Thursday, February 26, 2009

I'm a Happy Member of the Professional oDesk Community!

I am now an oDesk professional, as compared to an amateur - someone who does it as a hobby. And of course what that means is I got paid! I've been working for a little bit, but they have a delay - I assume so that the buyers can't cancel the payment. Let's go a little slower and explain how the pay system works there.

When a person or business looks to hire someone through oDesk, they have to give oDesk a method of payment - usually credit card, probably Paypal would work too (not a Buyer - yet!). oDesk then tests the card, and doesn't let that person hire anyone until they have a positive result. As long as the you(or me, a provider) works hourly, you clock in, are monitored, and oDesk keeps a record of time spent and what was going on with your computer. Sunday night, your hours for the week are up, and you have until Monday noon to make any changes - say you got a drink of water and spent 10 minutes talking to a friend; you don't want to charge them for that 10 minutes.

Now comes the wait. oDesk spends about 10 days processing: charging their credit card; handling their paperwork; waiting to make sure the money is safely there; and then they make it available to you. So my first week of work came available yesterday, and I got my first paycheck today, all $221 of it, deposited into my account!

So there you have it. oDesk is for real. There's a lot of competition, and some of it is from places with a much lower standard of living, so you have to work hard to differentiate yourself. But once you do, oDesk can be your new workspace. I make more hourly there than at my other jobs - while sitting in my easy chair, looking out the window. Well, sometimes - a lot of my work was really early in the morning.

In other news, Loxly Studios has three pictures of mine up here. Brand new, so I won't make anything this month. Take a look and see what you think. And let me know if you want anything specific. I live in Newport, on the Oregon Coast, so lighthouses, ocean, gulls, pelicans, the Aquarium, and so on are all really easy to get. I'm thinking about putting together some Motivational Posters - let me know if anyone's interested.

Finally, surveys have been a bust. I mentioned two possibles last week, and they both fell through. One never showed; the other one did, but was closed when I went to fill it out (apparently they sometimes close early). I'm going through the other sites again, but nothing new there either. Well, at least I'm learning what works - and what doesn't!

Monthly recap coming soon!

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