Odesk guide - work from home philippines

Work from home in the Philippines – An Odesk Beginners Guide

http://akosimalds.com/ By Malds Menzon

[HOW TO SIGN UP AND GET HIRED ON ODESK] A step by step guide with tips, links to valuable resources, and genuine advice on how you can finally get your freelance career started

Be sure to check out my blog: http://akosimalds.com/

First of all let me thank you for signing up to my newsletter. I'll make sure I update you on all the money

making methods I come across.

Now let's go on to the meat of this e-book. I did promise you I'd give you a step by step guide that will teach

you how to sign up for and how to get your first job on Odesk after all.

STEP 1: So let's begin by making sure you have all the things you need to work online

An email address

I'm assuming that you've got an email address otherwise you wouldn't be reading this :). But in case you got

this e-book from one of your friends, which is perfectly fine with me, and you don't have an e-mail address

then now is the time to sign up for one.

An email address is absolutely necessary if you want to work online. My advice is that you sign up for both

http://www.mail.yahoo.com and www.gmail.com.

This way you'll have access to both yahoo messenger and Google talk in case your employer ever wants to

get in touch with you through those.

http://www.mail.yahoo.com/

http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-7073384-10739642


A Skype ID

If you don't know what this is, it's basically a way for you and your employer to talk online through a video

and voice call. So it's essentially like a normal phone call except that it's got a video aspect to it if you've got a

web cam and you use the internet to connect instead of phone lines.

I never really liked skyping to be honest but if you want to become a serious freelancer it’s absolutely

essential.

Employers like being able to interview potential employees and check up on them every once in awhile

phase to phase.

So make sure you sign up for an account at www.skype.com.

Oh and you’ve got to have at the very least a headset for this. A webcam is needed for video calls but you

can still talk even without one.

A Personal Computer or a Laptop

This one is a no brainer. You need to be able to connect to the internet.

A fast and stable internet connection

This is actually pretty easy these days if you live in one of the major cities/towns in the Philippines.

http://www.skype.com./


Make sure you get a stable connection and my advice is to always have a backup in case an emergency

happens.

In my case I have a smart, a globe and a sun connection through my 3g and 4g devices so I can connect to the

net wherever I am.

You might want to consider getting yourself one or all of these. Pick the one that’s fastest and most stable

based on your location.

If you’re in the province though your normal broadband connection will suffice.

If there’s a mall near you or a coffee shop with free wifi connection, you can use that as well.

A PayPal Account

A Paypal account is basically like an online bank account. This is where people send you the payment.

Strictly speaking you don’t really need this to work on Odesk since you can directly withdraw the money to

your local bank account.

But if you’re going to work online you will most definitely need to have a paypal account so it’s best that you

sign up for this anyway.

www.paypal.com


http://www.paypal.com/


STEP 2: Sign up to ODesk

Finally time to Sign up!!!

First click the picture below and then click the Sign Up button on the bottom right portion of the page.




If you’re reading this guide chances are you’re looking for online work so click this button instead of the one

on the left.

From here you can use either your Facebook info to sign up or you can fill out all the boxes manually. It’s up

to you what you want to do.

Once you finish filling in the information, click the get started button.



You’ll then be brought to a page that will tell you to verify your email.

So go to your email and click the Odesk notification email. Click the link on that email and it’ll open a page

that’ll bring you back to Odesk.

You are now a contractor on Odesk, YAY!!!!

STEP 3: Now it’s time to create your profile

Now I know you want to go jump in and start applying for jobs already but we need to take things in steps.

First you need to create your profile first.

This is extremely important because it adds a professional touch to your application. Imagine being an

employer and seeing an application for a job with no picture or bio, you wouldn’t be able to take that

application seriously.

So go ahead and click the “Create your Profile” button.



You’ll be taken to a page where you have to fill up the boxes with your personal information. Make sure that

you answer all the boxes with the red asterisk “*” on them. And make sure that you have a picture. This is

very very important.



Make sure also that you fill in the objective section. This is the part that people get to read when they click

your name.

So write down your work experience here as well as your goals and what you can offer.

