Invitations have dropped DRASTICALLY for months

[a99720de]

Since July 2022, the invitations I received have dropped alarmingly!
Upwork added more tools for customers (like time zones) but I haven't seen any benefit at all!
I constantly update my profile, I´m Top Rated graphic designer, have a skill certificate from Upwork, I diversify (I use the Projects catalog, Consultations, I analyze other profiles, I ALWAYS reply instantly, or in less than 24 hours when messages arrive at dawn), I apply for jobs, I even use Boost and do free tests to tet the client see that I can do things well... nothing works

All this with 25 years of experience in graphic design and perfect customer feedback and 98%JSS (it had 100%, I don't know why they took it down and never recovered despite my effort)

I find it hard to believe that Upwork doesn't take advantage of me as a freelance who responds well and quickly... but I don't know what to think anymore, 🤷🏼‍:female_sign:I don't know if I'm still investing my effort and time in vain.

Has anyone else had the invites drop so severely since July? It had grown a lot from February to July and suddenly everything stopped?

[lauramorris2000]

Yes, the last 6 months are like nothing I've ever experienced in my last 4 years on the platform. It's no longer what it used to be.

[rocio-gomez]

I can't agree with you more! This platform is becoming a bit useless to the point where I'm now looking elsewhere but Upwork for work. It's become a bit of a ridiculous platform being the projects I'm invited to are scams or clients looking for quality work that takes hours to do and be done in a "short time frame" and for less money, per their estimates. It seems the client base isn't what it used to be. Some of them seem very rude and try to be sneaky about getting freelancers give them hints on what to do without starting a contract. 

[emmac6248]

I agree with everything here. Top rated plus 100% feedback 860 jobs and zero invitations for months! My view is Upwork want us all to pay to apply for jobs. It's disappointing, I'm using other platforms instead now.

[inssect]

Hello Emma, which alternatives are you looking at? ...because it seems that I really do something about this - everything changed drastically all of a sudden, and I have to find other sources of income before I starve 🙂

[emmac6248]

I think I will get into trouble discussing other platforms on here but there are several that are working better than Upwork for me at the moment, best to Google!

[lance98]

Sadly I agree 100%

[25005175]

There is a rotation built into the Talent search algorithm. There are no publications stating so, but there have been a few posts from Mods that refer to it.

[feed_my_eyes]

It never used to take six months or longer to rotate back up in the search results, though. For me, it was more like every three weeks.

[lysis10]

I had the opposite but I"m an old timer around here (not as old as some though). I had an awful first six months last year and then things were poppin until this month.

Don't worry about JSS. I'm always 99% or 98% and have been for the last 3-4 years.

[williamtcooper]

Vanina,

Do a Talent search in Upwork and make sure that you can be found. In the Summer of 2022, many of the Profiles fell out of Upwork search. I was one of them and it took months to figure out what was ocurring. Once back in, I get 2 to 4 Invites everyday. Have a great day!

[sullivanliz]

What was occurring?

[martina_plaschka]

Nothing was occuring. 

Except that people will find it harder to win jobs when the platform is flooded with millions more freelancers than are needed to fill the number of jobs posted. 

[martina_plaschka]

William, this is completely untrue. Please don't post opinions that are bound to confuse people. Thank you. 

[kochubei_valeria]

Martina and others,

William is correct. We did have issues in one of our search machine learning models that was identified and fixed in August 2022. Please see Emily's post about it here. 

While the general marketplace dynamics continue to vary over time based on many factors and that can affect the number of invites freelancers receive overtime, I'm not aware of any issues with freelancer search currently. 

[sullivanliz]

Thanks for clarifying that Valeria!

I don't make a habit of searching for myself, but I just tried it with plenty of filters that should have put me in the results. I didn't show up anywhere - is there something I can do about that? Like many others, I've noticed a huge drop off in invitations. I figured it was because of the recent changes and didn't worry about it too much, but if I've 'fallen out' of the results I'd like to get that sorted!

[kochubei_valeria]

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Liz S wrote:

Thanks for clarifying that Valeria!

I don't make a habit of searching for myself, but I just tried it with plenty of filters that should have put me in the results. I didn't show up anywhere - is there something I can do about that? Like many others, I've noticed a huge drop off in invitations. I figured it was because of the recent changes and didn't worry about it too much, but if I've 'fallen out' of the results I'd like to get that sorted!

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Liz, may I have you try something? Could you please go to your Profile Settings and select categories that best describe what you do? You could also consider creating Specialized Profiles to make sure your profile comes up in search specifically when a client searches using Category and Subcategory filters. 

[sullivanliz]

Wow, thanks Valeria! Turns out I had NO categories listed. Not sure how that happened but I'm glad you pointed it out! I chose some when I opened my account but don't think I've checked them for quite a while. 

I'll also get a specialised profile out there at some point. I have a couple of drafts but haven't got round to polishing them up yet.

[gilbert-phyllis]

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Liz S wrote:

Wow, thanks Valeria! Turns out I had NO categories listed. Not sure how that happened but I'm glad you pointed it out! I chose some when I opened my account but don't think I've checked them for quite a while. 

