I bet that title got your attention; I know it would get mine.

I’ve been writing about money a lot lately, and not just because it’s one of my favorite things.   Today’s topic is a grab-bag of tips that can help you make more money for your work on oDesk.

Let’s start with one obvious fact that doesn’t always seem obvious to some of the posters in the Community:

oDesk wants you to bill high

That’s right, it’s in oDesk’s best interest for you to have as high a billing rate as you can manage to pull in.  They don’t want you to get jobs by underbidding everyone else, they want you to get jobs by proving you’re worth more to the buyer than everyone else.  oDesk gets paid by the buyers just like you do.  They want you to make more money because the more you make the more they make.

They have an even greater incentive for providers to raise rates than most providers do because they only get ten percent of the bill rate.  So if I make ninety dollars they make ten.   If I’m working at a charge rate of $1.00/hr they only get $0.10/hr and that’s not really worth it for either of us.

So if someone tells you there’s a conspiracy to keep rates low just laugh at them.  oDesk isn’t going to have anything to do with a conspiracy to make oDesk less money.

Okay, now that we have that squared away, on to the tips:

Tip 1) Don’t Do Data Entry

Lots of people put data entry down as one of their skills, and in some ways it makes sense.  for the most part it’s a job anyone can do if they just take care and pay attention to what they’re doing.

It’s also the lowest paying job category on oDesk

One reason it’s low paying is that it’s essentially commodity work.  There’s no way to put your own unique stamp on data entry so you cannot build a reputation as being the best person for it the way you can with some other fields.

It also doesn’t require any special training or even skill at the English language.

I don’t mean to disparage the job, but if you want to make a lot of money on oDesk it’s one category you should avoid.  The money isn’t there.

Tip 2) Don’t Lower Your Rate On An Invitation

Here’s an example of how lowering your rate can come back to bite you.  A provider with a very high rate (twice the category average and it’s a high average rate category) received an invitation to a position.  When they accepted the invitation, they offered to do the job for about a quarter of their billing rate.

What happened?

They were turned down because they charged too much.

Personally, I never lower my rate on an invitation and here’s why:  Anyone who invites me to do a job has already seen my rate before making the offer.  They wouldn’t have offered if the rate wasn’t acceptable, so why should I drop it?

Also, if I do drop my rate, I’m sending at least one of two messages:  a) I’m desperate; b) I have no confidence in the value of my work.

I don’t want to send either message.  The other thing that might happen is that if I do drop it the buyer may push to see how low I am willing to go.  If I drop my rate by seventy-five percent, maybe I’ll drop it by eighty percent, or possibly even more.  I don’t want to get caught in that trap.

The other problem is that the amount you were paid stays on your profile.  If you quote $50.00/hr and all your jobs are at $15.00/hr there’s no reason any buyer will ever pay you $50.00/hr.   You’ve sent the message that your real rate is $15.00/hr.

Lower rates on past jobs don’t hurt you if they show a steady pattern of increasing rates.  There’s nothing wrong with showing a few jobs at $5.00/hr, then $10.00/hr, $15.00/hr and so on.  That shows a normal upwards progression and doesn’t make the buyer think you’ve been undercharging all along, but rather that your rate has been increasing with time.

Tip 3) Let Your Profile Fit Your Description

Provider profiles are a huge subject, and I could go on for hours about them.  Right now though, I just want to focus on one aspect.

Make sure your skills reflect your area.  If you’re a writer who dabbles in programming, list your writing skills first, not your skills coding Flash or debugging HTML.  Further to that, if you have multiple areas of expertise, list the one you most want to work with first.  That’s the one you should be focusing on.

This doesn’t apply if your preferred skill is data entry and your other is voice-over, since those have the lowest and highest average pay rates respectively.  If one skill is going to pay you much more, focus on that one.

Okay, I’ve started you off.  If anyone has other tips for raising their average rate feel free to send them along.  Everyone wants to make more money and as long as your work is worth it there’s no reason you shouldn’t be working at the top of your category.

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