Before I divulge my plans for 2012 let me share a few things I’ve learned as a full time freelancer. These are practical things that helped me survive the year, from family life, to work ethics, and social life which I hope will help you too.

1. It’s a family business

I’ve learned that working as a freelancer is not a “you mentality” but it is and should be a family business. You are just working as the main character but in essence, your wife, your son or daughter has a big part to your success as supporting roles. They need to understand what you are doing in order to support you in little ways. My 2 kids know that when I put on my headset, they have to keep quiet because “George” is on the line. My wife knows that when I am slumping on my chair, I badly need a back massage.

2. Full time doesn’t apply to job only but to family as well.

It was a challenge for me to get over being an overtime father and switch to full time family man. But when you get hold of the balance you will surely be more satisfied with your work, be more happy with your family and live a healthier life. My usual line when my wife tells me that I no longer have time for them is to say that all that i’m doing is for them (which is true). But of course it’s not all about the money. Spending a few hours with the kids, teaching them their alphabet, putting them to bed and playing with them have become my goal to keep me sane and family oriented.

3. It pays to socialize

Social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, as well as blogs are essential parts of freelancing. The first few jobs that I took were courtesy of my defunct blog “pinoyfusion”. My current work as a research person was because of comment I made to a blog. So you can see how this little things can mean really big in making yourself visible in the radar. Let the world know that you exist and that you have a special service that you can offer. Word of mouth can do wonders for your career. But as a word of caution, make sure that you know what reputation management is as well.

4. Be In the Know

I’ve learned that in order to thrive in this fast paced environment, you need to be able to cope with the influx of information, explore new things and enhance what you already possess. What I like the most about this is discovering new tools so that I can work more efficiently and more productively. It’s almost futile to reason out and say that we don’t know, because with just a simple click on Google search almost everything is at your fingertips.

5. Spend Your Money Wisely

Work can sometimes be so unpredictable and so is the income. As a freelancer, i’ve learned that our focus should not just be on the earning but also on managing those finances. It didn’t become freelancer’s top concern for no reason. If we like to master our craft, budgeting will be the one of the most important lesson we should master next to time management.

6. No is sometimes yes.

This is the best freelance lesson that I’ve learned this year. Freelancing thought me that an opportunity to work with a prospect doesn’t end when you fail an interview or your proposal was rejected. It actually ends when you think that business is only “TODAY” and there is no point in exerting effort to communicate with someone who rejected you. It thought me that business starts the very moment you decided to apply. Whether your prospect accepts or rejects at the first meeting, tomorrow is business as usual because you’ll never know when the need arises that you will become the perfect peg for the hole.

I hope you’ve learned something from what I’ve learned. I’d be glad to hear your thoughts too!

The fact is, the internet is becoming the biggest job site you could ever imagine. Come to think of it, it’s not only limited to local opportunities but its global. So for those who wants to catch up on the booming online jobs industry, I have listed the eight most sought after skills on the web.

As a bonus, I have also added a few resources which would be a good place to start gathering information on how or where to get your dream jobs. Read on…

1. Virtual Assistant

– Newsblaze.com considered Virtual assistance (VA’s) as one of the latest and hottest home based businesses in today’s market. You may ask why, well, there’s a lot of reasons why this skill is such a hit. For entrepreneurs who want to keep the business rolling, getting a well rounded VA who could almost do everything, like managing a blog, social media accounts, office and admin works, customer service, this is such a big hit. Best of all, they are literally getting some quality service at rock bottom prices if they outsource the job from India or the Philippines. Chris Ducker of Virtual Business Lifestyle has actually taken advantage of this niche. Chris started an outsourcing company called Live2Sell that provides VA services here in Cebu and he’s been reaping the rewards for finding Filipino VA’s who simply provide awesome service at very low rates.

On the other hand, if you are solo professional who wants to start a VA business of your own but finds the web as an uncharted territory, here are some sites that I would recommend for you to visit.
a. IVAA - International Virtual Assistants Association
b. VA Classroom – a site co founded by Craig Cannings
c. VA Training Online -
d. VA Networking -

2. WordPress Developer

– Over 25 million people have chosen WordPress as their blogging platform, according to WordPress.org. And that is reason enough why wordpress developers can look to a bright future ahead in terms of job availability. Whether it’s WP theme you are developing or WP plugins, you’ll sure have millions of hungry users who can keep you busy if you do a good job.

