Best time of day to be online to find opportunities as a graphic/motion designer?

[overground55]

What is the best time of day, or what is the time frame that is best to be on Upwork to find opportunities? I haven't quite figured out the ideal time frame yet where most projects seem to be uploaded. I live in MST time if it matters. 

[JoanneP]

Hi Nathan,

We can't advise you on the best time to be online to apply to jobs; however, we'd encourage you to submit a proposal to jobs posted that match your skills and experience. If in case you receive an invite from clients, it is also ideal to respond as soon as possible. You may want to read this help article for more information. 

[overground55]

Thanks a lot Joanne! Is there anywhere on the website that talks about days and times of increased activity on Upwork? This could be really helpful for users who want to know how to better use the platform. It seems like a useful piece of information to have.

[dsmgdesign]

Hi, Nathan, 

It depends on your business and what kind of clients you want to work with, since Upwork is a global community. I only work with established U.S. businesses. I don't like working for pre-revenue start-ups, I don't like clients who just have a business idea, and I don't like working for ameteurs. So, I have found that late in the afternoon is the best time of day to find the best opportunities for me. I stay away from early moring or late at night because I have found that those aren't the established US businesses that I'm looking to work with. Hope that helps. 

Thanks, 

Dave 

[feed_my_eyes]

Upwork is a global marketplace so there's no definitive answer to this question. Especially now that people are working from home, good jobs are posted at random times at all hours of the day and night, I find. Busy people work evenings and weekends, too.

I prefer to work with European clients, and I find that they most frequently post projects in the mornings GMT from Tuesday-Thursday. But that information won't help you unless you're willing to get up in the middle of the night to refresh your job feed. I would think that your 'normal' working day, being on mountain time, would work just fine in terms of finding the most American clients online.

[prestonhunter]

I can't speak for everyone.... but I doubt that there are very many highly successful Upwork freelancers who pay attention to time of day or day of the week like the original poster is asking about. I don't think there is a universal answer to that question, and even for people targeting a specific niche or region or time zone I don't think this can really be "optimized."

[wlyonsatl]

Nathan,

For the three months ended September 30 Upwork generated revenue from 38,005 clients, 28,861 of whom were based in the US.

So, it's likely that 75%of all jobs posted on Upwork are posted between 7:00 AM - 10:00 PM New York time. But your area of expertise might see a better-defined window, as in if your expertise is skewed toward new tech, etc., the bulk of new job posts relevant to you might at least somewhat align closer with US West Coast work hours.)

And judging from my experience with my particular specialty, I'd guess that the average value of jobs from US-based clients are at the high end of the global average value of jobs posted, so that may be another reason to focus on US-based clients' projects during this timeframe.

I provide services to clients worldwide, but the US is my primary market. I usually do searches daily 320 or so days a year - in mid- to late afternoon New York time, figuring most Eastern US clients will have posted by then and lots of West Coast posters will have done so, as well. Sometimes I'll also do a morning search if the pickings are thin.

Nevertheless, I have never noticed a strong "best time" to find newly-posted projects. The kind of clients I am looking for don't usually rush to accept freelancer proposals, so I'd guess the window of opportunity with the projects and clients that best match my target market is at least 1 to 2 days (not hours),

Also, we have been told that Upwork's algorithms prioritize the list of freelancer proposals the client sees on each project based on the perceived match with each project, which means being among the very earliest responders to a new project may not be as important to making winning bids as only applying to jobs where your skills and experience (as understood by Upwork's algorithms) best match what the client says (s)he is looking for. 

Of course, many clients don't really know exactly that they want, so even if Upwork's algorithms were perfect (they are not) winning projects consistently is a bit of a crap shoot no matter when you post your proposals. Proposal quality is very important, but the number of proposals you make is not irrelevant.

Upwork's client base is so diversified in multple ways that there likely isn't a significant short time frame when the majority of jobs are posted consistently. If you're new to Upwork, you could try doing a search three times a day for a few weeks and see if you find a pattern. But even if you do, I expect you'll find that you do fine by searching at least once daily between 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Mountain time, when I'd guess the majority of US-based clients post their new projects on Upwork.

Good luck!