In what promises to be an exciting announcement for the large freelance community in Pakistan, oDesk CEO Fabio Rosati has unveiled plans to streamline operations for 2015 as well as introduce a number of exciting new initiatives that will reward professionalism and make it easier to find clients.
Earlier this year oDesk had launched Escrow which gave all freelancers bidding for projects a better and more secure method of getting paid in time as well as introducing a mobile app that allowed communication between clients and freelancers on the go. Today, oDesk announced the introduction of two new solutions that will help streamline its operations.
Connects: Helping Connect Freelancers to Clients Successfully
The biggest challenge for a freelance marketplace is to make sure that clients receive applications from trained, professional workers as opposed to generic ones, and for quality bidders not to be crowded out by more inexperienced ones. Hence, oDesk has announced the launch of Connects, which is a new system to apply for jobs that will replace the current quota system.
Connects are basically virtual tokens that will be given to each freelancer that is currently registered on the site. Everyone will get a monthly allotment of 60 Connects, which is likely to result in fewer unnecessary applications and application for jobs only where freelancers believe their strengths lie. Furthermore, each freelancer will be competing against a smaller and more relevant pool of applicants, which is better both from the client and bidder perspective.
Optional Paid Membership plans
For those members who are very active in the oDesk community, the portal has announced that it will also be launching an optional paid membership plan which gives you more Connect tokens, as well as the ability to see what people are bidding for, rollover of Connect tokens and other premium features.
The streamlining of processes by oDesk is bound to result in more productivity and higher turnover for freelancers, which is welcome news indeed. Recently, Freelancer.com named Pakistan as one of its highest destinations for projects which is a fair indication of how vibrant the community is here. Hopefully Pakistani freelancers will continue to benefit from this streamlining.
Great news for freelancers :)
How’s this different from Freelancer.com? Nothing “new”.
I think Odesk is more user friendly than Elance and freelancer. Other thing I noticed working on all these 3 platform is that on Odesk there are plenty of new jobs every day with more serious clients.
and with lesser price
oDesk is much more professional than others. All top clients are on oDesk.
All the commenters (or most) have absolutly no idea about what this article is, what what oD is doing these days, I think they never have bid!!!
Any one who earned a remarkable amount? I tried my best but fail to earn, any guideline ??