I'm a Happy Member of the Professional oDesk Community!

I am now an oDesk professional, as compared to an amateur - someone who does it as a hobby. And of course what that means is I got paid! I've been working for a little bit, but they have a delay - I assume so that the buyers can't cancel the payment. Let's go a little slower and explain how the pay system works there.

When a person or business looks to hire someone through oDesk, they have to give oDesk a method of payment - usually credit card, probably Paypal would work too (not a Buyer - yet!). oDesk then tests the card, and doesn't let that person hire anyone until they have a positive result. As long as the you(or me, a provider) works hourly, you clock in, are monitored, and oDesk keeps a record of time spent and what was going on with your computer. Sunday night, your hours for the week are up, and you have until Monday noon to make any changes - say you got a drink of water and spent 10 minutes talking to a friend; you don't want to charge them for that 10 minutes.

Now comes the wait. oDesk spends about 10 days processing: charging their credit card; handling their paperwork; waiting to make sure the money is safely there; and then they make it available to you. So my first week of work came available yesterday, and I got my first paycheck today, all $221 of it, deposited into my account!

So there you have it. oDesk is for real. There's a lot of competition, and some of it is from places with a much lower standard of living, so you have to work hard to differentiate yourself. But once you do, oDesk can be your new workspace. I make more hourly there than at my other jobs - while sitting in my easy chair, looking out the window. Well, sometimes - a lot of my work was really early in the morning.

In other news, Loxly Studios has three pictures of mine up here. Brand new, so I won't make anything this month. Take a look and see what you think. And let me know if you want anything specific. I live in Newport, on the Oregon Coast, so lighthouses, ocean, gulls, pelicans, the Aquarium, and so on are all really easy to get. I'm thinking about putting together some Motivational Posters - let me know if anyone's interested.

Finally, surveys have been a bust. I mentioned two possibles last week, and they both fell through. One never showed; the other one did, but was closed when I went to fill it out (apparently they sometimes close early). I'm going through the other sites again, but nothing new there either. Well, at least I'm learning what works - and what doesn't!

Monthly recap coming soon!

Online Work

Good news/bad news...

oDesk (and a real-life job) have been working wonders, and I've been very busy lately! This is also the bad news, as I can see it's been almost two weeks since I've posted here. So a quick update is in order:

1. Blogging, here and Lucid Living, have both taken hits. And they haven't made me any money this month, so you get what you give. I'll make it a priority to keep these up, as the goal is steady income.
   
2. Loxly Studios still hasn't put up any of the pictures I've sent. I'll keep on them...
   
3. Telecommuting through oDesk has gone great. I've put in 15 hours last week, and probably will have 10 or so this week.
   
4. Posting articles to Associated Content hasn't shown any new promise.
5. I've gotten a couple of Surveys, but so far just ones that will put my name in a drawing. Two coming up look promising, so we'll see.
   

I'll be working more for oDesk, and now looking up another I heard about: elance. Very cool to get paid to sit back with a headpiece on, chat with a boss in Greece, and write text that will make his product better.

An interesting realization: I currently have four bosses, in Idaho, the Philippines, Greece, and one in my town... Welcome to the global economy!

Making Money Online!

Okay, moment of truth time... Early each month, I'll post how I've been doing. Right now, I'm going to keep it on totals, but as things build, I'll move to monthly income. Each of my ventures will get some time devoted to it, so we can compare and contrast. Let's get started!

Blogging
This has been by far the most labor-intensive. I'm putting at least a couple hours a day here (though not this last week, as you'll note by the lack of posts... oops), and so far, little to show for it. Directly - I might have an oDesk job because someone liked the style of writing on my blogs. Anyway, AdSense shows an average of 13 viewers per day, and a total of 47 cents, most of that on a click-through. Nothing on Amazon.com, the other part of blogging income. Well, I was told it would build slowly!

I certainly enjoy the creative and expressive aspect of blogging, so let's see where it goes!

Posting Content
Didn't do much with this one. I got my five articles in by the end of December for a $10 bonus that didn't materialize. One of the 'articles' was a slideshow, and I don't know if that counts. I'll follow up by email and see what comes of it. I also posted two poems in January - haiku for Valentine's Day,here and here .

Final tally: 121 page views for 18 cents.

Sales
Looks like I finally exist on Loxley, but I'm still trying to get pictures up so I can work on selling them. Slow when you're waiting on someone else. I probably would have been better working with eBay or somewhere I have more control. I'm hoping to set up passive income here though. Probably should focus on just income first...

Final tally: nada

Surveys
Well, as I said, I'm signed up for several. I have registered with PineCone, panelbase.net, Greenfield, and American Consumer Opinion - and have only received invites for surveys that put my name in a drawing. And only probably 3-4 of those even. I need to get the second half looked at, and listed on 6-10 survey sites, not just four. I made $3 on two different surveys in December, and have £3 listed in my account from Panelbase.net.

Final tally: $6, and maybe £3

Telecommuting at oDesk
And the winner is... I spent 3-5 hours reading a book - that I would read anyway - and about 1 hour on editing the book, and made $10.53. I also wrote an article for a travel site to help build traffic and interest for $5, spending about three hours on this process too. So far, I'm making lousy 'per hour' income (though not as bad as the blogging), but I'm at least making some money. It also looks like I'm going to get a job on oDesk due to my blogging, so this will jump in February. Wish me luck!

Final tally: $15.53!

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So the grand total is $22.18 so far.