All good things, come to an end

I have received an email from my current and only active Buyer early this morning.

Unfortunately I didn't check my mail right away because I accompanied my mom at the clinic for her annual check up. I didn't bring my laptop with me knowing that I’ll be busy and I wont be able to focus on the task. When I came home tonight, I wanted to work right away. I checked my mailbox first. I saw bunches of messages including the mail of my dearly beloved Buyer. I read it.

The company have decided to let me go because their team is not doing well with oDesk and they cannot afford to pay me anymore.

I really didn’t see this coming. :(

They were my Buyer for 5 months. We started really at a low rate but since the job is consistently done everyday, it was a big contribution to my savings. Due to that, I can honestly tell you that the savings is equivalent to a trip to any South-East Asian country.

Sigh.

It was sad but more of I understand their point of view. If I were in their place and if I need to downsize or anything, I feel I would have done the same…

The main reason I was shocked is, I was contented already and I never thought that the task is going to end. I never pictured myself to stop working at the project even if I have a more stable job anytime soon. It was included in my long term plans. LOL. seriously.

Because my Buyer is a good person. She is a Filipina too and I never felt abused or paid low. Thus the reason why I didnt accept any job offer both in and outside oDesk because I always thought that I have a job with this Buyer and I don't have to ask for more.

Well I am back to zero again. I needed to look for a buyer which will be with me in another months or so.

PS. LOL what a weird way to return after a long hiatus. I was planning for a beauty review but I don't understand why my writers block kept going on for months! LOL. The only thing that made me write again is this oDesk situation. I dont know if I should be happy for that or not. bleh. xoxo

Look what's inside my mailbox

My mailbox has schizophrenia. Look, you can see some bad news like (Candidacy ended from oDesk and messages from the buyer itself telling me: YOU ARE NOT WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR. Duh nice move to ditch after interviewing me huh?) But here's what to look forward to, another buyer just suddenly hired me without undergoing any interviews. How's that huh? First time to do an hourly basis rate. Hope I can make it thru. Since I am no writer, the task itself is writing. Wow this is a challenge.

Also, see that pickjack message. Yeah pickjack is a paid to post site and yeah its legit but guess how much i earned. It didnt reach a dollar lol. Good news they didnt have any minimum payout but your earnings can decrease if you dont sign in and if you post nonsense questions like what I did. LOL I asked if Lady Gaga is a man hahah. :)) But those pay to post sites and pay to click sites are boring me because I am the type who likes to work in a more office setup way just like oDesk. But its still has a sentimental value to me. After all, my first payment is from a pay to post site which is the now defunk, Destroy Debt. Dont you ever think of signing up to Destroy Debt to earn money. Because it has stopped its revenue sharing since April 10 this year. If you are the type of surfer who loves posting and strolling around the WWW, try this one and you are rest assured you are paid in dollar or cents lol. Be sure you are really online most of the time and you contribute a lot. Sign up here!

Okay last but not the least, the mystery shopper thing at the bottom of my mailbox. See its really nice when people reply to you. It gives you more confidence to work hard.

I still have colds but I want to start with my oDesk assignment now.

Laters.

♥,
Cecily

✎ The oDesk experience

Alright. This is going to be my first post about my journey towards earning money online. :)

Lets start of with oDesk.

I started working at oDesk last April 3, 2009. Yes, that's really recent. It was purely accidental. I actually wanted to apply as an online English teacher with a Japanese owned company but they were not replying with my application so I decided to call them. For some reason, I first wanted to research about the company before following up...and then I stumbled upon oDesk at Google and so the history goes on...

After I signed up, I immediately build my profile. I took two online exams: The oDesk readiness exam and the US English Basic Skills Test. I passed btw lol. And then I applied to 11 job postings. Yes, you've read that right. Eleven. I almost hit the quota of 15 application lol. Luckily for me after a day, I received three interview invitations from them and another two after few days. I was so happy and never imagined that these buyers* will contact me because I am not really confident with my cover letters ;P. What happened to the other applications? They rejected me. :) Saying that they prefer other candidates and others say that I was charging them a high bid. That's ridiculous because as far as I know I only charge $2.00/hour. I guess they only wanted to make excuses.

Anyway, among the five interview invitations, two buyers hired me.

Buyer #1: My task is to research about people with debt. Those who reside in the UK only. I was too excited but I had a hard time with the task. It eats up my time and searching people in debt asking about their contact info is like finding a needle in a haystack. I found some contacts and gave it to my buyer but I wanted to terminate the job. My buyer told me not to cancel it and I did. After few weeks, I didn't follow up about the task. I guess its really not my thing. And today (April 20), I received an email saying that my buyer suspended it. I received no payment, I received no negative feedback. Its okay. I am after the feedback anyway. ✌

Buyer #2: My task is to cut and edit an audio. This is my first ever real task. I gave a good impression with my buyer because I passed his qualifications which is to submit an edited audio before he can finally hire me. It was an easy job but difficult at the same time because of the bulk. I have to finish 400+ audio in two days! But I cant, and I honestly told him that. I didn't really sleep at all just to finish it plus the audio were really random so I had to organize them in some way. After the first task, he asked how much I would like to be paid. I told him I will charge $72 because I had to work for 3 days. He agreed but told me to work faster because there were other providers* who are much faster than me. But since I gained his trust, he gave me more task. I was paid, $40 for my second task.

↑↑↑ My first payment for the things that I did over the internet. lol. Of course it wasn't a get-money-fast idea. I had to work hard for it and use my skills. How will I encash it? I will not. I will make my account fatter before I'll withdraw lol. If I decided to do it, I'll post my experience here. :)

I am still hired by Buyer #2 but for now, he doesn't have a task for me. I worked in a fixed rate as opposed to hourly rate which oDesk encourages. So I am still searching for another job at oDesk.

Right now, I received another invitation for an interview. This time it is going to be different. Its a Virtual Assistant job. I am quite excited about it since I will be paid hourly and the task is not difficult at all. The only uh-oh is that I'm going to work in a different timezone. :( We'll talk about that. The buyer seems to be good in compromising. I hope I'll get in and its going to be a good job. I have pending applications as well so its really advisable to be online most of the time if you really want to get that job!

But my first tip is, do not accept anything for the sake of getting in. Some buyers are like those bad eBay shoppers or hoppers. They give you task and wont pay you the right way. I'll expand this topic nextime.

Oh if you want to check oDesk and want to work there like me, you can check my referral link below. Don't worry, I wont get any profit from you asap because you need to earn $1000 before I can actually benefit from that. lol. Well anyway, the chances are quite vague but I want to try it--Just in case. lol.

♥,
Cecily

*Buyers---oDesk term for employer.
*Providers---oDesk term for you, the one offering the service.
italics---these words are italicized because it will help me make some great tips on how to land a job in oDesk nextime. :)