vWorker has recently conducted case studies of successful employers and workers on the site. During the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing a new story each week; describing the story of how an employer was able to use vWorker to develop/enhance their business or how a worker is able to financially support themselves through the work earned on vWorker.
Ben Yohan (screen name Ben Graphics) is a virtual worker from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Ben was a student and needed to earn more money. After he found vWorker, he was able to support not only himself, but his entire family. Now he's saving all the extra money he makes to buy a house later this year.
1. Why did you start working on vWorker? How did you find vWorker?
I’m Ben from Colombo, Sri Lanka, working as a Graphic Designer at vWorker. I’ve been working at vWorker for 3 years with a healthy income that’s able to support me and my family.
I was searching the internet for online jobs while completing my higher studies, as I wanted more income to complete my studies after I finished schooling. I was extremely lucky to find vWorker three years ago. I came across many ways to earn money online, but I understood that freelancing was one of the best legitimate methods. I registered on many other similar sites, but it’s vWorker that ended my search.
After I started working on vWorker, I didn’t need to find a full time job because my current income is more than enough to support my family and me, and even save money. I was so amazed and delighted when I received my first payment from vWorker because it’s the first time I was paid from a company that I’ve never seen. After receiving my payment, I was very confident about vWorker and their excellent service.
My mother is a teacher/lecturer, so she’s able to take care of the daily needs of living. This allowed me to invest my money on higher studies from the payments I received throughout my first year at vWorker. Now I’m able to handle all the expenses in the family and even save money every month; my next aim is to buy a new house within this year.
I’ve been getting plenty of jobs that would allow me to hire others or even form a company, but I haven’t pursued that yet because my clients have faith in me when they send me jobs. So if I’m going to hire others, I need to find workers who are equally talented and reliable. Therefore, I think I’ll need more time to find these workers in order to create a company or hire others, so I currently only take on projects that I can handle myself.
The most important point piece of advice, when working online, is to be honest with your clients because they haven’t seen or met us, so it’s not like other regular jobs. Actually, working online isn’t any easier than a regular job, as I work nearly 12-15 hours a day, but I am able to take a break anytime and it’s up to the individuals how they manage their time. Freelancers are a special group of people because you have to work with different people from around the world that you’ve never met, and they all have unique personalities. It’s important that you have a lot of patience and excellent communication skills.
3. What is your favorite feature on vWorker?
Some of the features I love in vWorker are:
1. The compulsory escrow system because you have a 100% guarantee of getting paid when the project is complete.
2. Not having to pay any monthly subscription fees.
3. Allowing unlimited bids per month.
4. Their customer service is the best, with personal responses from even the CEO himself.
4. What has been your experience in mediation/arbitration?
Mediation/arbitration is something that I try to avoid, and I’m glad I've only had to go through the process once in all these years. The employer mistakenly thought there was a duplicate payment but it was resolved fast by vWorker, by informing the employer of the issue. Overall, I’m satisfied with the only experience I had in mediation/arbitration.
5. Do you have any tips/tricks/secrets about vWorker that you’ve learned that you’d like to share?
I’ve been very successful at vWorker. So far, I’ve completed 405 projects and I am ranked 886 out of all workers. Being rated as a top worker, I would like to share how I reached this achievement.
If you haven’t completed any projects yet, it’s important that you make lower bids and bid on at least 10-20 projects to win your first project. You’ll be extremely lucky if you get a job from your first bid.
Winning the first project is useful because many employers won’t give projects to new workers without a rating, because they don’t yet know if you are a legitimate person who will complete the project fully. Once you win the first project, you’ll need to give above standard results with 100% accuracy, and complete the project within the given deadline so the employer is fully satisfied and you can ensure yourself a 10 rating.
Try to avoid projects that you aren’t 100% sure of completing so you don’t end up with a bad rating and reduce the number of jobs you are able to win in the future. Employers don’t like to work with people having low ratings. I feel your overall rating and project comments are more important than any other qualification you may have. And never risk working outside vWorker, since there isn’t a guarantee about your payment.
Building faith in employers and producing quality work allows you to build a group of employers who turn to you when they have projects, so you hardly have to bid on new projects to find jobs. I’ve even received jobs from employers who have referred me to their friends, and have received unexpected bonuses many times for completing a project above their expectations.
6. Do you have interesting stories about employers or projects you’ve completed that you’d like share?
Actually, I can't point out one incident as an interesting story. I've always had good relationships with employers, and most of them are very friendly. As a whole, working as a graphics designer on vWorker is an interesting story in itself.
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