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shereefaboasy
Community Member

No one replied to my 42 proposals, there is no one message within 60 days

I am a new freelance medical writer here on upwork, but I have been working as a freelance medical writer for more than 3,5 years on Fiverr..

I got only one job here, after that no one invites me, even replied to my 42 proposals.

 

It can be strange, disappointing thing since it had been 60 days with no one order or even one message.I explained my experience on my profile page.I put a professional photo, I uploaded many works. I used a specialized profile also, I keep sending proposals  and my gig field is required.

The results are no orders.

I wanna know how can I resolve that!!!

Is that normal about the freelance field-generally?

 

I swear that my proposals are perfect.

I gave up this job honestly..

69 REPLIES 69


Shereef A wrote:

 

primacy means priority 

 


Also no, and "My supreme priority is your satisfaction" also makes no sense.


Shereef A wrote:

exploitation means investment 

No, it doesn't, and no native English speaker would ever use a sentence like that. You're not using "primacy" in the correct context either. Those two sentences don't make any sense, and sound like you wrote them in your native language and then fed them into Google translate. I don't care what Grammarly is telling you - I've been speaking English my whole life, and when I read those two sentences, it was immediately obvious that you don't speak English at a "native or bilingual" level. If you want some good advice, either 1) Write in your native language; 2) Accurately say that your English is at a "basic" level and reduce your hourly rate, because whoever buys your work will need to spend time correcting it; 3) Work with better writer who can edit your work before you give it to clients; or 4) Ignore all advice and continue to struggle with getting clients.

 


Christine A wrote:

Shereef A wrote:

exploitation means investment 

No, it doesn't, and no native English speaker would ever use a sentence like that. 

 


Actually, a Marxist English speaker might equate exploitation and investment, if you'll pardon my nitpicking. 

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce


John K wrote:


Actually, a Marxist English speaker might equate exploitation and investment, if you'll pardon my nitpicking. 


Didn't Marx also say, "Grammarly is the opium of the masses"?

The fact that you are becoming defensive when someone points out obvious flaws on your profile says more about you than them - and perhaps explains why no one is responding to your applications.

m_terrazas
Community Member


Shereef A wrote:

I am a new freelance medical writer here on upwork, but I have been working as a freelance medical writer for more than 3,5 years on Fiverr..

I got only one job here, after that no one invites me, even replied to my 42 proposals.

 

It can be strange, disappointing thing since it had been 60 days with no one order or even one message.I explained my experience on my profile page.I put a professional photo, I uploaded many works. I used a specialized profile also, I keep sending proposals  and my gig field is required.

The results are no orders.

I wanna know how can I resolve that!!!

Is that normal about the freelance field-generally?

 

I swear that my proposals are perfect.

I gave up this job honestly..



Shereef A wrote:

I am a new freelance medical writer here on upwork, but I have been working as a freelance medical writer for more than 3,5 years on Fiverr..

I got only one job here, after that no one invites me, even replied to my 42 proposals.

 

It can be strange, disappointing thing since it had been 60 days with no one order or even one message.I explained my experience on my profile page.I put a professional photo, I uploaded many works. I used a specialized profile also, I keep sending proposals  and my gig field is required.

The results are no orders.

I wanna know how can I resolve that!!!

Is that normal about the freelance field-generally?

 

I swear that my proposals are perfect.

I gave up this job honestly..


I'm not going to comment on your English, I can't.
Just to tell you that you are wasting the first two lines that are the only thing customers see when they see your proposal.
And, on the other hand, you only talk about yourself. The client can see your studies and your work history, if you have added it, in your profile.
You should focus on what you can do for the customer.

 

About your proposals, well, you can show us one and surely someone will comment on it.
Take advantage that here you have both freelancers and clients.

