Lowest Budget

bojana0 · ‎11-18-2016

I was wondering if I could pay freelancers only $1 for the simplest task possible that literary takes a minute of their time. I saw that the lowest budget is $5, so I was wondering if I could still pay just $1 regardless of that budget.

Thanks

colettelewis · ‎11-18-2016

No, you can't.

This has to be the question of the day . . .

bojana0 · ‎11-18-2016

Yeah, that's what I thought. And what about milestones? Can I divide the project into 5 milestones and pay $1 per each?

VladimirG · ‎11-18-2016

Hi Bojana,

Please note that the minimum amount a Milestone can be funded for is $5.

~ Vladimir

f4aed4ed · ‎10-04-2022

I hear you. I signed up for upwork and I can't believe what people are offering to get a full set of custom plans. This is ridiculous!!!

30935578 · ‎10-04-2022

Hi Kenny,

The problem is that dollar rate to every countriescurrencydefer.

Which makes it impossible for freelancer to charge equal or slight amount.

kfarnell · ‎11-18-2016

I had to work this out...

Totally ignoring the fact that logging on, responding to the project and sending the work in has to take more than a minute irrespective of how long the work takes:

To send the money to Paypal: $1

VAT - no idea what it would be on such a small amount, let's say: 20c

Upwork's percentage of the fee: 20c

= $1.40

Plus any money lost in currency conversion...

bojana0 · ‎11-18-2016

I said that the job itself will take about 1 minute of their time, if not even less.

I am looking to build long-term relationship with these freelancers, so I think it is a pretty good deal for basically not doing anything. It is not a one-time project, and they will definitely appreciate responding to the job offer after a while.

prestonhunter · ‎11-18-2016

Bojana:

YES, you can pay a very small amount of money to a freelancer for a small amount of time.

The minimum amount for a fixed-price contract is $5.00.

So if you want to pay less than $5.00, you can't use a fixed-price contract.

But you can hire a freelancer who has a low hourly pay rate, allow that freelancer to use manually-logged time, and ask that freelancer to work for you on short tasks.

You can tell the freelancer that if her work takes less than ten minutes, she can simply add a ten minute block of time using manual time.

That way she will be paid for her work, and you will be billed a very small amount.

You can set the maximum number of hours that the freelancer can work to 1 hour.

This way, even if she does not follow your instructions, you won't be billed for more than one hour's worth of time. (Keep in mind that the maximum is per week. So if you don't want her to do anything else, you can close the contract after she does her task.)

Using this method, if you hire a freelancer who has an hourly rate of $3.00/hour, then the most you could be billed would be $3 if the freelancer is dishonest and does NOT follow your instructions and logs time a full hour.

If the freelancer is honest and only logs ten minutes of time for a task that takes ten minutes or less, then you woul only be billed for one/sixth of an hour's worth of time, which would be fifty cents.

prestonhunter · ‎11-18-2016

Also, it IS possible to use a fixed-price contract to pay a freelancer $1.00 per task, if you pay them for at least 5 tasks.

You can set up a fixed-price contract for $5.00 (the minimum) which lists as its requirements the performance of 5 one-minute tasks.

colettelewis · ‎11-18-2016

@Preston H wrote:
Also, it IS possible to use a fixed-price contract to pay a freelancer $1.00 per task, if you pay them for at least 5 tasks.

You can set up a fixed-price contract for $5.00 (the minimum) which lists as its requirements the performance of 5 one-minute tasks.

Theoretically it is possible. In practice, if a freelancer is stupid enough to apply for this sort of job, then I expect the results would reflect this.

Not a good idea either to offer a stellar review, as it is against Upwork's ToS, and is not doing the freelancer any favours either.

I'm amazed anyone would deliberately go out of their way to get this sort of reputation as a client.

prestonhunter · ‎11-18-2016

re: "Not a good idea either to offer a stellar review, as it is against Upwork's ToS, and is not doing the freelancer any favours either."

That is correct. It is not a "good idea" to offer a stellar review. Moreover, I find it completely unacceptable to offer a review of any kind in a job posting.

But nobody on this thread has mentioned reviews.

colettelewis · ‎11-18-2016

I only mentioned 'review', because it would seem likely that the only way you could get anyone to work at this rate is to offer them a good review. As you know, there are some desperate freelancers here who are willing to work for nothing in order to get a review.

nemes · ‎11-18-2016

@Bojana R wrote:

I am looking to build long-term relationship with these freelancers

Bojana, I think it's not exactly the best way building a good working relationship, when you sorry to invest even that symbolic $5 into it. In my opinion it's rather a sign of disrespect - and most professionals would never work with someone with this mindset.

It's just a plain insult to any human being.

prestonhunter · ‎11-18-2016

re: "...it would seem likely that the only way you could get anyone to work at this rate is to offer them a good review."

I did a $5.00 fixed-price project this week.

jmeyn · ‎11-24-2016

@Preston H wrote:
re: "...it would seem likely that the only way you could get anyone to work at this rate is to offer them a good review."

