oDesk (Upwork). My experience in a year and a half
For the past year and a half, I have been making freelance at the oDesk exchange. During this time I have accumulated a lot of materials on this topic. In this topic, I put everything in one article and adapted for the audience Habr.
Why oDesk?
Because wages are on average higher than on Russian exchanges, and as for me, customers are more adequate.
I also tried Elance, which, by the way, now merged with oDesk, but there I was not able to take my first order for a long time, that's why I switched to oDesk.
There are also exchanges for which registration it is worth passing a certain exam, the level of orders there is much higher, but at the moment oDesk completely satisfies me.
')
My way for a year and a half
From the very beginning, I tried to take an order for a small project to get my first review. But I did not work for a very long time. Probably, all the projects for $ 5 are taken away by the Indians.
I began to try myself in unpretentious projects for about a week of work. As a result, in 4 months I made a dozen quizzes, actually clones of each other, with different designs. I spent a lot of time and didn’t get a lot of money. Often the customer manipulated me, saying that he would not pay the money.
Then there was a complex project related to low-level data caching on Android. It was the first hourly project and the first financial success.
The next project is the creation of a prototype of a large Java SE application with subsequent hourly development, and after - and long support for it.
But hourly work takes a lot of time and takes away freedom. Thus, I completely switched to the fixed price. From this point on, I have been engaged in projects with a fixed payment of two months and then supporting them for a certain amount per month.
Profile
The profile on oDesk, in my opinion, is not a very important point, but for greater efficiency in communicating with customers at the initial stage, I did a good job on it. It is important that it is not empty.
A photo:
You need a photo that clearly shows your face. It is important that the photo was not anyone but you, and your appearance was serious enough. Seriousness is especially important for young freelancers, as I often encounter age-related stereotypes among customers.
Personal information:
When I first started freelancing, I just made a list of my technical abilities and wrote them down in groups. For example:
- SQL, SQLite, MySQL
- JSON, XML
...
So I worked for about half a year and after the next successfully completed project my customer surprised me. His message was like:
If we consider that the client was an American and a marketer by profession, I immediately agreed.
After that, together with a dry list of my abilities, a rather large amount of text flaunts in my profile. The essence of the information about me has not changed, but it has acquired a different form, the form of the story.
List of technologies / abilities:
I added everything with which even a little bit of familiarity. Often, when searching for a candidate, customers install filters on certain technologies. Popular technologies can be viewed in the job description, recently oDesk has introduced the ability for customers to specify the necessary skills for the task.
Tests:
In my subjective opinion, tests on oDesk absolutely do not reflect the real picture of knowledge. Customers also rarely look at them, although they sometimes filter in search by test ball. Since the tests take too much time, I passed several tests to get to the Top 30%
A good result in the profile technology will give the customer the confidence that I know a little about the topic. However, when I got more than 3-4 completed projects, the tests became not so important.
Employment History / Education / Other Experience:
This item seems to me completely useless, but in order that the profile was not empty, I filled them too.
Portfolio:
Not much inflating him, 10 works is enough.
The description of the works is rather small, the main attention of the customers is to the number and screenshots. Not bad as a link.
Special attention to the screenshots: add a background and a phone layout for 5 minutes, but what an effect!
English level:
Definitely need to put at least 4th level (Conversational). You will always have time to apologize and refuse to work, and at a low level you will lose a large number of potential customers.
Groups:
In my opinion, the groups look quite prestigious and distinguish you from the rest. It's easy to get them - you can simply join different groups and participate in contests from oDesk.
How I choose a customer
Everything written below is pretty obvious, but I decided to add for the full picture.
On oDesk, as elsewhere, there are unscrupulous people. They can beat their nerves very much, blackmail and even not pay for work at all.
I will tell on the basis of screenshots.
The best option is a client on the site a long time ago, he has already paid quite a lot of money and his rating is solid. It is necessary to trust him, because it is unprofitable for him to throw you, because reputation is more important.