3. Social Media Marketer

– This is probably one of the areas where most are already engaged unconsciously. The places where you frequently visit like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or Flickr could actually help you earn if you take time to study social media marketing. You don’t really need to be a guru, you just have to understand how social media works and how you can implement it to your own system. Alright, to make things a lot clearer. Let me throw you some of the personal resources that I recommend if you are planning on exploring this area:
Socialmediatoday, Socialmediaexaminer, Mashable. Also, you can check out some well known figures like Brian Solis of www.briansolis.com Neal Schaffer, author of Maximizing Linkedin, Seth Godin, and Chris Brogan.

4. Web Designer

- As long as the web is there, web designers will always have plenty of work to do. But it’s not just being able to design. If you can throw in a couple more skills to add to your design skill, it would give you a better edge. Most people would actually prefer a one stop shop so try to learn a bit about the other areas. To get a good glimpse, check www.99designs.com

5. Content Writer

This is probably one of the most in-demand jobs online that helps you hone your craft but at the same time get paid.
Anne Waymaalso n has some great insights that you can use as well some great advice on how to monetize your writing. The fact is, whether you are novice or an expert writer, you can still write and earn by utilizing some sites paid to write sites like: Hubpages, Bukisa or create a blog of your own then monetize it. There is Adsense, Bidvertiser, and a couple other monetization techniques that you can use while enjoying your writing. You can also find opportunities as article rewriter, ebook writer, etc..

7. Apps Developer

– Apps or applications and software integrators are becoming a boom in the current market trend. And this will continue on as the landscape becomes more engraved in being mobile but consistently connected to the web. Google apps which has become one of the most popular and the never ending iPhone and Android apps are becoming increasingly mainstream. The possibility almost endless. And if you are keen on creating useful applications then you’re up to something promising in terms of generating a passive income source. Check out AndroidApps.com as well as iTunes store to get a feel of what the apps industry has in store for you.

8. SEO

- All the above mentioned skills has in one way or another a common goal, to be visible to their target markets. And SEO work will do that for them. I suggest, if you have already engaged yourself in blogging, and social media, SEO would be a next good stop to really maximize the efforts that you are pouring into your online work.
There are a few SEO sites where you could get some great insights and updates and I would suggest that you subscribe to their newsletters. Check out SEOConsultants for its 12 select blogs.

A multi-country survey conducted by Callcentres.net, revealed that full-time call center agents stay in a contact center at an average 22 months, while part-time agents last for a shorter 10 months. In a January 2010 issue of Manila Bulletin, a Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) study shows call centers have an attrition rate of 19 percent.

So where do call center agents go after their short stint in these four cornered cubicles?

A bit of me thinks that call center agents either move to another center or go back being unemployed. Getting a regular 9-5 job doesn’t seem to be an option. For one good reason, they get a much lower pay which is an unlikely option considering that most of these young professionals have started getting a decent salary. It’s like getting demoted which is least of what you could possibly take especially if you are helping your kins in the province or supporting an extended family.

The scenarios just seemed like a catch-22. It’s either you get burned out from a job you can’t leave because you have no choice, leave and get a low paying job, else, leave and be unemployed. Okay, it’s not all too bad. There’s also a bright side to this story. Did you know that call centers are actually one of the best training grounds for freelancers?

As a product of call center exhaustion myself, I know the plight of many call center agents who are hanging onto dear job. But when I learned about blogging, online jobs, oDesk, Elance and other freelance sites, I realized that working in the call center is not the end of the story. Its stepping stone, and a training ground.

Communication
Call centers provide a very good place to train your communication skills. It’s a very important skill that every freelancer must possess. And this gives call center agents a big step ahead of the competition. Practically speaking, you could start freelancing by taking on cold calling jobs, customer service or tech support positions. You can also work as a Virtual assistant, appointment setter, or even chat support. Compared with a call center position, the big difference is the fact that you get control of your time, be able to choose which is most convenient for you, you work at home, and the stress level is highly lowered down. Pay rates are also higher as compared to working in call centers.

Multi Tasking
When you talk on the phone, gather information, identify your customer’s concern, understand their needs, and provide solution, it takes more than just communication, it takes an active mind and hand that works together all at the same time. That’s multi-tasking! And it’s another good thing that you can learn from a call center experience and bring on the table when you go freelance.

