[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 ?