Boost Your Proposal to the Top of List (March 2022 Update): Questions & Feedback

[MichaelJ]

Today we’re reintroducing the boosted proposals feature with some changes. Read the announcement from James, Director of Product, here and let us know your thoughts about these updates in the comments below.

[martina_plaschka]

Upwork, you have a great system to help clients find the best freelancers. It's called JSS. Freelancers with a high JSS like it, others with a low JSS don't, because they don't understand how it works and think it's unfair. But I digress. That's a different discussion topic. 

So you don't trust your own system? 

You need to muddle it with a bidding system that only desperate newbies like because they think it will give them an advantage. That might be true. But what is the end result? Clients believing that a BOOSTED proposal equals higher qualification, which in many cases is not true and will lead to an awful client experience. 

In any case, this has all been explained in much detail, but you don't listen. We all should work on making the client experience better, right? This is the polar opposite. 

[roberty1y]

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Martina P wrote:

But what is the end result? Clients believing that a BOOSTED proposal equals higher qualification, which in many cases is not true and will lead to an awful client experience. 

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That's what I've been thinking about. In the article the OP links to, it says that freelancers in the top three boosted slots had a 37 percent higher chance of being hired. But what happened then? How did it work out for the clients who hired people who boosted their proposals? Did it turn out great for all concerned? Or did it end up a disaster, where clients were misled into thinking boosted proposals came from the best candidates, and found out to their dismay that this was by no means the case? And, if so, did they continue using the site? 

[wescowley]

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Robert Y wrote:

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But what happened then? How did it work out for the clients who hired people who boosted their proposals? Did it turn out great for all concerned? Or did it end up a disaster, where clients were misled into thinking boosted proposals came from the best candidates, and found out to their dismay that this was by no means the case? And, if so, did they continue using the site? 

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Excellent questions.

[moonraker]

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Robert Y wrote:

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Martina P wrote:

But what is the end result? Clients believing that a BOOSTED proposal equals higher qualification, which in many cases is not true and will lead to an awful client experience. 

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How did it work out for the clients who hired people who boosted their proposals?

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I was wondering the same. I see three options:

1) The stats showed it improved the clients' experience, but they chose not to tell us
2) The stats showed it worsened the clients' experience, but they chose to ignore it
3) They didn't measure client satisfaction at all

I think 1 is highly unlikely, and 2 and 3 are negligent. I can't think of a 4th option...

[the-right-writer]

Excellent points. I have requests daily for rewrites on projects butchered by an Upwork freelancer. I guarantee there is no data on your questions, nor will any be forthcoming.

Boosts are paid advertising with the freelancer continually being used to fund Upwork. Let's see that  data on completed jobs, paid outcomes, and public and private feedback. Might as well make up your own because you will never see it in reality.

[abfc1619]

Do you like this feature "Boost your proposal"? 

[paywell]

Sure.

[a_kuntsi]

This is what I was hoping for. Longtime freelancers tell what they think. Conversation.

I tried to search the previous conversation but was unsuccessful as I said.

And I was not seriously waiting for any client to come here and tell what they think. More like a rhetoric question.

True, this connects from the interview is new to me too after that long-ish sick leave I just had.

Hadn't even thought about it. Just saw notifications to appear, that I got extra connects.

Thank goodness proposals don't cost just one connect anymore.

[wescowley]

Most of my observations from the first time around still stand.

The "boosted" label is marginally better than "highly interested", but it still has the potential to confuse clients who may not understand the freelancer paid for the positioning (and yeah, maybe that's explained in the mouseover, but that assumes the client actually mouses over the badge).

Dropping the flat one connect per proposal avoids the added spam. 

But, this system still makes visibility and getting higher harder for new freelancers who don't have connects to burn and it will clutter clients' proposal lists by putting proposals at the top of their list which may (and likely will) be lower quality than the ones in the normal sort.

And, freelancers who pony up now can now tell whether the client read (or at least "interacted with") their proposal, which enables harassment by freelancers who feel they were unjustly ignored.

I'm still not seeing the point other than monetization, and this really feels like picking up nickels in front of a steamroller.

[petra_r]

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Wes C wrote:

I'm still not seeing the point other than monetizationr.

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I guess the fact they specifically appointed a "director of monetization" means they're pretty serious about that part.

[nav_designer]

Iam is so sad again. really disappointed, proposal should be bosted as per freelancer qualification, job score, and the so-called top rated plus status he earned after flashing sweats and blood, Upwork could increase more fee. but pay to win situation seems like a scam with the client.

[3cc1ece0]

actually great idea. client will receive less bids and people bid seriously.