Customer Service
Customer service orientation provides a big advantage for those who are planning to start freelancing. And for those who are already into freelancing, it’s a certainty that customer service background helps a lot in handling your clients whether they are the bring-me-something-out-of-nothing kind or the more reasonable type of person. Whatever type of freelance job you may take, your background on customer service will be beneficial as you will know how to treat your clients. After all, working with a client is all about customer service. It’s just a change of environment and from a different perspective.

Sales
When you go freelancing, sales skill will be your bread and butter. If you don’t know how to sell, you shouldn’t be a freelancer! Whether you like it or not, freelancing is all about selling. If you’ve had the chance to do sales in previous accounts, consider it as another big plus if you decide to freelance. Call centers are actually a good breeding ground for this skill. You will learn how to close the sale, your customers buying signs, your products or services features and benefits and how it will matter to your customers. You will no longer dread the fact that you need to be persistent and consistent, because if you do, you’re planning to quit early in this line of job.

Bottom Line
These are probably some of the basic trainings that you can get from working in a call center and there can be more. I will not guarantee that you can get a job, but if you have these skills, I am sure that you will have an easier life getting hired. You don’t need to hang onto something and whine for the rest of your life. You don’t need to look back one day and regret why you did not leave the call center sooner. You have a choice! You just need to make that choice and use what you have learned from those experiences. After all, call center experience is not bad at all, its actually a stepping stone that can help you reach greater heights.

Image credit: www.farmout.ph

In a freelancer’s perspective, information on trends such as; what are the most sought after skills, highest number of hires, highest paid jobs, the most number of opportunities can help us better position ourselves in landing a job. If we are educated about competition in a certain niche, we can avoid ending up charging too low just because competition is stiff. A Joblance article also described how you can benefit from trends by helping you shift to more profitable fields.

Even if you are not so sound technically or have no technical background, you can learn new technology with ease. For example, there is widespread demand for programmers with knowledge of Dreamweaver, WordPress, Joomla, PHP, etc. Now, you can take up an online course to learn these, or you can also surf YouTube and search for the related topic. You will find tens of hundreds of videos that will teach you the course for free.

If you are a provider in Elance, there is a also a very informative data that was posted regarding the second quarter Online Employment Report. Some of the highlights of the report include the following information:

Also, one of the most important data included in the report is the top 100 skills which outlines the most in-demand skills in Elance. Check out the list below and see if your current skills orientation is among the top 100.

Conclusion:

Trend information is important and is a vital data in decision making, whether you are a job seeker or an entrepreneur. Trends help us understand the overall picture of our employment sector and it provides us a direction, both for the current and future outlook. How we are going to act on this information will be the turning point of how well we can cope up with what the trend dictates. On the other hand, trends are not the all in all of our decision. It is also imperative, that while we consider the trends in applying for jobs, we must not forget to consider that job satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment in what we do is still of utmost importance. Trends should not be the sole basis of our decisions but should give us a sense of balance from a personal and general standpoint.

Image: Top 100 Skills in Elance

At first, I was hesitant to leave my job at Aegis People Support, one of the biggest call center here in Cebu City. With two growing kids in tow, a house rental to think, no savings in the bank, no health insurance. It was probably one of the most stupid thing a father can do. But I didn’t leave the call center to let my family starve to death. I left the call center for many good reasons.

Future:

I am no seer or fortune teller, but one of the reasons I left the call center is because I saw a promising future in online jobs. The fact that outsourcing has been in bloom for several years already made me firmly believe that this will be the same with online jobs. There will be more companies, specially medium to small sized businesses who will be joining the bandwagon of outsourcing. There will be individuals who simply wants to do business and are practical enough to outsource some of their tasks to individuals, not companies. And sure enough, even at this moment, oDesk, which is one of the major places where my clients come from have consistently shown an increase in all aspects:
48,786 new online jobs were posted to oDesk in June, an increase of 1,505 over May
635,198 total workers were registered with oDesk in June, an increase of 45,480 or 7.7 percent over May
$9,255,640 was earned by workers on oDesk in June, an increase of $382,252 or 4.3 percent over May
(Source: oDesk Online Employment Situation Summary)

Earning Potential:

Although the call center has offered above average compensation and benefits, freelance jobs give a bigger earning potential and a more financially rewarding work. With enough skill, and experience it has literally raised my earnings from four to five times what I previously received in my call center work, all in the comfort of my home. Not only that, it has also opened new areas for me to passively earn through my blog advertising revenues and affiliate earnings.

