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Post details: More virtual work

08/16/2010

More virtual work

You may have wondered why I don't write more regularly in my blog these last weeks. The reason is, that I was busy researching more into the domain of virtual working.

You may have read my articles on Amazon's mechanical turk and the virtual worker platform vWorker.com. From long years of experience, I already know that it's not enough to know the URL of a working platform. You also have to build up a workflow to be able to get the most attractive offers from each of them.

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I have now extended my view into other virtual working platforms. One that I have revisited, because I have already used it some years ago as an employer, is eLance.com. It's very similar to vWorker.com but it has some restrictions for workers who are searching work on this platform. For a free eLance account you only have 10 so called "connections" per month. You must use these to post your proposals for a job. Each job will use up at least one of these connections (depending on how high the budget for the job is) and you can't apply for another job if you have used up your connections.

eLance also offers paid accounts where you can get more connections per month. I'm not sure if I really like the idea to pay upfront just for the option to apply for a job. Many employers just ignore the applications, so that your 10 connections will get used up very fast.

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Another platform that I have newly found is oDesk.com. This one is a bit different because they don't guarantee that you will get paid when you apply for a job. I have to investigate further into their system but it seems that they don't use an escrow system like vWorker and eLance where the employer have to pay money beforehand into an escrow account. At least not for work that has a fixed price. But it seems that they offer to handle payments and arbitration for hourly jobs.

In the meantime I have acquired some useful knowledge on how to improve my workflow to find the best jobs on mechanical turk and vWorker, and I also have earned some money in the process. I'm thinking about writing an ebook about all these little tips and tricks that I have found in my research. This could help others to earn money on these virtual working platforms.

I'm a little reluctant to start writing, unless I know that there is a demand for it. So I have decided to write it only if I will get at least 50 requests from people who would like to read (maybe buy) such an ebook. It would be an ebook with valuable tricks on Amazon's mechanical turk, vWorker and other virtual working platforms.

If you are interested, please write to heddesheimer@gmail.com with subject "ebook virtual work" and tell me why you may be interested in such a book, what aspect would interest you most and if you would be willing to pay a small fee to download such a book.