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kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Increasing Transparency in Boosted Proposals

Our team recently launched a test to increase transparency around bidding in Boosted Proposals to help you make a more informed decision around spending Connects.

Check out the product update about this test here and let us know your thoughts about this update in the comments below.

~ Valeria
Upwork
878 REPLIES 878

That's a great, well documented reply Bradley, thank you very much.
Personnally, I am a freelancer, an agency owner and a client on Upwork.
As I know how the system works, as a client, I never make my job proposals public but always look for the best freelancers and invite them to respond.
So, with me there won't be any boost implied and I will discuss with all the freelancers I invited. 
But I am not sure a lot of clients behave like me.
As a freelancer, I am really against this Boost feature as it doesn't help at all, and according to my stats, boosting or not boosting doesn't make any difference to my chances, I get as more views and jobs from organic as with boosted, so instead of burning my connects, i just never use the boost feature.
Thank you again for your contribution
I hope you stay on Upwork though!

4c5b9f71
Community Member

Your a breath of fresh air Gulsen, would love to habe a client like you. 

 

Thank you for writing in too, agree with what you say. 

I had a long term client for 3 and a half years, they ended the contract for reasons that weren't anyone's fault. Scoring new clients has been impossible, and I mean impossible. I even lost my rising talent and top freelancer badges. Of the currently 28 proposals I've sent, only two clients have seen my profile and responded. I have interviewed with one of them and sadly wasn't hired, but it's ridiculous that I get absolutely no profile views, even jobs that have less than 10 proposals.

And also the clients that post jobs and then disappear and if you go to the job post it says they haven't seen it in almost a month but haven't hired anyone either. I don't know, the whole thing is bad.

4c5b9f71
Community Member

Ok I been seeing the same thing. 

 

Thank you for sharing I was wondering about this. 

 

In the real world basic proposal definatly work in getting me a reply yes we want to go with you or a no I sorry. 

 

I spent all 64 connects sorting to clients a personalize proposal with a fixes cost on there jobs and did not hear a peep. 

 

Can you message me penalty I just want to go over some similarities in our experience because o need to make a decision about this platform. 

 

Thank you Yaiza for writing

Thanks for writing in, this is definatly an eye opener 

mudasser4238
Community Member

Its a very bad feature from @upwork I am not getting a single reply form client since this update. It's killing competition. And according to my thinking in future only investors will be on upwork instead of competitive freelancers.

Same here brother, a new freelancer, I write copy, send proposals to clients in the real world and get a reply but recently on upwork seeing even clients that have a 100% hire rate post a job and leave. 

 

Now this bidding system, this feels like the gaming industry. 

 

Where everything is behind a pay wall: 

1) Availability badge (7connects a week) 

 

2) boos connects 

 

3) sending Networkin connects 

 

These system just make you pend more than what you need to in the first place 

rinsad
Community Member

I am 200% sure that Upwork will be nowhere in the near future with this single feature. There is not a single response from the clients neither for the boosted nor for the organic bids since this feature is live. We have to keep pumping money for the connects with zero ROI. I am leaning with other freelancers here and looking for long term relationships and other platforms than keep knocking on a deaf's door. The sadest part is Upwork doesn't give any attention to this big uproar against this poor feature

4c5b9f71
Community Member

I hate typing this but I want that to happen too. 

 

Because feels like a lot of there system is being a pay to win system like this. 

 

They are also taking away the ways you earn connects gaining interview, now they do day they found people farming the system but there is a way to penalize the party and make it strict for people to make an account but rather that doing that all system they have drain connects

1) Availability badge ( you need 7 connects to keep it active ) 

 

2) Networking connects ? ( at lest on LinkedIn if you spam people the website takes action against you but upwork charges you connects because "you'll sent it economically" ( if you really want to belive this. 

 

3) Now this bidding system 

 

 

zshan-kk
Community Member

I feel, its demotivate the Freelancer at first as one can see insane amount of connects for the first place bid. Please revert to previous version.

anower-jahan
Community Member

Fmg2NOmakAUgKk6.jpeg

I feel so funny and sad to see this on Upwork. It's like "selling my everything" or "bribing" to get the job. This "passively force the freelancer to buy bids" seems so shameless to me. Upwork can say that they will continue to make this site a Gambling site!

Stopping scammers and lowering the number of freelancers can't be a cause to keep this feature. There can be tests, verifications and so on. There are so many scam jobs there on the platform. What are you doing for that? Have you added a bidding system for them? I am an experienced freelancer and to be true I got a job using the highest number of connects on the bid and those who are saying clients don't care this, this isn't true. I have won the job due to the maximum number of connects. But, I really hate this feature.

You are not caring about the skills anymore, you care about money and earning money shamelessly. 
 
 
 
darrenwall74
Community Member

I'd like to hear from freelancers bidding 40, 50+ connects per job application.

How is that working out for them?

