I Haven't Been Successful on Upwork

[#1]

I really had high hopes for Upwork and have invested in my profile and have sent proposals for several jobs. What I find is that Upwork is no different than any other job board. The freelancer does all of the work, applying in good faith, sending a cover letter, answering questions, only to be ghosted by every client. I really had hoped that Upwork would be different. But it isn't. I find it to be a waste of my time. 

[#2]

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Susan G wrote:

I really had high hopes for Upwork and have invested in my profile and have sent proposals for several jobs. What I find is that Upwork is no different than any other job board. The freelancer does all of the work, applying in good faith, sending a cover letter, answering questions, only to be ghosted by every client. I really had hoped that Upwork would be different. But it isn't. I find it to be a waste of my time. 

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Upwork is not a job board. There are many who do quite well here, because they put in the effort and understand what kind of site this is and how to make it work for them.

[#3]

It's not a job board? How do you define it and what tips to you have that have helped you find success here?

[#4]

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Susan G wrote:

It's not a job board? How do you define it and what tips to you have that have helped you find success here?

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A job board is where prospective employers and employees find each other. Upwork is a freelance marketplace where prospective clients and freelancers find each other. Working as a freelancer means running your own business. Succeeding via an online marketplace entails additional challenges. Your profile is set to Private so I can't tell whether you have freelance experience or not. I joined UW nearly five years ago having supported myself as an independent contractor for 20 years. Once I created my profile (which took a day, probably), it took me about 30 proposals to land my first project and about 30 more to land the second. Then the first client hired me for a second project and I got a handful more over the next six months. It was about a year before I started to build momentum here. I still don't have all my eggs in this basket and likely never will.

I saw your other comment about requiring clients to respond to proposals. What would that accomplish? Anything that introduces friction for clients is a terrible idea. The key to finding and sustaining success here is to be very selective about the projects you bid on, submit very compelling and concise proposals, and forget every one as soon as you click 'send' until and unless you hear from the client. 

[#5]

Thank you Phyllis. That is helpful information. I have been at Upwork for a few months and have spent quite a bit of time on each proposal. I did hear back from one client and was able to talk to them. Another seemed interested and kept sending emails asking questions that I would answer promptly and then I never heard back. Others I have never heard anything. I appreciate your feedback. 

[#6]

You shouldn't expect a response/acknowledgment to every job you apply for. Just apply and forget about it until they message. They are not ghosting you, but simply found a better freelancer for that particular position. 

[#7]

If you are doing well on Upwork, please share what roles you apply for and how you achieve success. That would be helpful to know.

[#8]

I think Upwork should up their standards and require clients to reply to freelancers. Just my opinion to make this platform stand out as an industry leader.

[#9]

They do. I've had quite a few projects where the clients contacted me directly. 

[#10]

They already have pretty high standards compared to most other freelancing platforms, which is why many freelancers have their profiles rejected and why some who don't can't find work.

[#11]

Well my case is different

[#12]

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Bilikisu M wrote:
Well my case is different

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How?

So you spent "a couple of Dollars" and are disappointed that you haven't been hired from that? You are in an incredibly competitive category with a mediocre profile and a catastrophically low job success score. "A couple" of proposals aren't anywhere near enough.

[#13]

Are you saying my profile isn't a hit!!!
Please can you give me a hint on this.

[#14]

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Susan G wrote:

I think Upwork should up their standards and require clients to reply to freelancers. Just my opinion to make this platform stand out as an industry leader.

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Plot twist. If they aren't interested in hiring me, I don't want to hear from them. Too many messages and I'm busy.

[#15]

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Jennifer M wrote:

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Susan G wrote:

I think Upwork should up their standards and require clients to reply to freelancers. Just my opinion to make this platform stand out as an industry leader.

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Plot twist. If they aren't interested in hiring me, I don't want to hear from them. Too many messages and I'm busy.

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ditto, if someone sends me a "rejection" (usually just letting me know they can't afford me, lol) I don't even respond. common courtesy says I should say thank you and good luck but as said above - I am busy. If we arent working together, leave me alone.

[#16]

Interesting take:) Everyone is "busy" and everyone's idea of busy is vastly different. I appreciate your feedback. 

[#17]

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Susan G wrote:

Interesting take:) Everyone is "busy" and everyone's idea of busy is vastly different. I appreciate your feedback. 

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Everyone who said they are busy here has a lot of work on their plate, coming from Upwork clients.
I have a full time job and work probably 20 hours a week on freelancing, for a total of 60 working hours per week. That's genuinely busy under anyone's definition.

I've said this before in other threads and I'll say it again, a lot of people who are not successfully using the platform are too busy focusing on how to make Upwork's platform work for them... Instead of trying to make silly rules that bend a massive publicly-traded platform to your preferences, without taking into consideration how your change would affect most users negatively, whilst simultaneously seriously damage the functionality of the site, all just to make yourself feel better (again, genuinely not trying to be snarky but that's what this is right? something to make you feel comfort that you were not chosen?), you should try to focus your attention on what YOU can do to create success for yourself.

