“The feedback system of oDesk is designed to give employers the chance to review, evaluate, and decide who they would like to interview, hire, and work with based on the contractor’s profile.”
– Stephanie Gonzaga, How to Earn Five-Star Feedback
Earn five-star feedback on oDesk
Stuck in a dead-end job?
Overeducated and Underemployed?
Running out of options?
Then jump on oDesk and start making money.
Seriously, a trained chimp could make $100 a day off here. If you can write at a high school level you’ll do fine.
How do I know?
Because I’ve made several thousand dollars churning out simple articles on this site. If you don’t have better options, or are facing financial problems, this site can provide a decent source of income.
Cranking out content about toasters and waffle irons might not sound fun, but you can support yourself with the profits. It’s better than sitting around and whining all day. Plus, you learn a valuable skill.
The secret to making more money and winning every bid
oDesk is a competitive site. You might have to fight 30 other freelancers to get a job. It can be intimidating at first.
But there’s a secret to winning (almost) every single job you apply for. And it’s called five-star feedback.
If you have a good rating you’ll get the best jobs. Having five-stars makes the competition vanish.
How do I know?
Back in August I stopped freelancing on oDesk. I had enough private clients to support myself indefinitely.
For three months I ignored the site.
Last weekend I decided to hop back on and see if I could still get work. I applied to five small jobs and ended up with three of them. One client even had this to say:
“Your track record looks amazing, and I definitely like the fact that you are so passionate about what you do.”
Your rating has a bigger impact on your success than anything else. It’s the first thing that potential clients see. And it speaks volumes for your work ethic and reliability.
How to earn five-star feedback on oDesk
Getting a good rating is surprisingly easy. All you have to do is turn in assignments on time. No really, if you meet deadlines and follow instructions you’ll end up with a perfect score.
Many of the freelancers on oDesk are incompetent. They’re either foreigners with no real grasp of the English language, or just plain lazy. Looking at a lot of their profiles you’ll see comments about folks who didn’t turn in any work, wrote f-bomb laced content, and did other stupid stuff.
If you can write 500 words in under a month, and without saying “f*ck,” you’ll do fine.
Robert Koch’s patented five-star feedback formula
Here’s the easiest way to quickly rise up the ranks of oDesk.
- Take on one to three low-paying jobs
oDesk has a lot of content mills willing to trade you five-star feedback for some terrible pay and a horrible job. My first task was writing 10 500-word articles for $20.
It sucked, and was a huge rip-off, but I got my foot in the door.
- Do your work well
Look, you aren’t going to make $2 an article forever. By the end of your first week you should be out of the trenches. Just buckle down, show some discipline, and do your job. Then reap that positive score.
- Use the positive feedback to leverage your way into a better position
One you’ve got two or three wins under your belt move on to better clients. In my first month of oDesk I went from making $2 an article to getting $30 an hour for a really easy project. These big-ticket clients are rare, but you should see them every now and then. Even if you don’t, you can still find some gigs that pay $10 to $15 for an hour of work.
The nicest thing about these customers is that they’ll usually work with you until they run out of projects. That means you’ll be getting some decent cash without having to do a whole lot.
Brief recap
If you’re broke, join a freelancing site. There’s no excuse not to have money.
And if you want to actually get work, and jobs that pay well, you’re going to need good feedback. Getting this might seem tough, but it’s actually as simple as showing up and doing your work.
If you can meet deadlines and turn in readable material, you’ll be making money in no time at all.