I love it.

[petra_r]

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Puppy B wrote:

client will receive less bids

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No, they won't.Why in the world would they? They get the exact same number of bids, just 3 will be on top and not in order of merit.

[feed_my_eyes]

To be fair, it was never in order of merit, with Upwork inexplicably marking some proposals a "best match" even when they're not.

[isage]

Honestly surprised this came back. It was so bad to begin with, and now there's been two changes: a price tweak and rewording the heading.

I know UpWork has the ability to pay for connects, but it's still always felt like a safe and fair place to find work, as you're trying to convince the client of your skills and demonstrate through your profile. This just makes it pay-to-win. Yes, I know they can still see non-boosted proposals, but come on, that's not the intent here. The intent is to allow those who are willing to sink money into their connects to get seen first.

This mechanic is not a good one. The cost to boost isn't massive, no, but I refuse to believe there won't be large freelancers out there just dumping 100+ connects into a boost on a really nice job so they get seen, and hired, first.

I stop playing most games the second they turn to pay-to-win. I've stopped using other services because they become pay-to-win. UpWork, do not take that route. We're all here to make money, but come on, don't nickel and dime us so we can fight for the top few slots of a job listing.

And the bit about boosting helping land more jobs? Well, duh. That's the idea, but it only goes to prove that those that pay are more likely to get the job, rather than those who are more skilled. Not saying those boosted proposals aren't skilled people, but at the end of the day, that's not WHY they were hired.

Hopefully this gets pulled back down soon. I mean you guys already take 20% of our income for those of us who do a lot of one-off work, let's not add a popularity tax to it as well.

[m_terrazas]

You encourage us to give an opinion, as always and so that it is of no use, but little intervention is seen from anyone on the part of Upwork.
Maybe "James, Director of Product, Ads & Monetization" should show up here and defend his idea or refute our opinions, don't you think?
I don't know why an announcement is made in which you can't comment, you deviate us to a debate presented by someone who is not the one who has had the "great" idea, and in the end neither the presenter nor the ideologue appears at all.

[marc_compte]

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Maria T wrote:

Maybe "James, Director of Product, Ads & Monetization" should show up here and defend his idea or refute our opinions, don't you think?

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I'm not sure he knows how to.

[roberty1y]

Here's an idea. How about being completely honest with the clients? Each boosted proposal should be marked: "Note: This is not necessarily a more qualified candidate, only someone who paid extra to put their proposal at the top of your list. Its prominence is in no way an indication of greater suitability for the job in question".

[sourceprouk]

Absolutely. Most clients come to Upwork in the dark. They find it difficult to work out who is the best candidate for the job.

[crart]

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Robert Y wrote:

Here's an idea. How about being completely honest with the clients? Each boosted proposal should be marked: "Note: This is not necessarily a more qualified candidate, only someone who paid extra to put their proposal at the top of your list. Its prominence is in no way an indication of greater suitability for the job in question".

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That would be great but have you ever seen corpo being transparent and honest? And seeing latest "awesome changes that will help you deer **Edited for Community Guidelines** feelancers to make more money for us... errm sorry, for YOU of course!" I am sure they totally lost connection with reality of working as a freelancer and stepped far away from being website that connects clients and freelancers, instead turning into greedy money-making machine, now implementing more questionable techniques to trick people into spending more money on useless trash feeatures. I said it in another thread, I will repeat it: I am here to earn money. I am not charity. Upwork is not a charity also, of course, but come one, did they really disconnect any humanity and common sense from their directors-of-whatever? It looks like. 

[83241037]

From now onwards, I think Upwork should consider some form of Voting Method to decide on issues like this wherein the Freelancers would be able to cast their vote for or against the concept before it is finally implemented instead of asking for feedback after the implementation.

Some form of Beta Version could have been introduced for freelancers who would want to volunteer to witness the new system of Boosting Proposals. It's highly problematic to adjust to sudden spurts of changes in the system, specially for new freelancers like me.

Spending connects to boost proposals seems like some luxury hobby only the rich can play. It's similar to sponsoring bids on Freelancer.com. And I thought Upwork was better.

Plus, I faced problems while sending proposals without Boosting it. It's frustrating.

Upwork should take note of this.

[m_terrazas]

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Koyel M wrote:

From now onwards, I think Upwork should consider some form of Voting Method to decide on issues like this wherein the Freelancers would be able to cast their vote for or against the concept before it is finally implemented instead of asking for feedback after the implementation.

