oDesk is a website that connects employers with employees. Companies or individuals looking to hire someone to work remotely post a job offer. Then candidates apply for the position. The job could be a temporary job (say 6 months, working 1 hour per day, every other day) that pays by the hour. It can also be a one time job where you get paid X amount of dollars for completing the described task.

Getting paid

If you feel discouraged because you’re seeing people accepting jobs for very little money, don’t be. Some companies want US based workers with a good command of the English language who are in the Eastern time zone, for example. Some jobs are not just simple repetitive tasks, but rather require quality work. Employers are willing to pay a higher price to receive higher quality results. The way oDesk makes money is by collecting 10% of your total pay. So let’s say a particular job wants you to work 10 hours at $10 per hour, you would get $90 total instead of $100.

What to do

Take a look around the jobs being posted to get an idea of what employers are looking for. Some common jobs people get hired to do include: article writers, search engine optimization specialists, graphic designers, data entry, virtual assistants and customer service representatives.

Getting work

The more jobs you complete at oDesk the better chances you have of getting hired for other positions in the future. Your work history is displayed so prospective employers can and do take experience into account. So take as many jobs as you can handle at first to build your resume. If you end up doing a good job on a task you may even be hired as a full time employee by the company.