A lot of people come to online sources because it's easy and convenient - but that doesn't mean that they want to completely give up the personal experience as well.
Your profile is what will introduce you as a person as well as an applicant to the people reviewing your cover letter. Make it count.
Overview - One of the most important parts of your profile is your overview. It should introduce you to the client and establish your objective.
Use this to set you apart from other contractors. "I write fast and can get the job done quickly." So what! Chances are, 90%-95% of the other applicants can, too.
So how are you any different? "I want to be the best provider to my clients." Again, so what!? This doesn't help you at all because everyone else says the same thing.
Not to mention - it should be a given that you want to provide the best service. Your overview should answer the question "why you should hire me over the other guy"
... If it doesn't answer that question, it's not a good overview.
Picture - After all, they speak a thousand words, right? It's not a requirement to have a picture, but it does help. Make sure you follow oDesk's identity policy when
choosing a picture to post - but in general, any picture of you with a smile on your face will do wonders for you. People like to put a face to a font... So give them one.
Hourly Rate - I hate to say it, but there are a lot of clients that will look at your hourly rate. I am not talking about whatever rate you bid on a project, but the rate
that is displayed on your profile. This rate should reflect the level and quality of work that you provide and should be a fair reflection of a going rate for the field / category
you are interested in working for. Is there a difference? Of course! Can you expect to get paid the same amount of money for site scraping as you can for writing articles?
Probably not unless you are the best darn web scraper in the world (and can back it up!). If you're not sure what to set your rate at, look through at other providers,
or go through the oConomy pages, figure out how much you would be paid for the exact same job at an office, or do a search to see if you can find out what the average
going rate is for that field and adjust that average to reflect your experience level.
Resume - Also important because your resume houses all of your skills. Are you a web designer? Great! Then post your CSS, PHP, Javascript, Drupal, Joomla!,
and Wordpress skills! A lot of clients search for providers based on these skills - how will they find you if you don't have them listed anywhere on your profile?
And your resume is the perfect place to showcase these skills because it allows you to also place a brief description of how you have used this skill in the past and
display how long you have been using it.
Build a Portfolio - This may be easier for some than others... But a portfolio is a great way to display your work. If you build web sites - place some links in there
to web sites that you've built. If you're an artist, then throw together some logos and interface designs and place them up there. Writer? Post a link to your blog...
Anything that will show examples of your work without violating any terms of service is good. Also important, once it's up - keep it updated. Check the links to those web
sites to make sure they're still working and place up new examples of your work as you complete them.
Be Honest - If your English isn't a 5.0 - then don't rate it at 5.0... Clients will be able to figure it out and you will look like a liar. If you can't be honest about
something like how fluent you are in English, why should anyone believe that you're being honest about anything else?
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