Landing Your First oDesk Job

How To Book Your First Freelance Job On oDesk! 

How to book your first writing job oDesk! Sign into oDesk if you haven't, create an account, and fill out your profile thoroughly.

First Paid Job On oDesk Step-By-Step Guide!

• 1) Sign Up for oDesk it's Free! Click on the banner ad directly below this sentence.  

• 2) Complete your profile and make it Public (you can only show the last initial if you wish and not your full name)- Title, Overview, Skills, Portfolio, Tests, Employment History, Education.

Craigslist Is The Easiest Place To Land Your First Job.

The hardest part of oDesk is getting your first job. Contractors are looking for freelancers who already have job histories. Or they are looking to hire one the cheap. Some people on oDesk still work for very little money. You don't want to work for pennies.

On oDesk your rates will rise with your job history, and positive reviews. As time goes on, you get more jobs and positive reviews (on oDesk). Contractors will come to you. But it takes time. oDesk is the path to a career not a get rich quick scam.

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• 3)   Go To Craigslist About Sites page http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites - it has a world map plus each state, or country, and city. I suggest you start looking for writing jobs not only in your town, but all over the country. I've found my best jobs in places like Fresno, Reno, Richmond, Pensacola etc. All small to medium size towns have websites who need writers. 

• 4) Find a mid size or small town anywhere which speaks your native language. If you live in America, I would look in the United States. You could also contact jobs listing in Canada, United Kingdom, Australia. 

We will use Pensacola FL craigslist listings as an example. Look at the jobs section and scroll down to "writing/editing" and click.

• 5) There are bogus Jobs listed on craigslist, and some unscrupulous people. Fortunately by using oDesk we can weed these people out. I will show you how. 

When you click onto "writing / editing" in the jobs section of craigslist it will show you the date of the listing, the title of the listing, and maybe the location. Some listings might have a picture. 

Most job listing linked to websites, are bogus. And some listing which seem legitimate turn out to be bogus (e-mail a link to a site). Remember oDesk is the largest freelance job site online. No other job listing sites will have the opportunities like oDesk.

Listing which are most likely to be legitimate have a location attached, and mention compensation. Below is a legitimate job listing. Not everyone will be qualified for this listing but it has elements which make it stand out as a listing worthy of a response if you qualify.

Qualities Of Legitimate Job Listings 

• The listing has specific skills needed for the job.
• Compensation mentioned
• Specific job title 
• The job description is specific 

• 6) Respond to the listing. Above the listing title is the "Reply" button. Depending on how your computer is setup you can either click "Reply" or copy and paste the e-mail address into an e-mail you create. The above e-mail address is vc3jd-4020746187@job.craigslist.org

A feature of craigslist.org is when you respond to a listing the respondent does not see your e-mail address. Craigslist creates some proxy e-mail. I have no idea how they do it. The benefit is your e-mail address is never shared through craigslist. So you will not get a bunch of spam by responding to job listings on craigslist. Make sure if you have any personal information in your outbound e-mails, name, phone number, home address you remove it when sending your first responds to any listing on Craigslist. You have no idea who wrote the listing nor their intentions. Until they establish themselves as being trusted. Be prudent vigilant and cautions regarding your personal information. 

• 7) Creating your e-mail response to the craigslist.org Job Listing. Here is a great article on how to Respond to a Craisglist Job Listing. And here is Tips for applying to a job from Craigslist, from Craigslist. 

How To Weed Out Craigslist Job Listing 

Or Why We love oDesk 

I've been working freelance jobs on and off for some twenty years. And consistently the most frustrating part of working freelance is getting paid on time for services rendered. Marketing yourself and finding work is a second, but I find it much more enjoyable than hounding someone for money which they own me. oDesk has many features.

Two will weed out people who are listing jobs on Craigslist who are not planning on paying you for services rendered.

• When a contractor signs up on oDesk they have to place a $50 deposit down to pay any freelancer they hire. This separates serious people looking to hire freelancers from scammers and disingenuous people who want to get something for nothing. With oDesk you get paid!
• oDesk makes sure you get paid. BUT you still have to observe RULES. Never take a job without creating a contract on oDesk first. Make sure the contract is specific and details what you are expected to do and how much pay you will receive, either per job or per hour. And log the hours you work. If you do all these steps and there is an issue. So long as you have completed the work. oDesk will make sure you get paid! Click on the link to oDesk Help Center below on how to make sure you get paid for your work. 

How-To: Get Paid for Your Work oDesk

• 8) After you have responded to a Job listing on Craigslist and they have sent you a reply e-mail telling you they are interested in hiring you. You inform them you do all your freelance work through oDesk and it's for the contractors protection as much as yours. 

Embed this link http://freelancewriteressaywriting.blogspot.com/ in your email. 

It's a landing page I created which which will explain to the contractor why oDesk is good for them as well. It explains the benefits of oDesk for contractors and provides a link for them to sign up.

If they complain about putting down a $50 deposit for work or they don't have a credit card or paypal account that's a red flag. And you shouldn't waste your time with them anyway.

• 9) After the lister for the Craigslist ad signs up with oDesk have them send you an e-mail or find your profile in oDesk. Create a clear and specific contract you both enter into. Begin work and make sure your log in your hours. DO NOT do extra work unless you create a new contract for the extra work. 
• 10) Go to the Google Plus, Google Authorship, and Semantic Search section of this website. Read up and begin your career as an online content writer. 
• 11) Go to my Youtube page for Free online writing coaching video's. 
• 12) Go to my Google Plus Page add me to your circle share a post of mine so I can continue coaching you on your semantic web writing career. 

You can contact me on my Google Plus profile page and let me know how your first writing Job went. Content producers are becoming more and more valuable because of Semantic Search. The time is now to become a verified author with Google Authorship. Take advantage of this opportunity NOW!

 

9-22-2013 By Johnny Base