Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Which Freelancing Site is Better?

I’ve used eLance, RentACoder, and oDesk. Of the three, I vastly prefer oDesk.
Elance charges a minimum of $50 for project tasks, and a $5 minimum per hour. This alone makes eLance a complete waste of time for me. Often the tasks I want to outsource will only take 30 minutes or so, and many of the bids are far lower than $5 per hour.

RentACoder(now vworker.com) is great for finding talented programmers, but the interface is cumbersome and they encourage you to make the bids per-project instead of hourly. My preference is to pay hourly. I have used RentACoder successfully, but the interface bugs bothered me.

They also force you to communicate through their buggy system. For instance, when I was using it, every time I wrote a comma, it would delete the rest of my post. For a system written by programmers, I was amazed it had those bugs. They fixed that bug a few days later, but I was already used to editing out all my commas. Blech!
After using both those sites, as well as oDesk, I found myself coming back to oDesk repeatedly for a few reasons:

- oDesk lets you see what your employee is doing–it takes screenshots of their computer every so often, and shows their level of activity (i.e. are they idle or actually working?) That way you know you’re getting someone who is actually motivated to work.

- There’s no minimum bid or minimum per-project amount. I’ve hired freelancers who have billed me $7 for a couple hours of work. oDesk bills your credit card once a week, and manages all the payments to providers. If you have a dispute, there is a dispute resolution process. I used their dispute resolution process once and managed to get all my money back, so I’m happy with that.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

oDesk - A Real Freelancing Site that Pays you!


With today's Internet driven world, there are thousands of opportunities for you to make money online. One option you have is to be an Internet freelance worker. I previously written about GoFreelance from my other post, now I will discuss about its competitor - oDesk.

oDesk is a freelancing company that is known for its global job marketplace and state of the art tools designed for accurate job monitoring for its remote workers. It is the short name for "nodesk" which means working at home. It was founded in 2003 by Odysseas Tsatalos and Stratis Karamanlakis, both are Greek nationals. The program enables both employers and freelancers to work together and create a harmonious working environment for each project.

oDesk manages the payment schemes and also make money by collecting membership fees or a certain percentage on the freelancers earnings. Commissions range from 4% to 15% depending on the scale of the work performed.

Employers are called "buyers" which creates online work teams. This system is then paid through oDesk's proprietary software and website. Employers can post different jobs for free while freelancers (providers) are free to bid on any jobs they feel they are qualified. Every hired freelancers can be monitored for their work through oDesk's collaborative software, the "oDesk Team" . This feature is one of the most desired services that most employers are looking for in a freelancing site.

Jobs in oDesk includes graphic design, web development, programming, writing, administrative support and many more. The company also provides voluntary skills test in different business aspects such as English aptitude and profiles which includes a feedback mechanism.

If you are looking for the best freelancing site, then oDesk can help you make money from home. Try freelancing work from home, try oDesk!

See my profile there!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Vworker - Best Freelance Site


At the end of June 2010, RentaCoder was rebranded vWorker. One of the top programming job markets on the web, it is expanding its focus to compete with other freelance marketplaces that have launched since the site was founded in 2001. vWorker currently connects over 300,000 freelance workers with over 150,000 buyers. There are currently over 2,700 open jobs on the site. This is one of the safest places to work, as the use of the escrow system is mandatory for every single project.
Often featured in prime publications like Business Week, vWorker enjoys an impeccable reputation as one of the top places to find reliable and talented software professionals from all over the world.

Despite its old name of RentACoder the site already offers a growing range of writing, design, and other non technical jobs.

For Buyers

Registration, membership and posting jobs are free of charge.

For Providers

As a provider, you must pay vWorker between 6.5% - 15% of whatever you make on a project. Posting a project is completely free for buyers.
Verdict

Excellent interface, top safety for providers, and a proven record of profitability and reliability; what´s not to like?

Buyer Tip

Pre-verify your account to save delays at the moment of selecting a bid.

Provider Tip

About 50% of the jobs posted on vWorker have to do with software. That leaves over 1,300 open jobs in many other areas, so, if you are not a coder, don't be deterred. In fact since the rabrand, we expect this 50/50 split between coding and other jobs to diminish further in the months ahead.

Visit Here!