New client. This does not mean that it is bad, most likely it will be good, but you should take precautions.
In my opinion - the worst option. Firstly, the average rating is VERY small - $ 3 per hour, which means that the customer is greedy and picky. A rating of about 4 stars is very bad. As a rule, if the rating is less than 4 stars, then customers simply create a new account, since no one wants to work with them. I've been looking for a long time and could not find one for the screenshot.
The worst rating I've ever seen is 4.13
It is also worth paying attention to the comments on the past work of the client. There you can always find out how much you can count on, and what problems will arise with this customer.
Another interesting point: there are customers whose profile looks good, but they have many “In progress” projects that started not long ago or at about the same time. This is a sign of deception. Most likely, such a customer will throw all the performers with a pack and drop their account.
What brings me the most money
In my opinion, the most profitable projects are fixed-price for the long term (for me it is more than 5 months). But the most effective (the attitude of spent efforts to the benefit gained) is the support of their past projects. There is not much time to support your projects, but payment is good.
Fixed and hourly pay
Fixed pay
With a fixed wage, the customer sets a budget for the project or for the current phase in advance. When I offer my services, I must also indicate my estimate of the cost of the work. It usually coincides with the budget of the customer, or is less, if I really believe that the work is worth less. Ask for less than the budget of the customer, do not: the client has already determined what amount he is willing to part with, why ask for less?
If you put a lower price, you get the so-called dumping (and you get more chances to get a job). Yes, it will work with a certain category of customers, but it is better not to get in touch with them. A client who chooses a contractor mainly at the price offered (unless, of course, it greatly exceeds the initial budget) will most likely turn out to be terribly meticulous and mean. And thus, a lot of time and nerves will be spent on it.
I use a slightly different tactic: I always put the price a little more than the original budget, about 10%. For me, these 10% are not as important as the adequacy of the client. In the cover letter, I always explain why I set the budget a little more, and if the client is ready to discuss the budget, this is a big plus, which means that in the future he will be ready to pay for minor improvements, for his own back door, etc.
With a fixed wage, it is also possible to receive payment before the start of work - this is the so-called upfront payment. I personally think that getting money without doing anything is not good, so I never ask for an upfront payment. However, in this case, you can protect yourself from deception.
Initially, I share the entire budget by 70% / 30%. Then make a quote for the entire length of the work. It turns out some technical task + approximate dates for the implementation of each module + their cost. The entire length of the work is divided into intervals (1-2 weeks), and I set the price for each interval separately, equally divided 70% between the intervals. Thus, they can deceive me only for a week or two of my work. The remaining 30% I get after the finish of the entire project, this is a guarantee that I will finish the project.
Hourly wage
With hourly wages pay money every week.
You need to notice the time spent using the software from oDesk or by adding the time spent on the site manually (manual time).
ODesk software records time for 10 minutes. Moreover, it records intervals that are multiples of 10, that is, xx: 00-xx-10, xx: 10-xx: 20, ... During these ten minutes, a screenshot of your screen is taken at a random time, but only one screenshot per 10 minutes. Thus, if a screenshot has already been taken in the current 10 minutes, then you should not be afraid that he will photograph something else, and you can safely sit in Vkontaktika for the remaining time. You should also not worry if the screenshot is made when you were doing something wrong: you can delete it immediately on the site and the customer will not even know it, you just lose money in 10 minutes.
Also, information about the activity (mouse movement, mouse clicks, pressing the keyboard) is collected within 10 minutes. In fact, only the facts of activity are considered, not your specific actions, so it is enough to click the arrows on the keyboard every couple of minutes and move the mouse.
It is worth noting that such deception (tracking the time when you are not actually working) can be practiced only when you really quickly completed any part of the work and now you just want to get adequate payment for it. Otherwise, your actions will easily show up and you will lose a client.
Some clients prohibit adding manual time, which is terribly inconvenient for me, because I often get distracted and it’s difficult for me to devote all 10 minutes to work. Moreover, this suggests that the client does not trust me, and I try not to work with such people.
