Connects for Voice Talent and other Creative jobs.....REALLY hurting our business?

[alishabond85]

Hi all,

I have been freelancing on UpWork as a Voiceover Artist for two years and just in the past 6 months has my business really started progressing. However, I am friutrated with the connects system. Does anyone else have this concern?

I love this community and the opportunity is has provided me, however, as Voice Talent I APPLY for jobs. as many as possible. And I do well, but just like any other casting process, we only get a small percentage of jobs we apply for. Not to mention terrible job descriptions which can lead to bidding on jobs you may or not be a fit for. All of the sudden BOOM. Your momentum is completey haulted by the fact that your connects are gone and the only way to get more is to pay $2 per job application which is definitely unreaonable. I basically booked a job this week that only paid for 40 extra connects I paid for this week.

I even upgraded awhile ago and cant wrap my head around the system of only getting ten more connects as a paying freelancer. This feels like a bad business decision for everyone. Incuding UpWork who recieves 20% of my earnings.

I mostly feel like treating every freelancers job process the same, is not a working or fair system. Thanks for listening I would love your feedback. 

Alisha J. Bond

[jmlaidlaw]

@ Alisha --

There is an excellent case to be made (in my opinion) for charging different amounts of "Connects" for different jobs, based on the supply-to-demand ratio, if nothing else. For instance, because anyone with a voice may believe that he or she is qualified to do voice-over work, there are too many people chasing after each job. Charging more connects per job might weed out the lookie-loos, to an extent,

[alishabond85]

What a great point. Thanks for the reply and support.  I just know that UpWork does have a mission to reward their top freelancers which is great!So how detrimental when it keeps their top rated freelancers in one area from bidding for jobs as a result of working hard to get jobs.... doesnt really make sense. I have been kind of on a mission about this lately.....