There are many voices in the Odesk community, some louder than others, that constantly complain about how low the rates are.  Most of these complaints come from those living in the West who are trying to enter the market as virtual assistants and data-entry providers.  Some of these people actually end up working for less than five dollars per hour because they are so badly in need of work.  Needless to say, this is not a sustainable living wage in the US.

Many data entry providers in my country are educated, competent, hard-working people.  Many have extensive office skills, long resumes, and many accomplishments.  There is what I see as basically a tragedy happening among certain individuals who have failed to adapt to a job market that has changed.  Many didn’t realize, some may still not realize, that data entry skills have become such a common commodity worldwide, that it is bought and sold very cheaply on the open market.  Providers living in developed countries cannot compete for these jobs any more.  If you are a data entry provider that lives in a developed country, you will need to adapt by learning new skills.

Why I earn $60 per hour on Odesk and you dont.

Of course, maybe you do earn this much or more, and if so, you have figured out how to be valuable in the global marketplace, how to compete, and how to use your status as a member of a developed country to your advantage.

A little background on me, just for your amusement.  I basically have no education.  I dropped out of the Navy when I was right in the middle of technical school by breaking bunches of rules, and never furthered my education.  I always have had computer skills, but never really was able to take advantage of them, or so I thought.  I didn’t figure out how to make a good living until much later.  The reason I am able to earn so much more than most people (on Odesk), is that I adapted my skills to be able to do something really valuable: program and develop websites.  But that is only part of the story.

It is because there is an Odesk that I am able to earn what I do.

If you are struggling to make a living online, you need to take a step back and look at things from a buyers perspective.  What makes you special that anyone will want to hire you?  I think there are a few main determining factors that cause someone to hire someone else at a higher rate:

1. A unique service, or at least a service that has the appearance of  being unique.
2. An established record of professionalism.  This is reflected in your history of work, hours, and earnings.
3. Your location in the world.  If you have #1 and #2, being in a similar location to a buyer is an advantage, because it will be easier to communicate.

The hardest thing for most people seems to be #1.  If you’re not doing something unique, it is difficult to find anyone who will want to hire you at a higher rate.  If you find yourself lost in the crowd, here is a non-comprehensive list of  in-demand skills that you can learn yourself that will supplement your skillset:

• HTML
• WordPress
• CSS
• Design
• PHP
• Joomla
• SEO
• Drupal

Almost anyone can learn something about some of these,  and all of them can be self taught from home. Why change now?  If you don’t, you might not be able to sustain a living for long.  As time grows on, you must learn more skills to be able to compete, especially if you’re competing globally.  This means you should be continually re-educating yourself throughout  your career.  Until you retire, you shouldn’t stop learning new job skills.

Besides just having enough skills, an essential part of success is being able to represent yourself well.  This is a skill that can’t always be taught, and takes practice.  You may want to consider keeping a journal (blog), so that you can practice communicating in writing.  People want to know about you, so the better you are at connecting with them the better your chances of succeeding will be.  If you are able to communicate well, and take an active part in social communities elsewhere on the web, your chances of success increase greatly.

What I’m saying may not be earth-shattering news to most people, but it sometimes amazes me how difficult it can be to get through to those who feel it is others’ responsibility to improve their situation.  Instead being productive, some instead focus on asking for minimum wages, and complaining about how unfair the system is to them.  You should not be working for the minimum! Those who complain sometimes seem to focus on everything but what one can do to improve his or her own situation.

I really hope those that read this and are in need of work will take this opportunity to better themselves instead of being frustrated that they can’t seem to sustain a living.  It is difficult to change, hard to adapt, but something has to budge.  Don’t think of outsourcing as a curse, think of it as an opportunity to be better than you were.  People living in underdeveloped parts of the world have a right to make a living also, and many of them are just starting to learn.  You are a step ahead of them.

I am currently very glad to be one of the fortunate few that does something that he really enjoys.  I am a full time, freelance web developer.  Unlike many people who run a business from home, I spend very little time looking for prospects, writing proposals,  or making calls.  I never write invoices.  None of my clients are local.  The market I work in is global.  I have one employee: myself.

Yes, I never write invoices.  I have a service which does all of that for me.  I never take money up-front, am always paid on time, every week, and do everything by the hour.  In addition, I am pretty much free to set my own hours.  Also, despite the current economic slowdown, my earnings have increased, and my future prospects seem bright.

I do have a website, but until recently, it didn’t have very much information on it.  People don’t find me from my website, and although it seems more professional to keep one, I don’t really need it. I have a secret: oDesk.

The first thing people usually ask when they see where I work, is “do people really work for $3 per hour??”.  My response is, “well, I’m not sure, I guess some people in the world can afford to work for that, but I live in the U.S., so that is not a living wage.”  I make a comfortable wage, and have no problem competing in the global marketplace.

The how and why I came to do what I do is ultimately not so important.  What is remarkable, is that it was possible, for me to do what I do at all.  My educational background is almost non-existent.  Before I started doing this I had two failed jobs and one failed business.  I was pretty much a failure.  I had no vehicle, and one half-busted computer.  Don’t get me wrong, I had huge potential, and raw computer talent, but all of the normal indicators of success were not present.  All I had was a little programming ability, and some knowledge of HTML and CSS.  I could make websites without using tables for layout.  This turned out to be an important key to my success.

So what is oDesk, and why is it so easy for people like me to make a living there?  A cursory glance at the site does not leave much of a clue.  The self proclaimed title of the site is “Outsource to Freelancers, IT Companies, Programmers, Web Designers from India, Russia, USA, and more – oDesk”.  This doesn’t say anything about the writers, who have also carved out quite a niche for themselves in the system, and seem to be growing in number.  The average wage on oDesk is about $15 per hour, which is less than half of what I usually charge, but is not bad, considering it is a global marketplace.

Getting your foot in the door on oDesk takes some persistence, patience, and the ability to represent yourself in writing.  It also helps to lower your rate at the beginning.  My first job was for only $11 per hour, and I worked very hard for that meager wage, since I knew the rating I got would be very important.  When the jobs one applies for have 30 other people on the list, standing out from the crowd is important.

Another thing about oDesk that has impressed me, is the honesty of its rating system.  The rating system is what is known as “double blind”.  This means neither person doing the rating knows what rating the other person is giving, until both people have completed rating the other.  Two weeks after a job has ended, if both parties have not offered a rating, any ratings given are published, and ratings can no longer be given.  This has proven an excellent way of sorting out who is doing a good job.

One interesting statistic that oDesk keeps is the so-called oConomy.  My favorite statistic from the oConomy is the total amount of earnings since oDesk was founded.  It is currently up to approximately $60 million dollars, most of it earned by individuals.  Some insiders refer to the oConomy as the “the internet’s best-kept public secret”.  Here is another interesting snapshot of oConomy statistics:

Odesk, the Global Freelance Market