UPDATE on 28 Feb 2012
vWorker makes changes to its bid-alert mail
As any freelancer would agree, it is considered a smart move to sign up with multiple freelancing sites. The idea is to diversify and enable one’s (freelance) resume to be made visible to as many eyes as it can be. On the same note, clients (employers) also post the same project across multiple freelance sites to increase the chance of intelligent bids from serious freelancers…(oh yeah !.. and then, there is spam… but pros outweigh the cons)
Guess it comes as no surprise when I say that I had also signed up with odesk and vWorker (and few other freelance marketplaces as well), so that I have a steady stream of potentials. Predictably, I am subscribed to their bid alerts as well.
However, today I was taken aback completely when I read through their so-called referral campaign to their bid-alert mail.
Why should i even bother asking a client from Site1 to sign up at Site 2
I have active profiles in both oDesk and vWorker. Serious freelancers are busy bidding and actually working, rather than, cajole a client to sign up with a marketplace of (freelancer’s)choice. In other words, If i see a potential project on a different marketplace, I would promptly sign up at this new site and place my bid. All I care about is winning the project, and start working on it.. because.. thats what actually puts the copper in my wallet. Why should I go about telling the client to sign up with my-favourite site if he wants to work with me. It is likely that I might end up loosing a good project just for this one act.
Whatever happened to “healthy competition” ?
It is a thin line between competition and jealousy. Freelance marketplaces such as vWorker and oDesk (and other freelance sites) actively promote “healthy completion” between their users, so that the provider – the client – and – the site are mutually benefitted… which is in fact THE right thing to do. So, why take the Unhealthy route to boost one’s business?
Afraid of competition? Or, Last desperate attempt by vWorker?
Each freelancer has his / her favourite freelance site. There are scores of freelance marketplaces over the World Wide Web, and, each one of them are striving in their own way to get the provider’s and client’s attention. If oDesk works better for some, then vWorker works better for someone else. But it so appears that the user-base-at-oDesk is exponentially greater than the user-base-at-vWorker. But, this act by VWorker to poach oDesk users only comes across as a desperate attempt to boost their already declining user base.
When I think of this tactic, I remember a different approach by Elance to encourage users (employers and freelancers) to sign up when they search for the keyword “oDesk” in Facebook. They also put up an advert that had the word “oDesk”, but the link to it was going to Elance. I’m not sure if it was legal and if oDesk did anything to it. Couldn’t be active in oDesk forums as I used to be to discuss this.
vWorker definitely can’t match up and wanted to encourage their users to do what is morally not right.
I’m glad it’s only vWorker and Elance who are jealous of oDesk’s growth.
vWorker’s user-base is declining? The last time I checked (2009), its workforce increased from over 200K to over 300K. So what exactly declined?
@Pothi,
–vWorker definitely can’t match up and wanted to encourage their users to do what is morally not right.–
well worded personal opinion
Competition is good when it drives us to do better, but in vWorker’s case i sense that they have already given up on healthy competion.. and hence such a “we-will-pay-you-more-bait”
Hi JOSourcing,
Thanks for dropping by,
May be you are talking numbers..
..I was definitely not referring to the No.of users..aka.. emails registered with vWorker. (Perhaps i should have mentioned it in the post)
My refrence was towards active users who actually contribute to the site’s revenue.
You may ask, how am i supposed to know / judge this.. right, I dont have statistics from oDEsk / vWorker
But as a practicing freelancer for the past 4 yrs, I have a pretty solid network of freelance professionals (who actually do freelancing fulltime and depend on it for their bread and butter). 7 out of 10 people I have spoken to have confirmed that their profile in vWorker (and a couple of other sites) is just there for the sake of being there. Same goes to say for the clients who actually make a hire.
It is this dedicated userbase I was talking about
Each one to his/her own favourite freelancing site. But telling u r users to redirect the clients from a “SPECIFIC site (here oDest)” is certainly NOT healthy.
Makes me suspect their trustworthyness.
@Deepa,
I’m sorry you were offended by our email.
Just so you understand, we were *not* actually encouraging you to talk about this when you are with a new employer and trying to win a job. It wouldn’t make sense for you to do that, because you are trying to win the project and don’t need to bring up anything else that could distract from that.
What we *were* talking about is the situation where you’ve established a relationship with an employer and they use you and only you. Usually these relationships last many, many years. And if, the employer is paying 10-35% more than they need to over many years, that adds up very quickly. Such an employer can be grateful to be informed that there is a way to save that money. And as a bonus, you also make a percentage on every timecard (via the affilate program). Again, over the years that adds up.
Does that make better sense?
As far as “poaching”: oDesk buys up the “vWorker” keyword on Google to intercept users coming to our site with an ad that says “More high quality freelancers for hire”? I would not accuse them of “poaching”. They are simply promoting what they feel are their strengths to our users, which isn’t wrong and a part of healthy competition. And the reverse is also true.
Ian Ippolito
vWorker.com
Hi Ian,
Thanks for dropping by & glad that you responded.
Glad to know that vWorker is committed to its users
Really appreciate that.
You have explained that the intent behind the email was to convince dedicated clients (of an oDesk provider) to use vWorker. Point noted. Had this been a public announcement of some sort (may be you already have), it wouldn’t have bothered me this much.But, having this on my (everyday) bid alert makes me feel that vWorker is using us,a.k.a registered users@vWorker for its bait-and-wait approach. Nobody wants to be “used”.
With your stand on “poaching” oDesk users, I am sorry to be blunt, I disagree and donot buy it.
oDesk (may) have purchased “vWorker” keyword @ Google, and could have resulted in lost-traffic for vWorker.But then, anyone can buy any keyword if it had not been already bought.
The point is, oDesk (or for that matter, any other freelancing site )hasn’t sent out any “refer this-site’s-users to us” kind of emails to us until date. Such a mail-text is in bad taste, and certainly very Unhealthy competition…. but then.. this is my personal opinion.
Deepa,
Since it was offensive to you, we’ve now removed the ad.
To answer your questions. You said:
>>had this been a public announcement of some sort (may be you already have), it wouldn’t have bothered me this much.But, having this on my (everyday) bid alert makes me feel that vWorker is using us,a.k.a registered users@vWorker for its bait-and-wait approach.
Yes it actually was originally a public announcement on not just the site, but the blog and on Facebook. But we know many people don’t see those announcements (as you yourself seem to be an example of). So we put it in the daily email in the “ads” section (along with the other ads). It was not put in the alert section and this ads section has always been a part of the daily newsletter since the beginnning.
We had planned to remove it in a day or two once the click through rate started dropping. But every day, more people clicked on it, and it never did slow down. Since people were still very interested in it, we left it up.
Ian Ippolito
vWorker.com
Hi Ian,
Thank you, I noticed
🙂
Appreciate your participation here.
Deepa Govind