Growth:

Career growth in call centers go through the step by step promotion process that’s not free from insider politics, “padrino” system and other biases. Competition is stiff. And this made me think, whether my 5 years of stay in a call center would bring me to my goal of being financially stable and in terms of position, getting a promotion. With freelancing, you’re almost limited only by your imagination on what you can achieve. Freelancing offers a different path for growth. For just one year, I’ve seen open doors to raise the bar in what I do. From my role in the call center as customer service agent, taking 30-60calls every day, pacifying irate customers, I then started managing projects for clients, getting my own team, and as they say… the rest is history.

Flexibility

Time flexibility at work proved to be one of my biggest challenge while working at the call center. I’ve missed important family occasions, church gatherings, and other events which I would have enjoyed attending. And as a family man with two growing kids, family time became a growing concern as well.
With my job as Virtual Assistant, I was able to choose clients that would suit both their time preference as well as mine. I can work for two hours, or four, or six or a full stretch 8 hour shift depending on my availability. And this is what makes working as home based freelancer very flexible.

Bottom Line

I can list down many other reasons on why I left the call center in place of working at home as a freelancer. But the bottom line is, if you love your job, then stick to it. I love my freelance work, I love computers, I enjoy working alone, that’s why I’m sticking to it. If this post made you think of jumping ship plainly because of the earning potential, this may not be enough to sustain you to last through the challenging and uncertain world of freelancing. But if you think your interest and passion is here, don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need some direction to get started.
(Image source: http://fusionbposervices.freeblog.co.nz/)

If you are having this same problem you are not alone. You’ve probably thought life is so unfair and employers are opportunists, taking advantage of the employment drought. But that is not always the case.

I couldn’t forget my interview with John Jonas when he said “When you get a job, keep the job” I’m sure John has some great experience why it made such an impact to him. But the question is, how do we keep the job and turn from being a part timer to a full time, full pledge freelancer.

1. Speak Your Mind

– It’s been taught many times and preached repeatedly how important communication is. So speak your mind. Getting your idea across is essential to ensure that you and your client are working on the same page. It’s actually a common mistake to us, that we keep things to ourselves when we have doubts or hesitations instead of saying right there and then. And the longer it gets stuck in your mind, the more destructive impact it will make if those hesitations and doubts turn to be an essential element for you to deliver the needed results. Don’t be overcome by pride that will tend to make you feign that you know things. Accept that you need an answer to all those questions at the back of your mind. Don’t guess. You’re job is not to be a clairvoyant or a psychic.

2. Learn to Negotiate

– before you can keep the job, you must learn how leverage your negotiation skills to be able to get the job. Negotiation simply means becoming more flexible in many terms or aspects like schedule, pay rates, scope of service and other issues. It means agreeing on certain terms that is tolerable to both parties and would bring out mutually beneficial working relationship. Negotiating means sacrificing a part of your comfort zone but not necessarily a lost but a reduction only.

3. Underpromise but Over Deliver

– alright, I know sometimes we tend to become so engrossed in writing those cover letters and proposals but be very careful, you might just end up ruining your career by giving too much assurance to your client. One basic rule, be REALISTIC! Don’t promise the whole universe. They might believe you. Stick on what you can deliver, and when i say deliver, I mean delivering with excellency. It means giving a wow factor to your client’s experience.

4. Don’t Get Stuck

– Don’t let yourself stagnate on what you know, strive to learn new things that you can offer to your client’ and his future needs. Exercise those brain cells! Or else, you’ll get eaten up by the younger, more energetic, affordable newbies. Keep up with the trend in your field and you’ll never regret you did.

5. Ask for Feedback

– if you’ve worked with someone for years already, don’t get too relaxed and so secure. Times change, moods sway, and most of all, this world is full of surprises. And the worst surprise you’ll ever get is a final handshake from a client whom you “thought” was satisfied. Asking for feedback or evaluation on your performance is a good way of thwarting this kind of situation. It will make you aware of where you stand and what step you should make to resolve any issues that may be critical in keeping the business.
Image source: www.businessandleadership.com

1. Watch your price tag.

One of the most influential factors that will affect your bid or proposal is your freelance fee. For some obvious reasons, (which I’m sure you know) that service buyers hire freelancers because of the savings they can actually get. And there’s just one carnal rule for this, “Don’t let your price tag skyrocket that buyers can no longer reach it nor give it at rock bottom price that even Paypal would be ashamed of charging a fee for it.”
Remember, you are a freelancer, you need work but you have bills to pay and needs to suffice, so charge accordingly. Think of the trending that the other bidders are offering and make it as competitive as possible. You can either go down a bit, (tolerable range) or raise a bit higher but still at a reasonable price. And if you would charge higher, make sure that your resume or proposal would also show why you are worthy of a higher fee.

