After getting paid, the most important thing for many freelance providers is their reputation.  It’s essential to maintain a good reputation if you want to keep working at decent rates.

oDesk indicates your reputation in a few ways.  Everyone should know how the feedback system works, and if you don’t just drop me a line or put in a comment and I’ll be happy to expand on it here.  The other aspect of your reputation is how well you rank when buyers do a search.

The basic system works pretty well, it sorts by whatever criteria you specify, and uses the number of oDesk as a weighting factor.  So if you are searching for providers with a perfect feedback rating, you’ll see all the 5.00 rated providers with the one with the most hours listed first.

I like that as someone with a very large amount of hours has demonstrated their reliability.

If you need to you can also filter providers by anything from pay rates to hours worked or even whether they’re affiliated with a provider company.   In all cases your results will show up based on your primary search criteria weighted by oDesk hours.

It’s a good system, but it does have flaws:

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Each freelancing job is unique in some respects and we are constantly dancing with new partners. It’s one of the reasons we like freelancing; the variety keeps it fresh and interesting. A consequence of the variety is the initial back and forth we do for each job while we are coming to grips with this buyer- their particular expectations and requirements.
Getting a handle on a new project quickly is important. Relevant questions help, and they accomplish two goals. They frame the job as clearly as possible and they show buyers that you are a focused professional.
If you don’t ask meaningful questions and get good answers, you and your client are left without concrete milestones and objectives. We are writers; we are communicators; soliciting key information from your buyer is the first chance you have to show off your skills.

There’s one other side to consider- the buyer’s perspective. They are as much in the dark about you as you are about them. When you ask good questions they can see you are taking the project seriously. This instills confidence. It’s happened to me more than once: I asked questions on the message board to narrow down a job’s scope and landed the job before placing a formal bid. The buyer could tell I was interested and focused on the problems and specific needs of his project.
Buyers appreciate that you need some essential information to bid accurately and unless they are experienced at posting jobs on oDesk, they’ve probably left something out of the description. Here’s the top five questions I need answers to before I start work:

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We’ve been doing this for a while now, and I had a thought.

Sure this blog is a great place for us to express our ideas and discuss our individual takes on freelancing, but it’s really for you. As a writer, my first concern has to be the reader. …

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In April 2008 I will be publishing a book (in ebook and paperback formats) to help talented folks succeed online as freelancers and sub-contractors.

We’re just starting the writing process now, and I very much want to know what’s on your mind.

If you’re thinking about freelancing, what’s keeping you from taking …

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