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Project Catalog™—now available globally!

lenaellis
Community Member

Over the past few months, many of you have helped us test and refine our newest Upwork offering: Project Catalog. 

 

Through your contributions, feedback, and support, we’re thrilled to announce that Project Catalog is now officially live for the entire Upwork community—talent and clients alike.

 

If you’re not familiar with Project Catalog (or just want a refresher), here’s a quick introduction:

 

Project Catalog is where the work you love finds you. Build and sell your own project offerings based on the type of work you want more of. Each project will be listed on Project Catalog, ready for clients to purchase for a fixed price in just a few clicks. Once a client purchases, they’ll fill out any requirements you’ve requested, and you’ll be set to get to work.

 

It’s an easy way to get more eyes on your offering and land new projects quickly—all while putting you in the driver’s seat. That means you and your clients can get started right away, and with confidence.

 

Check out this video to learn how clients will discover and purchase your projects. 

 

 

Stay tuned for more exciting rollouts 

 

Project Catalog is just the beginning of a series of exciting new ways to land clients on Upwork, adding to Talent Marketplace, the current platform you already know and love.

 

But no matter how you choose to use Upwork to grow your independent work, know that we’re dedicated to helping you build the strong and profitable relationships that are the foundation of a growing business.

 

We want to thank you for your hard work and the contributions you make to creating a thriving community on Upwork.

 

Happy New Year—may it be your most rewarding one yet!

 

 

824 Comments
sean_holland
Community Member

Daniel 

 

Think long and hard before adding a project. 

 

Can you absolutely guarantee that you will deliver in the time you set for the project? Once you have said four days (as an example) - you MUST deliver within four days. You cannot retrospectively adjust the timeline. 

 

Are you happy to put up multiple projects for the same style of gig. EG blogs - I had to make four different blog offers as I was restricted to three subject categories. I can easily cover twelve of the categories listed. Now there is an issue. What if one blog sells in each category on the same day - (OK-unlikely, but not impossible as reputation grows). Now I have to deliver four blogs in four days, which is not always possible given (a) number of words (b) research requirements, and most important of all (c) My existing workload which is completely overlooked by this feature. 

I deleted all of my projects. I don't think this feature has been thought through enough and no one at Upwork development seems interested in listening to the issues. 

 

Proceed with utmost caution

 

 

 

 

gina-herrera
Community Member

Maria T wrote:

A doubt. Why can't the "Project Catalogs" be flagged?

 


I just checked, if you scroll down past the description there is a flag that says "Report this Project"

But agreed with everything else you said for sure

yasir_wd
Community Member

Hi Upwork!

I have created new project catalog about web development. I have 2 questions to ask:

1. How project searching and ranking works for the new freelancers?
2. Can I see my projects analytics such as how many clicks, views and impression has been done on my project?

Thank you.

m_terrazas
Community Member

Gina H wrote:

Maria T wrote:

A doubt. Why can't the "Project Catalogs" be flagged?

 


I just checked, if you scroll down past the description there is a flag that says "Report this Project"

But agreed with everything else you said for sure


Thanks Gina, as I said, I'm going blind Smiley Embarassed
No matter how many times I looked up and down I couldn't see it!

selar
Community Member

On today's webinar, we heard about how you can't check out a client's profile and feedback history if they buy your project by default, but you can if they happen to send you a message before buying.

 

What's the rationale for hiding it? Why would that rationale no longer be valid if the client has messaged us?

 

We also heard on the webinar that Upwork are keen to protect everyone on both sides of the transaction. That doesn't square with a system that collects feedback and has an algorithm to give people scores, but then hides all of that in arbitrary situations.

qureshishuaib
Community Member

Hope you people do not design Upwork project ranking like Fiverr log. 

atlinguist
Community Member

Thank you for today's webinar. (Samantha, I think.) It was very informative and interesting!

 

The project pages look nice, too. However, there is one feature that makes me certain that this catalog functionality will NOT be of interest to me in the long run. (And won't help me pull in clients.) 