Payment comes once a week. Every Monday, oDesk sends a report on your work to the customer, he checks it for a couple of days and, if all is well, in another three or four days the money will go to your account.
Recently, oDesk introduced the expected hourly value of work for a client (“$”, “$$”, “$$$” badges). They determine how much money the customer is willing to pay for each hour.
About:
$ - up to $ 7 per hour
$$ - from $ 7 to $ 15
$$$ - more than $ 15 per hour
But the assessment depends on the client. For example, the $$$ level for a customer from the USA (more than $ 30) and for a customer from India ($ 15) or Russia ($ 20) are completely different prices.
English level
English is the main language on oDesk. For most IT professionals, this is not a problem, but even if it is not, you should not postpone the start of work in order to learn English.
Approximately 99% of all work on oDesk is in English. Of course, there are customers who want to communicate in Russian or Chinese, but this is rather the exception. Therefore it is worth getting ready that all work will be done in English.
The main way of communication for me is email correspondence. Slightly less used is skype chat, but nowhere without it. Be prepared that you will have to conduct live communication with the customer, even if not in speech form. For half a year there was not a single case when customers demanded to make a Skype call, however, the ability to communicate fluently in English provides much more chances to take an expensive project and conduct more productive work.
If it is hard for you to write in English, then you should not try to learn first, and then start working. This skill comes in the process of working, although at the very beginning it is necessary to drive each message into a translator.
The correctness of writing, grammar is not particularly important, the main thing is that the customer and you understand each other. Clients are aware that English is not the main language for you, as long as the work is working.
Cover letter (letter to the customer)
In my opinion, the most important part of finding a job on oDesk is to write cover letter correctly. All in a few sentences it is necessary to convince the customer that:
- I will cope with the task;
- I fully understand the TK;
- it is easy to communicate and interact with me;
- there will be no unforeseen situations;
- ... you can continue for a very long time.
Consider an example of one of my cover letter (I apologize for English), which gave me one of the most profitable projects:
Job description:
Cover letter:
Next comes the discussion of technical issues.
I will highlight the main points that I consider important:
- based on the job description, the client is technically well-grounded, which means that it is necessary to show that your level is not worse;
- moreover, the client has certain theses on work, you should immediately ask them questions or express your opinion, thus you can show that you have understood the topic;
- if the description contains a link to a large technical document, then you should definitely read it and in the cover letter show that you have studied the problem of the client in and out;
- I have shown that I have a personal interest in the project. In fact, this is 100% true: I undertake only for those projects that I would really be interested in doing, otherwise the work turns into hell;
- At that moment I had a few works in my portfolio, so I referred to the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) which does not allow me to show a large number of my own works. This was partly true, since at that moment I had several successful projects that were still under the NDA;
- it is also worth pointing out that you have already done such a project in the past, it is not necessary to show it, but it’s worth saying;
- Further, I lowered my rating, which in fact was wrong, but in the process of working with them I raised the rating to $ 30 / hour;
- willingness to do a test task - a guarantee to the client that you are an adequate person and will be able to do the work. As a rule, no one gives a test task;
- I showed in my message that I understood the client’s problem very well.
Tsiferki, tsiferki, tsiferki
Reading such articles, it is always interesting for me to find out what is the use of what the author says. Unfortunately, the NDA prohibits talking more.
For the first 4 months I earned $ 650 on small quiz games. It took about 20-30 hours a week.
Starting from the 3rd month, I simultaneously took an hourly project - an Android library. I earned her $ 2000 for 3 months. Spending 10-15 hours a week.
Then there was the project demo version of the application associated with science, a prototype. I earned $ 500 a week. A total of 20 hours.
After a successful prototype, I continued to work with this application and received $ 5,000 for two months, about 15 hours a week.
The next project lasted 7 months and brought me $ 15,000. It was a video streaming for android. Approximately 15 hours of work per week.
