Availability Badge is Now Available to All Talent: Feedback and Questions.

[kochubei_valeria]

The testing period has ended and the availability badge is now available to all talent!

For more information about the feature, please see this announcement and let us know in the comments below if you have any questions or feedback.

[mipaparazzi]

I checked out my profile and I saw a strange feature saying I can turn on my availability using connects, my worry is this

1) How is spending money on these features ever going to bring ROI

2) Is UW just trying to find new ways to make professional service providers pay more even after the service fees

3) How's the UW trying to bring clients to its platform 

[aocumen]

Hi Fortune, 

A common problem for clients involves sending invites to freelancers who are not available for new projects. The availability badge allows freelancers to signal to clients that they are actively seeking new work. As a freelancer, turning on the availability badge is a way to use your Connects to control your workflow, manage your time, and find new projects. While we will draw some revenue, this badge is about giving you a way to stand out when you are ready for more projects. You may choose to use Connects to add the badge for a few days or to submit a proposal or two. 

I don't have specific information about how Upwork is trying to bring new clients to the platform. However, our teams continue to evolve and improve our marketing strategies to attract the right client to the Upwork marketplace. 

[mandaliya-pooja]

Why we use our connects for just a bedge. It is just waste of connects and money. Instaed of charging the connects Upwork should allow this to free of any type of charges. Recently I reviewd my statstics and saw that my profile views are 25+ per week but because of these badge maybe no clinet connected me. This is not fair it should not chargable not even via connects. You guys are also charging the service charge 20%, 10% and 5% is it not enough for you? I think community should raise a voice agains this. 

[crart]

---

Pooja M wrote:

 I think community should raise a voice agains this. 

---

We do. It falls on deaf ears as you can see by lack of any dialogue, only pushing new fantasy stuff live. I'm sure they have a good laugh, wonder how wide they will laugh when they count their loses at the end of the year.

[da5e5f70]

I fully agree with Pooja M.

[numbsain]

"this badge is about giving you a way to stand out when you are ready for more projects. You may choose to use Connects to add the badge for a few days or to submit a proposal or two." 

If everyone has the badge nobody stands out now do they. Admit they are just nickel and diming us. we already had the option to say we're not available. This makes no logical sense as anything but a new way to charge us more. Boosted proposals aren't good because you show the proposal is boosted which makes the freelancer look desperate. Same as removing feedback and then putting "this feedback has been removed" completely defeats the purpose because the client will assume the worst. Who benefits from telling everyone we removed the feedback? There will always be one bad client every so often so only excessive removed feedback means your doing something wrong. Seasoned pros don't need that hanging over our heads because we know our abilities, and if the client is reasonable, we deliver great work every time. i know i'm jumping around but it's all part of the same attitude that freelancers all need to be treated like the lowest common denominator. 

A little bit of software to spot telegram invitations and a credit card check to weed out the scammer clients would be a better way to increase revenue for UW and it's freelancers.

[studiohelios]

It is just a new feature to help Upwork **Edited for Community Guidelines** during these tough times. 

[inro]

What a bad idea to sell active status! You say you help freelancers from Ukraine? Why don't you reduce your commission - that would be a real help. Getting paid 5 days faster is great if the work is hourly.
And two - that is, we have to pay not only for the answer to the project (connections), but also the connections for the "active" status ??? Or did I misunderstand?

[feed_my_eyes]

You don't have to pay for that; it doesn't affect you when you're sending proposals. The only possible effect is in the search results, and most people don't rotate to the top of the list very often anyway.

[inro]

Thank you🙂

[02fba6ef]

I actually moved up in search, once I turned off that badge after 6 of my connects were deducted, which I initially didn't understand as I was a new sign up.

[martina_plaschka]

Nobody needs to pay for the available now status. I would never use it, I believe it looks bad on a profile. 

[franbevanda]

Hey there, I just saw for the first time availability badge.

Is it worth it ?

[tagrendy]

I tried it, didn't make much difference to me.

[franbevanda]

I will try for a week also to see what happens.

Thanks for a reply !

[darrenwall74]

Did you trial the badge for a week? What was the result?

[avishekbhardwaj4]

Hi .. there is an update on upwork .. availabity badge .. i don't like and i don't want to be in that system .. what kind of system is that .. it is totally freak condition apply ... what for those who don't want this system ?  you have to charge for this in terms of connect for your availabilty ..  Can you please help i don't want this type impose things .. please that will ruined 

[aocumen]

Hi Avishek, 

This badge is a new way to let potential clients know you are ready for new projects. You'll be able to use Connects to add a blue availability badge to your profile, which will also be visible to clients who find you in search results. Don't worry; if you are not ready to use the badge, you don't have to do anything on your end but ignore it for now. 

