I want to see competitors

[David G · Accepted solution]

Well I liked the feature because I could see other artists' work, now if I want to see other freelancers artwork I gotta stalk job postings xD

[Stephen R]

We need to see who is bidding.

Now its like driving a car blindfolded.

I'm wasting connects like there is no tomorrow.

I use to compare the bidders and the country of origin to the client and what the average pay is.

Then look who got the job to see if client want cheap work or a true quality.

You could learn and adapt. Thank god i could see all bids before Upwork changed eveything.

Dumb move Upwork.

I wont even go into to 20% fee now, another step backwards.

Happy bidding my fellow sheep.

[Tiffany S]

A question for all of those who used others' bids as a guide...did this more often lead you to increase or decrease your posted rate?

[Otavio B]

---

@Tiffany S wrote:

A question for all of those who used others' bids as a guide...did this more often lead you to increase or decrease your posted rate?

---

I applied to fewer jobs and the sucess (jobs applied/job awarded) was better, with no need to thinking twice about available connects by the end of the month.

I 

[Otavio B]

---

@Stephen R wrote:

We need to see who is bidding.

Now its like driving a car blindfolded.

I'm wasting connects like there is no tomorrow.

I use to compare the bidders and the country of origin to the client and what the average pay is.

Then look who got the job to see if client want cheap work or a true quality.

You could learn and adapt. Thank god i could see all bids before Upwork changed eveything.

Dumb move Upwork.

I wont even go into to 20% fee now, another step backwards.

Happy bidding my fellow sheep.

---

I totally agree. I´m happy to see I wasn´t the only one with "paranormal" pattern identifying skills. 

[Tiffany S]

---

@Otavio B wrote:

---

@Stephen R wrote:

We need to see who is bidding.

Now its like driving a car blindfolded.

I'm wasting connects like there is no tomorrow.

I use to compare the bidders and the country of origin to the client and what the average pay is.

Then look who got the job to see if client want cheap work or a true quality.

You could learn and adapt. Thank god i could see all bids before Upwork changed eveything.

Dumb move Upwork.

I wont even go into to 20% fee now, another step backwards.

Happy bidding my fellow sheep.

---

I totally agree. I´m happy to see I wasn´t the only one with "paranormal" pattern identifying skills. 

---

I don't think doubting the ability to see patterns is the issue. I think what people are questioning is the value of identifying those patterns, particularly if they lead to lowering prices in order to compete. 

[Otavio B]

The pattern comment wasn´t directed to you, Tiffany.

My strategy was exactly the opposite, avoid getting into bid wars with professionals with similar skill level.  Now that I don´t know who´s in the bid, I can´t see the face of my competitors. If I saw a higher bid and a particular name, I´d presume it was his bid, based on his experience. So I would put my bid in the same range. If A job has only low bids and the same name was on it, I´d probably skip bidding

[Tiffany S]

Otavio, that makes some sense. It seems like more effort than is warranted to me, but different fields are different.

Based on past threads,though, I don't think that's the way most freelancers used that information, and I suspect that the race to the bottom triggered by freelancers trying to get down into a competitive range with the posted bids is the reason (or, at least, part of it) that Upwork took away that feature.

[Otavio B]

Yes Tiffany.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, audio restoration is a pretty small niche. There were like 4 or 5 reliable guys doing it with pro skills, so it was like looking at the store across the street to check if they have a sale sign on the glass.

[Rene K]

---

@Tiffany S wrote:

(...) I suspect that the race to the bottom triggered by freelancers trying to get down into a competitive range with the posted bids is the reason (or, at least, part of it) that Upwork took away that feature.

---

I think they took it away because they were unable to fix the bugs in displaying the number and the list of applicants.