The next project is a small photo application for android. 2 months of work at 30-40 hours and $ 5000 profit. After that, 3 months of support and an additional $ 4000, about 3-4 hours a week.
The most successful month was September: $ 4000 per month and 25 hours of work per week.
$ 4000 per month and 25 hours of work per week.
Thus, in a year and a half, I earned about $ 33,000.
Withdrawal of money
To withdraw money, oDesk offers a large variety of different ways.
But, in fact, only one option is acceptable for residents of the CIS - Payoneer. Direct payments do not allow banks because of the need for a legally correct contract from the customer, which is quite difficult to make and such difficulties are not justified for small projects - PayPal does not work to withdraw funds in the CIS.
So what is Payoneer?
This is an American company that creates for you a dollar card in a foreign bank. However, it is worth noting that you are not the account holder, you are just the owner of the card tied to the Payoneer general account (this is important, since, for example, citizens of Ukraine cannot have an account in a foreign bank without the permission of the NBU).
You just need to enter your data in the form (full name and data on accommodation) and in one or two months you will receive an envelope with a card inside the mail. Data is better to enter truthful. Proving that this card is yours is possible only if you confirm that you have registered on this site, and your passport data will match the data on the site.
As for the transcription, it is better to write as it is written in the international passport, or, if not, as rights. You can also see the rules of the official transcription of letters. In each country there is a special document that contains transcriptions of the names and surnames in Latin characters.
The cost of servicing the card is $ 30 per year. This amount is withdrawn automatically once a year and only if there is money in the account.
My card came about a month and a half after ordering, in a regular envelope from Illinois.
You can withdraw money at any ATM. Before using the card, you must activate it on the site and set a PIN code. Before activating the card can not be used. Now it remains only to tie the card to the oDesk account. This is done in the oDesk settings and takes 5 minutes.
C Payoneer also convenient to spend money. You can transfer money to another Payoneer account (up to $ 1000 per day), for example, to pay other people, or link a card to PayPal and pay for purchases online.
Payoneer has very good support in Russian, so any question can be asked on the forum. On the habr, by the way, are also present.
Payoneer also has a very loyal referral program: if you register by referral link, the company pays $ 25 not only to the one who invited, but also to the new user, as soon as he earns his first $ 100. Thus, you can easily cover almost all the costs of servicing the card for the first year. Since Habr prohibits ads in posts, there will be no links, but you can easily find it through my profile.
Legality
As for Ukraine, I have not found a simple way to legalize income. For large projects, you can enter into contracts with the customer, receive an act of completed work and all. But for small projects, this option is not suitable, as it is very expensive.
There is a semi-legal option: make an emergency, for example, as an anikayshchik, withdraw money through payoneer and deposit it in the declaration as a payment for services provided to the public.
I will be glad to answer any questions.
Added by:
A large number of comments appeared in the comments about the level of my English. Yes, he is not very good. However, clients never made me comments about the language and did not ask again. For me, it is not so easy to communicate via Skype, but you can always ask again and customers understand this. Moreover, most of my customers are not from English-speaking countries, and I often see errors in their messages.
Added (05/22/2015):
Due to the fact that a year later, the article is still popular and I am asked a large number of similar questions and personally ask about the Payoneer referral program, and also due to the fact that some of the information is outdated, I decided to add a link to my freelance blog - jff.name , which contains answers to most questions and was the source of information for this article.
Why oDesk?
Because wages are on average higher than on Russian exchanges, and as for me, customers are more adequate.
I also tried Elance, which, by the way, now merged with oDesk, but there I was not able to take my first order for a long time, that's why I switched to oDesk.
There are also exchanges for which registration it is worth passing a certain exam, the level of orders there is much higher, but at the moment oDesk completely satisfies me.
')
My way for a year and a half
From the very beginning, I tried to take an order for a small project to get my first review. But I did not work for a very long time. Probably, all the projects for $ 5 are taken away by the Indians.