2. Don’t be afraid to bid, but bid wisely

There are jobs that require a certain set of skill depending on the service buyer’s preference. And there will be times that you will not be able to meet all of them. Does that mean that you shouldn’t try and bid at all? Not necessarily. You must consider if the skill needed is really a requirement. They will indicate if its the main skill needed or just an additional factor that may help you in getting a more favorable standing. If the job posted is article writing and sometimes they may indicate that knowledge of HTML would be an advantage, you can still try it out. That is of course at your discretion, which brings me to my next point.
GetAFreelancer gives 15 bids per month to its regular members and would increase by one every month, Odesk gives a maximum of 20 bid allotment for a member who have passed the Odesk Readiness Test, while Elance provides 3 connects only for a free membership. You can purchase additional if your bid runs out.
Considering these details, bidding for a project should therefore be thought wisely. Bid on a project that you think will give you the highest probability of being hired. You might just end up losing a good opportunity because of an unwise choice. So bid wisely, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to spend for another bill while you are still looking for a source of income. Unless you plan on getting an upgraded membership that would cost $12/mo for GAF and $9.95/mo for Elance then using the free membership is still preferable option.

3. Be an early bird

If you are looking for a job, procrastinating or any other form of delay will make your job search miserable. Much the same with a freelancing. So, bid early. Keep yourself up-to-date. Subscribe to an RSS or anything that will keep you informed as soon as jobs are posted. The earlier you bid, the greater the chance that you can get the job especially if there is a sense of urgency for the position being offered.

4. Make your Proposal Stand Out

For about six months that I’ve been working for a recruitment agency, I probably have seen thousands upon thousands of curriculum vitae, both the good and the not so good ones. Not all of them caught my attention. Some have just passed liked an ordinary letter, but others stood among the pack. It’s like separating the colored from the black and white. But if you really want to get a job, make an effort to make it stand out. There are resume’s that are being sold from Resume Planet or you can also visit free-resume-tips.com to give you the basic concept of a simple but attention grabbing curriculum vitae.

5. Maximize the interview part

This portion will actually make or break all the efforts you have made from the previous tips. So don’t ruin what you have started, build it even stronger. Remember, this is not your usual person to person interview where you can be intimidated by the person’s looks. It will either be on your regular regular or through some VOIP service. So get out of the chicken coop or the garage and head to some quiet place where you can understand each other clearly. Relax, that is probably the best thing you can do. If you anticipate too much of the technical side you might end up failing on the simple ones. As what Brian Lamb said, “My basic approach to interviewing is to ask the basic questions that might even sound naive, or not intellectual. Sometimes when you ask the simple questions like ‘Who are you?’ or ‘What do you do?’ you learn the most.”

6. Build your reputation

Publilius Syrus said:
“A good reputation is more valuable than money”.
In freelancing if you want to earn a lot of money, nail a bid easier, a good reputation is one of the keys you should have. Every interaction with a client or prospective employer is an opportunity to build a good reputation. Maximize that opportunity and never missed out on it. Protect your job by protecting your reputation. Build your authority by banking on reputation. That is how important reputation is. Feedbacks will reflect what kind of character you have. And getting a bad feedback will kill your freelance career. Guard it with your life. As a final thought, Warren Bufftett has summarized it in his words:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently”.

I did enjoy the short talk, which obviously made me feel nervous because it was my first time to do an interview. But the most important part is I’ve learned a great new lesson about working, finding a job and keeping it. And more importantly, I earned a new sense of pride as a Filipino.
I hope tha you will also find this helpful, not only because you are a Filipino, but generally if you are a kind of person who is still in doubt and hesitant about the legitimacy of online jobs or freelance works.

Hi John, can you please tell us something about yourself.