Interesting question. I looked through the threads, and you don't ever see those people posting.

I think it's a short sighted on ther path to do so. 

 

Because the only thing that does is put there job proposal in first 3 places. 

 

The client now days does not reply back so to those just spamming 50, 100, etc sre jut playing a loosing game. 

kirsti_f
Community Member

I'm never the first to send a proposal for a job and quite often 20 -50 proposals have already been sent (wonder if these are bots or agents but **bleep** they're fast!). I'm in the test group and can now see the top three bids. If I was to bid early (unlikely for above reason) and made top place, and then later am outbidded because people can see my bid, it seems like I'm penalised for bidding early. This problem will result in the early bidders ie agents and bots, or those people who can't be doing any work cos they are too busy watching the new jobs coming in, go in with really high bids early leaving everybody else to out bid those initial high bids. And then it gets out of control.

I just don't see how this connects bidding function is serving client or freelancer. The whole thing is a bit wierd. I would like to see Upwork find another avenue to ease client's burden of being overwhelmed with proposals. Something, maybe, a bit more clever and professional? Of course, it will cost Upwork more money to find and implement an intelligent solution but if you want to stay ahead of the game in tech you have to come up with innovative ideas. Connects is not that, it just makes Upwork look cheap.

aredae1992
Community Member

I don't like the Boosted Proposals, never used it. 
probably never will, it's a bad idea.

johnotterbein
Community Member

This is how I see this going down:

 

Top freelancers on the platform who have dedicated years to building their profiles will move elsewhere as boosted bids increasingly win out over organic-yet-qualified bids.

Sure, these established freelancers could cave and buy into the pay-to-play scheme, but many won't out of principle or because viable alternatives exist in the space where the cost to propose is fair and inexpensive. 

Upwork will increase its profits in the short-term as more connects fly off the shelves.

 

As more and more qualified freelancers decamp the platform, less quality work is being delivered, and thus fewer clients will utilize Upwork as that faltering reputation spreads.

 

I hope Upwork realizes the short-sightedness of this policy and reverts back to an even playing field. 

ruelasrn82
Community Member

I feel like we are now competing with Agencies that are pretending to be Independent contractors, we don't have the finances they do and they outbid us all the time. Once this was implemented I haven't landed a job, that says something. If Upwork does not reconsider changing this, I'm sure many of use will be leaving and once talent is gone you don't have a platform. This sounds like greed on your part.

cesarebonaparte
Community Member

In a job where there is ~50 proposals, but 3 of them are paid to be on the 3 first places (Google Ads, hello?), there's still plenty of room left to one make his proposal, correct?

What about not being so arrogant that because of the top rated plus+++++ you must get all the jobs?

And, I see people here wasting connects like crazy, for a huge amount of jobs weekly.

If the game changes, you better learn the new rules and how to take advantage of them.

Pick your clients carefully, and if you're still crying about the extra money of the the new system, maybe your prices are too cheap.

Lastly, I don't believe in great job proposals when you're basically just spamming them.

There's another person on the other side, you better spend a little time writing for the person instead of worrying in being first.

"In a job where there is ~50 proposals, but 3 of them are paid to be on the 3 first places (Google Ads, hello?), there's still plenty of room left to one make his proposal, correct?"

 

Incorrect. There is no room for anyone when there are so many proposals. Clients will not, do not, and will never wade through garbage for 50 proposals to find the right person.

 

"What about not being so arrogant that because of the top rated plus+++++ you must get all the jobs?"

 

No one made that statement. The flood of unskilled freelancers clogging the client feeds with garbage is the problem for every genuine freelancer on Upwork.

 

I agree with the rest of your post.

norayr87
Community Member

Hello,

I'd like to know how boosted proposals exactly work. For example, I am applying for a job that already boosted the first three places 

1st place - 30 connects
2d place - 20 connects
3rd place 10 connects

and I bid 15 (something between 10 and 20 for the 2nd place). After that, if 2 (or more) freelancers bid more than me I am already not in the 1, 2, or 3 places. But I also know my proposal is still visible and boosted.

 

Everything I need to know about the current position of my proposal in the list of proposals. So, will my proposal be placed randomly with other proposals that are not in the first three or you sort them by a count of proposals?

Best Regards,
Norayr Tamazyan.

 

josefina_hansson
Community Member

Am I the only one who perceive a significant drop in hiring, invitations and interviews since the boost system was implemented? I've tried boosting and not boosting and the result is the same. I am top rated and have been for a long time 🤷🏻‍:female_sign:

I had a long term client for 3 and a half years, they ended the contract for reasons that weren't anyone's fault. Scoring new clients has been impossible, and I mean impossible. I even lost my rising talent and top freelancer badges. Of the currently 28 proposals I've sent, only two clients have seen my profile and responded and I haven't been hired by any of them. I have interviewed with one of them and sadly wasn't hired, but it's ridiculous that I get absolutely no profile views, even jobs that have less than 10 proposals.

