Long term clients

schardo · ‎09-10-2019

I had a client back in April that I did one project for. I finished it, he paid, and then he ghosted me. I left the contract open, because I thought he might come back, and because I didn't really understand the ramifications of closing a contract with no feedback (I figured he wouldn't leave feedback because of the ghosting).

Fast forward to august, and he closed the contract and left me bad private feedback. Whatever.

I guess I'm wondering -- is this considered a long-term client? Do the time windows begin from when the contract was started or when it was ended? I have two other clients who throw me some work and then disappear. Should I close those contracts or just leave them be? I don't want to make the same mistake again, although I don't think these clients would leave me poor private feedback because they keep giving me work, but I'm not sure.

lysis10 · ‎09-10-2019

Sarah C wrote:
I had a client back in April that I did one project for. I finished it, he paid, and then he ghosted me. I left the contract open, because I thought he might come back, and because I didn't really understand the ramifications of closing a contract with no feedback (I figured he wouldn't leave feedback because of the ghosting).

Fast forward to august, and he closed the contract and left me bad private feedback. Whatever.

I guess I'm wondering -- is this considered a long-term client? Do the time windows begin from when the contract was started or when it was ended? I have two other clients who throw me some work and then disappear. Should I close those contracts or just leave them be? I don't want to make the same mistake again, although I don't think these clients would leave me poor private feedback because they keep giving me work, but I'm not sure.

No, longterm contracts need regular payments. Upwork hasn't said what "regular" means, but the guess from the grapevine is once a month for three months.

prestonhunter · ‎09-10-2019

I THINK that a long term client must be a client who first paid you at least three months ago, and who also - during the past month - has paid you at least one dollar.

So there are two requirements:

- An existing relationship between the freelancer and client that is "long" (3+ months)

[AND]

- A CURRENT relationship (payment within past month)

prestonhunter · ‎09-10-2019

re: "I had a client back in April that I did one project for. I finished it, he paid, and then he ghosted me... Fast forward to August, and he closed the contract and left me bad private feedback. Whatever."

The best time to get feedback is right after work has been completed on a project, while we are still in communication with a client who we know is happy with the work that we did.

In your situation, a client "ghosted" you.

If you had closed the contract yourself... perhaps in May or June or July.... Then when the client came back to Upwork to look at this contract, he would have had no option to leave any feedback.

ri3dviz · ‎09-10-2019

Just ask them nicely if we're finished I would like to close up the job because it shows on my profile that I have many open jobs and may scare potential hiring. Or did I misunderstand your question?

schardo · ‎09-10-2019

I do ask them to close the contracts, for the most part. This particular client was an early catch, before I uh..knew what I was doing.

I was just trying to figure out if this longer-looking relationship would impact me negatively in some way (other than the bad private feedback). It would be nice if it would drop out of my feedback window sooner rather than later, but it is what it is.