Some form of Beta Version could have been introduced for freelancers who would want to volunteer to witness the new system of Boosting Proposals. It's highly problematic to adjust to sudden spurts of changes in the system, specially for new freelancers like me.

Spending connects to boost proposals seems like some luxury hobby only the rich can play. It's similar to sponsoring bids on Freelancer.com. And I thought Upwork was better.

Plus, I faced problems while sending proposals without Boosting it. It's frustrating.

Upwork should take note of this.

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A test was done I think in September, not sure, we gave our opinion, bad in general, they have made a few minimal changes and they have released it.
So, you see that our opinion is not much use.

[2c724a5e · Accepted solution]

Hello Everyone,

First, we want to acknowledge the ongoing feedback you all are sharing. We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, opinions, and concerns with Boosted Proposals and want to ensure you our product teams are listening and reading every comment. 

Second, we want to reiterate that part of our mission at Upwork is to connect talent with more opportunities which is why we launched Boosted Proposals in support of that. With that in mind, we know there are lingering questions and we want to take this opportunity to be transparent on the value of Boosted Proposals to freelancers and clients, and also answer a few of the recurring questions/themes. 

Why Boosted Proposals? We created Boosted Proposals as an opportunity for freelancers to show a strong interest in jobs they feel they are the best fit for. Additionally, Boosted Proposals increases the chances of getting noticed and receiving their desired rate. 

What is the true value for freelancers and clients? Boosted Proposals provides an additional lever for freelancers to pull when submitting a proposal without removing existing features (JSS, Top-rated, etc.)  that signal success. Freelancers with a Boosted Proposal have more control over their outcomes while clients gain insight on who has a strong desire for a job. Additionally, boosting improves a freelancer’s chances of being hired by 43%, this means that a freelancer can use the feature as a way to secure the same amount of work they did before, but lower their proposal volume, saving their time and effort.

Based on the test, it appeared there was a lot of negative feedback in the Community, how did you decide to move forward with Boosted Proposals? We collected feedback via multiple channels and methods within our testing, including tracking hire rates and speaking directly with freelancers and clients—this evidence fueled the team to move forward with this feature. 

We hope this addresses some concerns regarding Boosted Proposals and the Upwork team always encourages feedback as we look to make Upwork The World’s work marketplace. 

Best,

Christopher

Content Program Manager, Community

[moonraker]

You talk about hiring rates etc.

But surely they key metric is how it affects client satisfaction? Personally, I want as many of them as possible to keep on pumping money into the system, and they're not going to do that if they're mislead into hiring the wrong people.

[m_terrazas]

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Christopher F wrote:

Hello Everyone,

First, we want to acknowledge the ongoing feedback you all are sharing. We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, opinions, and concerns with Boosted Proposals and want to ensure you our product teams are listening and reading every comment. 

Second, we want to reiterate that part of our mission at Upwork is to connect talent with more opportunities which is why we launched Boosted Proposals in support of that. With that in mind, we know there are lingering questions and we want to take this opportunity to be transparent on the value of Boosted Proposals to freelancers and clients, and also answer a few of the recurring questions/themes. 

There are many opportunities, so that doesn't seem like a reason to launch it. If you want opportunities, you search the job listing and send proposals (although I must admit that right now with so much spam/sacm it becomes a bit arduous)

Why Boosted Proposals? We created Boosted Proposals as an opportunity for freelancers to show a strong interest in jobs they feel they are the best fit for. Additionally, Boosted Proposals increases the chances of getting noticed and receiving their desired rate.

It is assumed that ALL of us who send proposals are really interested in the work and want to receive the desired rate.
To get noticed, even if you're not the best for the job, that's what it will do. 

What is the true value for freelancers and clients? Boosted Proposals provides an additional lever for freelancers to pull when submitting a proposal without removing existing features (JSS, Top-rated, etc.)  that signal success. Freelancers with a Boosted Proposal have more control over their outcomes while clients gain insight on who has a strong desire for a job. Additionally, boosting improves a freelancer’s chances of being hired by 43%, this means that a freelancer can use the feature as a way to secure the same amount of work they did before, but lower their proposal volume, saving their time and effort.

This is bad. I asked it back in the day and you confirm it. Those in the top 3 positions are more likely to be hired (even at the cost of poor customer experience) than those with merit of their own that don't want to pay..
And see if it enters your head. ALL of us at Upwork have "a strong desire for a job". Do you think we're here to hang out?
Also, I can't give you statistics, most of the freelancers who praised the test were first-time freelancers with hardly any jobs, and the ones they liked the most was that all proposals cost 1 connect. Let's not fool ourselves.

