Project Catalog™—now available globally!

lenaellis · ‎01-13-2021

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!

atlinguist · ‎01-25-2021

I agree, although there can be a reason for setting your pricing below your usual fee range in the inital phase of freelancing (as Samantha said that she also did), simply because you are deducting the amount that you would normally have paid for marketing, additional tools, etc. (which you normally add to your hourly wage). It would then not be 'undervaluing', but rather more similar to low-budget or less taxes.

As to your query concerning our ability to check out clients, I think this is an essential strategy on marketplaces on the internet, simply because companies tend to phrase their job descriptions using the words that THEIR clients used, making it look as if you are bidding for a job without middle men, when in actual fact you are bidding to become a subcontractor. Since I like to keep costs low for my clients, that is something I don't like to do. (So I guess you and I will stick to the marketplace and contracts for now.)

browersr · ‎01-25-2021

Paul R wrote:
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.

This is true for any client you work with on UW. PC or not PC. Just read the forums for 2 minutes and you'll see dozens of complaints about "unfair reviews". This goes back years before the PC. If your complaint is about vetting the client then I already mentioned those failings in a separate paragraph.

selar · ‎01-25-2021

It is. My first project client has been great, but I didn't realise that if he hadn't messaged me then I could have been taking on any brand new, untested client. Until that's changed in the spirit of protection on both sides of the transaction, as today's speaker put it, I think my approach will just be to reject any more advances from project clients who haven't messaged - that's too much of a risk that Upwork are asking us to take with a score that their system already has all the control over.

atlinguist · ‎01-25-2021

Oh, and I have another question for the UW team:

In what order are the projects going to be listed in the search results shown to the client? Alphabetically?

Or like on Google? Or by ratings? Or by number of project catalog projects completed?

gina-herrera · ‎01-25-2021

Paul R wrote:
It is. My first project client has been great, but I didn't realise that if he hadn't messaged me then I could have been taking on any brand new, untested client.

This goes back to the massive transparency issue in general - I have brought up (aka complained heavily) multiple times in the past few months in the UC about how I consistently feel backed into a corner by the way in which Upwork choose to allow clients and freelancers to interact.

• When a potential client messages you directly (not in PC, but in general) about a project, but has not posted a physical project listing, you can only see their star rating but cannot see their feedback / feedback they have left for others

• Clients can add milestones onto a pre-existing contract at their whim, and decide the parameters and price, without any freelancer approval necessary - meaning they could just continue adding things for whatever price they desire and then claim that the freelancer didn't deliver, even if they just picked a random or arbitrary price.

• You only have 24 hours to reject a PC project, and if you don't, it automatically is accepted. If anything it should be the opposite; if someone hasn't replied to a legitimate job offer in 24 hours, they probably are busy / inactive / not ready to take on anything new at the time whether it's for personal reasons or scheduling reasons. That means you can't even take a full weekend off from checking your Upwork profile in case a project that is unsuitable for your skillset comes in.

If I did not get so much work through this site, I genuinely would leave over this. I feel like a broken record but the fact that freelancers don't have absolute control over their end of a contract / project acceptance, the same way that clients have absolute control on their end, is absolutely disgusting and rubs me as totally dishonest. There is NO reason for this issue unless UW is genuinely trying to discourage freelancers from rejecting jobs, even if it sets up the final result to be unsatisfactory and lead to a dispute (or a black mark on someone's feedback even just for being hired on a project and then canceling it, which still allows the client to leave private input). Their motivation seems to be that everyone should take on every job because then they have a chance of making more money in fees and that is that.

chhickish · ‎01-25-2021

I also do not like that I cannot view the client history for someone that contacts me.

Also since I set up my 1 project catalogue both of the clients that have contacted me so far are out of scope of the project I am offering, which is annoying.

The inability to screen clients and the fact I'm being contacted by clients for larger scale scripting work on the small fixed price project catalog job I've posted is making me lean towards deleting it.

russellsk · ‎01-26-2021

I sumitted a new project many times but every times it not approved. Yhey reply me that, "sorry your project was not approved" but my project details was perfectly professional

cdbb8da1 · ‎01-26-2021

How many Project Catalog we can make on Upwork?

kochubei_valeria · ‎01-26-2021

Hi Alexandra,

Thanks for sharing feedback about your experience with Project Catalog so far and your suggestions.

To answer your questions about how projects are ranked in search - that depends on the search query, how relevant projects are to that search as well as talent quality.

kochubei_valeria · ‎01-26-2021

Hi Muhammad Khurram,

Currently, you can add up to seven projects.