[codeddesign]

8 months worth of work for only $20k? This doesn't sound like a successful experience - more like you were highly over worked and under paid. It probably would have been more beneficial to have marketed your services for 80 hours and be able to land a $20k project as well as a lasting client.

[coldtea]

>8 months worth of work for only $20k? This doesn't sound like a successful experience

On the internet, which is kinda global, not everybody is paid US/Western EU salary rates, you know right?

[codeddesign]

Yes, but that drives me crazy! With the internet you aren't held down by your local economic wage and yet there are people like this guy who works like a dog and undercuts everyone with crazy cheap prices which brings down the global value of developers on sites like odesk. While I am sure he is a great developer, my point was that he could have worked less, raised his prices, gained better clients, and overall built a better business model.

[coralreef]

I'm not sure the economics of the situation are obvious as that.

If he raises prices: is he actually going to get "better" clients? He'll have to compete with other high end'ers. What if there competition is too fierce at that price point? What if his skill/quality doesn't match up to that price point?

[jiggy2011]

It's not worth getting worked up over. If you sell your services for $x there is always somebody willing to sell for $x - 1.

[agilebyte]

Or organise an international union of programmers...

[jiggy2011]

Wouldn't that involve getting every programmer in the world to actually agree on something? Good luck with that!

[mkartic]

USD20k is a very large sum. It works out to just over 1.2million in INR. Now that's a lot. If all it took to make USD20k a year was 40-50hour work week, I wouldn't feel underpaid at all. And I would be living a life of luxury.

[bruceb]

Depends where in India you live. Real estate is not cheap in Mumbai.

[waps]

Yeah, so income on oDesk for hard workers is brutally disappointing.

euro 20k/8 = 2.5k /month 1200/8 = 150 hours /month ~= 40 hours/week

That's actually not that bad for being a programmer in, say, Eastern Europe, but it's rapidly becoming a rather bad wage even there.

[shubhamjain]

I wonder wht people use it and others at all.

* The clients expect insane amount of work at a very cheap rate.

* People in developing countries are always ready to charge a lesser amount.

* The Signal : Noise ratio is low on both sides.

* The commissions taken by site and payment services also offer a blow to the amount earned.

IMO, its tough to imagine a situation where a sane client who expects quality would be willing to shuffle through 100s of bids submitted on each project.

[alexdowad]

I think oDesk is a great work platform, if you don't bother competing with the crowd on price and just go for the best jobs (after getting some good feedback and building up a good profile). I bill $40-50/hr and have no problem getting as much work as I need on oDesk. It allows me to travel around the world and work as much as I need to still pay the bills.

[shubhamjain]

What was your initial rate when you got started? How much time and effort it took to build your reputation?

[waps]

Are you a dev ? What's your profile ?

[e12e]

Actually, 150 hours/month is more like 37.5 hours a week (7.5 hours, mon-fri). IMNHO there's actually quite a difference between that and a full 40 hour week. This all assumes no work outside the 1200 hours, obviously.

[chad_oliver]

Surely half an hour a day doesn't make a lot of difference? Many people spend more on their commute.

[pessimizer]

Many people's commutes make a lot of difference.

[waps]

True, on the other hand 37.5 hours is a week's worth of toilet breaks plus maybe one lunch out of 5 ?

[e12e]

Or you could view it through the lens of working extra for a period, then taking some time off. Guessing you could remain productive at 9 hours of work each day, you'd save up a full 7.5 day off every five days (every week) -- and a full week off in 5 weeks of "crunch". If you work an additional 1.5 hours the numbers aren't that different for 8 hour work days, but that assumes you can maintain efficiency working 9.5 hour days for a week, and also doesn't translate to a full 8 hour day off for a week of "crunch".

YMMV etc.

[albedo]

Agreed, and this is basically what we do for devs who want to do contract work -- help find clients that pay well and don't suck. (http://getlambda.com)

[shubhamjain]

There is a difference between contextual self-promotion and irrelevant spamming. What you are doing is the latter. Please limit the advertising, it only hurts the PR with not much to gain.

[albedo]

Sorry about that. We'll cut back and be more relevant next time.

[codeddesign]

Yes. As a daily reader of HN, you guys randomly insert your advertising without adding any true value to the discussion.

Is that your normal business practice? To spam but actually add no real value?

[yitchelle]

Lol at the thought that spam would actually adds value.

[dinkumthinkum]

I feel like you've made too many comments advertising this site ... Seems like spam ...