Based on the test, it appeared there was a lot of negative feedback in the Community, how did you decide to move forward with Boosted Proposals? We collected feedback via multiple channels and methods within our testing, including tracking hire rates and speaking directly with freelancers and clients—this evidence fueled the team to move forward with this feature. 

I really wish I could see that feedback.

We hope this addresses some concerns regarding Boosted Proposals and the Upwork team always encourages feedback as we look to make Upwork The World’s work marketplace. 

Well, I think you're not achieving it. Not only for this.

Best,

Christopher

Content Program Manager, Community

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First of all, why is this marked as a solution? They are just some answers to just a few questions. I think it gives for more discussion.

Best,

María

Freelancer a little fed up.

[d_samuel_udokpok]

This is really the highest form of selfishness and greed from Upwork. They ignored the groaning of freelancers and went ahead to actually implement the boosted proposal thing. I've always said this and I'll keep saying it, Upwork does not have the freelancers in mind. They only care about the 20%, 10%, and 5% they're getting from freelancers. They're just after the money. They want freelancers to keep spending their money connects, isn't that selfishness.

Sometimes ago, a client threaten to drop negative feedback for me if I went ahead to dispute the contract we had and that there's nothing I'll do to remove the negative feedback. I went ahead and disputed the contract, the client dropped the negative feedback as promised. Just to let you know Upwork doesn't care, after the resolution of the disputes, Upwork reduced my JSS from 96% to 61% and I even informed the support team of the threat, they said they can't do anything. Truly Upwork really doesn't care about freelancers. 

The re-introduction of boosted proposals says a lot about Upwork negligence of freelancers' opinion. What we think and do really doesn't matter to them as long as we keep giving them the percentage they gets after each weekly logs and contracts.  

It's truly sad.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Christopher F wrote:

Freelancers with a Boosted Proposal have more control over their outcomes while clients gain insight on who has a strong desire for a job. Additionally, boosting improves a freelancer’s chances of being hired by 43%, this means that a freelancer can use the feature as a way to secure the same amount of work they did before, but lower their proposal volume, saving their time and effort.

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Okay, but that was when Upwork was intentionally misleading clients into thinking that the top three proposals were from freelancers who were more interested in the job than the other freelancers. Now that it's changed to "Boosted" - which is a fairer term, though not as accurate as simply saying "Ad" - it will be interesting to see whether this percentage is still as high. 

And if you really want to monetize this thing - which I have no problem with, BTW - then it doesn't make sense to return connects when clients don't engage with the proposal, or to return the difference in connects if other freelancers don't boost by a similar amount of connects as you, or all of those other exceptions and rules that I've already forgotten. Just go all-in and be done with it - it's a gamble, and if freelancers do really, really want the job, then they'll be willing to risk their connects and not get refunds. Plus you're going to create a customer service nightmare for yourselves - "Where are my refunded connects?" - whenever freelancers boost and don't get hired, given all the confusing information about when connects are due back, and when they're not. (I'm not even clear on how a client "engaging with" a proposal is defined in the first place?)

And of course, the easiest way for Upwork to make money from connects is to STOP GIVING FREE CONNECTS FOR INTERVIEWS. Whoever came up with that stupid idea seriously underestimated the level of dishonesty among Upwork freelancers. We're going to see an avalanche of fake jobs being posted so that freelancers can top up their free connects. Also, instead of flagging scam jobs, freelancers are actually applying to them so that they can get free connects - the system is truly messed up.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Christine,

Thanks for sharing your feedback and suggestions. 

We define eligible interactions for a refund and they include:

• The client opens your proposal
• The client sends an offer to you
• The client shortlists your proposal
• The client messages you
• The client archives your proposal
• The client declines your proposal
  

All the eligible refunds are issued after the auction is closed (after seven days or after the first hire.)

[7f73cc64]

It seems like the Upwork team took your criticism about free connects for interviews won and recently did something about it. Thank you for your recommendation! 

[cfb24f2b]

please find work for me    

[sourceprouk]

Why is Upwork encouraging us to spend our connects quickly, now?
Now I see many job postings that have a price of 6 connects, then at the bottom Upwork encourages us to boost your proposal spending up to 15 connects in total, like if you do not boost your proposal, it will be ignored. 

[m_terrazas]

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Federico D wrote:

Why is Upwork encouraging us to spend our connects quickly, now?
Now I see many job postings that have a price of 6 connects, then at the bottom Upwork encourages us to boost your proposal spending up to 15 connects in total, like if you do not boost your proposal, it will be ignored. 

