SavvyLancer » oDesk

How twitter can make or break your business

Aimee — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:00:22 +0000

These days, even if you don't use Twitter, you're a rare individual if you haven't even heard of it. It takes the social media phenomenon to a new level. On Twitter you can see and be seen, in only 140 characters. This means it's quick, and it forces you to get to the point of what you want to say. To find out how good a writer you are, just try and tell all of your followers a lot of news in only one tweet! In a way, Twitter is far more specialized than other social media outlets like Myspace, Facebook and Youtube. You can say anything you want, but it must fit the character limit. With URL shorteners such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com, you can link to other content on your company website, blog, other social sites, etc.

Continue reading: How twitter can make or break your business »

© 2009 - SavvyLancer. This Feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are NOT reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are viewing is guilty of copyright infringement.

The Kenny Rogers philosophy to setting rates

Danalyn — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:15:43 +0000

The topic of rates often turns into a heated discussion, whether it's in the oDesk Community Forums or any other freelance outlet. I think it was summed up best by Rebecca in this post:

You know, I think the people who start the threads don't realize that this topic has come up repeatedly, and searching first doesn't occur to them – I never do that, to tell you the truth. So then they get the accumulated disgust of all the people who have been reading these things for months or years. And since they're always new people, it seems inhospitable.

In-person, people often don't think before they speak. On the internet, people don't search before they post. Either way, misunderstandings can occur and it will lead to resentment on both sides.

With all this hostility, pent up or otherwise, sometimes it's hard to get a straight answer. But in the words of Kenny Rogers, "There'll be time enough for counting talking when the dealing's done"…so let's talk rates, shall we?

Continue reading: The Kenny Rogers philosophy to setting rates »

oDesk feedback: Take the good with the bad

Danalyn — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:30:51 +0000

Like eBay, feedback on oDesk is an extremely important part of ensuring your success. Having great feedback lets potential buyers know that your previous buyers were happy with your performance – in other words: you did an excellent job for someone else, you'll probably do an excellent job for me.

However, you can't always please everyone. When this happens, oDesk makes it possible for you to hide your feedback comments (not the score itself).

But the question remains: should you hide comments?

Continue reading: oDesk feedback: Take the good with the bad »

oDesk Community: How to ask for help

Danalyn — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:31:23 +0000

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the oDesk Community Forums is there to help you. Whether you have a general question or need basic (non-account-specific) technical support, the buyers and providers on the forums are there to offer help, guidance, advice, and support. However, as with all social situations, there are certain [...]

Finding help when you need it

Danalyn — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:24:59 +0000

Or perhaps this entry would be more aptly titled: Search first, post later.

Quite frankly, I get tired of seeing posts like this in the oDesk Community Forums. And it's not so much the posts themselves, but the sheer volume of posts that repeat the same statement two posts down.

I'm not the only one, either. The oDesk staff has better things to do than repeat themselves like a broken record, so the rest of the forum regulars are left to explain how the global market works…over and over…and over and over.

So I've decided to break it down here folks too lazy to search.

Continue reading: Finding help when you need it »

Getting buyers to approach you on oDesk

Danalyn — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:01:03 +0000

Every so often, whether it's in the oDesk Community Forums or via email, I get asked how much time I spend searching for and applying to jobs.

Truth be told, I don't spend much time searching at all – buyers find me, and they do the inviting.

Does this mean I'm just that good?

While sometimes I'd like to delude myself into thinking so, I'm really not.

It all comes down optimizing your profile to grab a buyer's attention and, more importantly, show up in buyers' search results when they're actively looking for providers.

Continue reading: Getting buyers to approach you on oDesk »

Angie H. tells her story

Danalyn — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:35:12 +0000

Angela signed up for oDesk in November, 2008. At times, she may have gotten discouraged (like many people have during this recession)…but eventually, her patience and persistence paid off and she was awarded her first assignment on oDesk this month.

As mentioned before, things don't happen overnight, and they don't happen without a little effort on your part.

But, like just about anything else, once things start to come together, it usually gets easier and easier until it almost seems effortless.

Continue reading: Angie H. tells her story »

RSS: oDesk job alerts on steroids

Danalyn — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:56:50 +0000

By now, you may be well aware of oDesk's daily job alerts. However, job alerts only come once a day. Many jobs receive 30+ applicants within the first couple of hours of listing. And within those first few hours, many buyers are already well on their way to interviewing candidates and even making their selection!

Don't lose out on a job just because you didn't receive your job alerts in time. – and don't waste time constantly refreshing the job listing page, either!

Use RSS feeds to maximize your productivity.

Syndication made simple

Really simple. RSS stands for "really simple syndication". Essentially, it's an internet standard for receiving (and publishing) news feeds. If you use Outlook 2000 or newer, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, or Gmail, you're already halfway on your way to taking advantage of RSS.

Most blogs and news sites provide RSS feeds for visitors to subscribe to. Often, RSS feeds will be located in at the top or bottom of the website, usually signified by the orange square with white radio waves as in the image above.

Subscribing to an RSS feed is as simple as locating an RSS link on the website you are visiting, copying the URL, and entering it into your feedreader (Outlook, IE7, Firefox, etc).

oDesk job search feed

Whenever you go to the "Find Jobs" page on oDesk, you'll see the RSS icons in the upper right hand corner. If you perform a search, you can actually use the RSS link that appears on the search results page to save a feed of your search terms – this eliminates having to receive every single job in your search feed.

If you want to use Google Reader, Bloglines, or your browser to subscribe to the feeds, left click on the link to either the RSS or Atom feed – you'll be given the option to select which method you want to subscribe with in the dropdown menu at the top. If you're using Outlook or any other 3rd party feedreader, right click on the feed icon, and choose "copy shortcut", then paste it into your feedreader program when creating a new feed subscription.

Subscribe to multiple feeds

You can grab a feed for every possible search term you can think of. I, myself, have 4 search feeds that I'm subscribed to. Depending on your feedreader, feeds are usually updated within the hour (some clients, like Google Reader, cache their feeds, and it takes longer to receive an update).

Utilizing RSS feeds for your job alerts can save you time and net you faster results!

© 2008 - SavvyLancer. This Feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are NOT reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are viewing is guilty of copyright infringement.

Thanks for stopping by

Danalyn — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 13:09:03 +0000

Photo by: Vern Hart

My thanks goes out to everyone stopping by as a result of oDesk's latest newsletter.

An even bigger thanks goes out the those who've subscribed to my RSS Feed. For those of you subscribed to my feed, I do apologize for the Feed being a bit wonky today (if you even noticed). The feed wasn't doing what I told it to, so I had to beat it into submission. I'll blame WordPress. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

And finally, the biggest "thanks" of all goes to oDesk for paying attention to me and not having banned me from their forums yet for talking too much.

If you're a lurker and/or are subscribed to my feed, why not leave a comment below so I know who you are? I like knowing things, don't you? It makes me feel smarter.

Dispelling anti-oDesk allegations

Danalyn — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:06:10 +0000

Whether it's through ignorance, misinterpretation, or misdirection, a lot of the non-rates-debate "talk" about oDesk in the blogosphere focuses primarily on two things: Privacy and the Hourly billing model. While oDesk is not for everyone, the (previously unheard of) hourly model it introduced to the freelance job-board market drew in a lot of buyers and providers in search of long-term opportunities without the hassle of per-assignment projection and billing.

Continue reading: Dispelling anti-oDesk allegations »