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jodypm
Community Member

Freelancers Who Apply for a Job with a Single URL to Their Profile or CSV

Dear Community,

 

Don't you love it when you post a job, as a client of course, and a few freelancers reply with a single URL and nothing more? No cover letter, no introduction, and no mention of anything in your job post.

 

Well, here's the solution: Don't respond with any words, just post the URL below right back.

 

https://isitchristmas.com/

 

Best regards,

 

Jody PM

21 REPLIES 21
robin_hyman
Community Member

That's amazing since they are paying to apply to your job. 

 

On the other hand, I'm applying to 2-3 jobs a day with customized responses.  I'm putting everything into each response, calling out elements from the post, attaching relevant examples, etc.  And I get....lots of crickets!  Most of these jobs never hire, never close the job and therefore, I'm losing money.  

 

So what's the solution for both sides?  You can at least click "decline" and give a reason why you're not choosing the freelancer.  Hope you have a pool of possibilities among the URL responses.  


Robin H wrote:

That's amazing since they are paying to apply to your job. 

 

On the other hand, I'm applying to 2-3 jobs a day with customized responses.  I'm putting everything into each response, calling out elements from the post, attaching relevant examples, etc.  And I get....lots of crickets!  Most of these jobs never hire, never close the job and therefore, I'm losing money.  

 

So what's the solution for both sides?  You can at least click "decline" and give a reason why you're not choosing the freelancer.  Hope you have a pool of possibilities among the URL responses.  


Robin, I suspect that you are in the upper end of what you do rate-wise.  You are in marketing and looking at your profile I think you should take a very deliberate step back and try to review objectively what you have written. 

 

Personally I am not sure I like the question you have started with, I think I would try to find a bold statement about yourself rather than start it as a question, I would much prefer I am the real deal to that although I am not sure I like the phrasing.

 

The first two lines are critical as you probably know in both your profile and your proposals.  You need to say something distinct and attention grabbing.  I don't introduce myself typically I just throw something down.

 

I don't spend a lot of time on proposals and I spend connects like water when I am looking and see good oppurtunities.  I try to never go back and look at anything I propose on but just keep plugging.  

 

I also try to be very brief in my proposals because a lot of them will turn out to be a complete waste of time so I see no point in writing novels.  I try to say something powerful and memorable and move them from my proposal to my profile to messaging me.

Thanks for your feedback.  I will take it into consideration. 


Robin H wrote:

That's amazing since they are paying to apply to your job. 

 

On the other hand, I'm applying to 2-3 jobs a day with customized responses.  I'm putting everything into each response, calling out elements from the post, attaching relevant examples, etc.  And I get....lots of crickets!  Most of these jobs never hire, never close the job and therefore, I'm losing money.  

 

So what's the solution for both sides?  You can at least click "decline" and give a reason why you're not choosing the freelancer.  Hope you have a pool of possibilities among the URL responses.  


 

Hi Robin,

 

Yes, I understand your point about them paying to do this. I'm a freelancer, too, but when I put in a great deal of work in my proposals, it is very disconcerting to have freelancer apply to a job that I've posted with a single URL and nothing else. That tells me that they are not even reading my job description. I would rather spend my time talking to freelancers who are professional and have taken the time to actually submit a professional proposal, not a simple copy and paste URL redirecting me to some external profile or CSV.

 

I would never apply to a job this way. Ever.

 

The solution for both sides? From the freelancer's side the solution is obvious: invest time in the proposal and customize it for the client's needs professionally. The solution on the side of the client is to either ignore those that invest 5 seconds (if they are slow) by pasting a URL and decline them, or, as I do, get creative with a 5 second (when I'm slow) resoponse: https://isitchristmas.com/

 

Best regards,

 

Jody PM


Jody P wrote:

The solution for both sides? From the freelancer's side the solution is obvious: invest time in the proposal and customize it for the client's needs professionally. 


I am one of those freelancers that does copy and paste of a prewritten proposal 90% of the time...I know it's bad, don't judge me.


Valerio S wrote:

Jody P wrote:

The solution for both sides? From the freelancer's side the solution is obvious: invest time in the proposal and customize it for the client's needs professionally. 


I am one of those freelancers that does copy and paste of a prewritten proposal 90% of the time...I know it's bad, don't judge me.


Is it bad, though?

 

I see a lot of drama about this, but depending on how narrow your niche is, the stuff to say may just be the stuff to say. I write a fresh proposal for every bid, but I strongly suspect that if I pulled them out and analyzed them, 90% of them would be nearly identical. 

jodypm
Community Member

But have you ever submitted a proposal to a job with no cover letter and no attached proposal? Just a single URL like the one below?

 

http://example.com/tiffanys-csv


Tiffany S wrote:

Valerio S wrote:

Jody P wrote:

The solution for both sides? From the freelancer's side the solution is obvious: invest time in the proposal and customize it for the client's needs professionally. 


I am one of those freelancers that does copy and paste of a prewritten proposal 90% of the time...I know it's bad, don't judge me.


Is it bad, though?

 

I see a lot of drama about this, but depending on how narrow your niche is, the stuff to say may just be the stuff to say. I write a fresh proposal for every bid, but I strongly suspect that if I pulled them out and analyzed them, 90% of them would be nearly identical. 


I use a base template.

 

It makes sense because I would likely just be writing the same thing from memory a lot of the time anyway. Of course, applications are modified for each job where necessary. 


Tiffany S wrote:

Valerio S wrote:

Jody P wrote:

The solution for both sides? From the freelancer's side the solution is obvious: invest time in the proposal and customize it for the client's needs professionally. 