And also the clients that post jobs and then disappear and if you go to the job post it says they haven't seen it in almost a month but haven't hired anyone either. I don't know, the whole thing is bad.

usamabutt3011
Community Member

Hi, Upwork don't you think it's not fair for individuals or for those developers who are not able to spend 500+, 400+, 300+, 200+, 100+, or even 50+, 40+, 30+ connects on a single job post?

What should we need to do? I am looking for a new contract for the last 3+ months and couldn't able to found a single contract after submitting 100-plus proposals.

Most of the time my proposal was out bided just because of this new feature which you had introduced. I guess the competition was already very tough before it and now you provide a way for agencies and rich people that can come 2,3 hours late and bid with the highest number of Connects and win the job.

And we just keep wasting our Connects and time to find a new job. I just started feeling jobless with this new bidding feature.

Am not sure how will you justify this concern but I really want to listen to your school of thought on it.

Thanks!

dixitshubhashish
Community Member

This Boosted Proposal still sucks at our side. Here is the conversion rate 2500+ jobs applied even after being Top Rated Plus Freelancer, got hired only once. It's becoming a connect eating platform in a nutshell, they should change the policy within Q1 of 2023 else things aren't rosy and people will migrate to another platform.

dixitshubhashish_0-1674675015092.png

 

abranen
Community Member

Hello,

 

Before UpWork introduced boosting,  I often heard back from clients within an hour (or less sometimes) from when I'd submitted a proposal. That hasn't happened in the past few months.

Does UpWork hold all proposals submitted for a project until at least three freelancers boost theirs? Or longer, to allow for a boosting frenzy?

Thanks,

Allison

 

No, they do not hold the proposals. I post jobs as a client and I have not noticed any unusual delay...minutes after posting the job I start receiving proposals. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Ashraf, that's good to know!

c18f1786
Community Member

It's possible that either...

 

1) Your proposals are placed lower down the list than they used to be, even if your profile is highly relevant (because the "sorting by relevance" algorithm, outside the top three boosted places, is now much looser than it was); or,

 

2) Your proposals are being binned into the 'Other Proposals' folder, if you copied and pasted the text from another application (which is annoying, but I was glad to find out about this recently).

 

Hope that helps!

abranen
Community Member

Mark,

 

Your second point is interesting. I have copied and pasted from older proposals before (never the entire thing, but my bio paragraph). I'll make a note not to do that again. 

abranen
Community Member

I'm posting an update based on something I noticed today. I submitted a proposal for a project on 1/25. I got a notification today saying I was outbid  and my Connects were refunded. The message ends with "Don't worry, we'll still show it to the client." So, it does appear that UpWork is holding proposal until bidding ends. 

mudasser4238
Community Member

I often received one reply per three proposals, as well as plenty of invites, before this feature was implemented. However, since this feature was introduced, everything had changed and I am not getting any replies. This is one of the worst feature on one of the best platform and has ruined everything. I don't know what type of people bid on jobs requiring 2 connects with 100+ connects. I am extremely disappointed.

My invitations have dropped significantly in the past few months too, Mudasser. I am wondering if that's because either I have more competition because of all the recent layoffs, or if fewer clients want to pay to send invitations. (I assume there's an additional charge for that.)

a99720de
Community Member

This would be great, since the time I spent the most connects, not only did I not get the job, but I also opened a ticket because the connects were not returned to me😡, although even when I get the notification that tells me Upwork return them because I was outbid, I never have them available, which is the same as not being returned to me. I'm talking about big expenses like 40 and 30 connects

abranen
Community Member

I submitted a proposal earlier today for a project I'm well qualified for, and chose not to boost it even though I have plenty of connects. I did this as an experiment to see if I hear from the client. 😉

audthom59
Community Member

I know this topic has been brought up before, and I commented on it and agree totally with the writer. Boosting and connects both needs to be abolished.   I just put in a bid on 2 jobs and if I paid the boost fees, on top of the connects I had to purchase to be visible again, and the fee I get charged for pulling my money from my Upwork account, these charges are eating up my revenue. So I have to bid higher, which puts me at the bottom of consideration. 

I agree. The data from other sites suggests Upwork is doing alright and has no need to implement these ridiculous features. Revenue is not gonna be like it was during COVID, and to get same revenue values, they will have to wait for next corona virus with stronger impact than COVID 19.

Upwork (Nasdaq UPWK) - Stock Price News & Analysis - Simply Wall St.png

Found this on one website. I guess only revenue is increasing then.

adehm
Community Member

I haven't landed a job since this system was implemented. I think it favors agencies with boiler plate messages from someone who is not even the one doing the job. So real freelancers that give everything they have to their clients with minimum connects and a custom message get lost in the noise.

audthom59
Community Member

I haven't gotten any jobs either - this is a bad system. I miss the days of
oDesk.
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