You should begin by making your profile public and ask the Community for a quick evaluation, that would be a really solid starting point.

[#18]

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond to my original comment. You may not mean them to be snarky but they do come off that way. I appreciate your take and I'll take it into consideration as I continue to assess whether or not the Upwork platform is for me. 

[#19]

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Susan G wrote:

I think Upwork should up their standards and require clients to reply to freelancers. 

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How would they do that?

[#20]

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Christine A wrote:

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Susan G wrote:

I think Upwork should up their standards and require clients to reply to freelancers. 

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How would they do that?

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As someone that both freelances and very occasionally outsources very small tasks to freelancers overseas... they would have to literally put a gun to my head.

Imagine the time needed to respond to 30 proposals, no thank you.

[#21]

I think persistence is the key. Over and over and over applying and refining and working hard to get your ratings. After I did that for a few months, and likely spending $100 in connects I started to figure out how to refine my proposals and answer prospective clients. Sometimes I get replies or questions but sometimes I dont. Sometimes I amswer those questions and never hear back and sometimes a few months later they send me an offer saying hey...I'm ready now.

Upwork can work if you work hard. I've been here since July and got serious in October. I'm making more than I ever imagined and busy I can barely do it all! Just got to keep at it.

[#22]

Well it been over months spending couple f dollars applying on upwork but no client, this is frustrating you know.

[#23]

Yes, just imagine how long it would take to send a quick thanks but no thanks to 30 proposals from people who have invested their time? Probably an hour. I think it's important,  but then again communication is extremely important to me.

[#24 · Accepted solution]

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Susan G wrote:

I think it's important,  but then again communication is extremely important to me.

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Why would you value communication, or anything that is "important" to you, from people who don't wish to work with you? I definitely don't care if someone is bad at communication if I'm not going to take on a project with them anyways. Communication is important to me IF they sign on with me. If they don't i couldn't care less.

I'm not saying this to be snarky, I'm just suggesting you let it go because it's not worth dwelling on - focus your energy on how you can grab attention better. Submit as many proposals as you can, make sure they reflect your abilities properly, and when you get more connects just keep going. Eventually you'll get something, but the site is hardly "the same as every other job board". If there are people successfully making a great income on here (there are a lot, i make twice as much here as I do at my full-time job) then it's not a matter of what the site is doing wrong, it's what you're doing wrong. That's meant to be constructive criticism; if you aren't succeeding it is genuinely a fact that you could improve something about your process, such as not understanding which jobs are more likely to result in a hire and being aware of red flags about posts, proposals that sound too templated, etc.

Also if it makes you feel better it gets easier, I send out a round of proposals every two weeks or so, if that. Lately it's been less and less, people reach out to me on their own now and I don't even have time to apply to stuff. So the "work" is hard at first, but improves as you gain more of a reputation.

[#25]

"So the "work" is hard at first, but improves as you gain more of a reputation."

To me this doesn't seem any different from applying to recruiters outside of Upwork, really. Because you can't get freelance work on Upwork without establishing a reputation on the site, yet obviously you also can't establish a reputation without prior work to build said reputation. Just like the whole "you can't get work without experience and can't get experience without work" catch 22 situation. It doesn't seem like you're at any advantage as someone trying to get their foot in the door compared to job search sites like Indeed or LinkedIn. You're essentially just thrown into a pool of applicants in much the same way and have no way of standing out or guaranteeing you'll ever get to do something that is mutually beneficial for you and the person you work for. I finished at the top of my class in a very prestigious university with multiple STEM field majors that are in high demand, but without any co-op or internship experience and without having any network connections at any company that would actually hiring me and therefore for the past 4 years since graduating unable to find anything remotely closely related to my field, and lately not even any interviews. I thought Upwork could at least give me some hope to solve my problem but it seems like I'd just be investing not only time but also money (when I'm already in a dire financial situation) and further increasing the gap in my resume.

I fail to see how it "gets easier" as you say. I can assure you that it has not gotten any easier for me in the past 4 years, no matter how many training programs I went through or however many 1-on-1 resume and cover letter workshops I attended or how many hands-on data analysis projects I've done, the results have stayed the same. And as I said, I fail to see how Upwork is any different in that regard. No disrespect to those who have been successful from it: more power to you! I guess I just had high hopes for it, thinking it would give me a chance with the no-strings-attached incentive for those looking for my specific skills, but I guess it's the same in the sense that I'm no different from the hundreds of others that apply for the same opportunities, and if I've sent literally thousands of applications reaching out to employers with zero results, the results are bound to be the same here except with the added monetary investment lost. It just seems counterproductive to me. There doesn't seem to be any hope. I guess there's no such thing as a Get Out of Jail Free card in life. Apologies for being such a Negative Nancy, but it's just incredibly frustrating when you know you have so much potential and exactly the skills that are in demand in your field and then some, but you're never given the chance to demonstrate them and it just gets more and more difficult and less and less hopeful over time. I find myself wishing I hadn't wasted years of my life working so hard towards a degree that never benefitted me in any way...