The new invite system for clients is a major FAIL

[df1609cf]

The new invitation limitation makes upwork useless and makes me scour for a replacement platform. Whomever came up with this idea didn't do research - not only people will not pay $30 to post a job, but they will likely to leave in droves. Invitations would allow to quickly staff a project. Now, it's a waiting game, had very bad engagement numbers to the job postings. 

I'm not sure if a dillegent analysis was made, but would ask to reconsider the limit. I dont appreciat being manipulated and having features cut.  Thank you for review,

[khemiri_mohamed]

exactly things changed and this type of limit can kick out lot of clients as people who pay don't want this kind of restriction, it hurt freelancer too as for me i didn't get recently almost any invitation which was in  the past far more good

[05dca321]

This is enough to make me leave this platform. All of my applications tend to be irrelevant outside of my invites. Upwork charge enough comission as it is, this is just getting greedy

[wendy_writes]

Ryan, many of the more experienced freelancers agree with you; a limit of 3 free invites is a huge disservice to buyers and FLers. 

As such, we were able to convince Upwork to increase the number of free invites to, I believe, 6 which does give buyers a better chance at finding the best match.

All that said, some of the responsibility lies with the buyers to 

1. write a comprehensive RFP

2. do a search for freelancers - even thou the system is cumbersome

3. pay decent rates - esp. if asking for highly skilled FLers in any field

1-3 might /might not apply to your hiring rcord but it is important to "get it out there" for people who miight not be as experienced in the system as you.

[alphazomgy]

This is one of the best things Upwork's ever done.

No, I'm not being sarcastic. 🙂 

[integratecloud]

correct.This will cleanup the freebies who do not have confidence in their skills and customers who are not serious enough to hire someone.

[integratecloud]

Yes go to Fiverr.com. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "This will cleanup the freebies who do not have confidence in their skills and customers who are not serious enough to hire someone."

These are two separate issues.

I don't mind the efforts to "clean up" the freelancers who "do not have confidence in their skills".

But I am not enthusiastic about anything that chases away customers.

If a client/customer is truly, genuinely, absolutely never going to hire a freelancer, then obviously we have no use for such a person. But if a client MIGHT hire a freelancer, then I don't want to chase them away by something like an overly-limited invite policy, or by charging them for reasonable number of invitations.

As a freelancer:

Getting an invitation from client whose job I don't want to work on is NOT A BIG DEAL. I can simply decline.

Maybe I'm an outlier, I don't know... But I think the majority of the invitations I receive are good projects which I would happy to do if I had the time. Not all, but a majority. I don't say yes to every invite. But when I have time to take on new projects, I make my profile public and I consider invites.

I would guess that MOST freelancers would rather receive a bunch of invites that they need to decline, and get a few good ones that they can earn money from... Rather than not get invites at all.

I don't need Upwork to have only perfect clients.

I want Upwork to have plentiful, paying clients.

[wendy_writes]

In the main I concur with everything Preston wrote. 

And now comes the 'however'.  I do think U would greatly benefit from putting a $50 minimum on all jobs.

This would weed out 90% of the 'want free work' and total scammers from the buyer end and would help some FLers learn how to up-sell. Ex: if a job is actually worth $30 > ask what else might need correcting and/or tweaking.  While U is not in the business of educating FLers, this would benefit U as it helps establish better buyer/seller relationships.