I began to try myself in unpretentious projects for about a week of work. As a result, in 4 months I made a dozen quizzes, actually clones of each other, with different designs. I spent a lot of time and didn’t get a lot of money. Often the customer manipulated me, saying that he would not pay the money.
Then there was a complex project related to low-level data caching on Android. It was the first hourly project and the first financial success.
The next project is the creation of a prototype of a large Java SE application with subsequent hourly development, and after - and long support for it.
But hourly work takes a lot of time and takes away freedom. Thus, I completely switched to the fixed price. From this point on, I have been engaged in projects with a fixed payment of two months and then supporting them for a certain amount per month.
Profile
The profile on oDesk, in my opinion, is not a very important point, but for greater efficiency in communicating with customers at the initial stage, I did a good job on it. It is important that it is not empty.
A photo:
You need a photo that clearly shows your face. It is important that the photo was not anyone but you, and your appearance was serious enough. Seriousness is especially important for young freelancers, as I often encounter age-related stereotypes among customers.
Personal information:
When I first started freelancing, I just made a list of my technical abilities and wrote them down in groups. For example:
- SQL, SQLite, MySQL
- JSON, XML
...
So I worked for about half a year and after the next successfully completed project my customer surprised me. His message was like:
"You are a good performer, it is pleasant to work with you, but you have a terribly bad profile, do you want me to help you?"
If we consider that the client was an American and a marketer by profession, I immediately agreed.
After that, together with a dry list of my abilities, a rather large amount of text flaunts in my profile. The essence of the information about me has not changed, but it has acquired a different form, the form of the story.
Hi, My name is XXX YYY.
In my portfolio, I’ve developed. I believe my strong points are my creativeness and punctuality. My # 1 goal and deadline. It’s clear how I’m working on a new project. I'm honest and fair.
Since 2010, I'm a programmer in the CRDF project for the visualization of meteorological data. Developing UI (Eclipse RCP) and server (big data cluster programming, high load).
Also from 2011, I develop Android applications and games.
Please take a look at the other clients. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. I look forward to working with you soon.
I have a Bachelors in Software Engineering from the National Technical University of Donets'k, in the Ukraine. Listed below are my experience and skills.
- Android (2.x & 4.x): Fragments API, Location and Sensors API, SQLite, UI, Services, Maps, ActionBarSherlock, Parse.com, admob, etc;
- Java Core: Java Core, Multithreading, Collections API, etc;
- Frameworks: Eclipse RCP, JUnit;
- Core web: XML, JSON, HTML / CSS, JavaScript;
- IDE: Eclipse;
- OS: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X;
- VCS: Git, Mercurial, SVN;
- Bug / Issue trackers: Jira, Assembla, Redmine;
- SQL;
- UML.
List of technologies / abilities:
I added everything with which even a little bit of familiarity. Often, when searching for a candidate, customers install filters on certain technologies. Popular technologies can be viewed in the job description, recently oDesk has introduced the ability for customers to specify the necessary skills for the task.
Tests:
In my subjective opinion, tests on oDesk absolutely do not reflect the real picture of knowledge. Customers also rarely look at them, although they sometimes filter in search by test ball. Since the tests take too much time, I passed several tests to get to the Top 30%
A good result in the profile technology will give the customer the confidence that I know a little about the topic. However, when I got more than 3-4 completed projects, the tests became not so important.
Employment History / Education / Other Experience:
This item seems to me completely useless, but in order that the profile was not empty, I filled them too.
Portfolio:
Not much inflating him, 10 works is enough.
The description of the works is rather small, the main attention of the customers is to the number and screenshots. Not bad as a link.
Special attention to the screenshots: add a background and a phone layout for 5 minutes, but what an effect!
English level:
Definitely need to put at least 4th level (Conversational). You will always have time to apologize and refuse to work, and at a low level you will lose a large number of potential customers.