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I read it somewhere else too. I haven't seen that. In fact, the latest proposals that I have presented are for 2 or 4 connects.
The issue of boost is already a personal matter. I don't use it, for now, so I keep spending the same.

[nikolas79]

Hello, don't really agree this feature will be helpful to anyone,

I get Upwork needs to make revenue. Since we're doing this boosting proposal business,

how many of you out there think that Upwork should be a little more transparent with this matter and that we freelancers should see exactly what we are buying and should be informed where our proposal ranks in the list?

Possibly this info could be read within our proposals, of course only after we have submitted a proposal.

[sourceprouk]

Exactly

[crart]

I don't believe any corpo will be ever transparent with their ways to earn more money.

[bace23f2]

Hello community.
I want to ask about "Boost Proposals".

If I Boost Proposal by using more connects, if I can't get that job whats gone on?

Can I get my wasted connects back?
or if I want to get back my wasted connects without job, Should I pay for that?

Can you tell me how to do that? I saw discription video but I still I want to know about more.

I'm sorry if I bothered you. 😊

Have a good day

[NikolaS]

Hi Pmd,

If during the auction you are outbid, your proposal will no longer be shown as boosted (it will still be visible, just lower on the list). Also, if you are outbid and your boosted proposal didn’t lead to an eligible interaction, we’ll only charge you the standard number of Connects required to submit a proposal. If it led to an eligible interaction with the client while you were boosted, you will be charged the Connects you bid.

Refunds are issued if:

• You didn’t bid enough to make the top three spots at all. You’ll be refunded the amount of Connects you boosted, but not the amount of Connects it cost to submit a proposal.
• You earned a boosted spot temporarily, but the client never interacted with your proposal and you were bumped out of the boosted spot before the auction closed. You’ll be refunded the amount of Connects you boosted, but not the amount of Connects it cost to submit a proposal. 
• Your bid was above the third highest bidder. We’ll only charge you the lowest of the top three bidders and refund the rest. For example, you bid 10 Connects and the next highest bids are 8 and 7. All three of you will only pay 7 Connects to have your proposal promoted, meaning you’ll be refunded the 3 extra Connects you bid. This will display as a refund of the full amount you bid to boost (10) and then a charge of what you owe in the end (7). 

You can find more information in this help article. 

[marc_compte]

Hello Christopher,

If you encourage feedback, this is mine. I think this does not address people's concerns. Not mine and not by a long shot. It makes it worse.

Your only metric seems to be the chances of being hired when spending more money on proposals. We already heard that. This is bad.

Essentially, you are saying that non-boosting a proposal has 43% fewer chances of being accepted. And, to be clear, you are telling me that my choices are a) spend more to get the same amount of job or b) look for job somewhere else.

Do you have any other metric? More important than knowing how many were hired is klnowing how many of the boosted (and accepted) proposals ended up in a successful project or a long-term relationship and how this increased or decreased in relation to the percentage before the feature.

To me, your single-metric argumentation makes the problem more evident and increases my concerns even more. Basing such an important decision on a single, and mostly irrelevant, metric is not an argumentation, it sounds like an excuse.

Best,

Marc

PS: Your last point "we talked to other people and they told us this is great" is not a very valid argument, unless it is followed up by some metric and stats. Who told you it is great? are they freelancers? do they have a long experience in Upwork? what is their JSS? Your arguments don't sound very solid, to be honest.

[gilbert-phyllis]

Just chiming in for emphasis re. points others have made...

You're focusing on the wrong metric. When will UW grasp that the key issue is not likelihood to get hired, it's likelihood to delight the client. Only inexperienced FLs -- and, evidently, UW managers with no freelance experience of their own -- think the most important thing is to get hired. The most important thing is to delight the client, so they hire you again, keep using the platform, and tell their friends. Obviously, you can't delight a client until you get hired BUT getting hired for a job you're unqualified to do or one that is simply a poor fit, winds up being worse than not being hired at all, for the FL and for the platform.

I have no problem with UW making money. I want UW to turn a profit and stay in business and if the company needs to modify its business model in order to do that, I'll do my best to adapt to the changes so I can continue making money here, too. So, go ahead and figure out what you need to do and for crying out loud, stop trying to blow smoke up our skirts about making changes for the sake of FLs. You should be making changes for the sake of the platform. 

[m1mehta]

Since the inception of Proposal Boost, I am noticing that the number of open jobs have been reduced to literally zero. I am getting a dry run for my Proposal, in spite of boosting my proposals for a couple of connects. Has anybody noticed that? Upwork must make this a better place, specailly for those who spend hours to create a customized proposal. Very disappointed with the boost proposal idea. Anyone?