Here's an example of one of my proposals;

 

 

 


Hi and Welcome! 🙂 I am Dr shereef I am looking forward to dealing with you as a freelance medical writer. I am interested in writing health articles, and blogs as content for your websites, and as a review of your products with great, attractive, and informational research. I promise it will be a very beneficial material. I present you a word_ we can deal with to produce the most unique and the best content that can be presented. I am a family medicine doctor who graduated from one of the most important universities in my country ;(Mansoura Faculty Of Medicine). According to my clinical practice I have been in hospitals for 6 years now. I had been a trainee in different subspecialties for more than 4 years. I have been working as a freelance medical writer for more than 3,5 years. I wrote many articles before for different medical companies and different clients on Fiverr. I had been a partner with some medical companies for a while as a medical writer. My medical articles got great appreciation from the medical experts in Manchester Program. Here are samples of my work.

 

The same convoluted and rambling text as your profile was before. 

Nobody is going to read that. You only talk about yourself. 

1. Nothing in your proposal should be a repeat from what you already have in your profile. 

2. Don't talk about yourself. Talk about the client's requirement, but be very specific. Avoid all generalities.

3. If you have questions about the requirements, ask. Be specific. Show your interest. 

Again, your text will never appeal to an English native. Don't try to compete with hundreds of thousands of native writers. You lack the basic gut feel for the English language, where you intuitively know when something doesn't sound right or native. You don't recognize unnatural language patterns or mistakes. That is perfectly fine! You don't need to have perfect English in your profession. But it will be a frustrating uphill battle trying to be something you are not. Writing should come easy, it should be light and effortless, or at least appear that way to the reader. This is a skill you can't learn in 5 or even 10 years, and you can't just pretend to have it. 

On a positive note: I really like your picture, it's great! 


Shereef A wrote:

Here's an example of one of my proposals;

 

 

 


Hi and Welcome! 🙂 I am Dr shereef I am looking forward to dealing with you as a freelance medical writer. I am interested in writing health articles, and blogs as content for your websites, and as a review of your products with great, attractive, and informational research. I promise it will be a very beneficial material. I present you a word_ we can deal with to produce the most unique and the best content that can be presented. I am a family medicine doctor who graduated from one of the most important universities in my country ;(Mansoura Faculty Of Medicine). According to my clinical practice I have been in hospitals for 6 years now. I had been a trainee in different subspecialties for more than 4 years. I have been working as a freelance medical writer for more than 3,5 years. I wrote many articles before for different medical companies and different clients on Fiverr. I had been a partner with some medical companies for a while as a medical writer. My medical articles got great appreciation from the medical experts in Manchester Program. Here are samples of my work.

 


What language are you proposing to write in? Because it's not good enough to write in English, from one medical writer to another. Having medical expertise is not enough. You need to be able to communicate in English. You are not fluent in English; you are conversational - from a written standpoint. Perhaps that was overlooked on Fiverr, but obviously you can see it's not the same on Upwork. 

 

The proposal posted is not well written. I would not bother looking at samples, because, as someone who hires writers, I judge you on your proposal. I would suggest you seek out opportunities writing in your native language, where you may have more luck. 

celineyjs
Community Member

"Why there is no positive comment encouraging me!"

 

Because there are so many people here who already gave you constructive criticism and useful feedback but you continue to repel them and not acknowledge them at all. It's okay, I have a Degree in Denial so I totally know the feeling of proving yourself right even when people says otherwise. 😂

 

Don't you think that if you rely on tools like Grammarly in everything that you'll be too dependent on them especially when they're not 100% accurate all the time? For a writer, I would expect them to write based on their own skills the most, just like me using Adobe Photoshop to draw pictures as an illustrator and the tool only helps me enhance the pictures like adjusting the brightness or paint them smoother, it doesn't help me draw an object from scratch, haha!

