18 proposals, only one responds and then opts someone else...

[#1]

18 proposals were submitted. Only one client approached and assigned a couple of tasks to see my writing style. He writes, "I made it to the top four." Finally, the client decides to go with another freelancer.

[#2]

one client approached and assigned a couple of tasks to see my writing style

---

What kind of tasks? Asking for free samples is a common abuse

[#3]

Did I get cheated? I wrote two articles for him of 600–700 words for a pet niche.

[#4]

Did you get paid a fair rate for those articles? If not, then you let yourself be cheated.

[#5]

I wasn't paid. This was my first experience, and I was excited to write for him and jumped on to it. I might have been cheated.

[#6]

Don't start any more jobs until you go through everything that Jeanne linked in To all freelancers looking for help.

[#7]

Did you have a contract with payments in escrow for fixed price or auto-tracked hours?

[#8]

I do not know about escrow and how to get that. Can you brief me on what it is and how to get it?
My apologies for not responding soon. I was traveling and could not access the website. 

[#9]

Yes you shouldn't be doing free work. Writing two articles is free work.

[#10]

Hmm,... This was my first experience, and I'd be careful hereafter.
Thank you for your response.

[#11]

If you provided free work and did not receive any compensation, then yes, you got cheated.

There are times I will go the extra mile to land a client, but it's a judgment call. Is there payment verified? Have they been on Upwork long? If they haven't, then that would be an indicator.

As an illustrator, I will send them rough drawings pre-contract if they need extra verification I can do the job, but if I sent them a finished logo or illustration, that would be foolish on my part without a contract.

For writing, sending them writing samples is good, but if they are asking for specific writing samples, based on their prompts, I might do a couple paragraphs at most. Your portfolio is where you "prove" that you can do what you say you can do. If they can't make that determination and demand that you fufill a couple of "sample" assignments then I would be hard-pressed to do anything without a contract.

Sorry to hear this happened to you.

[#12]

If that is true, **Edited for Community Guidelines**. We are here fishing jobs, not cheats. We don't have time for scammy clients.

[#13]

I learned from this and will be more cautious the next time.

[#14]

Naveen:

You are talking about writing articles?

For most people, writing is a HOBBY.

Writing is something people do for FUN.

You shouldn't necessarily be trying to earn money as a writer.

[#15]

What planet do you live on? Thousands of people around the world earn money as a writer

[#16]

Preston's assessment is correct. If he had not posted it, I would have.

[#17]

If someone wants to have a crack at making money from writing, let them. There's no need to drag them down for trying. 

[#18]

I'm not dragging anyone down, and neither is Preston. The truth must be acknowledged. Many people on this platform like to write, therefore, they are a writer. Wrong. Therefore, they like to write.  I used to play around with code. I do not list web writer in my profile.

Upwork is a jobs platform. It is not for learning a skill. The classes, and everything Upwork offers, only works if you have basic skills. Many, many freelancers don't. Those freelancers infuriate clients and prevent genuine freelancers from reaching the client.

No one posts in glee that so many waste time, money, and hope on trying to be a freelancer, when they will never make it. However, we are all adults in self-employed business. It is wrong to tell someone they can be a freelancer when they don't have the skills. It's one thing to hone your skills, it's quite another to learn them. Upwork is not the place to learn a skill, and those who think they can just make money will fail.

[#19]

re: "What planet do you live on? Thousands of people around the world earn money as a writer"

Nobody is saying otherwise.

But do you think Naveen is going to be one of those people?

[#20]

I spend way too much time writing for it to be considered as a hobby, but maybe I should seek therapy for that

How Naveen wants to make money is really up to him and the market to decide. Besides, who doesn't want to know how to prevent, mitigate cat shedding?

[#21]

---

James Thomas G wrote:

I spend way too much time writing for it to be considered as a hobby, but maybe I should seek therapy for that

How Naveen wants to make money is really up to him and the market to decide. Besides, who doesn't want to know how to prevent, mitigate cat shedding?

---

I think what is being hinted at here is that "liking" to write does not necessarily make one a professional/marketable writer. He's not saying that there's no such thing as actually writing for a living, if you're good enough at it.

I did a double-take at the wording too. 😊

Correct me if I'm wrong, Preston. I could be.

[#22]

Ha. About writing as therapy, whenever I don't have enough income by projects, I spend more time writing here as a way of venting off. I hope we all can tilt more the balance to WWW.Upwork.com than to COMMUNITY.upwork.com.

[#23]

Some people should think that we are coding, or writing, for charity, or for hobby.

[#24]

I enjoy writing, but I also thought I could make some money. 

[#25 · Accepted solution]

---

Naveen C wrote:

18 proposals were submitted. Only one client approached and assigned a couple of tasks to see my writing style. He writes, "I made it to the top four." Finally, the client decides to go with another freelancer.

---

Yes, they deceived you, or rather you deceived yourself.
Do yourself a favor and go to ACADEMY (at the top of the forum), read the help, the forums and the TOS very carefully.
And this post about scams:
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Community-Blog/Top-Red-Flags-for-Scams-From-Community-Member-Wes-C/b...

Asking for free work is against TOS (not doing it).
If you don't have a contract, don't do work.