Get Someone Else To Do Your Odd Jobs With Airtasker

Get Someone Else To Do Your Odd Jobs With Airtasker:
You know something like this has happened to you before. You’re stuck trying to work out the supposedly obvious IKEA manual for something you just bought; you’re staring at your miserable garden wondering if you’ll ever get the time to cut it; you’re looking for a new flat, but too busy working to find the good listings. So, where do you go to find someone who can get those odd jobs done for a small fee? Airtasker is the new answer.
Airtasker is an Australian site designed to put willing workers in touch with people who need a small job done. It’s intended to be for one-off, fairly simple tasks – many of which can be fulfilled online. In some ways, it could be considered a market for ad-hoc virtual assistants, except that it extends into the real world too. There’s plenty of people who are asking for help with plumbing, gardening and poster distribution. You could too!

How Does Airtasker Work?

Airtasker works by allowing people to post and complete small jobs either locally or online. Senders post a task with an appropriate wage listed and Runners will offer to do the work for them, similar to the way Fiverr works but the other way around. Senders view Runner profiles and choose which Runner will complete the job. Once a Runner is selected the Sender can’t back out of the transaction and will pay the Runner either by PayPal or Cash On Delivery (COD), although a Sender can opt to choose no-one for the job.

Posting A Job

For starters, your task needs to be legal and not of a sexual nature. There’s a list of marketplace rules you should read before you post anything. But within these limits you’re able to be as inventive as you like. What work do you need done that someone else can conceivably help you with? Okay, maybe don’t get as weird as the people on Fiverr!

As described above, the basic process of posting a job on Airtasker is fairly straight-forward. It’s also free! Once your job is in the system, the main thing for you to do is to check the Runner profiles to ensure you’re getting the right person. Runner profiles will show reviews from previous jobs they’ve completed so that you can see they are reliable.

Local work can only be posted for Australian cities at this stage. However, if you have an online job you need done, you can list it in Australian dollars.

Senders can also browse the Runners and decide to hire someone directly. This will ensure that the Runners get notified directly when you post a job and are therefore more likely to apply for it.

Become A Runner

If you want to earn a little bit of extra money, sign up to be a Runner. You can specify your city (which is currently just Australian cities), but there’s no need to. International users are accepted and can easily work on the online tasks. Just remember that the site is still in the early stages and will be discussing payment in Australian dollars for now.

If you like the sound of a job but you think the price is too low, you can always make an offer. If the Sender doesn’t get a lot of interest in their posting they might consider your offer seriously.

Runners pay a fee to Airtasker on completion of the task of $2 + 5% of the fee. To collect fees, Airtasker obtain credit card details or bank details when you bid on a task. However, they won’t take funds until you win the bid.

Trust

Airtasker have a number of tools to establish trust between Senders and Runners. Reviews and references are the start, but they also check PayPal details are exact and ensure phone numbers are correct with SMS verification.

Meanwhile, social connections to Facebook and Twitter help to establish a person’s real-life identity. A user who has completed these checks is given a verification badge to make it easier to spot them.

Give It A Go!

Airtasker have a free iPhone application available for both Runner and Senders to make use of. It looks as though Airtasker intend to become more international in the future, but as you can see there is still room for a global market within the current framework. Sign up and let them know via feedback where you’d like to see Airtasker appear locally next!