Groups:
In my opinion, the groups look quite prestigious and distinguish you from the rest. It's easy to get them - you can simply join different groups and participate in contests from oDesk.
How I choose a customer
Everything written below is pretty obvious, but I decided to add for the full picture.
On oDesk, as elsewhere, there are unscrupulous people. They can beat their nerves very much, blackmail and even not pay for work at all.
I will tell on the basis of screenshots.
The best option is a client on the site a long time ago, he has already paid quite a lot of money and his rating is solid. It is necessary to trust him, because it is unprofitable for him to throw you, because reputation is more important.
New client. This does not mean that it is bad, most likely it will be good, but you should take precautions.
In my opinion - the worst option. Firstly, the average rating is VERY small - $ 3 per hour, which means that the customer is greedy and picky. A rating of about 4 stars is very bad. As a rule, if the rating is less than 4 stars, then customers simply create a new account, since no one wants to work with them. I've been looking for a long time and could not find one for the screenshot.
The worst rating I've ever seen is 4.13
It is also worth paying attention to the comments on the past work of the client. There you can always find out how much you can count on, and what problems will arise with this customer.
Another interesting point: there are customers whose profile looks good, but they have many “In progress” projects that started not long ago or at about the same time. This is a sign of deception. Most likely, such a customer will throw all the performers with a pack and drop their account.
What brings me the most money
In my opinion, the most profitable projects are fixed-price for the long term (for me it is more than 5 months). But the most effective (the attitude of spent efforts to the benefit gained) is the support of their past projects. There is not much time to support your projects, but payment is good.
Fixed and hourly pay
Fixed pay
With a fixed wage, the customer sets a budget for the project or for the current phase in advance. When I offer my services, I must also indicate my estimate of the cost of the work. It usually coincides with the budget of the customer, or is less, if I really believe that the work is worth less. Ask for less than the budget of the customer, do not: the client has already determined what amount he is willing to part with, why ask for less?
If you put a lower price, you get the so-called dumping (and you get more chances to get a job). Yes, it will work with a certain category of customers, but it is better not to get in touch with them. A client who chooses a contractor mainly at the price offered (unless, of course, it greatly exceeds the initial budget) will most likely turn out to be terribly meticulous and mean. And thus, a lot of time and nerves will be spent on it.
I use a slightly different tactic: I always put the price a little more than the original budget, about 10%. For me, these 10% are not as important as the adequacy of the client. In the cover letter, I always explain why I set the budget a little more, and if the client is ready to discuss the budget, this is a big plus, which means that in the future he will be ready to pay for minor improvements, for his own back door, etc.
With a fixed wage, it is also possible to receive payment before the start of work - this is the so-called upfront payment. I personally think that getting money without doing anything is not good, so I never ask for an upfront payment. However, in this case, you can protect yourself from deception.
Initially, I share the entire budget by 70% / 30%. Then make a quote for the entire length of the work. It turns out some technical task + approximate dates for the implementation of each module + their cost. The entire length of the work is divided into intervals (1-2 weeks), and I set the price for each interval separately, equally divided 70% between the intervals. Thus, they can deceive me only for a week or two of my work. The remaining 30% I get after the finish of the entire project, this is a guarantee that I will finish the project.
Hourly wage
With hourly wages pay money every week.
You need to notice the time spent using the software from oDesk or by adding the time spent on the site manually (manual time).
ODesk software records time for 10 minutes. Moreover, it records intervals that are multiples of 10, that is, xx: 00-xx-10, xx: 10-xx: 20, ... During these ten minutes, a screenshot of your screen is taken at a random time, but only one screenshot per 10 minutes. Thus, if a screenshot has already been taken in the current 10 minutes, then you should not be afraid that he will photograph something else, and you can safely sit in Vkontaktika for the remaining time. You should also not worry if the screenshot is made when you were doing something wrong: you can delete it immediately on the site and the customer will not even know it, you just lose money in 10 minutes.
