How I started working on Odesk and Elance
One and a half years ago, I was sitting in a cafe on the Arbat and thinking about my future. At that time, he worked as a part-time programmer and studied at one technical university. Everything was stable, but I wanted something more - and I decided to see how much good programmers earn on freelance. I had already had the experience of “freelancing” by that time, but the impression was not the best - the money was small, the customers were not always adequate, even once they threw me with payment.
I went to the website of the well-known Russian freelance exchange and saw that nothing had changed there during the year of my absence: they paid - a little, asked - a lot, and so on. So I had the idea to see what is happening in the west. I found articles on Habre about the foreign exchanges Odesk and Elance, read, thought how complicated everything was, and safely forgot about this venture.
In July 2012, for the first time in my life, I went abroad - to Spain. There, while relaxing with friends, I realized that living outside our country is very, very good. There I decided to read articles on Habrir about how you can get a job in other countries and where to emigrate.
After a little research, I realized that not everyone is waiting for me in other countries and Google employees are unlikely to beg me on their knees to become part of their team. But I came across many interesting articles about the experience of working for foreign customers on foreign exchanges Odesk and Elance. I again got excited about the idea that you can be a freelancer, gain experience working with foreign colleagues and live quite well.
Upon returning to Moscow, I became interested in what projects are suitable for my experience. I went to the sites odesk.com and elance.com and analyzed the projects according to my requests (PHP, JavaScript). And I saw low rates and high competition (then I did not quite understand how to live with this). True, the number of orders was impressive. Then I began to analyze the less common query “Google Analytics” (I worked on the settings of this system at work) and saw a couple of suitable projects. There was no point in answering them (many of them were published 2-3 weeks ago) and I concluded my market research with the conclusion that it was worth a try.
I decided to prepare. In the articles on the hub, they wrote that you need to make a good profile description and pass relevant tests in order to have some advantage over thousands of cheap specialists from India and Pakistan. I spent several evenings on this: one test lasted 30-40 minutes, I did not know English well, and was engaged in filling out a profile after work and a diploma. As a result, I got a profile with the results of top 20-30% in several suitable tests. Then I realized that I needed to work cheaply for the first review (so many advised). And I began to periodically respond to projects of interest to me, translating my cover letter from Russian into English in Google Translate. But nothing happened.
Then somehow I saw a $ 5 project that I could completely do. It was necessary to set up an e-commerce module Google Analytics for an online store of intimate goods of one Turk (literally, a Turkish citizen). After a brief correspondence, the customer handed me the project and I completed it. I spent 20 hours on it, and tried to do everything as cool as possible for the client (now this is my principle). He said that $ 5 for such work is not enough, left an enthusiastic review, and we said goodbye. It was the lowest paid job in my life.
Then there were projects already with American customers and already on an hourly basis, with a rate of 10 $ / hour. There, I also received good reviews and already some money.
Meanwhile, the new year 2013 was nearing, I had to write a diploma and at the same time work full time. Over time, it was very tight, I cursed my institute and thought that I could use this time to usefully develop myself in foreign freelance.
In mid-January 2013, I defended my diploma at the institute. And after 2 weeks I parted with the employer, not quite on my own initiative. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to fate and the former leadership that it happened so: I myself would have hardly decided to quit.
Next was another vacation and thoughts about what to do next. For my skills, I saw many interesting full-time vacancies with a good salary. But I understood that already in April, a spring draft was waiting for me, and it would not work to combine new work with campaigns in the military registration and enlistment office. So all the roads led to freelance, which I had just thought about before, but now it became inevitable.
And after the rest I went headlong to work: I went through verification on both exchanges and began to send applications for projects. Customers responded with a contract quite rarely, which sometimes saddened me. Fortunately, I still had good savings that allowed me to decently exist. If you decide to leave permanent work for freelance - I would advise having 5-7 thousand dollars in stock (the figure is relevant for Muscovites renting housing). Big earnings do not start immediately, and not at all: I think it depends on specialization, language, and many other factors.
