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In my first post on going it alone, I mentioned that you don’t have to sever ties with oDesk right off, rather, a mixed strategy was best. Here’s some more tips and tricks along those lines.
Funnel through oDesk.
This has already worked for me. A client wanted to link up in Skype. The job listing wasn’t through oDesk, but from another brokered site. Now, there’s a lot of back and forth when you’re chatting live. I’m trying to get more info about the project (word counts, number of pages- the usual) and he’s pressing me for a price. In the middle of this he asks about references. Off the top of my head (I’ll be prepared next time) I tell him my profile is at www.william.morrison.name. You might remember from the previous post in this series (which goes over how to claim your .name) that this URL currently points to my oDesk profile.

Well, it worked. He was impressed by my profile enough to hire me on the spot.

So, bottom line- you’ve spent some time getting your oDesk profile right. Don’t waste that effort. If you just pull up your profile without knowing about oDesk, you will see what a great ad it is. Funnel prospective clients through it, regardless of where and how they are hiring you.

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There’s an urge I sometimes get. It’s the urge to go it alone, to quit using online brokers and keep their percentage for myself.

It grips me when my schedule is full with lower paying projects or when other ‘free’ freelancers are bragging about large money on the open market. The lure of the open road pulls at me when there doesn’t seem to be anything worth bidding on or when the job postings haven’t changed since the last time I checked. Or when (usually on a forum) oDesk/elance/rentacoder comes up and gets a round of mocking comments, “They rip you off.”; “You can’t make any real money there.”

The naysayers are right and they are wrong.
Why they are right.
They are right because there is a glass ceiling at oDesk. You can see this in the budgets that get posted and the job descriptions buyers write. How often does the phrase ‘easy job’ come up? Too often. You know, and I know that good writing takes time and effort. It isn’t easy and not everyone can do it. But most buyers don’t see it that way. They seem to think that they could do it themselves, but, like any menial work, they would just as soon pay a pittance and have someone else do it. This keeps budgets low.

Another obvious fact is that many buyers come to oDesk because they have heard that outsourcing writing tasks to offshore providers is a cheap and easy way to get production. They come to the party expecting extreme discounts and, while they might leave disappointed, they retain their unrealistic expectations. Serious buyers, experienced with writers, probably avoid oDesk and other brokered sites simply because they assume (and are partly correct) the talent isn’t available. They know what writing costs and suspect fraud and poor results with online contractors. So the naysayers are right to some degree.
Why they are wrong.

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Unless you’re crazy-happy to have any sort of work at all, you’ve probably done a job that you absolutely hate. I’ve had a couple here and there. The work goes slow, and it makes it very hard to get motivated. Once you’re finally done with said project, you don’t really feel a sense of accomplishment–you just feel like you’ve wasted time.

If you’re a freelancer, chances are that you want the job to improve your quality of life financially as well as through freedom, but if you’re doing work you despise, it’s self-defeating. Also, doing jobs you hate can hurt your career more than improve it. How? Either by making it a chore to log on and start work on that blasted project again or by reducing your quality of work and earning a poor rating.

What’s a way to avoid harming your career? Keep reading.

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It’s always a good idea to be the first one to apply for a job. Why? If you look like a good prospect and the buyer is watching their E-Mail, you will be the first one to be interviewed and also can be hired before any other applicants get theirs in. I’ve won a couple projects before the other applicants got a chance because I was the first one (or one of the very first) to apply. They saw my application immediately because they were still online right after posting the job.

Here’s a few options for keeping on top of jobs.

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One of the things that I’ve noticed when talking to new freelancers is that they are afraid that they won’t “make the grade” on their first job. It’s a fear that I had when I first started out, but once you get that taste for blood, it’s all over.

Previously, I …

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Not long ago, Sarah posted on the importance of specializing and you can read all about it here.

She made some very good points, because the truth is you can make far more money as a specialist than as a generalist, on-line or 0ff-line. That’s because when you’re a generalist you’re working for people who need anyone; when you’re a specialist you’re working for people who need you.

The only catch with specializing is that while the jobs do pay better, they’re often harder to find. One of my specialties is ghost-writing fiction. It’s interesting work and I’m good at it. It also usually means fairly large jobs so I can spend more time working and less time looking. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately there’s a problem.

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When looking at doing a fixed-price job, there’s a lot of things to consider when using oDesk. First off, you’re not guaranteed to get paid for your work like you are with hourly pay. That’s a bummer. However, if you pick good jobs from good buyers, then you’re very likely to get paid so they don’t get slammed with a zero rating and a nasty buyer review.

So what are some good practices and tips for you to get fixed-price jobs, do the jobs, and get paid for it? I’m going to be discussing these points and a few more in a series called (drum-roll, please) Tips for Fixed-Price Jobs!

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You’re a freelancer. The other guy or gal is the buyer. Just like you can be a good or bad freelancer, the buyer can be good or bad. So what makes a good buyer? How can a buyer be “bad”? How can I tell if a buyer is good or bad?

These questions and probably not a whole lot more will be discussed in this episode of The oDesk Insider Blog.

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Today I want to talk about a few things, but I’m going to start with what James D. MacDonald calls “Yog’s Law.”
Money flows toward the writer.
As a freelancer you always have to remember this rule. We’re in this to make money and as soon as you forget that, bad things start to happen.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t just use oDesk as a source for freelance work; I can’t afford to. The problem is there are more writers than jobs out there, so in order to succeed in this business you need to be on multiple sites. The other site I normally use is called Get A Freelancer and works on fixed price jobs only. Between the two of them I’m able to keep myself busy and meet my personal income goals. One feature I really like about Get A Freelancer is that I was able to set things up so I can withdraw money to my existing oDesk Debit card, which makes getting paid easier.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get back to the point: Money flowing in my direction (or yours when you’re on the job).

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