Again, and I can’t stress this enough, make sure you upload a professional looking picture.



Then for the job categories part, this is where you pick your interests. When you click this you’ll get pop-out

page:



Check the boxes that interest you. Don’t click all of it, just click the ones you feel you can do.



Then the last part is your address:

Make sure you fill it up with your real one.

At this point you can actually start applying for jobs already, which you can go ahead and do if you want. But you’ll only be able to submit two applications for now so make sure that you do the next couple of steps to increase your job quota. If you’re going to go ahead and try signing up before doing the next steps, be sure to read my post: http://earnmoneyonlinephilippines.com/how-to-get-hired-on-odesk/ In this post I talk about the strategies you can employ to make sure that you get a better shot at the job you apply for.

http://earnmoneyonlinephilippines.com/how-to-get-hired-on-odesk/



STEP 4: Increase your job quota by verifying your account

*one thing to note before I talk about this step, you don’t really need to do this because you can still increase your job applications in other

ways. But this does help with marketability because it looks good to employers. If you’re unable to do this immediately though, it’s fine.

Just follow the other steps to increase your job applications.

The thing with Odesk is they limit the number of jobs you can apply for if you’re new.





So initially you can only submit two job applications. This isn’t going to be enough so we have to increase it

to the maximum, 20 job applications.

There are a couple of factors that will increase your job application number, these are:

1. Taking the odesk readiness test (will bring you up to 5 job applications)

2. Verifying your account (plus 5 more so you’ve got 10 now)

3. Taking tests (I’ll talk about this later)

4. And getting high feedback scores (you get these after completing a job)

The two easiest things you can do to increase your application limit are taking the Odesk readiness test (I’ll

talk about this in a bit) and verifying your account.

Let’s verify our account first.

Just click the verify identity on your accounts home page. It’ll be on the right side.

In order to verify your account you’re going to have to submit scanned (colored) copies of your ID and a

utility bill (water bill, electricity, etc…) or recent bank statement.



Once you’ve got these two ready just click the button at the bottom of the page and fill up the necessary

information.

Once you’ve done this you can do the next step.



STEP 5: Take the Odesk Readiness test and the other tests relevant to your field

The other way to increase your job applications post and to improve your chances at getting a job, is to take

the tests.

Now you might wonder why you should take these?

The odesk readiness test determines how well you know the rules and policies of Odesk. So make sure you

read up on these. The good thing about this test is that you can fail it as many times as necessary and the

questions repeat. So you’ll eventually get this right.

*this part can get frustrating, and I’m speaking from experience lol, but just keep at it.

The other tests are there to rate you on how knowledgeable you are on a particular field. These on the other

hand are timed and you won’t be able to retake them immediately to change your scores.

So play it safe with these.

Think of these as like the board exam or bar exam for Odesk freelancers. When you apply for a job, your

employers will see your old jobs, your ratings and feedback.

They’ll also see your score tests.

Now if you’re new, you don’t have feedback and ratings so your profile will look empty to employers. So if

you want to make it a little more attractive then you should take the tests relevant to the field you want to

work in to show employers that you really are knowledgeable about the job.

For example, I’m a freelancer so I took the English tests for both US and UK. Their vocabulary tests and

there’s a test also for writers, proofreaders and editors.





You can find the test by clicking the “test” button on the upper part of your page.

To be honest these tests are only really important in the beginning because you don’t have ratings and

feedback yet so your tests scores are all that your employers can look at.

Later on in your Odesk career these won’t really matter as much.




STEP 6: Finally time to find and apply to a job

We’re finally here, YAY .

Click the find jobs button on the upper left of your page.




You should already be seeing job posts on your main page. These are the ones that match the job categories

you chose when you created your profile.

You can apply for these if you want and if you see one you like.

If you want to look at a bigger selection though click “browse all job categories” at the bottom.

This is what you’ll get if you do that:

Click on the category you want and you’ll find tons of jobs you can apply for.



Just to show you what happens if you apply, let’s say I picked writing and translation and I found a job I

liked.

Let’s say I want to write about making money online since I already do anyway so it’ll be an easy job for me.