During the work, I paid more attention to Odesk than Elance, since there were a lot of articles on Odesk on the hub, and according to the comments it seemed that people work mainly there. As it turned out, Elance is a pretty good exchange for itself and it is worth developing simultaneously on both sites: this is an additional market that should not be neglected. Yes, and Elance has several advantages over Odesk, which can be understood over time.
Since there were few projects, and there was a lot of free time, I was analyzing my effectiveness.
Firstly, I periodically passed the tests again, improving my results. So the profile was decorated with all sorts of “Top 10%”, which, perhaps, attracted someone. In general, it seemed to me that many tests were compiled several years ago and may be completely irrelevant for assessing the qualifications of a freelancer. And the answers to them hang on the Internet.
Secondly, I created a small portfolio with a brief description of my projects. For myself, I decided that it makes no sense to include more than four projects there.
Thirdly, I made a good description of the profile in which I wrote my skills on points and how I can be useful.
Fourth, I began to deal with my bids (applications for the project), which my comrades from Habr helped me a lot with. I started writing more “client-oriented” letters for each project, in which I briefly talked about my qualifications and asked questions, showing that I had read the description of the project.
As a result of all these actions, customers began to appear more often, and reviews and stars appeared in the profile (mainly from 4.5 to 5, but there were less pleasant cases). Since sometimes there were short-term blockages in work, I periodically increased my hourly rate by several dollars.
Regarding the rate, I faced a choice from the very beginning: either to put a small rate and work a lot, or to designate a big rate and work less. The second option seemed more logical to me (and so many smart people advised it), so I chose it. I decided that it was worth raising it gradually, as the feedback accumulated.
At first it was equal to $ 15 / hour, then $ 20 / hour, then 25, 28 and 40. This is all displayed in the profile and customers can see that others have already worked with me on this price list.
As a result of orders, it became a little more, and the monthly salary became equal and became a little higher than on a permanent job. So freelance has turned from some kind of parallel reality into the lifestyle that I have been living for almost a year. So far I like it.
When I thought about starting to work for myself a couple of years ago, a lot of things seemed very complicated and overwhelming to me. In fact, many problems turned out to be simple and solvable: the devil is not so terrible as he is painted. So, if one of the readers fluctuates between permanent work and freelance, try freelance, at least for half a year. Suddenly like it?
I went to the website of the well-known Russian freelance exchange and saw that nothing had changed there during the year of my absence: they paid - a little, asked - a lot, and so on. So I had the idea to see what is happening in the west. I found articles on Habre about the foreign exchanges Odesk and Elance, read, thought how complicated everything was, and safely forgot about this venture.
In July 2012, for the first time in my life, I went abroad - to Spain. There, while relaxing with friends, I realized that living outside our country is very, very good. There I decided to read articles on Habrir about how you can get a job in other countries and where to emigrate.
After a little research, I realized that not everyone is waiting for me in other countries and Google employees are unlikely to beg me on their knees to become part of their team. But I came across many interesting articles about the experience of working for foreign customers on foreign exchanges Odesk and Elance. I again got excited about the idea that you can be a freelancer, gain experience working with foreign colleagues and live quite well.
Upon returning to Moscow, I became interested in what projects are suitable for my experience. I went to the sites odesk.com and elance.com and analyzed the projects according to my requests (PHP, JavaScript). And I saw low rates and high competition (then I did not quite understand how to live with this). True, the number of orders was impressive. Then I began to analyze the less common query “Google Analytics” (I worked on the settings of this system at work) and saw a couple of suitable projects. There was no point in answering them (many of them were published 2-3 weeks ago) and I concluded my market research with the conclusion that it was worth a try.
I decided to prepare. In the articles on the hub, they wrote that you need to make a good profile description and pass relevant tests in order to have some advantage over thousands of cheap specialists from India and Pakistan. I spent several evenings on this: one test lasted 30-40 minutes, I did not know English well, and was engaged in filling out a profile after work and a diploma. As a result, I got a profile with the results of top 20-30% in several suitable tests. Then I realized that I needed to work cheaply for the first review (so many advised). And I began to periodically respond to projects of interest to me, translating my cover letter from Russian into English in Google Translate. But nothing happened.