 

Don't worry, I have applied with more than 90 proposals and barely get much responses. Upwork is way more competitive than Fiverr because it's the largest freelance platform in the world and that's all the more reason for you to bring your A game and put your all into your freelancing business and that includes polishing your profile and portfolio. And with that, isn't it all the more reason for you to accept the feedback given by others and see why they say it that way? When there's more than 3 people saying something about your writing, that's when you should evaluate and see how you can improve your work. 🙂

 

All the best in getting successful on Upwork (or Fiverr if you prefer to go back and work there). ✌️

martina_plaschka
Community Member

Let me summarize this for you:

1. Your profile text still reads unnatural and clumsy and is too much about you, not the client.

2. I believe you tried your best, and this is it. 

3. You could apply only to jobs from other non-native speakers. They might not see the mistakes, but it's a risky strategy nonetheless. Their readers might point out errors, they might have it proofread, you might get either bad feedback or lose a client forever. If mistakes are pointed out to you before a job is ended, be humble and correct them. Don't try to be right when you clearly are not. 

4. Do not apply to jobs from English-speaking countries. You are wasting your connects. 

5. Send more proposals and evaluate your success at 100 proposals. If you haven't had a better response rate by then, don't pursue this any further on upwork. 

6. Don't delete your profile, you can only have one in your lifetime. You might come back in 10 years with a better command of English or other marketable skills. You might have more success then. 

7. Change your English level to fluent. You are clearly misrepresenting your skills, which is a serious ToS violation. 

 

I came with the same issue hoping to see related queries before creating my post. 

 

Honestly, I found the replies in here funny and interesting at the same time. Giving Shereef more feedback after he'd shown clearly that he's not ready to accept his mistakes and fix them shows that you do care.

 

Back to my case, when I started late last year, I got a small job which I accepted out of desperation after sending 20 proposals. The client wasn't clear with his description, he asked for revision which I was ready to fix, but he couldn't keep his patient. So he finalised the job and dropped a 3.5-star review. Since then, I've had no luck in bidding. Couple with the fact that I'm a new UpWork user. It feels like whenever I send proposals, clients don't even see them not to talk of responding.

 


Martina P wrote:

Let me summarize this for you:

5. Send more proposals and evaluate your success at 100 proposals. If you haven't had a better response rate by then, don't pursue this any further on upwork. 

 


What caught my attention is number 5 of your summary. Do you mean to actually send up to 100 proposals to evaluate your success rate? 

Besides, I'd love to have a critique of my profile as well. Thanks


Mikail H wrote:

I came with the same issue hoping to see related queries before creating my post. 

 

Honestly, I found the replies in here funny and interesting at the same time. Giving Shereef more feedback after he'd shown clearly that he's not ready to accept his mistakes and fix them shows that you do care.

 

Back to my case, when I started late last year, I got a small job which I accepted out of desperation after sending 20 proposals. The client wasn't clear with his description, he asked for revision which I was ready to fix, but he couldn't keep his patient. So he finalised the job and dropped a 3.5-star review. Since then, I've had no luck in bidding. Couple with the fact that I'm a new UpWork user. It feels like whenever I send proposals, clients don't even see them not to talk of responding.

 


Martina P wrote:

Let me summarize this for you:

5. Send more proposals and evaluate your success at 100 proposals. If you haven't had a better response rate by then, don't pursue this any further on upwork. 

 


What caught my attention is number 5 of your summary. Do you mean to actually send up to 100 proposals to evaluate your success rate? 

Besides, I'd love to have a critique of my profile as well. Thanks


Yes that it what I would tell a newbie. After 100 proposals someone should have a good idea if he/she can make it work for themselves or not. 

Your profile should be client-centered, and you have a bad feedback that is not helping you. You should consider refunding to make it disappear. 

Okay, thanks for the advice. But refund can only be done up to 180 days and I didn't know this earlier

You still can. Go to the contract page and select the 3 dots next to Feedback.

tagrendy
Community Member

"They are humid prepossessing Homo Sapiens with fully sized aortic pumps" 

Anybody watched Friends? 🤪

Well.

I've decided that considering Shereef is so persistent that he's correct, then he must be right and the rest of us English native speaking professionals (including writers) must be wrong.

You go for it Shereef. It's your career, you clearly know better than the rest of us.

