Pay to respond to invitations.

[#1]

Hi clients,
If you notice that your invitations are being rejected, here is the reason:
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Why-I-lose-the-connect-when-I-accept-the-invitation/td-p...
You can see the reasons by reading the freelancers' comments.
Until now, for example, I responded to an invitation even if the text was not very explanatory, since it did not entail an expense and I could discuss it more deeply with the client in the interviews.
Given this, I will now have to think long and hard before accepting an invitation.
What do you think?

[#2]

I think that only lazy freelancer didnt started own topic about that within past week. 😸

[#3]

Well, I haven't looked much, but I don't think there is a thread here informing customers about this.
Does it seem bad to you?

[#4]

Bad about connects for invitations? I dont care about that because only scammers inviting me. Got no real invitations for past two years.

[#5]

Yet another example of a freelancer saying they don't have a problem with something, so there's no way other freelancers could have that problem, eh, Mykola?

Unlike you, I regularly receive invitations from new clients (new clients on Upwork and clients new to me). Probably around 120 - 150 each year.

Many invitations are irrelevant to my experience and expertise, meaning those clients have clearly not even read my profile. I rarely submit proposals to them.

Many are so desultory I have no idea what the project involves, so I very rarely respond.

But I won't respond at all once it starts costing me connects just to ferret out what such a project is about. I'd expect that to be a waste of time and money in many/most cases.

[#6]

Thats why i said "I dont" but not "everyone dont" 😉

I already wrote at main topic that didnt surprized at all. Upwork greed have no limits. Just a time question when additional payment will be added\price increased again. Look like upwork goals is hardly milk users who is still here instead of increasing quality of registered users (welcome additional CL\FLs and create great env).

[#7]

Hey, come on, I'm not lazy and yet I didn't start my own topic on this Upwork scam 🤣 And this is because first, no need for this as people are already discussing, and second, I know they will all be merged into one with misleading, irrelevant title, "losing" most of the comments in the process. Damage control, ya know 😉

[#8]

Don't merge this one is for the clients to see 😊

[#9]

Eh, they already aren't treating clients better than FL's XD I mean, taking away possibility to find the right freelancer surely must not lie within "help connect you with the right talent" phrase huh. I'm referring to Will's post as it clearly shows the consequences of this *** move UW made in desperation to milk more $$$. Greedy thieves end up in one specific place though so there's hope ^_^

[#10]

Hello

[#11]

Yesterday a potential client reached out through Upwork direct message. Once we agreed, he said: Great, I will create a job post and send you an invitation! I had to explain the cost of accepting an interview.

[#12]

Most of clients have no clue about freelancers expenses. One client said to me that thinked that clients covering all with own initial and amount fees. And was surprized to know that freelancer wont receive whole contract amount. Maybe thats why client dont care about abandoned jobs or unanswered applications. Them sure that freelancers pay nothing at all. It is make sense because only rare ultra greedy platforms taking fee twice, from both sides. Triple in our case, connects also.

[#13]

This is the reason why I have opened the thread in "Clients", because I know that most of them have no idea what is happening on our side.

[#14]

Today, for the first time, I notice Upwork claims, "Freelancers who apply to a job, when invited, are hired 5x more often."

5x more often than what, Upwork? Now that you're going to start charging me connects to respond to all invitations, I'd like to understand how my chances of successfully submitting a proposal when invited increase.

[#15]

It freed me from scammers invitations

[#16]

How?

[#17]

This marks the coming end of organic proposals from knowledgeable freelancers on many projects. Others will continue to be milked through money spent uselessly on buying connects with negligible chance of submitting a winning proposal.

If I understand the math correctly, if I am on average one of, say, seven freelancers who submit an organic proposal on a project where there are also 15 responses to invitations. then my chance of submitting the winning proposal is a mere 1.2% (1/(7+(15*5)).

If I submit winning proposals on only 1.2% of all projects I submit proposals on, then I need to submit organic proposals on 82 projects just to win one project (on average).

If I spend 20 connects on every organic proposal I make, that’s $246 (82*20*$0.15) I have to spend per project won.

Every smart freelancer will make these calculations for each project they find or are invited to.

And clients will wonder why they are seeing fewer proposals on their projects from quality freelancers, as those quality freelancers decide to only submit proposals on projects they are invited to.

I also expect we will soon stop seeing how many invitations a client has sent and how many freelancers have responded on each project, as the higher those numbers are the less attractive it will be for smart freelancers to submit organic proposals. Upwork certainly doesn't want to see the connects income from those organic proposals to go down, so any transparency in this respect needs to go away. 

[#18]

I appreciate your detailed presentation and completely agree with you.

[#19]

I used to respond to every Invitation even if to redirect the client how to properly obtain another freelancer.

Here are my new results in the past three days due to the Invitation connect costs:

- Received 12 Invitations

- Responded to 5 for around $10

- Declined 7 and marked 2 as spam

- Obtained 3 new clients

Basically same results as before except I paid $10 and didn't assist the 7 prospects that now got declined.

[#20]

I still get a lot of irrelevant invitations (such as very low budget or irrelevant to my expertise). Those I just reject without any explanations other than the dropdown menu options.

If I can't tell whether a job is related to my expertise or not, I now refuse the invitation with the following notation to the client:

"Thank you very much for inviting me to submit a proposal on your project, but Upwork now charges me for every invitation I respond to. As a result, I only submit proposals on well-defined jobs I believe I am a perfect fit for. I wish you the best of luck finding the right freelancer for your project."

[#21]

Wow. I stopped doing any portion of my business on Upwork back in December, but what a 'race to the bottom' every time I 'peek in' on UW. It makes me wonder exactly how many more ways clients + freelancers need to be exploited before those who remained on the platform 'wise up'.

1. Clients now have to pay $9.99 USD to post a job, though a lower fee for posting jobs should have been implemented YEARS ago when the spam/scam got out of control.  However, now that clients are fleeing the system in droves, UW decides to charge the handful of viable clients that remain.  Smart. 😏

2. Freelancer now has to pay ridiculous amounts of connects to bid on mostly low quality, poorly paying jobs being posted by AI chat bots 'on behalf of' supposedly real clients

3. Client 'invites' a freelancer, and the freelancer now has to PAY to respond via connects to even interview, and client wonders why all their invites are being 'declined'

4. If a contract is started, client pays a new 'Contract Initiation' fee up to $14.95

5. 10% is snatched from the freelancers pay if hired

6. Client is additionally price gouged an 'up charge' of  3%-5% on the payments they make to freelancer

7. There are now no longer any advantages of any kind to earning a TR or TR+ badge: No live support available any more, feedback removal is being disabled soon, and your profile will basically be 'shadow banned' from search results unless you pay additional 'advertising' and 'boosting' fees

There are 3 parties in these partnerships: Client, UW, freelancer. Only one of the parties is now receiving any 'benefit' from the partnership. I'll give you a hint: It's not the client, and it's not the freelancer.

[#22]

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4. If a contract is started, client pays a new 'Contract Initiation' fee up to $14.95

Freelancer also pays flat fee for "initial" contract, meaning if it's the client they never worked for. Smart af chasing away everyone, wonder who will UW milk when they kill all cows?

[#23]

I’m totally agreed with you. The platform has become increasingly difficult for both clients and freelancers. The constant rise in fees and the exploitation of both parties is frustrating.

[#24]

The unintended consequences of making scamming and spamming cost prohibitive for honest freelancers and clients is sadly making it cost prohibitive for the clients and freelancers.