Let’s zoom it in a little closer.

Take note of the things I underlined here.

I picked this client because:

one, his budget is $400 so that’s good

Two, you see that green bar at the bottom. That means he’s already spent a good deal of cash already

on Odesk. He’s also got 5 star feedback score so that tells me his old contractors were happy with him.

Three, he listed the qualifications for the job. These are the ones with the long underline. This doesn’t

always appear because it’ll depend on whether the employer specified certain qualifications or not.



Now I’m going to click this to see more about the job and the employer.

Clicking the job brings me to this page. You’ve got the description of the job on the top part. A list of the

required skills for the job at the bottom, and some details about the employer on your right.



One very important tip is to always work for employers who have actually spent money already because that guarantees that they will pay you for your work. Also look at their feedback scores.

If you scroll downwards you’ll see an applicant’s drop down button and beneath that you’ll see the work

completed by other contractors for the employer.



If you decide to apply for the job then just click the “apply to this job” button.

You’ll be carried to another application page.



If you’re working alone then click the apply as an independent contractor. If you’re part of an agency then another option will appear like in the above picture. Then you get to decide how much you want to get paid for the job. This will depend on the requirements and your rate. Since this is a project based job (there are hourly jobs as well and I’ll talk about those later) you type in the cost of the whole project here. Then there’s an option for upfront payment, meaning the employer has to pay you a certain percent of the price even before you do the job. If you’re in demand then this will work for you otherwise keep this blank. Employers don’t like to pay upfront and you’re application will most likely be turned down if you ask for money upfront. Duration is of course how long it’ll take you to complete the project.

Then if you scroll down you’ll see the cover letter portion and the attachment button.



The cover letter is like your sales pitch. This is the part where you tell your employer why you’re the best

person for the job so make this good.

I’ve already written an extensive post on this so feel free to read up on that here:

http://akosimalds.com/how-to-get-hired-on-odesk/

Make sure that after writing your cover letter, you upload a sample of your work through the attachment

option. This helps a lot in increasing your chances.

Then click the “agree to terms” check box and “apply to this job” button and you’re done.

Rinse and repeat the steps for applying to jobs over and over again until you reach your limit for job

applications.

Now the waiting game starts .



What are hourly jobs?

I mentioned earlier that there are hourly jobs. Basically these are the type of jobs where you’re paid by the

hour.

You can tell if a post is a pay-per-project type post or an hourly one by looking at the small text below the job

title.




In the picture above for example you’ll see that it says “10 hrs/week”. This means that the job is hourly and

that you’re allowed to work a maximum of ten hours per week for this one.

The other two below it just show the estimated budget for the project so these are not hourly.

Other than the rate of payment, hourly jobs differ from the single project type ones because you need to

download Odesk’s team application for these.

It’s basically an application that tracks your time with Odesk. So you have to log in to the application and

then click start so that it’ll start recording the time you’re working. This is how Odesk tracks your number of

hours spent on the job.

Take note that it also takes data on how active you are on your desktop (based on keyboard and mouse

movement) and it takes random snapshots of your screen and uploads it to a database.

The employer can see all of this data so if you have the application turned on and you’re just playing games,

he or she will know.

If you’re going for hourly jobs, REMEMBER TO TURN THE APPLICATION ON WHEN YOU START

WORKING AND TO TURN IT OFF WHEN YOU STOP.

I get so used to project based work sometimes that I forget to turn on the odesk team application when I

start working on my hourly jobs. Sometimes I work for 30 minutes before remembering to turn it on. That’s

money down the drain so always remember to turn it on when doing hourly work.




Well that’s it for now. That should be enough information to get you started.

If you have questions or need more help, feel free to visit my blog and leave your comments and questions

on any of my posts.

Here are some you might find interesting/useful as well:


http://akosimalds.com/create-an-online-portfolio-and-increase-your-chances-of-getting-hired/

You can leave your comments/questions here if you want.


http://akosimalds.com/create-an-online-portfolio-and-increase-your-chances-of-getting-hired/


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Odesk guide - work from home philippines