Hello oDeskers!

[Najie B]

While Nick already mentioned the things that I want to say as well. I just dropped by to say welcome to oDesk, seeing your profile really motivates me to work hard as I am self-studying on Web development to expand my knowledge and skills. Your profile is really interesting and I am sure that you had a good future here in oDesk. Have a great day out there. Unfortunately as far as I know I cannot include my email address here to contact me, because I want to ask you about this industry

[Gillian Michele N]

Hi Ben, Completing tests are about a lot more than just displaying results on your page. As you complete tests, you increase your job application quota. You'll have more applications to play with.

[Benjamin E]

Hi Gillian, Yes I have only come to realise that! I have applied for a few more jobs now so I will see what happens! Funny thing is as soon as I have set the oDesk profile up I have gain a lot more local clients without any marketing. I will keep applying for jobs as I want to create a great profile! Would you have any suggestions on where to read up on creating a perfect covering letter / application? Many thanks to all, I am enjoying be part of the community! Thanks, Ben.

[Valeria K]

Hi Benjamin, Welcome to oDesk! I am happy to hear that you enjoy being part of the community, there are many people here who can give you great advice on how to be successful on oDesk. If you want to know more about how to write a perfect cover letter, see this help article. Freelancer Manual also has some helpful recommendations and examples of cover letters.

[Benjamin E]

Hi Valeria, Thank you for the warm welcome Also thank you very much for the links I will have a ready later today, Best wishes, Ben.

[Gillian Michele N]

Hi Ben, Glad that things are looking up for you. Valeria gave a good suggestion about writing cover letters. Clients also have the option to not receive a cover letter, so you might see that with time.

[Benjamin E]

Hi Najie, Thank you for the kind comments! Self-study in my opinion is the best way forward for everyone. We all can have the skills should we dedicate ourselves. What would you like to ask me? I would be able to point you in the right direction. Thanks again, Ben.

[Najie B]

Hello Ben, Thankyou for your time, I'd just like to ask on where should I start, basically I have a basic understanding of HTML & CSS but I am not sure what to learn next since there are a lot of languages to learn and HTML & CSS are not enough to make a website package. Does web development has a particular department? If so, I would like to focus on that department. Thank you and have a great day. Best regards, Najie

[Benjamin E]

Hi Najie, No problem at all. I would suggest learn jQuery and then WordPress. With WordPress I would also start learning PHP too. Then if you are looking into software I would suggest C and C++ and from there you have many languages such as Java, Javascript, Perl, Python etc etc but just start small and try and learn something new each day. I wish you the best of luck Ben.