Hey Paula, we are all affected, one way or another. The goal is to make sure that your profile is in really good shape and than go after the jobs (yes, you will need to spend a LOT of connects). I look at it as a volume game, meaning, if you have to submit to 100 job posts to get 1 client, it might be worth it, let me give you an example,
If you submit to 100 jobs, lets assume its 16 connects on average per job, that would be 1,600 connects.
The cost of $240 would cover the 100 Job Submissions. Now, this assumes that the average job is 16 connects (roughly)
This is what most people do not understand, its PAY to PLAY (yes, upwork has changed a lot, some bad, but mostly good).
With that said, if your client pays $1,000 a month and you keep a client around for 6 months, that is $6,000 (-10% fees, its $5,400). So basically, even if it took $400 to get that client, you are still up $5,000. Yes, this assumes the client sticks around for 6 months, this assumes they pay $1,000 a month BUT, the above is just an example. This model may not work for anyone who is looking for one-off jobs, it works in my industry which is marketing (more specifically, where clients pay a monthly fee for me to manage their PPC (pay per click) accounts.