I am 31 I have a wife and 3 kids. I do internet business for a living. That’s all I do. I run internet businesses. I outsource most of my work to full time people in the Philippines. I have a great relationship with them and I love them. I’ve been doing it for about 4 years and been teaching other people how to do it for about 2 years. This is kind of a shocking number but I’ve probably created 15,000 jobs in the Philippines over the last 2 years for Filipinos through teaching what I teach. It’s kind of big impact and I hope it would continue to grow even more.

How did you discover the Filipino talent and the people that you are working with?

Here’s a quick story. A couple of years ago, I mean it was 4 years ago I was talking with a good a friend of mine. And it was brand new at that time, And he said, “You know what John, if you are ready to outsource some of the stuff, make sure to go to the Philippines. Because in India, when they hear you say something and they say yes, that means, yes I heard something come out of your mouth not, yes I understood what you said.” That was pretty interesting to me. I love the Indian people they’re fine, but that was a real eye opening experience. Because here in the US when you think of outsourcing most people think India. And they also think communication problems, headache, and bad work and I thought, I’d try it. This friend of mine had given me some good advice. And what I found was that Filipino people in general are amazing. Really good hard workers, honest, loyal and it’s been really good for me.

What was the first job that you outsourced to the Philippines?

The first time I ever did it, I used the company called, Agents of Value . They are an American company and they have office in the Philippines and they recruit and hire locally and they let that person work for me for full time. The kind of work they do for me is writing, English writing, building and managing and maintaining some of my websites. Which is kind of funny, the first guy that I ever hired he told me recently, “When you hired me I knew nothing” He just learned as he went on how he went how to do this things. He certainly had some knowledge but he ended up learning WordPress really well and his writing got better over time which was only okay when I hired him. You know he is doing some social media for me, social bookmarking, articles and videos and blogs and link building and stuff like that, lots of stuff that they are doing for me.

What is the most essential quality that made the Filipinos as your outsourcing partner of choice?

In general, you guys are honest, loyal, hard working, and your well educated, computers and internet access. That’s not the biggest thing. The really biggest thing that makes this work is the way that the Filipino culture looks up to the American culture. And when I say looks up to, I mean, you guys watch American movies. Other cultures don’t do that. Your billboards are in English, your street signs are in English but obviously there’s Filipino all over the place. But I’ve never, never been to a country that wasn’t England or Canada and I haven’t been to Australia where English is so prevalent. The fact that English is so prevalent and that you guys look up to America it makes us so. You think like we do which is different than other outsourcing that goes on in the world. Where the cultures are so different and the people think differently. So for me what it was, when I ask my guys to do something, they do it right the first time and if they don’t do it the first time, they do a good job. That is very different than other places. You talk to any American who tried this in India or Pakistan, Eastern Europe, or South America or wherever they’ve tried it, they basically hire themselves a babysitting job where the people that they hire, they don’t do it right. They don’t speak great English. They don’t understand, they don’t understand what you said. So those are the really big things. You guys think like we do, your brains work the same way and so it makes for a really good relationship.

What’s your reaction about the comments in Yaro Starak’s post that outsourcing to the Philippines was all hype and unrealistic?

I’ve been doing this for about 4 years. This is not a short term temporary thing. Hiring Filipinos is growing right now and it’s going to continue to grow. It’s not going away and it’s not going anywhere, for Americans. I would say my team is better now than they were 4 months ago. I have hired another person in those four months. I have to my staff and yeah… I can never imagine myself again not having people working for me in the Philippines.

Is there any particular expertise/niche that you think Filipinos are more inclined to excel?

In my experience you are really good at link building; you’re good at writing content. Certainly some Filipinos are good at writing any content. I’ve had some amazing stuff written. I have some very good workers who are capable of writing anything and you are also very good at programming and webmaster work. Skills that I would say Filipinos could acquire to help them in terms of getting a job with an American company would be webmaster work, learning some HTML, learning WordPress or learning to write better. Probably reading an American newspaper or reading American books that would improve your grammar. A lot of Filipinos speak really well, they speak shockingly well to what you would normally think, but then when you write there are just little grammatical mistakes that make a difference. Those are the areas where a lot of Filipinos could improve. Just getting use to our language style and reading American English so that when you write it its better and then simple web master stuff like HTML or FTP because those are big things that my customers look for.
Can you tell us something about Onlinejobs.ph
Onlinejobs.ph is my site and I started it because there wasn’t really great place to recruit Filipino workers for Americans. There were a couple of other places that were okay bestjobs.ph was one of them, it’s not anymore. And when I recognized this is a growing need and there’s not a great place to do it, that’s when and why we started onlinejobs.ph.

