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prestonhunter
Community Member

The Upwork 10-Year Challenge

This thread was inspired by some recent discussions about hiding earnngs.

 

I was talking to a friend and fellow freelancer who agreed with me that it doesn't make sense to hide earnings out of some misplaced sense of embarrasent over lower past hourly rates.

 

He agreed with me that freelancers shouldn't hide earnings, because every job is worth doing.

 

My earnings are public. I started out earning less than I do now. This doesn't bother me, and it doesn't seem to bother potential clients:

 

Screen Shot 2019-02-28 at 6.05.20 PM.png

Anyone who wants to can click to my profile, and see my earliest jobs, as well as look at how much I earn currently.

 

My friend even wanted me to post HIS earnings from ten years ago, when he earned $5.56 an hour.

 

2009-Upwork.PNG

Compare that to how much he earns  **Edited for Community Guidelines**

19 REPLIES 19
grafixwiz
Community Member

The job was to insert a photo of a young female team player into the team group photo.  She couldn't be there for the photoshoot.  I thought I did an excellent job, but DRAT, I can't find those photos now.

summerhill
Community Member

My first Upwork jobMy first Upwork job

petra_r
Community Member


Preston H wrote:

 

 

Screen Shot 2019-02-28 at 6.05.20 PM.png


Threadjack warning on: It always puzzled me what possessed you to translate into Japanese..... Threadjack warning off.

re: "It always puzzled me what possessed you to translate into Japanese..."

 

This is a totally legitimate question.

 

I am not a translator. I don't speak Japanese.

 

On this project, I was working with a native Japanese speaker - a person who also speaks fluent English and has a bachelor's degree in linguistics. I was the person with technical expertise about computer terms, who is also a native English speaker. It was a joint effort.

 

So yes... that job listing is easily misundestood.

martina_plaschka
Community Member

Glad you posted this, because since I've been here, I've been wondering about the hiding of the earnings. 

Every time I see a freelancer profile with hidden earnings, I wonder what he has to hide. Now if a client is looking for a freelancer with experience, and he puts in earnings in the filter, say over 1000 - do freelancers with hidden earnings even come up in the search?

Also: if the client has a project worth 500 USD, he will be looking for freelancers that have projects in this range. He does not want freelancers with 5 USD jobs, and he does not want somebody who has only 20K USD jobs. So is this not a missed marketing tool if the client can't find the project range he is looking for?


Martina P wrote:

Now if a client is looking for a freelancer with experience, and he puts in earnings in the filter, say over 1000 - do freelancers with hidden earnings even come up in the search?


No, they don't.


Petra R wrote:

Martina P wrote:

Now if a client is looking for a freelancer with experience, and he puts in earnings in the filter, say over 1000 - do freelancers with hidden earnings even come up in the search?


No, they don't.


So they will appear in searches for freelancers with 0 earnings, when cheap clients look for naive newbies... 


Martina P wrote:

Petra R wrote:

Martina P wrote:

Now if a client is looking for a freelancer with experience, and he puts in earnings in the filter, say over 1000 - do freelancers with hidden earnings even come up in the search?


No, they don't.


So they will appear in searches for freelancers with 0 earnings, when cheap clients look for naive newbies... 


No, in searches where an earnings filter is set, any earnings filter, they do not appear at all.

purplepony
Community Member

IMO it doesn't make any sense at all to hide earnings for any reason---never has and never will.


Pat M wrote:

IMO it doesn't make any sense at all to hide earnings for any reason---never has and never will.


Totally agree. Still trying to wrap my mind around why people ever would do that. 

re: "Still trying to wrap my mind around why people ever would do that."

 

Well, thinking back on the posts I have seen from freelancers who want to hide their earnings, one common theme I have seen is that they worry that they used to work for lower rates, and they don't want clients to ask them to work for those same rates.

 

But it just hasn't been my experience that this is a problem. Maybe because my rates went up gradually?

 

For what it is worth, it is not reasonable for a client to look at a freelancer's OLD rates and ask them to work for those older rates when the freelancer clearly has a higher posted rate on their profile, and is clearly working for higher rates now.