I did a $5.00 fixed-price project this week.

So do I, but I never quote on them. I'm invited to such small tasks be returning clients. I would quote on such a job, spending $2 in connects to gain less than $4 in revenue? No way.

mtngigi · ‎11-18-2016

I'm just going to say this, and then unsubscribe to this thread because I'd like to keep my blood pressure down.

Clients should know that there is no such thing as a quick or "easy if you know what you're doing" job. Factor in everything a freelancer has to do to earn less than a dollar when all is said and done, and it is, as someone else mentioned, an insult.

Factors - equipment and software costs, Upwork fees and self-employment taxes. The time it takes to go back and forth with a client to acquire the information they need to perform the task. It all adds up, and what it adds up to is standing on a street corner with a sign that says "will work for free".

In the end, that's what you're asking for - someone to work for free.

cupidmedia · ‎11-22-2016

If I am looking to develop a long-term relationship with a freelancer (which I always am), I offer them a small trial project to start with. But the trial is more than "1 minute" because how can you judge someone's ability to work with you successfully long-term in 1 minute? And for the trial I pay *more* than the market rate for a fixed price job of that size, for several reasons:

1) to allow room for discussion of the long-term project I will eventually need them for

2) to show that I am a serious client and I seriously do have long-term projects (it's *extremely* common for cheap clients to ask for cheap work with a promise of long-term collaboration which never materialises)

3) to attract good-quality freelancers

I really don't know what you think you can learn from $1/1 minute worth of work as a client.

jmeyn · ‎11-24-2016

@Bojana R wrote:
I was wondering if I could pay freelancers only $1 for the simplest task possible that literary takes a minute of their time. I saw that the lowest budget is $5, so I was wondering if I could still pay just $1 regardless of that budget.

Thanks

I just doesn't make commercial sense. The freelancer has to invest $2 worth of connects to make $1 in revenue from which Upwork then reaps 20%? Not even counting the time to write a proposal, enter the billing into your accounting software etc. Already the $5 jobs are nonsense. I never quote on them.

lysis10 · ‎11-24-2016

lol yeah but you know like 50 people will bid on something like that.

jmeyn · ‎11-24-2016

@Jennifer M wrote:
lol yeah but you know like 50 people will bid on something like that.

I know :-(. Too few people use simple common sense.

prestonhunter · ‎11-24-2016

Joachim:

Yes the $5.00 fixed-project I did this week was a milestone with an already-established client.

But I don't know why you said (in two different posts) that it costs $2 in connects to bid on a contract.

Connects are free. Bidding on jobs is free.

Anonymous-User · ‎11-24-2016

I wonder which kind of job the OP wants to offer on Upwork for 1 USD, click job or fake product review?

nemes · ‎11-24-2016

@Margarete M wrote:
I wonder which kind of job the OP wants to offer on Upwork for 1 USD, click job or fake product review?

That sum doesn't even cover the cost of turning the computer on, and opening her file. If she want charity / volunteer work, she should just say this. Nothing is wrong with it. But Upwork, as a freelancing site, is not for such activities.

jmeyn · ‎11-24-2016

@Preston H wrote:
Joachim:
Yes the $5.00 fixed-project I did this week was a milestone with an already-established client.

But I don't know why you said (in two different posts) that it costs $2 in connects to bid on a contract.

Connects are free. Bidding on jobs is free.

Preston,

Yes, we get 60 connects for free. Nevertheless they have a commercial value of $1 each as this is the price you have to buy them for if the 60 free connects are not enough. People bidding on $5 jobs will never have enough connects.

sam-sly · ‎11-25-2016

@Joachim M wrote:
@Preston H wrote:
Joachim:
Yes the $5.00 fixed-project I did this week was a milestone with an already-established client.

But I don't know why you said (in two different posts) that it costs $2 in connects to bid on a contract.

Connects are free. Bidding on jobs is free.

Yes, we get 60 connects for free. Nevertheless they have a commercial value of $1 each as this is the price you have to buy them for if the 60 free connects are not enough. People bidding on $5 jobs will never have enough connects.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good point. I've not yet run out of connects so I didn't realize they cost so much. However, I don't bid on $5 projects. I can only imagine people who would as also the freelancers who are likely to 'need" to purchase connects.

davidd1008 · ‎11-26-2016

If it takes a minute of their time, do it yourself.

Honestly, I can't fathom what a freelancer could possibly do in a single minute that isn't shady, dishonest, or exploitative.

cupidmedia · ‎11-27-2016

I'd really love the OP to come back and give a (general) example of what kind of job they want to post for $1/1 minute. I just don't see what it could possibly be.

Anonymous-User · ‎11-27-2016

@Jennifer D wrote:
I'd really love the OP to come back and give a (general) example of what kind of job they want to post for $1/1 minute. I just don't see what it could possibly be.

She wrote "the simpliest task possible"... I suppose clicking something...