[aafa4a2f]

This is clearly rubbish. We're applying for the job and thus we're available. This is just a way for up work to get even more money. Lying and saying it's "available to all talent" and acting as if it doesn't cost money to do so is ridiculous. 

[numbsain]

"You'll be able to use connects..." Oh boy, I was trying to figure out how I could use more connects and voila! Excuse my sarcasm, but this is not helping anyone

[hasan_tasnimul]

Today I got the Availability Badge. I don't want to turn on this badge. If I don't turn it on, will it stop finding invitations? And will it have any impact on the job proposal?

[tagrendy]

Without Availability Badge on, you will still get invitations. The availability badge is simply showing to clients that you're available for work right now, it is useful for clients who want to hire right away or quickly, but it doesn't exclude you from search results.

[aocumen]

Hi Tasnimul, 

If you find that the badge is not useful to your business at any time, feel free to turn it off. The availability badge does not impact where you appear in search results. This badge is a new way for you to let potential clients know you are ready for new projects. You can find more information here.

[06a5f600]

Why does Upwork charge for turn on this batch. I also received it yesterday. 

[studiohelios]

Because they need more money, they have no new clients so they have to get it from us freelancers

[martina_plaschka]

Not because I'm going to use it, ever. I am never "available now". To me, it looks a bit cheap on a profile, a client might think that the freelancer will answer instantenously, and be disappointed if he doesn't, creating a false expectation. Well, maybe the freelancers who activate it will answer in a millisecond, IDK.

But the real reason why I like it is: it's a complicated and confusing set-up where the price for the badge can change, and the freelancer can put (bid) connects on it, can limit the number of connects, can fiddle with the numbers, can get frustrated why it costs X connects this week and Y connects the next, in short - my hope is the people who will be using it will be so distracted by the complexity of this feature that they forget all about the idea of bidding connects on jobs. That would be great!

[hglewis]

I love how we Business Owners are going to jump at the chance...🤣🤣🤣

NOT!!!

[dharmadhikarip68]

This feature is time consuming.  It will take my extra time as well as connects. 

[51b0a863]

Hello Hannah and UpWork team,

I have just "received" this Available Now badge on my profile (or I might just realized it), and it's status is off by system now, which make me understand why I didn't receive any invitations for the last 2 months. Unusual.

I am one of the freelancers who are not agree to this (feature??). And reading that it was only a beta-trial-version for small group (article on July 2021), and will be reviewed by UpWork depend on freelancers' feedback, now I'm giving my feedback that I am totally not agree with this.

Some freelancers commented that it is not a supportive feature or helping them, it is a form of greed since UpWork has already cut 20% and receive our "connects payments", and once again I'm totally agree to those comments.

Please abort the mission of "available-now-badge", if you guys in UpWork team really listen to Freelancers' feedback. And thank you very much to all the UpWork team who spend their time to read and try to understand this.

Best Regards,

Candra

[numbsain]

It was helping the few who had it at first so they gave it good feedback. Upwork took that  to mean give it to everyone at which point it no longer works obviously. Someone is asleep at the wheel.

[davydkoff]

There are some points that should be corrected in the article:

During testing, the price will not change more than once per week.
(no more testing)

To turn the availability badge on:
Go to Profile Settings > Edit Profile > Click the icon next to “Availability badge”.
(The badge is not there, it's in the profile now)

[kochubei_valeria]

Thanks for flagging that, Ilia. We've corrected that information.

[d01436f5]

Today in my feed there is an Availability Badge

I saw this first time. Can someone explain this? and there is maximum connects (>6)

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Devika,

You can turn the availability badge on and off as needed to signal when you're ready to take on new clients. As you begin to build a steady stream of work on your terms, you'll find that you can create your ideal work schedule. To learn more about this, check out this help article. Thank you.

[d01436f5]

how many connects should I add, what is maximum connects meaning, 

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Devika,

Please refer to the guide above to learn more about the badge and feel free to add as many Connects as you would like. Thank you.

[d01436f5]

what is the opportunity of adding more connects

[ed38eb1b]

Hi, My name is Robert, Could you please help me with availability badges. I do not understand why, but my number of connects decreases even if I have not sent any proposals and I suppose the reason is availability badges. Is it possible to turn it off?

Thank you in advance.

[ericaandrews]

They already have an article explaining the 'connects' cost and how to turn the badge on and off

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403673074707-Availability-Badge