 

How much does that ACTUALLY happen (in which case, a freelancer can simply say no), versus how much is this just something some freelancers are worried (unnecessarily) about?

lysis10
Community Member

I think the more money you make on Upwork, the more attractive you are to the ballers. I mean, if you're making, let's say, $100k/year on Upwork, you're probably not gonna lease out your profile to some guy in China for $10 and you probably take your profile seriously enough where defrauding clients isn't worth it, so I feel like you give better clients a sense of security.

 

I would never hide my earnings. I've had a few people comment on my earnings and it's one reason they contacted me. I think you're hurting your ability to make money by hiding them.

 

But, like, whatever man if that's what people want to do, idc.

browersr
Community Member

I look at this another way. I have always cringed a bit when I see the details of my earnings on my profile. This has absolutely nothing to do with new clients, negotiations, etc. This has everything to do with the fact that I feel that some things are a private matter. Whether that is salary at an FTE gig or earnings on UW. I don't really think they are anyone's business. I also come from the corporate world where again these things are (or should be with the exception of SEC type filings) private including how much my contractors are making. Outside of this kind of business, these financial measures are private for the majority of people. I grant you with the advent of "big data" these things are less and less private and perhaps there is a generational aspect to this as well. Everything is shared today but as I was growing up, that wasn't the case. I have come to terms with it from a UW perspective. I have more important things to concentrate on, but that doesn't mean I am a big fan of this level of financial transparency.

Scott:

Thank you for providing your perspective about this.

 

Obviously there are clear differences of opinion on this topic.

iaabraham
Community Member

I want to be able to hide my earnings at various times for reasons that have nothing to do with my work or potential clients (personal/financial reasons that involve people being able to see what I earn online). But never knew what Petra pointed out -- that people who hide their earnings don't even show up in earning-specified search. (So maybe it's a good thing I decided not to waste $10/month?) I wish Upwork had mentioned that when they introduced paid membership and the ability to hide earnings.

 

Anyway, since we're going back in time, here's mine (from Elance -- not even 5 stars for a good deal Cat Sad):

 

low rate 8.png

Ahhh, it feels so good to say I earn almost 20x what I started at. But these days I charge per value and not per hour, unless it's "busy" work. 

 

I wouldn't hide earnings because when clients see my past earnings they know I'm serious about constantly improving and delivering more and more value through my "work". 

I really don't care if clients or other freelancers see my earnings. My first job here was for $5, and my first hourly rate contract was for $16.

 

I never had a client comment on the rates I work for, but some has commented on the long term contracts, which are obviously big project. These things seem to make them trust me more, so I only see it as a positive.

 

But, the fact that anyone can check my profile to see how much I earn is not something I like. Freelancers and clients are fine, but other random people who knows me that just want to see how much money I make I weird.

________________________
Freelancing is a gamble - To win you need skill, luck and a strategy

re: "But, the fact that anyone can check my profile to see how much I earn is not something I like. Freelancers and clients are fine, but other random people who knows me that just want to see how much money I make I weird."

 

I have absolutely no way of knowing what other's people experiences are.

 

But for me, I don't think anybody I know - even among those those who I specifically explain about my work on Upwork to - have ever looked at my earnings, or even had any interest in doing so. Friends, family, relataives, neighbors, people at church, etc... I seriously doubt any of them have ever tried to see any aspect of my Upwork information, including earnings.

 

I don't doubt that it could be different in other parts of the world. But people around here seem very unintersted in Upwork.

"But, the fact that anyone can check my profile to see how much I earn is not something I like. Freelancers and clients are fine, but other random people who knows me that just want to see how much money I make I weird."

 

Eve ... mightn't the profile visibility setting of Only Upwork users --> "Only Upwork Users – Only logged-in Upwork members can find your profile and it’s hidden from search engines." help alleviate your heebeejeebies in that regard?

 

Someone who really really wants to see your profile could always create an account of their own and hope they get approved and then view your profile, but that's a lot of hoops for those who are just curious. :0)

 

2019-03-20_12-00-36.jpg

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211060298-Set-Your-Profile-Visibility

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