Odesk beginner needs advice

As a buyer on oDesk, you are right. I tend to prefer people with the options you don't have. My suggestion would be send samples of your design specific to the job your are bidding on with your offer. Of course protect them with a watermark. This will help a buyer know that you can do the job. I would also try a lower price just the first couple of times to get the cheap buyer. Sometimes the cheap buyer wants to world for $5, but you may have to do it while building a reputation. The other fact is taking the tests. Score high oh Photoshop test. This also shows you have domain knowledge.

I look at ratings and price. When that doesn't get me what I am looking, I'll more on to requesting samples from provider.

Lower your price point to get some feedbacks. Also, please improve your English skills. Trust me it will put you way ahead of the pack when it comes to bidding for jobs. Also, another thing you can do is take the odesk tests and try to score high. That will give you an edge over other applicants. Hope this helps.

Do not get discouraged. You can make a portfolio and show it to the buyers while bidding. In addition to that you can offer 2-3 sample logos and unlimited revisions at very low prices.
By the way have you tried your luck at fiverr also?

You are correct.

The few times I hired people on odesk, I did not hire anyone with 0 hours of work experience.

It's just much safer to hire someone with a lot of experience and a lot of detailed, positive feedback.

So I'm sorry for people like me who won't hire you, but it lessens risk to hire this way.

However, I am sure somebody will be willing to take a chance on you. You will probably have to bid on a lot of jobs at first, though. You just need to spend the time to get started, in the beginning, and put in some hard work and it will get easier later on if you are doing good work.

Here's one tip. You can put your skills and previous experience somewhere on your profile, I believe. When you bid for jobs, only bid for jobs where you have the proper skills or experience. When hiring on odesk, I would ignore anyone who did not have the required skills or experience listed on their profile, unless they'd sent me a personal message showing their work history where they'd done similar jobs before.

oDesk: Start small, accept a low rate on your first gig. If you're worth $25 per hour, then bite the bullet and take on a gig at $5. Make sure it's a small job, so you won't spend weeks working for peanuts.

Overdeliver ridiculously, so you'll be likely to get a good review. Once you have completed your first job, double your rates.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Worked for me