Join our Early Access Program for Project Catalog

[Vladimir G]

Hi MD,

I'd like to reiterate the information Bojan and Goran provided earlier on this thread in response to your question. The current review process has a five business days time frame, which excludes weekends. I checked and see all of the projects you submitted have been reviewed and you received email notifications for each of them. You can also check the status of your projects by going to your profile > Manage Projects.

Thanks for sharing this suggestion. Since we are in the early stages of testing, you might not see all the categories or options you need. We will continue to build out and improve the feature as we do internal testing and receive more feedback from customers like you, who are in the Early Access Program. Thanks for your help! To learn more about Project Catalog, click here.

[Tiffany S]

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Salima N wrote:

Hi,

While I was creating a project in the early access program I noticed that the project categorization does not include categories related to  Accounting, Finance, Tax, Audit. I am a Chartered Accountant so these categories are relevant to the services I provide. 

I have the same problem, though in a different category. Within writing, there are no subcategories for technical writing or white papers, and there's no option to just choose the high level category without a subcategory. None of the subcategories are relevant.

[Theresa C]

Hi Wes,

When a client buys your project, the idea is that they are agreeing to what you've pre-defined in your project. So a contract will be created and the milestone will be funded.  You'll be notified whenever a purchase happens and a contract room will automatically be opened, at which point you can start messaging.

The next step is waiting for the client to provide requirements to you, which were also defined upfront by you when you created the project.  Only until the client submits requirements does the due date get set and the "clock" starts for you. We understand that this is a different model from job posts, so during the Early Access Program period you also can cancel a project within 24 hours of the contract starting without impact to your JSS.

Once you deliver the work by the due date, the client can approve (just like a fixed-price contract) and the funds will be released and the contract will be closed automatically and feedback will be prompted.  After your project has been completed,  if you determine there is additional work to be done (or you and the client enjoy working together), you can connect directly with the client, creating a longer term relationship, where you negotiate based on scope.

[Tiffany S]

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Theresa C wrote:

Hi Wes,

When a client buys your project, the idea is that they are agreeing to what you've pre-defined in your project.

Unfortunately, you don't provide a space to spell out parameters, and force three levels for each project, leaving no means of differentiating the top-level product from the first-tier product.

[Susan S]

That was my concern.  It's too cut and dried.  Three choices only and nowhere to explain how you price your work, and I'd like to have that space for some explanation of what I do and don't do.  And I'd like to have a client be able to message me instead of outright buying a project.  Send me a message and we'll talk.  Why do they have to buy the project first?  If I were a customer, I don't know that I'd like that.  You would possibly buy a "product" blindly.   It just seems to be a bit of a bug.

[Usama T]

This seems veryyyy much like (if not exactly like) how fiverr works. So if they really just took that model completely like i think they did, There will be a way to make custom offers That exceed the limits you put on your project.

[Anna B]

Agree, we should have customized fields to be able to add additional content to the top tiers. For me as a brand designer that would be so much easier to pack logo, branding, marketing collateral and social media and even a landing page in just one package instead of having a few different projects for the same client.

[Tasos F]

@Lena E

Hello, I noticed that for the Logo Animation category .gif previews are not activated, maybe they should be along with video files to showcase animations?

[Aleksandar D]

Hi Tasos,

Thanks for sharing your feedback with us. I shared your suggestion with the rest of the team for consideration.

Thank you.

[Wes C]

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Theresa C wrote:

Hi Wes,

When a client buys your project, the idea is that they are agreeing to what you've pre-defined in your project. So a contract will be created and the milestone will be funded.  You'll be notified whenever a purchase happens and a contract room will automatically be opened, at which point you can start messaging.

This is an absolute dealbreaker for me. And frankly, I'm surprised it isn't for everyone.

There is absolutely no way I would ever allow a contract to be automatically created for me without vetting the client, understanding their needs, and reviewing the material I'd be working on. The only way I'd consider using this is if it worked like the previous iteration where a chat is created with the client to discuss the project or even where an offer is created that can be further refined or declined. 

I understand Upwork is offering 24 hours to back out of a contract created this way. That is not sufficient time to make a decision when clients often don't respond in that period or when a contract comes in late on a Friday night (I don't have much experience with this concept, but I understand some people take the weekends off). But even if it was 48 hours, 72 hours, or a full week: the experience of taking a client's money, then having to refund it because the client isn't a fit, the material isn't something I'd work on, or it doesn't meet the requirements of the predefined project, is not a good customer experience. I also see that this 24-hour back-out period is a limited time deal. 

This is going to be a trainwreck of trashed JSSes and review histories.

I did go through the screens to create a project and found some limitations that would need to be tweaked before this would be useable even if we get past this one point, but I'll post those separately later.