Michael,
Thanks for your note. We're glad you want to try out oDesk. There MANY, MANY excellent contractors here and there are many clients here who save significant amounts of time and money using this service.
But not using the "Best Match" feature. We have been talking about that here on the community forum for a long time. Nobody here has yet found it to work at all.
But there ARE ways to find good contractors, including simply posting a job description and letting them come to you. You can also use the search feature to do a search for the skills you're looking for. There are filters which will allow you to specify regional preferences, or other preferences, such as English language ability, how many hours of experience on oDesk, whether or not they have worked recently, etc.
You can post further questions in the community forum and get great advice - for free! For example, if you have a specific skill you're looking for, post a question: "What are some good ways find a person to paint a cover for my new novel?"
Another tip that many experienced clients use: Hire multiple to do the same job. Need a CSS web designer? Hire 5 people to do the same assignment. Set their maximum number of hours to 1 hour. Tell them you want to see what they can do in one hour.
Then evaluate the work and continue working with the one you like best. If you don't like any of them, rinse and wash and repeat.
This is a strategy that is effective when you want to work with lower-cost workers. If you know you want high-end people, then you can do a search using hourly rate, and you can send job invites to the most expensive people you can find. This is usually a reliable way of finding people who can do quality work. But you still have to check on their work, especially at first.
