oDesk Help

[BenWalker]

Hi Guys,

I’m trying to recruit a very experienced Wordpress developer for ongoing work via oDesk. (I’m not too concerned about the hourly rate, as long as I’m not paying Australian prices.)

I’ve posted the job and received around 75 responses. However, I really cant figure out who is reputable and worth hiring. Would you be kind enough to share your experiences and give me some advice please?

Does more oDesk hours logged means more reputable? Or can it be faked? Can you depend on the star rating system?

Thanks for your help!

 

[zhenjie]

I don't post public jobs. You just get flooded. I take a day to go through all the candidates I think would suit and send them private invites to a private job.

I use filters such as hours worked, location (usually anywhere but India), rating >4stars, etc.

 

[findtim]

i use elance which is basically the same and yes it can be faked to some extent, just like ebay ratings.

but elance has $ earned / jobs so thats a good indicator .

i generally don't give important jobs to someone i don't know, i give them small tasks to start and let them grow.

i mostly look at past work, and i don't pay hourly i pay flat rate.

so i do a detailed brief and go from there, getting your brief TIGHT is vital as you will end up saying " you didn't do this and its in the brief"

it generally equates to @ $11-$15 p/h for wordpress i have found.

what i am finding is they certainly know how to create a wordpress site but some of their code is horrible, they also have bad design skills and still use span class instead of CSS so be careful of that.

i mostly narrow it to 3, then tell them they are in the final 3, then ask them to send me an example home.php, function.php and css file so i can see what they are going to do. + a link to the site it came from.

tim

 

[helloworld]

While I'd never recommend you use a foreign coder. I have had some luck with getacoder.com

 

[BenWalker]

Thanks so much for the advice guys!

 

[duncan22]

Ask a complicated question or set a small task (not easily Googled) and then say 'To Apply you need to do X'. Around 50-70% won't do it so they are filtered, then pick the person who did the task!

ie. I need an article, to apply please write one paragraph on X. I need a programmer, to apply tell me how to do fix X (small error similar to the big issue) on my site.

 

[findtim]

Ask a complicated question or set a small task (not easily Googled) and then say 'To Apply you need to do X'. Around 50-70% won't do it so they are filtered, then pick the person who did the task!

ie. I need an article, to apply please write one paragraph on X. I need a programmer, to apply tell me how to do fix X (small error similar to the big issue) on my site.

i've posted before, the 2nd last sentence in my brief says " put the word PURPLE" before your quote.

so any reply that doesn't start with PURPLE goes to my trash

tim

 

[findtim]

Fiverr can be good for little jobs, but nothing important.
rules for using fiverr:
backup backup backup
create a new user and password for the person so you can delete them instantly.
change your password to cpanel to something stupid if you have to give them access, so you can change it back later
give them a very short period of time to complete the work......... well its $5 they don't need 3 weeks.

tim

 

[johno69]

rules for using ANYONE:
backup backup backup
create a new user and password for the person so you can delete them instantly.
change your password to cpanel

Fixed.

I usually don't give cPanel access at all, on the very rare occasion I may need too. I give them FTP as needed, but that can be easily revoked.