My point was to tell you that there are no actions YOU can take here on UW (which was what you asked), because it isn't YOU. I spun my wheels for quite a while thinking it was me, when I've always had an upward trajectory here and suddenly everything fell off a cliff... what am I doing? what can I do? Lot of time and self-flagellation wasted. Empathy, and hoping to save you that pain, are all I've got... all any of us have got, since Upwork has nothing to say.
Since March I've put out 378 proposals. A gob-smacking number. Each of them, picked because the client would rock if I got the job, and each proposal, highly personalized, as my proposals always are. Better than ever, really... see wheel-spinning-flagellation above. (No new jobs = plenty of time to do this.) BUT NO ONE IS VIEWING THEM. If no one views them, no one knows they're wonderful and that I am the very best person for the job.
My response rate had been getting lower and lower since November, so I decided to start a database in March to see what's really going on numerically.
In December, I got two new jobs. (And I was putting out FAR fewer proposals in 2022). In February, one. Since March, I've had only four responses, and NO new jobs.
The last two weeks have been the worst ever—this week, in fact, I have a ZERO PERCENT, yes, 0%, view rate. NOT ONE PROPOSAL EVEN LOOKED AT. If no one looks...
I had already realized quite a while ago that Upwork had become nearly pointless, and now—THANK YOU HAYDEN BROWN AND UPWORK—Upwork has actually become literally pointless. Eighteen years' experience to offer and not a single VIEW of a carefully-crafted proposal, never mind a response or a job.
Of course you're frustrated. We all are, which was why I was trying to give you the only help there is—information that you're not alone.
What we each do with that information, is our own choice.
All of us who are in the same boat, used Upwork to pay at least some of our bills. For all those in the links I attached above, Upwork is not a hobby. It's a job. And the pain of not being able to pay the bills that Upwork used to cover is acute—whether all or some of our eggs were in this basket, the basket was important; for many of us TRs, it has been important for years.
Frustration is one word for it. Pain is another. And if you look at all those links, and the ones that have been coming in daily since about January, you'll find that Upwork is NOT ANSWERING. (Heck, they're probably not even reading.) Not a word on what has changed in the algo or ???—or on how their loyal, valuable, long-time users, Top-Rated and all, can crawl out of the hole that Upwork dug for us. They just letting every new question-writer keep thinking it's YOU.
Sorry if you didn't find my response helpful, Khozem—but knowing you're not alone is currently all the help there is.