Also, information about the activity (mouse movement, mouse clicks, pressing the keyboard) is collected within 10 minutes. In fact, only the facts of activity are considered, not your specific actions, so it is enough to click the arrows on the keyboard every couple of minutes and move the mouse.
It is worth noting that such deception (tracking the time when you are not actually working) can be practiced only when you really quickly completed any part of the work and now you just want to get adequate payment for it. Otherwise, your actions will easily show up and you will lose a client.
Some clients prohibit adding manual time, which is terribly inconvenient for me, because I often get distracted and it’s difficult for me to devote all 10 minutes to work. Moreover, this suggests that the client does not trust me, and I try not to work with such people.
Payment comes once a week. Every Monday, oDesk sends a report on your work to the customer, he checks it for a couple of days and, if all is well, in another three or four days the money will go to your account.
Recently, oDesk introduced the expected hourly value of work for a client (“$”, “$$”, “$$$” badges). They determine how much money the customer is willing to pay for each hour.
About:
$ - up to $ 7 per hour
$$ - from $ 7 to $ 15
$$$ - more than $ 15 per hour
But the assessment depends on the client. For example, the $$$ level for a customer from the USA (more than $ 30) and for a customer from India ($ 15) or Russia ($ 20) are completely different prices.
English level
English is the main language on oDesk. For most IT professionals, this is not a problem, but even if it is not, you should not postpone the start of work in order to learn English.
Approximately 99% of all work on oDesk is in English. Of course, there are customers who want to communicate in Russian or Chinese, but this is rather the exception. Therefore it is worth getting ready that all work will be done in English.
The main way of communication for me is email correspondence. Slightly less used is skype chat, but nowhere without it. Be prepared that you will have to conduct live communication with the customer, even if not in speech form. For half a year there was not a single case when customers demanded to make a Skype call, however, the ability to communicate fluently in English provides much more chances to take an expensive project and conduct more productive work.
If it is hard for you to write in English, then you should not try to learn first, and then start working. This skill comes in the process of working, although at the very beginning it is necessary to drive each message into a translator.
The correctness of writing, grammar is not particularly important, the main thing is that the customer and you understand each other. Clients are aware that English is not the main language for you, as long as the work is working.
Cover letter (letter to the customer)
In my opinion, the most important part of finding a job on oDesk is to write cover letter correctly. All in a few sentences it is necessary to convince the customer that:
- I will cope with the task;
- I fully understand the TK;
- it is easy to communicate and interact with me;
- there will be no unforeseen situations;
- ... you can continue for a very long time.
Consider an example of one of my cover letter (I apologize for English), which gave me one of the most profitable projects:
Job description:
Cover letter:
Next comes the discussion of technical issues.
I will highlight the main points that I consider important:
- based on the job description, the client is technically well-grounded, which means that it is necessary to show that your level is not worse;
- moreover, the client has certain theses on work, you should immediately ask them questions or express your opinion, thus you can show that you have understood the topic;
- if the description contains a link to a large technical document, then you should definitely read it and in the cover letter show that you have studied the problem of the client in and out;
- I have shown that I have a personal interest in the project. In fact, this is 100% true: I undertake only for those projects that I would really be interested in doing, otherwise the work turns into hell;
- At that moment I had a few works in my portfolio, so I referred to the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) which does not allow me to show a large number of my own works. This was partly true, since at that moment I had several successful projects that were still under the NDA;
- it is also worth pointing out that you have already done such a project in the past, it is not necessary to show it, but it’s worth saying;
- Further, I lowered my rating, which in fact was wrong, but in the process of working with them I raised the rating to $ 30 / hour;
- willingness to do a test task - a guarantee to the client that you are an adequate person and will be able to do the work. As a rule, no one gives a test task;
- I showed in my message that I understood the client’s problem very well.
Tsiferki, tsiferki, tsiferki
Reading such articles, it is always interesting for me to find out what is the use of what the author says. Unfortunately, the NDA prohibits talking more.