I am one of those freelancers that does copy and paste of a prewritten proposal 90% of the time...I know it's bad, don't judge me.


Is it bad, though?

 

I see a lot of drama about this, but depending on how narrow your niche is, the stuff to say may just be the stuff to say. I write a fresh proposal for every bid, but I strongly suspect that if I pulled them out and analyzed them, 90% of them would be nearly identical. 


True for me!


Valerio S wrote:

Jody P wrote:

The solution for both sides? From the freelancer's side the solution is obvious: invest time in the proposal and customize it for the client's needs professionally. 


I am one of those freelancers that does copy and paste of a prewritten proposal 90% of the time...I know it's bad, don't judge me.


Hi Valerio,

 

Yes, I'm reasonably sure that freelancers, at one point or another, get tired of submitting tailor-made proposals that produce little or no return, and resort to copy-and-paste; but this is not what I'm pointing out. What I am saying is that they're not even copy-and-paste proposals (I might actually read those), but rather, a single url with nothing else. Literally, just a single link - that's all.

 

Maybe some people will hire that way, but I won't.

 

Maybe some freelancers feel good doing that, but I don't.

 

Best regards,

 

Jody PM


Jody P wrote:


Literally, just a single link - that's all.


Ok I'm not THAT lazy


Valerio S wrote:

Jody P wrote:

The solution for both sides? From the freelancer's side the solution is obvious: invest time in the proposal and customize it for the client's needs professionally. 


I am one of those freelancers that does copy and paste of a prewritten proposal 90% of the time...I know it's bad, don't judge me.


In my case, most of the time the letter is really a ruse to ask them for enough basic information that I can make an informed bid if the post or the request sounds reasonably well aligned with what I do since the clients (who generally don't like to write) often seem to post one-liners. I've got my own boilerplate reponse letter, but I'm experimenting with taking the introductory bits out; the request for more information seems to work just as well on its own. 


AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Jody, 

This is interesting. Is it meant to translate the note in your local language? 

I'm also just moving the thread to the Coffee Break section. Robot Happy

 

https://isitchristmas.com/


~ Avery
Upwork
vanesht
Community Member

That's "No" written in Urdu. Lol
a_lipsey
Community Member

Honestly, I'm tempted sometimes to burn a few connects to respond to super vague job posts with a super vague proposal or with a multitude of questions that would likely overwhelm the person who can't even be bothered to read a simple blog article on what they are asking for and what they'd need to look for to do it. As an example, I needed to hire someone in PR, so I actually Googled "how to hire a PR firm" and there was plenty of advice on how to make a good selection, things to ask about, things that I should think about before hiring the firm and what my needs are and what it was likely any firm would do. I'm not saying this is the holy grail or anything, but it would be nice if a client actually spent 30 minutes thinking about what they actually need in a project and posting a job with enough details for a FL to know if it's something they could do. I even get invites to these vague one-line job descriptions. 

 

So I guess what I mean is: all is fair in love and war and UpWork job descriptions and proposals. 

Robin, Mark is right.  Rephrase or dump the first two sentencs in your profile.


Vanesh K wrote:
That's "No" written in Urdu. Lol

Really? I took it for German.

jodypm
Community Member


Vanesh K wrote:
That's "No" written in Urdu. Lol

Per your IP.

jodypm
Community Member


Avery O wrote:

Hi Jody, 

This is interesting. Is it meant to translate the note in your local language? 

I'm also just moving the thread to the Coffee Break section. Robot Happy

 

https://isitchristmas.com/


Hi Avery,

 

Thank you for moving it to where it belongs in Coffee Break. By the way, that's probably where I belong today, too.

 

To answer your question, yes, it should as it "..determines the user's country by checking their IP against a MongoDB full of mappings of IP blocks to ISO country codes obtained from MaxMind." 1  

 

Best regards,

 

Jody PM

 

1. Mill E. isitchristmas.com 2012. Konklone.com. https://konklone.com/post/isitchristmas-dot-com-2012. Published December 24, 2012. Accessed October 4, 2019.

 

martina_plaschka
Community Member


Jody P wrote:

Dear Community,

 

Don't you love it when you post a job, as a client of course, and a few freelancers reply with a single URL and nothing more? No cover letter, no introduction, and no mention of anything in your job post.

 

Well, here's the solution: Don't respond with any words, just post the URL below right back.

 

https://isitchristmas.com/

 

Best regards,

 

Jody PM


Made me click, you jokster 🙂


Martina P wrote:

Jody P wrote:

Dear Community,

 

Don't you love it when you post a job, as a client of course, and a few freelancers reply with a single URL and nothing more? No cover letter, no introduction, and no mention of anything in your job post.

 

Well, here's the solution: Don't respond with any words, just post the URL below right back.

 

https://isitchristmas.com/

 

Best regards,

 

Jody PM


Made me click, you jokster 🙂


LOL, yes, but it really wasn't a joke. I just found that on GitHub a while back after a designer friend of mine used it to answer a job invitation (not on Upwork) asking her to design a 12 page website with a budget of $40. I just used it today for these ridiculous proposals that I get where the FL just pastes a single URL for the job and nothing else. So, I just pasted that single URL and nothing else back. Of course, after hitting 'decline.'

 

IsItChristmas was really just a silly project by a couple of devs, but it seems appropriate in this context. Also, it's definitely not Christmas.

 

Best regards,

 

Jody PM

 

You can read about that project here if you want:

https://konklone.com/post/isitchristmas-dot-com-2012

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