Solved: Re: JSS recovery or time to leave

hullaba · ‎10-05-2018

Hello creatives. Really need an advice from those who had JSS recovery experience.
Common story, score dropped because of whatever to 88%.

The question is: does it make sense to recover it or it’s time to leave?
I mean it seems really time consuming for scanty outcome. Freelance is not a part time job for me and if it will take months of 5$ jobs to climb back it is hardly worth it. Easier to study new skill ><

Those who are from design and illustration field who had JSS dropped, could you please share your experience?

barada00 · ‎10-06-2018

Hello Liliia,

Don't do $5 jobs after you have the first review which means don't do them ever again unless you are invited and it will take 5-10 minutes to complete. I had an account with Elance and around 40 completed jobs there. I didn't work for more than 2 years so when I came back to the merged site (Upwork) I had no JSS and no rising talent (they didn't give that to people who had past work then) My first 2 jobs were $5 for 5 minutes second of which was an invite from the same client (Autotrace signature and fix problems if any) I won't take your time explaining my own history, here is what I think about your problem:

1-Your JSS will be recovered with just 1 or 2 jobs because you don't have many jobs.

2-Graphic design is not a niche but you hit a good vein there with that word. I made "3D crypto coins" for a couple of clients; you can find "3D CryptoCoin" in the title of my profile. That's a niche. "Medical Presentations" is a niche. "Real Estate Graphics" is a niche.

3-Don't ever "accept the job offer" until you have all the facts and materials.

4-You don't need manual time allowed but use time tracker as soon as you get the job at least for 10 minutes.

5-You worked with a client and think they might give a bad rating... Try not to let them close the contract. Find some kind way to close the contract yourself or keep it open. If they close the contract they have to give rating. If you close it they might not.

6-Stay away from cheap clients and countries where wages are low. Client search for freelancers has a listed price filter which cuts at $30. Since your earnings are private increase your rate to $30 so you can be excluded from lowball search results.

7-There is no better alternative to Upwork at the moment. Recover your JSS and don't leave.

View solution in original post

petra_r · ‎10-05-2018

@Liliia C wrote:

Common story, score dropped because of whatever to 88%.

The "Whatever" looks like a cancelled / refunded or otherwise unsuccessful contract that ended without any payment, or has sat around idle without ever leading to earnings but is still open, yes?

@Liliia C wrote:
The question is: does it make sense to recover it or it’s time to leave?
I mean it seems really time consuming for scanty outcome. Freelance is not a part time job for me and if it will take months of 5$ jobs to climb back it is hardly worth it.

With less than 10 completed contracts just two great outcomes should pop you abover the magic 90% mark again.

There is also no need to do "months of $ 5 jobs!"

hullaba · ‎10-06-2018

Petra R wrote:
The "Whatever" looks like a cancelled / refunded or otherwise unsuccessful contract that ended without any payment, or has sat around idle without ever leading to earnings but is still open, yes?

Oh, thank you asked! )) just wanted to keep readers from yelling)
Yes, there was cancelled contract or my unavailability for about 10 days.
I bet on contract.

It was considering marketing communications and design - two connected but crucially different types of work.
The first is really big job that can not be logged by time tracker.
In fact client needed only design and “was just curious what creative I will come up with”.

So after two working days and weekend, when preparation part was already done, he closed the contract. The reason was “I found publisher who will do design for me and I do not see time logged”.

My mistakes:
did not pay attention on “manual time not allowed” and accepted the offer,

was in illusion that client understands the requested service,

did not guessed before accepting the offer that he needed design only.

Why I am telling all this.

20% is a lot for such level of service.

Freelancers pay being in the weakest position and system allows it.

Reputation is extremely fragile. But I can not be secured from clients who are, to put it mildly, uncertain about services they need and who just ok to experiment with freelancers.

Efforts expended do not convert to income as time spent on clarifying and guessing is not counted.

I can relate it to job routine and be totally ok with it, if only it wouldn’t be so hard to recover.

@Petra R wrote:
With less than 10 completed contracts just two great outcomes should pop you abover the magic 90% mark again.
There is also no need to do "months of $ 5 jobs!"

Design field is overloaded so it seems to me it is harder to recover your JSS in the niche. And no guarantees that it will not drop again. So maybe it is reasonable to use that time and efforts to boost profile on alternative platform.

That is why I am very very interested in creative’s experience. How do they recover, hold score and avoid troubles.

barada00 · ‎10-06-2018

Hello Liliia,

Don't do $5 jobs after you have the first review which means don't do them ever again unless you are invited and it will take 5-10 minutes to complete. I had an account with Elance and around 40 completed jobs there. I didn't work for more than 2 years so when I came back to the merged site (Upwork) I had no JSS and no rising talent (they didn't give that to people who had past work then) My first 2 jobs were $5 for 5 minutes second of which was an invite from the same client (Autotrace signature and fix problems if any) I won't take your time explaining my own history, here is what I think about your problem:

1-Your JSS will be recovered with just 1 or 2 jobs because you don't have many jobs.

2-Graphic design is not a niche but you hit a good vein there with that word. I made "3D crypto coins" for a couple of clients; you can find "3D CryptoCoin" in the title of my profile. That's a niche. "Medical Presentations" is a niche. "Real Estate Graphics" is a niche.

3-Don't ever "accept the job offer" until you have all the facts and materials.

4-You don't need manual time allowed but use time tracker as soon as you get the job at least for 10 minutes.

5-You worked with a client and think they might give a bad rating... Try not to let them close the contract. Find some kind way to close the contract yourself or keep it open. If they close the contract they have to give rating. If you close it they might not.

6-Stay away from cheap clients and countries where wages are low. Client search for freelancers has a listed price filter which cuts at $30. Since your earnings are private increase your rate to $30 so you can be excluded from lowball search results.

7-There is no better alternative to Upwork at the moment. Recover your JSS and don't leave.

hullaba · ‎10-06-2018

Just sooo grateful Baris!

Every point should be placed on the most visible for freelancers place)

Yes "niche" is wrong word, "field" would be more suitable)

Thank you much!

barada00 · ‎10-06-2018

You're welcome. About niche, to find new clients if you have a niche written on your title, it is easier to get jobs from clients looking for that particular niche. If there is some area or industry (like pharma or real estate, etc.) you feel comfortable or just plain like, take that to your title so that when clients search for those words they can find and invite you. (Also smaller specializations like "manga" or "corporate report") You can also add tags or keywords to the end of your profile for the Upwork search engine.

hullaba · ‎10-06-2018

Thanks Baris!

Yes, I already see that I need to fill my title with something specific. It is strange a bit, cause advertising and graphic design consider solving different tasks for various businesses. But the system requires, so will find out where to narrow.