Ghosting by hirers

[nvasuki]

Hello! I am a freelance writer and have had numerous conversations with people looking for writing services. It ends up with me having to submit a sample article on a topic specified by them. Following this, I get ghosted. The hirer does not even write back that they will not be proceeding. Should I start charging for these samples to protect myself and my work?

[JoanneP]

Hi Nikhil,

If the client would like for you to submit a few samples, they can create a fixed-price contract so that you get paid for the sample work you will be submitting to them. You may also share your previous work along with your proposal. Portfolios are an important part of a freelancer’s bidding process to show off their past work and their potential to complete a future project. That is why we are not prohibiting the sharing of external links to personal portfolios or other websites that provide examples of past work. We recognize that some of these links might include contact information and ways to identify and contact you outside of the Upwork platform. When you share these outside links, please remind potential clients to only communicate with you through Upwork until a contract is in place.

[kinector]

Nikhil, I'd just skip those clients altogether.

If your existing samples don't do impress the client, how would a tailored one do?

There are many fish in the sea.

Don't worry about those... Keep going forward.

[prestonhunter]

There is no such thing as "ghosting by hirers."

There are clients who have hired me, and who I will do work for.

And there are people who haven't hired me yet, and who I don't think about.

If a client asks me to provide a custom sample, then they hire me so they can pay me to do so. Otherwise, I don't do anything for them.

You need to understand that asking freelancers to work for free is a violation of Upwork ToS. The "clients" who were asking you to write a sample article for them never had any intention of hiring you. It doesn't matter how good your article was. Once you sent it to them, they had what they were after. They probably sold your article to somebody else.

If a client asks you to write a custom article, then you give them an opportunity to hire you. You need to specifically tell them that you WILL write that article for them after they hire you. Tell them to hire you using an hourly contract, or provide them with a fixed-price quote.

If they hire you, then do the work and get paid.
If they don't hire you, then click on the "Flag as inappropriate" link button on the job posting and report them for asking for free work.

[petra_r]

---

Nikhil V wrote:

 I am a freelance writer and have had numerous conversations with people looking for writing services. It ends up with me having to submit a sample article on a topic specified by them. Following this, I get ghosted. 

---

Why would those people, who are violating the terms of service, bother hiring you when you cheerfully give your work away for free?

Freelancer who give away work for free train clients to expect free work and hurt and harm all freelancers by doing so.