oDesk for linkbuilding? Suggestions/opinions?

You need to explain VERY clearly what you want done, don't assume that they know. Also, you should give similar tasks to maybe 2-3 people and invariably only one will provide quality results at the right price point. Use this person for recurring projects.

Hope this helps.

oDesk was a painful experience for me. There are just so many people knowing nothing but wanting too much. I will try it again once i have a lot of time screening and communicating with candidates.

You can hire people for forum posting.Forum posting is the best way to get traffic.But one thing you should remember that experience is the main aspect in forum posting.

Generally when outsourcing your work to websites like this, mainly oDesk; you need to watch out for people who will plain and simple, do a terrible job, you definitly need to find somebody who knows what are talking about and infact is a SEO expert.

Not just somebody in some asian country (Not a rascit remark), offering dirt-cheap backlink services, but not knowing anything about SEO. Just my two-cents.

I had a lot of success with few except!

oDesk not only save me time and money, I can easily find good people from Philippines and India! I can't imagine work without it.

However, up until today I only outsource fix amount job, not hourly job. As long as you know how to write detail spec (sometime with picture & video), they will follow exactly and deliver on time.

Few things to bare in mind:

1. You need to write good spec.
2. Your worker must be responsive, reply your email in 6 hours or less during working time.
3. Your worker should have skype or other IM communicator, at least they must response fast with email.
4. You should start small project to find good people, once identified them, build good relationship with them. I like to pay more - as bonus for my favorite worker.

My usual rate for 1,000 backlinks is about 100, but I pay more for my favorite worker. Article is around $4~$5 / 500 words.

The greatest part is - I manage to get few writers write SEO+AIDA ready article for me! Although the work is not 100% to my satisfaction, but with that kind of investment, I don't complaint...

Overall, I love oDesk!

Kok Choon

I hired my first VA from onlinejobs.ph

You can get better deals here for sure, lots of the guru's use this and the workers are loyal.

p/s: Filipinos are very pro-America too if that amounts to anything. :p

Hi, this is Nicole from Rent a Coder. Rentacoder provides access to programming, writing, illustration, even SEM/SEO jobs.

I'd like to point out a few differences between our service and services like oDesk since those differences could influence the success of an outsourced project.

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1) Employing a new worker that you don't yet know or trust:
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When you don't yet know if a worker is productive, both oDesk and Rent a Coder let you employ them in the safest way possible: by paying them a fixed price for the final deliverables (called pay-for-deliverables). However, oDesk doesn't offer a number of guarantees that are important when dealing with a new worker.

1a): Triple point money-back guarantee (on completion, quality and deadline):
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On Rent a Coder, the contracted work will be fully completed by the deadline, and will be up to industry-expected standards, or you get your money back. oDesk does not give refunds for lack of completion, missed deadlines or poor quality work. As a result, you may pay full price for sub-standard work (or no real work at all).

1b) Money-back communication guarantee:
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Communication is vital to your project's success and the larger the project the more communication is necessary to ensure on-time completion. On Rent a Coder, if the project is more than $150.00~the worker agrees to file a weekly status report. If they don't, you get your money back. oDesk does not give refunds for missed status reports. As a result, you may find that communication is poorer, which can affect the quality of the final work.

1c): Expert Guarantee:
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The Rent a Coder triple-point guarantee protects your money from a vWorker that doesn't deliver. But if you had a critical deadline, you may have lost vital time. The Expert Guarantee helps you avoid this by identifying the most committed and expert vWorkers during bidding. The workers agree to place a deposit to guarantee that they will not break any of the triple-point (or quadruple-point) guarantees. If they do, they forfeit the deposit (which goes to cover cancellation fees and then gets donated to a worthy charity). oDesk does not have a feature like this. As a result it may be more difficult to identify such workers during bidding.

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2) Employing a familiar worker that you've worked with before:
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Once you know a worker is productive, both oDesk and Rent A Coder let you employ them more flexibly and cheaply by paying them by the hour (called pay-for-time). However there are important differences in how oDesk and Rent A Coder provide this service.

2a) Fees
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When employing a worker you know, Rent A Coder charges 10%-35% less than oDesk (9% for one-on-one auctions to as low as 6.5%). The less you pay, the more you savings you can pocket yourself, pass on to the worker as a reward, or split. oDesk charges a higher fee of 10%. As a result, you have less money to pocket, pass on to the worker as a reward, or split.

2b) Interrupting Mental Tasks
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If your worker is doing a mental task that should not be interrupted (such as reading, planning, or writing at a desk), oDesk still requires them to remember to move their mouse every minute or so, or they won't guarantee payment to them. This requirement may distract and impair performance and you still must full price for time that is billed like this. Rent A Coder does not interrupt this kind of work in the first place, so you do not have this issue.

There are other differences as well. I invite everyone to compare the 7 major services through our site to learn even more

If you have any questions, please let me know. You can also call in to talk to a facilitator 7 days a week, or email us.

-Nicole

Thanks for sharing this information.