It has become impossible to compete in Upwork to get work, with changes through Connects

[paulbaris]

It has become impossible to compete in Upwork to get work, with changes through Connects. It does not matter if you have a portfolio and incredible feedbacks, if you do not have connects you cannot position yourself as a seller in Upwork.

I have worked through Upwork for 4 years, and this year the changes have been really unfavorable for entrepreneurs.

Is anyone else going through the same?

[c93567d7]

I agree as time has gone by it has become harder and harder to get quality clients on upwork - I think upwork should make it their number one priority to remove scammers. The scammers are runining the platform on both client and freelancer side - upwork has become a low trust platform because of this and genuine freelancers and clients are paying the price.

[25005175]

Are you complaining about boosting or just connects in general? Because good clients generally ignore boost status and the equivalent to Connects are used on other major marketplaces where freelancers apply to jobs. Connects are like an advertising fee or the cost of postage. It's just a business expense.

That said, Connects are comparatively cheap to my rates and general dollar value. I understand how $0.15 can be much more expensive in regions where the value of the dollar is much higher.

[paulbaris]

For freelancers of emerging countries, it has really been impossible to pay connect rates. Thinking that positioning yourself in the top 3 of a job, you have to use around 50 connects (sometimes more). It's crazy!

[25005175]

I completely understand. But I and others don't think that positioning is valuable on most jobs, so we aren't terribly worried about it. Now, the bidding system was better when it was "blind", compared to the current pyramid scramble.

[paulbaris]

I agree with you, try not to worry, but in the last 2 months my sales statistics have fallen from the new changes, so I opened here to discuss it. In addition, everything changes so fast that we have to be attentive to which new decisions can take the platform. Thanks for your contributions!

[17dae83b]

I am new here and can't compare the level of competition.
But due to your account's NFT specialization, the crypto crash may also contribute to the job's absence.
I am just making my first steps and running a YouTube channel where I share what I learn.
And the observation from many successful accounts is that they have an introduction video.
Once I filmed mine - I got my first clients.

[paulbaris]

Hey! Thanks for your contribution. Success on this platform ✌️

[17dae83b]

Thanks! And just to be clear, I agree that the competition is very hard. 
The name of the latest video I made speak itself - Getting the first job on Upwork - is now harder than ever

But it's about the competition for the first job. I see that it won't be any easier 😅

[sparbrand]

I am going through the same problem, it has never been this bad