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Nice, thanks for that tip! I hope it’s better than Elance. I’ll be sure to use your referral link so you can get your finders fee. 
Oh, and feel free to put your link here, I don’t mind you advertising if it helps. I know you’re not a comment spammer.
Personally, I like it better than elance because there’s no upfront fees. That, and the hourly billing is nice (which is guaranteed as long as you log your time within their specs).
They require you to install software (to keep track of time on hourly jobs), but it’s not as intrusive as some people make it out to be. Basically, you run the program and log into your “teamroom”. While the client is running in the background, it keeps track of keyboard and mouse clicks (no actual data is stored, only click count), and takes 1 random screenshot for each 10-minute timespan. As long as you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, there’s nothing to worry about (a lot of people get busted surfing youtube and myspace, then complain about the software being spyware...which is stupid). Personally, I like the software because 1) I do what I’m supposed to do, and 2) it proves that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing if someone wants to be a dick about it and try to rip me off (and my payment is guaranteed).
They have fixed-price jobs as well for one-off projects, but their payment guarantee doesn’t apply to those.
The philosophy behind the hourly model and payment guarantee is this: in-person, you hire people and pay them for their time, not the quality of their work. So on oDesk, you are paid for your time, and if people want to complain about the quality, unlike other sites’ arbitration systems where you can get your money taken away, you still get paid for the time you put into it (of course, there is NO arbitration for fixed price jobs on oDesk, so either you or the buyer has the potential to get screwed...which is why I don’t do a lot of those anymore...I did in the beginning just to get feedback, but now I steer clear of them).
Anyway, here’s my referral link: http://www.odesk.com/referrals/track/blogstudios
I have another blog that I blog about their services often, so if you want that link, I can email it to you.
Whew! I’m writing a novel here in your comments. lol.
You might check out http://getafreelancer.com/ and Odesk was another I was going to suggest, but that’s already taken care of. =D
(Danalyn could you send that addy to me at textimps [at] gmail.com)
I like the idea of working from home. But work is easier to leave work at work when it’s not at home.
That is true Tonz. The lines between work and home life get blurred when it all takes place at home.
I’ve been working from home for years, but yes the work is very sporadic and makes it hard to survive off of. I love being home with my girl 24/7 but at the same time not only is it hard financially I think we may spend too much time together and can cause more disputes then needed. So I am wanting to find a job out of my home, but with this economy I’m not sure it’s possible…
Good luck in your search, I hope you find a job that fits!
Working from home would be a bad idea for me, I’m not diciplined enough LOL.
Self discipline is definitely a requirement for working from home. So many great things to do at home BESIDES working. 
I have been looking for work I can do from home as well. I’m not sure oDesk is for me though after looking through it.
Hey girl, long time no talk!
I’ve been a bad blogger.
And it seems I have a lot of catching up to do!
Miss ya ... I’ll be back!
Well, if you’re looking for non-steady work (with potential to find long-term hourly assignments), check out odesk.com (free to sign up for, they take 10% out of total billed).
And if you want to use my referral link, that’s even better (I’ll leave that out of this comment, though).
The only thing about oDesk is that it’s global, so if you get into the job categories that anyone can do without having any marketable skills (i.e. data entry), you’ll see a lot of low paying jobs because $1USD goes a lot further in the Philippines than it does here.
You can get decent paying webdev jobs if you have a strong portfolio and solid samples to showcase, though.
Since I moved back to Texas, I’ve been technically unemployed, and doing all my work through oDesk. It’s not steady, but it’s enough (with me and my husband combined, freelancing through oDesk) to pay the bills...you just have to be willing to put up with little nuances with the site once in a while.
Danalyn | 02.06.2009 | 11:32 AM