 

I "advertise" in the Writing & Translation category, my first "pre-packaged" offering being a 2,000-word translation (all types, i.e. scientific, technical, poetry, fiction, general,...) starting at 80 dollars. Translators will know that 2-3k words is the average daily output for 100% human translations (including terminology research and proofing). 

 

But any client brave enough to click on my catalog item will see below it a banner showing other "similar projects", in my case for instance "translation incl. free proofreading for 15$ in 1 day". How on earth can this be "similar" to my offering unless it is (a) post-editing of machine-translated output, or (b) based on wage calculations well below average?  

 

Want to bet which product clients will click on? My suggestion: do away with this ridiculous "similar project" feature to make it easier for clients to actually compare services. Thanks. (P.S.: I am familar with pre-packaged items because I use them on my website as well.)

selar
Community Member

But any client brave enough to click on my catalog item will see below it a banner showing other "similar projects", in my case for instance "translation incl. free proofreading for 15$ in 1 day". How on earth can this be "similar" to my offering unless it is (a) post-editing of machine-translated output, or (b) based on wage calculations well below average?  

I think (Samantha?) already gave us the Upwork answer to that part - 'The only person you hurt when you undervalue your own time is yourself!'

 

It struck me as a pretty facile company line that only serves to absolve the company of any responsibility for putting us into algorithms like the one you describe where competition on pricing is the name of the game.

 

'Make your quality stand for itself - meanwhile we'll hide the quality of the clients who want to hire you sight-unseen' was the strong message I got today. 

browersr
Community Member

I thought I would share my experience with this as someone who has a business that by all accounts is a terrible fit for the PC.

 

I do mobile development and I don't ever take a fixed bid job for that work. Not ever. So at the outset it would seem the PC is awful since it's a fixed bid model only. Of course I would have no reason to ever use it. That assumption would be wrong. A facet of what I can offer customers is expertise which can be shared as a set time interval (e.g. 1 hour of consulting). Given how specific that is and it's a perfect fit for a fixed bid. 1 hour of my time costs $x and you want 1 hour so the cost is $x. No ambiguity no scope changes. Prior the notion that I could provide this service was buried in a very full profile that is really all about development and my development projects with clients. With the PC I can now separate and package this offering such that it stands out and can be more easily found by clients. That is a clear win for someone who otherwise has zero use for this kind of fixed model. Additionally, those consulting sessions can be a entry point for a client to move towards potentially hiring me for the full development effort. In a sense I am getting paid to potentially interview for their job. There is absolutely no expectation nor agenda item for that to happen, but if they need development services and they appreciate and gain benefit from my consulting on this topic, then certainly in their mind I could be a candidate for them should they move forward. If not, they got exactly what they needed from the consultation and I got paid to discuss a subject I am passionate about and had the opportunity to meet someone and learn about their hopes and needs. Again a win here for both parties.

 

I certainly understand and have experienced some of the other platform/technology issues that are currently apart of the PC. Things like how ratings are handled, auto bot communications inserted into messaging center chats, the inability to vet a client ahead of time, etc. I don't give a free pass on these things and all complaints around those items are entirely relevant and need to be addressed by UW in short order.

 

My point here to peek above that for a moment and see the possibilities of the PC for your business. It doesn't need to be core nor foundational. Like me it can be a small adjunct piece. Small things add up over time in many ways. Perhaps rather than think about how you would shoehorn your business into this model, think about ways you could create a different but still relevant service offering that may open new channels of revenue. In the end, if it doesn't fit and you find yourself contorting or straining, don't do it. But, if you can think differently you may find a opening here that provides a benefit that you could not meet with the "regular" way of selling services here on UW. 

selar
Community Member

Scott B wrote:

There is absolutely no expectation nor agenda item for that to happen, but if they need development services and they appreciate and gain benefit from my consulting on this topic, then certainly in their mind I could be a candidate for them should they move forward. If not, they got exactly what they needed from the consultation and I got paid to discuss a subject I am passionate about and had the opportunity to meet someone and learn about their hopes and needs. Again a win here for both parties.


This is assuming they were a level-headed client who didn't turn out to have a 2-star rating and leave feeling dissatisfied that you couldn't meet their unreasonably high expectations within the 1 hour, and trash you in the feedback.