design and multimedia, sales and marketing, data entry, article writing, internet research, etc.
- Client is the person or the small firm offering a job.
- Contractor is the person/freelancer/virtual assistant offering a service.
How Job Progress is Monitored
Hourly jobs are monitored using special software called oDesk team (available for Windows & Mac) that needs to be downloaded and installed on your computer. That software logs in the time consumed, and captures a snapshot of the entire freelancer’s screen at regular intervals.
Job Types: Fixed Price and Hourly
Hourly Job means you will be paid on per hour basis. An advantage to this type of job is that a verified work taken from the oDesk team application is guaranteed for payment. And you will be paid weekly.
Fixed Price Job - a client wants you to finish a particular job and will pay you after the task has been completed. This means there’s no need to log hours but payment is not guaranteed which means, a set payment is agreed upon, and how much to pay and when to pay is at the employer's discretion.
Getting a Job
This is the stage where you need to market yourself to clients. Look for jobs according to your skills. Landing your first job at oDesk will be the most challenging part. You see, there’s a lot of competition at oDesk, due to the fact that it’s a global marketplace. But never allow that to get in the way. Of course in everything we do, getting started was always the toughest and the most challenging. All you need are tips and hints on how to get started when applying jobs at oDesk.
Getting Paid
As an individual working at oDesk, one of the most exciting parts is getting paid. Especially for those who will be getting their first payment, you’d be jumping out of excitement. So for everyone, it’s necessary to set up an oDesk withdrawal method in order for you to withdraw your earnings. A few of these methods are PayPal, Local Fund Transfer (LFT), Moneybookers, and Payoneer.
Currently, I am using 2 of oDesk’s withdrawal methods: the Local Fund Transfer (LFT) and PayPal because of its convenience. But the choice is always yours, so you can select from various options that oDesk offers.
Check out the video below to help you understand oDesk further.
P.S If you want to get an edge over other VAs around the world then consider getting a Pinoy to teach how to become a Virtual Assistant. Attend Jomar Hilario's Virtual Assistant Seminar and he will teach you everything you need to know about working at home. If you don’t have the time, then you might want the Downloadable VA Seminar Version.
