oDesk Affiliates

So here you are, spending some time searching out work on oDesk and you keep seeing references to “Affiliates.”

That leads to two questions:  What’s an affiliate?  And, is it good for me?

The principle behind oDesk affiliates is simple:  more people can do more work than one person.  That’s why some people on oDesk band together to work on jobs that are too big for one person to handle alone.  Another advantage to affiliation is that you can have someone with a good reputation find work and manage quality control while you’re finding your feet.

I’m not a member of any affiliate companies on oDesk and right now I don’t intend to join or start one.

I’ve seen a number of people succeed that way on oDesk, so it’s not a decision I’ve taken lightly.

Read on to see why I am not doing it, and why it may be the right idea for you.

No two people are the same:

It sounds obvious doesn’t it.  But that’s my reason for not going into an affiliate situation boiled down as clearly as possible.

As a writer I bring only one thing to the table:  myself.  If I am working alone I can and do guarantee that what you will get is my work.  You will get my interpretation of the discussions you and I have had regarding the project.

You will not get someone else’s interpretation of what I have told them about our discussions.

There’s also a quality control aspect:  If I do all the work, I control the quality.  This isn’t to say everyone else will do bad work, but unless I’m standing over their shoulder monitoring them I am not going to know exactly what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.

I don’t like that when something goes out with my name on it.

If it goes out with my name on it, it needs to be something I have complete control over.

I didn’t take up freelancing to be a manager.  In my last traditional job I was a supervisor and that’s not what I want to do here.  I’d be spending more time looking for work and managing affiliates than doing the work and that’s not what I want to do.

The other option is to join an affiliate company and let someone else run it.

No thanks– that’s too much like working for someone, and that’s not what I want to do either.

I’m here to be in command of my own destiny.  It may sound old-fashioned but thats’ the way I feel.  I want to succeed (or fail) by my own work not someone else’s.  I want to be the one who finds and wins my jobs.

The important thing to remember is that neither option is intrinsically better or worse:

However they may be better or worse for some providers, and in this business it’s vital that you know which is better for you.  It really doesn’t matter which it is, so long as you get yourself into the niche that’s right for you.

For me that niche is that of the independent freelancer.  For others it might be running an affiliate company or working for one.  It doesn’t matter.

Look into it– then decide.