Increasing Transparency in Boosted Proposals

[kochubei_valeria]

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.

[ruelasrn82]

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]

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.

[the-right-writer]

"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]

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]

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:

[yaizamg]

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]

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]

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.

[abranen]

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

[ashrafkhan81]

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. 

[abranen]

Thanks, Ashraf, that's good to know!

[c18f1786]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[abranen]

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]

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]

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]

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. 

[84798706]

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.

[84798706]

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

[adehm]

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]

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

[nav_designer]

I just got 2 after trashing a minimum of 800usd in 7 months.

they demolished our careers. I would pay 30% commission rather than accept the boosting system 

[88fdf858]

Hey there , Hope all is well but simply I’m curious about and how you’re
using the system for what exactly?

[f1ecd428]

So I decided to play the boosting game and yes, all my boosted proposals are getting seen versus only 1/4 of organic proposals. The problem is the only interview I got was from a client who wanted pet portraits for $3 and then disappeared. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[dixitshubhashish]

ALERT ALERT, SCAM ALERT in LIVE BIDDING BY UPWORK !! Live Bidding is having another level of scam as well for us. Please keep an eye on your refunds as well if boosting some proposals.

So I applied for this job post and somehow boosted my proposal with 25 connects that's around 4 USD on 25th Jan 2023.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Now the current situation even you can check is the below level 

As you can see, this has reached to 399 connects but here is the thing the minimum bid is 64, but my connects haven't been reversed back to my account yet. So you can understand, the system has eaten 25 connects and more similar connects as well.

This level of scam is happening at CONNECT EATING SYSTEM!

Valeria - Is your team really paying head to the freelancers' feedback and need or just we are still in old 2022 and those methodologies. Please stand up for the community and folks and kill this live boosting mechanism for god sake.

Please please save the freelancers, they are getting dead of all this. 

[nav_designer]

why does Upwork charge connects when they don't give you any Booting SLOT, this is a big scam 

during the writing proposal in a sec, you could lose the slot but anyhow Upwork managed to charge connects and said they charged because of the client interaction but is it Upwork efficiently? if the client intact your proposal if you nor in the boosting slot?  It happens because of your luck or maybe your profile is strong,  so work has no right to charge those connects.

after boosting system hiring rate is now 0 % even if you invest 200$ USD on connects,  

the Quality of the platform is now the worst all good clients, already moved.

not sure how I will survive  I wasted my 12 years, 

[88fdf858]

When you connect with the client right do you actually already have work as
an example to show them that you’re qualified for that position or for that
assignment to get paid hourly and a clear KPI time frame to update there

[4c5b9f71]

Ouch, is some one helpingyou with this? I hope it was resolved ?

[yaizamg]

Need more proof as to why this is **Edited for Community Guidelines** and that there are bots involved in bidding and proposing? A freelancer posted a job ad by mistake, it not only has less than 5 proposals,

IT HAS A FREAKING 7 CONNECT BID

Please, we are asking you to remove this, to remove connects, to remove bids. There's already 50+ connects on jobs posted less than 2 hours ago. Looking for jobs is imposible, in a year I've lost my badges because my profile isn't being seeing and because my profile isn't being seen, I'm not being interviewd!! I had the same client for years, I've had more earnings and worked more hours than some of the people that are getting more jobs, and it was for nothing. I'm not getting nothing, no views, no invites to jobs, no interviews, nothing...it's discouraging.

[88fdf858]

Hey how are you what’s your motive’s? And what job you particularly you
want to work for as an career ? ##- Please type your reply above this line
-##

[waris14]

I simply don't like this waste of money feature.

It makes no sense spending crazy amount of connects .

Its very discouraging for most of the freelancers

[nehalkhan_nk]

i think now spending more connects and boosting your proposal will help you win projects only. looks like new and experienced both have to suffer more on Upwork. only person that can win proposal is the one who spend more and more

[ca9acb03]

I know this is an old post... but I'm really devastated by this concept... it was perfect before why change it?

[audthom59]

The new "better" way absolutely sucks! Just a way to get more money from the ones making them money. 

[marusia_tirmican]

Hello, thanks for sharing the invitation; much appreciated 

[4c5b9f71]

Hey Guys, 

I am trying to become a new freelancer here on Up-work  & when sending my proposals I see this fewture of bidding. 

The more you bid Up-work will place that proposal on the top of the list. Firstly this lft a bad taste in my mouth as this  is a off putting cash grab ( I am aware this is on Up-work Platform but I need to respectfully voice this) 

Taoday while placing proposals I see that people bidding 50 connets, 20 , 30 etc  

I dont want to bid but what advantages does this feature offer, is my bid at the bottom even though I applied to the job when there were only 5  proposals sent ? 

Is there a way for new freelancers to tackle this ( Freelancers new who dont wantto wate money on connects) 

I also want to keep an open mind, If your a freelancer that bids please write your experience I will consider my apprroach if I see reason in the staratergy you provide. 

Thank you

[4c5b9f71]

Valeria, 

I just read the article you posted and this may be blunt but this is an unjust  system. 

Upwork is  simply saying if I use more connects (which Costs money)  I will will get my proposal on the top. 

It will pass the freelancers who were there first & give it to freelancers that pay more. This is like the gaming loot box system where you pay to win

I know the that your just linking to this system that UP-work setup, but who do I petition to get this down. 

Thank you 

[audthom59]

Falling on deaf ears! This platform has changed so much since 2008 when it it oDesk.