For the first 4 months I earned $ 650 on small quiz games. It took about 20-30 hours a week.
Starting from the 3rd month, I simultaneously took an hourly project - an Android library. I earned her $ 2000 for 3 months. Spending 10-15 hours a week.
Then there was the project demo version of the application associated with science, a prototype. I earned $ 500 a week. A total of 20 hours.
After a successful prototype, I continued to work with this application and received $ 5,000 for two months, about 15 hours a week.
The next project lasted 7 months and brought me $ 15,000. It was a video streaming for android. Approximately 15 hours of work per week.
The next project is a small photo application for android. 2 months of work at 30-40 hours and $ 5000 profit. After that, 3 months of support and an additional $ 4000, about 3-4 hours a week.
The most successful month was September: $ 4000 per month and 25 hours of work per week.
$ 4000 per month and 25 hours of work per week.
Thus, in a year and a half, I earned about $ 33,000.
Withdrawal of money
To withdraw money, oDesk offers a large variety of different ways.
But, in fact, only one option is acceptable for residents of the CIS - Payoneer. Direct payments do not allow banks because of the need for a legally correct contract from the customer, which is quite difficult to make and such difficulties are not justified for small projects - PayPal does not work to withdraw funds in the CIS.
So what is Payoneer?
This is an American company that creates for you a dollar card in a foreign bank. However, it is worth noting that you are not the account holder, you are just the owner of the card tied to the Payoneer general account (this is important, since, for example, citizens of Ukraine cannot have an account in a foreign bank without the permission of the NBU).
You just need to enter your data in the form (full name and data on accommodation) and in one or two months you will receive an envelope with a card inside the mail. Data is better to enter truthful. Proving that this card is yours is possible only if you confirm that you have registered on this site, and your passport data will match the data on the site.
As for the transcription, it is better to write as it is written in the international passport, or, if not, as rights. You can also see the rules of the official transcription of letters. In each country there is a special document that contains transcriptions of the names and surnames in Latin characters.
The cost of servicing the card is $ 30 per year. This amount is withdrawn automatically once a year and only if there is money in the account.
My card came about a month and a half after ordering, in a regular envelope from Illinois.
You can withdraw money at any ATM. Before using the card, you must activate it on the site and set a PIN code. Before activating the card can not be used. Now it remains only to tie the card to the oDesk account. This is done in the oDesk settings and takes 5 minutes.
C Payoneer also convenient to spend money. You can transfer money to another Payoneer account (up to $ 1000 per day), for example, to pay other people, or link a card to PayPal and pay for purchases online.
Payoneer has very good support in Russian, so any question can be asked on the forum. On the habr, by the way, are also present.
Payoneer also has a very loyal referral program: if you register by referral link, the company pays $ 25 not only to the one who invited, but also to the new user, as soon as he earns his first $ 100. Thus, you can easily cover almost all the costs of servicing the card for the first year. Since Habr prohibits ads in posts, there will be no links, but you can easily find it through my profile.
Legality
As for Ukraine, I have not found a simple way to legalize income. For large projects, you can enter into contracts with the customer, receive an act of completed work and all. But for small projects, this option is not suitable, as it is very expensive.
There is a semi-legal option: make an emergency, for example, as an anikayshchik, withdraw money through payoneer and deposit it in the declaration as a payment for services provided to the public.
I will be glad to answer any questions.
Added by:
A large number of comments appeared in the comments about the level of my English. Yes, he is not very good. However, clients never made me comments about the language and did not ask again. For me, it is not so easy to communicate via Skype, but you can always ask again and customers understand this. Moreover, most of my customers are not from English-speaking countries, and I often see errors in their messages.
Added (05/22/2015):
Due to the fact that a year later, the article is still popular and I am asked a large number of similar questions and personally ask about the Payoneer referral program, and also due to the fact that some of the information is outdated, I decided to add a link to my freelance blog - jff.name , which contains answers to most questions and was the source of information for this article.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/234551/
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