Lisa emailed in the following tip:
I don’t know if you have heard of this site before or not but you might want to check it out when you have the time. It’s called Odesk. There are literally thousands of jobs available on here, all work-from-home jobs too.
Basically what you do is read through all their policies and then create a profile where you describe what skills you have. You can then apply for any job you think you may be qualified for. One of the neat things about this is that you can set your own hourly wage.
There are web development jobs, transcription jobs, design, administrative support, and others as well. It may be a good option for someone who wants to make money from home but doesn’t know where to start.
I know a couple of people who have had great success using this site. – Lisa
(Note: The link in this post is my referral link. Read our disclosure policy here.)
My husband has been using this site for the past 3 years to grow his business ( he is a programmer). It is a very great site and comes in handy during tax time because they send you the correct paperwork to assist in filing taxes. I definitely recommend it! He always has a steady stream of work because of Odesk.
How do you build yourself up to clients? I have experience in transcription, but I’m not willing to be paid $.025 per word when I normally get paid double that. Do you have to start off by accepting such low bids and build yourself up from there?
I’m a freelance journalist, and make anywhere from $18-22 an hour on oDesk. But as a previous commenter said, you MUST have skills that set you apart. I had a good resume already, so employers that wanted experience were willing to pay.
I’ve read about O Desk on entreprenurial sites. A good share of the people that do this work are from overseas, where 50cents to $3 an hour is good pay. If you hire someone off here, be very clear about your criteria for successful completion of a job.
I have had great success on Odesk, Freelance and Guru. I am a stay at home homeschool mom, who used to be a newspaper editor. I now use my skills as a virtual assistant to 5 different clients. You have to remember you are competing with people from around the world and many times the people from other countries will work for much less than what we consider an acceptable wage. However, once you get a job or two and get good references, you can “establish” yourself. I now have a steady income that allows us to build up a savings, and do “fun stuff” every now and then. My tips: Never pay for the service. Put a lot of focus into creating a eye catching profile. Always do a phone interview before accepting a job to make sure you and the employer understand all the terms. Once a job is finished, encourage the employer to leave you a recommendation. Also all 5 of my clients I have now, came from either Odesk or Elance. However, they no longer pay me through this service since this service take a percentages of your wages. I invoice them directly at the end of each month and they pay me via PayPal.
I think Odesk and Elance are great for stay at home moms that want to use their skills to generate a little more income for their families!
On odesk, you have to have skill that sets you apart from the workers that can work for 2 per day.
You can also check out freelancer.com A lot of people will $1.00 per 100 words in an article, this does add up quickly.
Also if you can learn a skill such as design, or doing back links this will help enormously.
I agree with ks. One person wanted someone to work 8 hrs./day for $2-$4/hour.
Can someone educate me about the ins and outs of the site? Maybe I’m missing something that could help me find better job offers?
have you looked at the jobs on there!?! many look like they pay 50 CENTS to 3 dollars an hour!!
Fiverr is another great one that sounds similiar.