Then somehow I saw a $ 5 project that I could completely do. It was necessary to set up an e-commerce module Google Analytics for an online store of intimate goods of one Turk (literally, a Turkish citizen). After a brief correspondence, the customer handed me the project and I completed it. I spent 20 hours on it, and tried to do everything as cool as possible for the client (now this is my principle). He said that $ 5 for such work is not enough, left an enthusiastic review, and we said goodbye. It was the lowest paid job in my life.
Then there were projects already with American customers and already on an hourly basis, with a rate of 10 $ / hour. There, I also received good reviews and already some money.
Meanwhile, the new year 2013 was nearing, I had to write a diploma and at the same time work full time. Over time, it was very tight, I cursed my institute and thought that I could use this time to usefully develop myself in foreign freelance.
In mid-January 2013, I defended my diploma at the institute. And after 2 weeks I parted with the employer, not quite on my own initiative. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to fate and the former leadership that it happened so: I myself would have hardly decided to quit.
Next was another vacation and thoughts about what to do next. For my skills, I saw many interesting full-time vacancies with a good salary. But I understood that already in April, a spring draft was waiting for me, and it would not work to combine new work with campaigns in the military registration and enlistment office. So all the roads led to freelance, which I had just thought about before, but now it became inevitable.
And after the rest I went headlong to work: I went through verification on both exchanges and began to send applications for projects. Customers responded with a contract quite rarely, which sometimes saddened me. Fortunately, I still had good savings that allowed me to decently exist. If you decide to leave permanent work for freelance - I would advise having 5-7 thousand dollars in stock (the figure is relevant for Muscovites renting housing). Big earnings do not start immediately, and not at all: I think it depends on specialization, language, and many other factors.
During the work, I paid more attention to Odesk than Elance, since there were a lot of articles on Odesk on the hub, and according to the comments it seemed that people work mainly there. As it turned out, Elance is a pretty good exchange for itself and it is worth developing simultaneously on both sites: this is an additional market that should not be neglected. Yes, and Elance has several advantages over Odesk, which can be understood over time.
Since there were few projects, and there was a lot of free time, I was analyzing my effectiveness.
Firstly, I periodically passed the tests again, improving my results. So the profile was decorated with all sorts of “Top 10%”, which, perhaps, attracted someone. In general, it seemed to me that many tests were compiled several years ago and may be completely irrelevant for assessing the qualifications of a freelancer. And the answers to them hang on the Internet.
Secondly, I created a small portfolio with a brief description of my projects. For myself, I decided that it makes no sense to include more than four projects there.
Thirdly, I made a good description of the profile in which I wrote my skills on points and how I can be useful.
Fourth, I began to deal with my bids (applications for the project), which my comrades from Habr helped me a lot with. I started writing more “client-oriented” letters for each project, in which I briefly talked about my qualifications and asked questions, showing that I had read the description of the project.
As a result of all these actions, customers began to appear more often, and reviews and stars appeared in the profile (mainly from 4.5 to 5, but there were less pleasant cases). Since sometimes there were short-term blockages in work, I periodically increased my hourly rate by several dollars.
Regarding the rate, I faced a choice from the very beginning: either to put a small rate and work a lot, or to designate a big rate and work less. The second option seemed more logical to me (and so many smart people advised it), so I chose it. I decided that it was worth raising it gradually, as the feedback accumulated.
At first it was equal to $ 15 / hour, then $ 20 / hour, then 25, 28 and 40. This is all displayed in the profile and customers can see that others have already worked with me on this price list.
As a result of orders, it became a little more, and the monthly salary became equal and became a little higher than on a permanent job. So freelance has turned from some kind of parallel reality into the lifestyle that I have been living for almost a year. So far I like it.
When I thought about starting to work for myself a couple of years ago, a lot of things seemed very complicated and overwhelming to me. In fact, many problems turned out to be simple and solvable: the devil is not so terrible as he is painted. So, if one of the readers fluctuates between permanent work and freelance, try freelance, at least for half a year. Suddenly like it?