Expensive connects and no job offers

[#1]

Hi, 

I am a very experienced freelancer and have seen good days on upwork. However, I have realised from the last 3 months or even more it's becoming extremely difficult to get a job and most of the clients are not even messaging which was not the case in the past. In the last 90 days (buying history is given below), I spent around $63 on connects and was unable to score even a single job :). Upwork needs to think about its new policies otherwise it will be extremely difficult for freelancers like me to survive on Upwork. Thanks 

Date	Action	Connects
Sep 17, 2024	Added extra Connects	20
Sep 9, 2024	Added extra Connects	10
Sep 9, 2024	Added extra Connects	20
Sep 7, 2024	Added extra Connects	20
Sep 7, 2024	Added extra Connects	10
Sep 3, 2024	Added extra Connects	80
Sep 2, 2024	Added extra Connects	10
Aug 30, 2024	Added extra Connects	10
Aug 27, 2024	Added extra Connects	80
Aug 12, 2024	Added extra Connects	80
Jul 21, 2024	Added extra Connects	80

[#2]

I've had the same experience. Compared to the past, clients seem to be much more unresponsive and don't even view proposals. I've also come across similar feedback on other forum, which suggests this issue is more widespread than we might think. It seems like it's becoming a serious challenge for freelancers to maintain visibility and secure jobs under the current Upwork policies. Hopefully, these concerns will be addressed soon.

[#3]

Same here! I’m spending a lot of money on connects without even getting a single view. Not to mention the few jobs I do get, which are underpaid. The decline I’m seeing on Upwork is shocking. What I wonder is: is it possible that Upwork isn’t taking these issues into account? These problems have existed for a while, but lately, they’re getting worse in a frightening way! It’s becoming impossible to be a freelancer on Upwork.

[#4]

I don't think Upwork cares honestly, they just care that people keep buying connects. What's messed up is that they basically market on here that spending big on connects will pay off. If they really cared to improve the platform, they would go back to keeping unskilled freelancers out and work to bring in better clients. I noticed that they don't even suggest rates anymore, so maybe you want to cater to their cheap clients.

[#5]

I am in the same boat as you are. I started freelancing on upwork in 2013 and I was growing year by year. I was getting more than 10 job invitations every month. But this golden period started ending ever since they started releasing new features like Badges and connects. You won't believe that just on 4-5 months my profile was so down that I was not getting a single interview and besides that I was not getting a single reply to my proposals.

I tried very hard to bring back the glory of old upwork but no success. Therefore finally in the starting of 2017 I started looking for a fulltime remote job on LinkedIn and I found one.

But recently i decided to try it once more but I was shocked that the connects system has suppressed the real talent.

Now if I apply to 10 jobs in a day even then I get 0 proposal views. So i have finally left upwork. I guess Upwork will be a thing of the past very soon.

[#6]

I'm so sorry, Ashavan! Especially for someone like you, who has spent years and years building a position on this platform

[#7]

I hope that someone from the Upwork officials is able to reply to the concerns we have raised here...... 

[#8]

Hi Hassan,

We truly appreciate you sharing your thoughts and concerns with us! Rest assured, we pass along all the feedback we receive to our team. Likewise, we will keep the Community updated on all the initiatives our team is working on. Thank you for your feedback.

[#9]

Hi Ivy, 

Thanks for your message, I hope that Upwork is able to resolve these things soon. As you can see freelancers are not very happy with the recent policies Upwork has implemented. Thanks 

[#10]

You are most welcome, and know that we appreciate our user's feedback, and any updates, changes, or improvements will surely be shared here in the community. 

[#11]

It's definitely hard to make any good use of Upwork. As soon I build up enough to pay for quality leads and my website starts getting more traffic, I'll be leaving Upwork. As I've grown in my career, Upwork has just gotten worse and worse. Since August of last year, I only added 3 new clients and in that span I applied for over 100 jobs, not including invites. And all of those hires happened between August and January. I been actively applying a lot since the summer and haven't landed anything.

[#12]

Tomorrow will be two months since my last contract. I'd estimate that I have applied for about 90 jobs in that time. Not only do I have zero contracts, but I've had very few interviews in that time period. 

It seems like the harder I work, the worse things get for me. I'm just not seeing any return on my investment. At some point, I'll give up and move on. 

The worst part is that I had a couple of steady clients off Upwork. I just found out this past Friday that I lost my biggest client by far. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do now. Having zero luck here on Upwork is going to sting even more considering I just lost about 80% of my freelance business. 

[#13]

Wishing the best of luck Paul. I feel your pain, I haven't added a new client since the start of the year. I was doing okay a few of my long-term clients had to scale back completely, then a new one scaled back early on. I really been trying to add new clients hard recently and getting a lot of nothing. I had two people hire me and then go cold. I spoke with 2 other people who seemed really interested then went cold. A lot of Upwork clients are very unserious and have no regard for wasting our time. This is exactly why I want to leave Upwork for good.

[#14]

Exactly! Among the many issues, the biggest one is the lack of seriousness from clients. I had secured two long-term jobs, but they never reached out again. This shows the lack of professionalism and how some treat this platform as if it were just another social network, rather than a work platform. Not to mention the job posts you apply for that offer $15 to $30 per hour, but then they change it to $4 per hour. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have wasted my connects and money on that type of offer. 

[#15]

The other day I saw a client requesting a month trial of $35 for PR work. That is disgusting to even suggest that, there's hardly a PR agency that will charge a retainer below $2,500. And what gets me about them is they want is to charge rates of basically being free, but they probably their own customers/clients more than what we do. Honestly Upwork should weed out clients who don't have a budget to pay for quality freelancers and maybe have a section for unskilled freelancers who will take on their cheap projects to get started out.

And just this weekend I had a potential client book a meeting and like a hour later, they cancelled the job posting altogether and didn't say anything. A lot of them should be banned from Upwork.

[#16]

Yeah similar issue here! Even I observed that when I buy connects and just going to apply on job post client history showing they are interviewing someone, last seen 2 min back but client didn't view my proposal, and no one hire. It's not issue in 1 job post I am applying since Feb and same issue I am facing like unresponsive client and not sure they are real or not because I seen that too client horsing rate showing 100% and after apply it's showing 52% sometime it's showing different client details in app and web. So might possible due to bug clients received proposal but on top section there are newbies and AI suggest best match but it's not. And automatically some proposal goes in archive (my guess not sure what client can see).

[#17]

Khushbu, I can feel your pain I also have similar doubts that Upwork AI algorithms are deteriorating our freelancing experience and are more driven by how much someone spends on promoting our bid and whether our availability badge is on or off. 

This availability badge is very idiotic if I am applying for a job it means I am available to work.... I still have some hope from this platform I hope that they are able to manage our concerns. 

[#18]

Yeah nowadays they are taking feedback as research survey I got a mail. Hope they change algorithm according to real experience