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mdkhan0465
Community Member

2 invitations in last 3 months

Hello everyone, Good day. Hope all is well with you. Here is my problem- I have received only two invitations in last 3+ months. I am not very old here but I'm actively working for more than a year. Earlier, when I wasn't even top rated and my JSS was below 90%, I used to get good amount of invitations. But in-spite-of having 100% JSS and a top rated badge since January, I received only 2 invitations in last 3+ months. It is not like I ain't getting any job. I have bagged many contracts(both long-term and short-term), but most of them are through bids, only one of them is through invitation. In addition, in my stats, I se that 90% of my clients will recommend me. So I was wondering why I stopped getting invitation? Can I do something to overcome this crisis? Or will it solve naturally over time? Or is it happening because I have multiple contracts ongoing? Any thoughts are welcome. If you do not have a solution, still you can share your experience or thoughts. Looking forward to your thoughts. Thank you in advance.
ACCEPTED SOLUTION
m_acc_des
Community Member

Upwork decreased number of invitations allowed to clients with free profiles, They have to pay $50 to send unlimited invitations now.

A message to people replied above: You could just tell him this information.

View solution in original post

10 REPLIES 10
petra_r
Community Member


Md Solayman K wrote:
 Can I do something to overcome this crisis?

There is no "crisis" if you still get work by applying.

 

  • Data Entry is the most overcrowded and low pay category on Upwork. To be invited for Data Entry jobs is about as likely as the chance of a needle being found in a haystack. When a client searches for Data Entry, there are over 300 Thousand to choose from...
  • You advertise 3 work categories (too many!) and show no meaningful portfolio item except for data entry. (See above)
  • You advertise translation yet there is no hint of any translation experience or education or portfolio item(s)
  • Personally I don't think your profile is very attractive to clients, you offer a wildly unconnected bunch of "skills" (ever heard the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none?")
  • Personally I think the green ticks look unprofessional and are visually offputting.
  • Your hourly rate and what you actually work at is completely different. Clients who are searching for the cheapest possible freelancers, actively filter out people with a rate over $ 10.
  • Data Entry clients would not look at someone with a $ 20 profile rate
  • (Proper) translation clients would be put off by your claim of native English skills (which is clearly not true) and the fact that you have a history of translating into your non-native language(s). I almost felt sorry for that book client but I guess he's getting what he pays for at 10 pages for $ 5...

 

Hello Petra,
 
Good day. Thanks for your effort, but I expected a friendlier reply. I’m sure you are wiser than me, but maybe you missed my point. I didn’t just wonder about the current situation, but I compared the current situation with the past. I know data entry is an overcrowded and low paid category. There is no doubt in that. But I am not complaining about not getting invitations in that niche. You may have noticed that. 
 
I didn’t change the details of my profile since last year. I understand that there are some problems, but I didn’t expect such a harsh reply. Maybe offering service in multiple categories is often impractical, but not always. Not for everyone. You have pointed out the portfolio issue. I think that is obvious. I didn’t properly focus on that. 
 
I didn’t ask for an autopsy of my profile. Anyways. It is the same profile I maintained earlier. My point was- why I got invitations earlier, but not now? It has nothing to do with me or my profile. It has been the same. 
 
You said that my hourly rate and what I actually work at is completely different. Why is that? I am not one of the freelancers who provide the cheapest rate. I believe you had quite a walk throughout my profile but I wonder how you missed that I have worked on data entry jobs with $15 hourly rate. 
 
Kindly don’t judge me until you know everything about me. Now I mainly work on translation jobs. So, the history of translation was actually supposed to be helpful. As long as I am providing the quality and the client is satisfied, I don’t think that my claim of native English skill is a big deal. Is it? And again, my point was- “with all these ‘stupidity’, why I got invitations earlier but not now?” I thanked you in advance, but that doesn’t mean I asked to roast me. 
 
Do not feel sorry for ‘that book client.’ I’m sure that you are familiar with the term ‘Negotiation.’ I can proudly say that I am very good at it. So I convinced him to pay four times his budget in the beginning and raise it time-to-time. That is $20 for 10 pages. As you can see from his reviews, he is not unsatisfied. In addition, all my jobs ended up with 100% client satisfaction. So, you don’t need to be sorry for any of my clients. They know what they are buying. They don’t come here to do charity. I didn’t get 100% JSS and the top-rated badge as a gift. I earned them. So leave alone the existing clients.
 