I'll also get a specialised profile out there at some point. I have a couple of drafts but haven't got round to polishing them up yet.

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Sometime last year UW revamped the skills categories, which caused varying amounts of havoc for some of our profiles.

[sullivanliz]

I remember the havoc but thought I'd escaped unscathed. Will thoroughly check all those profile nooks and crannies regularly from now on!

[tlsanders]

I had totally missed the havoc and discovered after reading this comment that I had no categories.

[nhoret_jay]

Following up on this, did the suggestion work for you?

[emmac6248]

I've had the same problem for months now. Barely any invitations and I was getting 10+ a day. I'm top rated plus with 100% feedback and I've flagged this time and again but no one seems to help. It's definitely an algorithm problem that you don't want to address. I think it's a way to get us to pay for proposals but it's just pushing me onto other platforms. 

[25005175]

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Emma C wrote:

I've had the same problem for months now. Barely any invitations and I was getting 10+ a day. I'm top rated plus with 100% feedback and I've flagged this time and again but no one seems to help. It's definitely an algorithm problem that you don't want to address. I think it's a way to get us to pay for proposals but it's just pushing me onto other platforms. 

---

Upwork has an algorithm rotation. And you are one of probably over half a million freelancers offering your skillset. So, most likely, your dry spell is because you got moved out of the rotation. Eventually, you will be back in it. Have you tried searching for yourself as a potential Client would? Because here is what I found.

Using a new incognito browser instance and no filters,

• I searched "Emma" and found you on the third page.
• I searched "Emma C" and you were the 4th listing, behind Emma R, Emma L, and another Emma C.
• I searched "writing" and could not find you in the first several pages
• I searched "content writing" and could not find you in the first several pages
• I searched "SEO writing" and could not find you in the first several pages

[emmac6248]

Thank you I will raise this 

[emmac6248]

So I should have thanked you properly but it was very early.  This is so concerning.  I have raised this again and again with Upwork support and they assure me there's no problem.  However, I conducted the same search a few weeks ago as did my husband from his office (different IP address) and I could not be found.  I don't understand why Upwork would want to do this to high performing freelancers?  It's frustrating and costing me time and money - anyone else managed to get suitable response from Upwork please?

[praina]

YES, NO RESPONSE AND THE SAME IS THE CASE HERE I AM SUFFERING FROM!

[masharichart]

Valeria, I've also noticed a significant dropoff in invitations. I checked, and my skills are still intact. 

[emmac6248]

Hi Maria

Can I ask, are you still noticing a huge drop off in invitations?  I've spent half an hour on the phone to support for about the tenth time to try and cajole them into exploring what's going on.

[miriam-ocampo]

what does it mean fell out of the search? and back in? that doesn't make any sense...

[williamtcooper]

Use the Talent search and if you can locate your Profile then you are in the search database. If not, you are not in the search database. A few profiles fell out last year due to a programming database error.

Yes, common sense if you have received any Invites by default you are in the search database.

[martina_plaschka]

I guess what you mean is that profiles are set to private due to inactivity. 

I've never heard that described as falling out of a database. It is very misleading to call it that. 

[tlsanders]

Why on earth would you guess that was what he meant when he said "programming database error"?

[sullivanliz]

This is really interesting!

I wonder if 'best match' uses a different setup? I've had a few invitations since August last year, but not many. I don't seem to appear in search but clearly must be visible to potential clients somewhere or I wouldn't get any invites at all.

[feed_my_eyes]

Support actually told you that you'd fallen out of the search results? What did they say, exactly? If the OP is getting some invitations - just not as many as usual - then it sounds like her profile is still searchable, but you've probably just sent dozens of newbies scurrying off to customer service about this.

[a99720de]

I did that and it appeared as one of the first in the search for my country, Argentina, now I don't even appear, but I don't know how to reverse it... I was rotating my profile, many things in my bio... but nothing happened for months 😞

[anastasiabeam]

Oh, same. I constantly update anything in my profile with the hope it can change the "no invites forever" situation 😞

[feed_my_eyes · Accepted solution]

My stats: top rated, expert vetted, skill certified, with over 400 completed jobs. Despite this, I've had only 14 invitations since November, two of which were scams, with most of the others budgeted at around $10-20/hour. My 12-month earnings are down by about $9,000 compared with this time last year, and I only see 1-2 jobs a week that are worth sending proposals to. Upwork is still worthwhile for me - mainly due to repeat business and referrrals - but not nearly as much as it used to be. Good clients are scarce, and competition for them is crazy. I doubt that things are going to get better - more and more new freelancers are flooding in every day, particularly in the graphic design category - so all you can do is try some good old-fashioned marketing to find clients yourself, and not rely solely on Upwork.

[kfarnell]

My experience is almost identical.

However, I have noticed that the lull that often occurs after holidays has been longer over the last year or so than in the past. That seems to be happening now.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Kim F wrote:

My experience is almost identical.

However, I have noticed that the lull that often occurs after holidays has been longer over the last year or so than in the past. That seems to be happening now.

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Yes, it's been a very slow January, especially in the UK jobs feed - there's only one job posted in my category today.