What’s the unique advantage that Onlinejobs.ph has over freelance sites like oDesk or Elance.

Probably the biggest advantage for you is that, you’re going to find a full time job on onlinejobs.ph Not many people on onlinejobs are looking to hire freelancer. If they are looking for a freelancer they know where to go. They know how to go to oDesk or Elance. At onlinejobs.ph they’re looking to hire some permanent worker which is a big deal. You are not at the end of this project, you’re not out of work. It’s an ongoing thing. I have never let someone go that has started working for me. If you are a good employee I would say there’s like 2 percent chance of ever being let go by an American company. Once you start working for them and you’re good, because we recognize the value of what you are doing. And it’s not contract work, it’s permanent full time work.

What will be your parting words for those who wants to work online.

I know that a lot of people don’t have any idea this exist. They have no idea that you could work online doing online task. I know that because I’ve talked to a couple of the guys that work for me and I asked this question “What do your friends think of what you do?” And I think he was a little bit surprised at the question he said: “They don’t even know what I do. They don’t understand what I do. They don’t have any idea. They don’t have any idea that this is even possible.

The first things that I would have you understand, if you speak English, you are of value. You can get a job. Second thing is, you need to understand that really all we want is for you to work with us. Here’s the reason I say that. A lot of times Filipinos will start a job and then they’ll find something that they don’t understand or they get embarrassed about or the situation is less than perfect so they quit or they just will never talk to their employer again. That’s the worst thing that you can do. I know that you get embarrassed or you’re shy because of the situation. I had this situation happen to me this week actually where I was trying to hold training meetings at a certain time and one of the people just couldn’t make it. So she told another one of my employees she was going to quit because she couldn’t make it to her training meetings. And she hadn’t said anything to me about it. So that’s really the biggest piece of advice that I can give you is don’t get shy or just run away. Go talk to the person you are working for and see what they say about it. I get the idea that often you guys feel inferior to us. And I really don’t feel that way. And I don’t think most Americans feel that way. I don’t feel superior. If you have a problem I want you to come talk to me. I want you to come and tell me so I can work it out. That’s the biggest piece of advice that I can give: “When you do find a job, keep the job! Don’t just disappear because you’re embarrassed or shy.”

1. Secure and quick payment

With the prevalence of scam sites and scammers,  oDesk gives a sense of security to its members by ensuring that you get paid for what you have worked for in a timely manner. For the past 6months, I have not had any payment issues, disputes, delays or whatsoever. The payment have always been on time, all the time thru my Paypal account.

2. Free Membership

When you are looking for work, the worst thing that you can encounter is a freelance site that would require you to pay before you can apply. With oDesk, you won’t have any problem on that because you only get charged once you have working and is basically already earning. The 10% fee is automatically included to the rate you charge your employer. Best of all you don’t need to worry about paying a monthly due.

3. Generous Affiliate Incentives

I have a few freelance sites where I am also an affiliate member. But oDesk affiliate program is perhaps the best affiliate available right now among the other freelance sites. Consider these figures:* You get $50 for each new business that signs up & verifies a credit card.* You also get $0.50 for each freelancer that signs up and applies for a job.You can also check other details of the updated affiliate program here.

4. Great work tools

Screensnap, oDesk Iphone App, team collaboration, instant messaging, work reporting tools well that’s more than enough to get you up on your toes working anywhere you go. The good thing, it’s not only good for you but more importantly, to your client.

5. Buyer and Provider friendly

There are certain websites that are bluntly said, employer biased. And that is understandable, because we know that there are more providers than buyers/employers. They would want to keep the few clients they have, even if they are actually being unfair to their freelancers. That’s what sets oDesk apart. I can remember at one point when the typhoon Ondoy was actually ravaging and among the many freelance sites that I am a member of, it was only oDesk who cared to send an email to its buyers and providers regarding the current situation in the country. I’m not being emotional but that is a very heartwarming sign that oDesk cares for its freelancers and clients. I don’t know what your experiences with oDesk or other freelance sites are, do you think I’ve underrated or overvalued it? I would like to listen to your personal thoughts.