Thanks for your effort. You spent a lot of time to analyze my profile and find the flaws. But I think, you missed my point in the very first place. I never lost a job after the interview, but I am not getting invitations. Almost all the jobs came through bidding. That was the point, nothing else. Anyways. Have a good day.
 
Thanks


Md Solayman K wrote:
 
Thanks

You're welcome

 


Md Solayman K wrote:
That is $20 for 10 pages.

LOL, wow. Great.  As I said, the client is getting what they pay for.

A page is somewhere between 300 and 500 words. 10 pages are somewhere between 3000 and 5000 words.

 

A good translator averages between 400 and 600 words an hour including proofreading.  So even if your client did increase the rate to $ 20 for 10 pages, that is $ 20 for  7.5 to 10 hours.... I am sure you can work out the hourly rate yourself

 

You asked for thoughts, you got them.

 


Md Solayman K wrote:
They know what they are buying.

Yes. They get exactly what they pay for... Most people do.

 

 

Seriously? 

 

Am I supposed to discuss my hourly rate with you now? Anyways. The books you are talking about consists of small dialogues. There are around 90-120 words per page. I translate 7-8 pages every hour. Now you know the math. 

 

That's not the point. It is not relevant that how much I charge. The only subject here is why the amount of invitation decreased. I asked for thoughts regarding invitations, not my hourly rates.


Md Solayman K wrote:
Now I mainly work on translation jobs. So, the history of translation was actually supposed to be helpful. As long as I am providing the quality and the client is satisfied, I don’t think that my claim of native English skill is a big deal. Is it?

While you may translate from English into Bengali, I don't know, you certainly cannot translate into English because your English is not good enough. Far from it. Professional translators only translate into a language they speak at a native level and your English is way far from being native.

 

For sure, clients who are not native speakers of English and who don't speak this language very well themselves may be appealed by your extremely low rates. They wouldn't know what kind of quality they are getting from you. However, there is no way anyone with a decent command of English will ever invite you for a translation job if the target language is English. They may still invite you to a data entry job, but nothing that involves translation into English.

 

Of course, you're free to conduct your business the way you want and offer any services you imagine you are skilled enough to sell, but if you ask for public advice, you must accept criticism.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Hello Reve, 

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I got your point. My english is not good enough to translate into English. My English is definitely not native or something like that. I have no problem with critics but didn't expect it to be such humiliating.

 

The main question has not been answered yet. With all these flaws, why did I receive dozens of invitations earlier but not now? No need to answer. Leave it. Seems like I don't belong here.

 

Thanks


Md Solayman K wrote:

Hello Reve, 

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I got your point. My english is not good enough to translate into English. My English is definitely not native or something like that. I have no problem with critics but didn't expect it to be such humiliating.

 

The main question has not been answered yet. With all these flaws, why did I receive dozens of invitations earlier but not now? No need to answer. Leave it. Seems like I don't belong here.

 

Thanks


______________________________

 

Freelancing is feast or famine. Sometimes I get lots of invitations, sometimes one or two and sometimes none at all. I think there is probably some kind of rotation system. Don't get too worried about it. Keep bidding on the jobs you know you can do, and sometimes it is worth bidding on really small jobs (I don't mean cheap, but quick), just to get back on track. 

 

 

m_acc_des
Community Member

Upwork decreased number of invitations allowed to clients with free profiles, They have to pay $50 to send unlimited invitations now.

A message to people replied above: You could just tell him this information.


Mohammed G wrote:

Upwork decreased number of invitations allowed to clients with free profiles, They have to pay $50 to send unlimited invitations now.

A message to people replied above: You could just tell him this information.


Yes - it sounds like most freelancers have experienced a greatly decreased number of invitations due to Upwork's recent policy change. There have been several threads in which people complain of this issue, and Upwork has offered various explanations, but no solution other than to tell people to make sure that their portfolios and profiles are as good as possible. So, if the OP wants to improve in this respect, then the advice given above might be worth considering, even if it didn't directly answer his question.

fitzberg
Community Member

I personally think that "Top Rated" badge is useless. It didnt help me to get more invitation as well, and when I lost the badge, I got more invitations and job. Sometime its hard to get a job even if I have top rated badge, so I just dont care anymore about JSS. So I think its up and down Upwork algorithm that we cannot understand. But maybe your hourly rate displayed is the one that brushed clients off. Maybe try to decrease it.

 

I am not a native english speaker but I think his english is good, that I can understand 100% of his sentences. 

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