Is this what oDesk was like?

[Jonathan David S]

I've been using Elance for 5 years, but I never ventured over to oDesk.

I'm curious, is Upwork basically the same thing as what oDesk used to be? I flipped through at least 10 pages of job posts and didn't find one even remotely reasonable budget.

I'm trying to decide if I want to continue using the Upwork-Elance platform after Elance closes down, and unless things change, they're going to lose me as a customer.

This is ridiculous. 99.9% of these budgets don't even pay the equivalent of minimum wage. How do you make any money on Upwork? This is very discouraging.

[Jennifer M]

Let's be honest though. A quick look at Elance and it looks like a bunch of junk too. You get those 2-3 jobs a day if you're lucky to bid on.

It's really the same deal. The one issue I have is the hourly vs flat rate and hourly seems more popular here. My hourly rate is always higher than everyone else's in my area, and people always complain. With flat rate, I just say "$x for y work" and it's usually OK. But it seems there is an increase in flat rate jobs since I got here, so that's good. I hope it continues.

[Jonathan David S]

Jennifer,

I respectfully disagree. Sure, there are plenty of ridiculously cheap buyers over at Elance. But it's pretty easy to find a decent gig. There are quite a few quality gigs in the writing category on Elance daily. Some days more than others, of course.

[Jennifer M]

I'm not ready to get on the "upwork sucks" bandwagon yet. It feels like starting over though. Elance was probably 80-90% of my income on most months, but I see potential here. Elance is all about the repeat customers. I feel like it's the same here, but you're starting from the bottom again and building those clients back up until the merge is complete.

I haven't bid on much of anything on either platform but I feel like I get a better response rate here when I do. We kinda have a great advantage where we can slowly build up Upwork clients while we keep our Elance clients as main income.

[Preston H]

re: "This is ridiculous. 99.9% of these budgets don't even pay the equivalent of minimum wage. How do you make any money on Upwork?"

Jon, unless you REALLY have your act together, writing is not where the money is on Upwork.

So to answer your question: "How do you make any money on Upwork?"

Answer: Either be a top-level writer who can demand high pay, or do something other than writing.

(Not ANYTHING other than writing, mind you... there are OTHER low-paying job skills as well.)

[Jonathan David S]

Preston,

I'm not going to look into other categories on Upwork, or anywhere else. I'm a writer and a poker player. That's what I do. I've never had a problem finding good paying gigs on Elance. I can always get a decent gig on Elance whenever I want.

I'm not sure how a top-quality writer can make a living on here. There don't appear to be more than a couple of decent paying gigs in the writing category every few days. I don't see how even the best of the best has any chance of making decent money here. 

[Scott E]

Look who it is! Blimey, they'll let anyone in here! 

[Jonathan David S]

You have a face! haha

[Nichola L]

Jon, I think a lot of us (I am a hybrid) who have loved working on Elance, have missed the fact that many oDesk freelancers have made excellent money here. A lot of successful oDeskers were as unprepared for Upwork as Elancers were.

[Darrin O]

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@Jon S wrote:

I'm curious, is Upwork basically the same thing as what oDesk used to be?

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I started online contracting as an experiment at the beginning of the year (coming in with a great deal of other contracting experience prior to that).  At the time, oDesk looked better than Elance for my skills.  Over just that amount of time, for a multitude of reasons, this site has definitely gone down hill.  I fully expect my experiment to conclude at the end of 2015, I have made an order of magnitude less money than would reasonably label this as a success, and I expect to not be hired at all for any of the last 3+ months I'll be here.