Along the way to becoming a successful internet marketer, there comes a point where you can’t do everything yourself. You just have to many sites to run, or too many ppc campaigns to manage that it becomes too overwhelming for you to handle things alone. That’s where an outsourcing site like oDesk comes in. In this oDesk review, I will show you how the site works and how it will help you start scaling up your business.
To get started with oDesk, you first need to signup for a free account. Both posting jobs as an employer and getting hired as a freelancer is free on oDesk. The way they make money is to take an extra 10% off every payment. So if you have a job in mind already, you can write up a short job description and post your job on the site. Or you can search for specific providers and contact freelancers that way. Either way, it’s quite simple to find candidates for your job.
Since oDesk is such a popular site, you won’t have any problems finding a number of candidates. I recently posted a blog writing job and got over 20 proposals in 10 minutes. You can look over the proposals and “interview” candidates that look like a potential match. It’s important to interview potential candidates to make sure they understand your job. I also like to ask for samples of their work so I can get a better idea if they will work out or not.
You can choose to hire workers on oDesk at an hourly or fixed-price. One of the unique benefits of oDesk is that you don’t have to “trust” your freelancers to bill you the correct number of hours. The way they handle this, is that providers have to use a special program which will take screenshots of them working (6 per hour). If they claim to be working during a certain period of time, but they’re not, then you don’t have to pay them. This is a really nice feature that’s good for both parties involved. Your freelance workers are guaranteed their payment if they do the work they say they are doing. And you’re protected as well if they aren’t.
Once the job is completely, both you and your worker leave each other feedback ratings. Like other sites of this type, it’s important to maintain a high feedback rating so freelancers will be willing to apply for your jobs.
oDesk vs Elance
The other freelance site I’ve used quite a bit in the past is Elance. There are really two main differences I’ve found as an employer at these two sites. First, payments through Elance go through an escrow service. So as an employer, you have to pay in advance, but the freelance doesn’t get paid until he’s finished the job. With oDesk, you don’t have to pay up front, and you only pay when the job is done. Any issues of non-payment are handled through oDesk’s resolution center. Although this has never happened to me, I’m sure it does happen on occasion. That’s why it’s quite important when using oDesk to make sure you check the feedback of your potential workers.
The second difference is that Elance doesn’t have this screen-capture feature that oDesk has. So I usually like to do any hourly type jobs on oDesk.
Final Thoughts
I’ve been using oDesk more recently now, and I like it quite a bit. I’ve found freelance workers to help me with all sorts of tasks like article writing, link building with SENuke, posting articles to SEOLinkVine and other important jobs that will help my business grow. Although, it takes some time to find capable workers, once you do, the time saved is well worth it. Outsourcing really is the only way to go if you want to scale up your business beyond a one man operation, so I suggest you give oDesk a shot.
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