I signed up for oDesk about two years ago. At first I was ecstatic. I thought I had found a safe and secure marketplace to market my services. I'm a programmer, but to test the waters I marketed myself as a content writer first. Jobs were easy to come by at first because there was demand for articles written in my native tongue. The prices paid were very low though. This was strange I thought, because I'm from a western European country with a high cost of living and I couldn't believe people from my country would work for such low rates. Browsing freelancer profiles it became evident, that freelancers from my country were selling their work at rock bottom rates, which is a shame. Since I didn't want to work for pennies I raised my rates and didn't get jobs anymore. The answers from buyers were always the same. My rates were simply too high compared to other freelancers.
Ok, I thought, writing articles is something almost everyone can do, I'll just market my skills as a Perl programmer. Good programmers are hard to find and most people from developing countries don't code in Perl, so the prices must be higher. I changed my profile showcasing my long experience and joy in programming Perl and applied to several projects that required Perl. I got invited to a few job interviews, but the answer was still the same. My rates very simply too high. There was always someone willing to do the job for less. My rates were not very high and way below what a programmer in my country can demand per hour.
Since I didn't want to sell my skills way below market rates I gave up on oDesk for the time being. I might try again at some later point in time with a different strategy, but for now I'm fed up with and disappointed by the whole oDesk experience.
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