I'm leaving this discussion now because I have work to do - I'm not having difficulty finding jobs (as an English language writer). But what would I know?

andy-hill
Community Member

Hello, Shereef.

 

Well, 42 proposals and not one reply tells you something's not working, so let's break it down. 

 

THE PROBLEM

 

Martina P is right about the competition, so it's vital to stand out with your proposals. You may think they're perfect, but that doesn't mean they are... it just means YOU think they are. If they were that impressive, at least a few people would have responded. 

 

THE SOLUTION

 

Last year, I ran into similar issues as gazillions of freelancers went after every writing job. It's true; freelancer competition really seemed to heat up in 2021. So, I started testing with different proposals. 

 

I sent out short-to-the-point bids, medium-length (4-600 words) applications, and longer (1000+ words) proposals. What each of the above had in common was clarity and good readability. I eventually found a formula that works for me, but I may look at even more tweaks.

 

Heck, sometimes I get compliments on my proposals even when a job poster doesn't offer me the gig. Here are three of the more recent ones:

 

"Best bid letter I've read in a long time Andy. Give me a bit of time to get organized and I'll be back in touch." 

 

"I have got tons of application but only very few catching my attention, yours is one of them."

 

"Andy, that is, without doubt, the best response to a job post I've ever seen ... and I've seen a few! Well done and thank you for giving it so much thought and attention."

 

The point is I'm catching the eyes of potential clients despite the intense competition. Remember this as you prepare every bid, Shereef:

 

THERE ARE NO SECOND CHANCES TO MAKE THAT CRITICAL FIRST IMPRESSION.

 

THE GOOD NEWS

 

The good news is that there are more weak proposals than strong ones. How do I know? Because I've seen a new job post at say 10 am get over 50 bids by 10:05 am. Few would be able to prepare a meticulous job application in such a short time. But it's not how fast you apply that matters; it's the quality of your application.

 

THE BAD NEWS

 

Please don't ask me to share my formula. It's not that I'm being unkind, but you are a potential competitor, and I need to be competitive. So, please do your own tweaks and tests, and let us know how it goes 😉 

 

I hope that helps, Shereef, and good luck.

 

Andy H

**Edited for Community Guidelines** great post and very kind response. 

Okay

There is a thought I believe in deeply from the point of reality.

I believe that the one who hires freelancers prefer dealing with who had many previous jobs here, many good feedbacks and excludes the new ones who had no jobs did or feedbacks.

Do you agree!


Shereef A wrote:

I believe that the one who hires freelancers prefer dealing with who had many previous jobs here, many good feedbacks and excludes the new ones who had no jobs did or feedbacks.

Do you agree!


Not as simple as that. You are still refusing to face reality.

Everyone started with 0 jobs.

Clients prefer to hire freelancers who actually demonstrably have the skills they advertise on their profile.

We might debate this hypothetical question, but it doesn't apply to you since you already have one job. 

AndreaG
Moderator
Moderator

Hi all,

 

A few posts and replies to them have been removed from this thread as they were in violation of our Community Guidelines and values. Please, be mindful of the Community Guidelines and respectful toward other users when posting.

 

~Andrea
Upwork
feed_my_eyes
Community Member

Folks, there's no point in giving somebody advice if they don't want advice. Just leave him to it. Some people have to learn the hard way.

Seriously! 😂😂

 

joostdoevelaar
Community Member

OK apparently I have too much time on my hands because I just went through your profile and actually looked at the examples of work you posted. The English in the work you posted is much better, but it still has non-native mistakes. 

 

My earlier suggestion stands, make the necessary changes ot your profile, admit that you are not a native speaker and focus on providing the best service that you can. If I were to hire you as a native speaker I would be very disappointed in a number of mistakes I see. If I were to hire you for medical writing as a non-native speaker, I might expect a slightly lower price but also wouldn't expect perfection. 

 

It's about marketing yourself different, because you are currently giving expectations that you cannot meet (yet). Before you complain about the 24 others that offered work on another website, you admit that you have 42 applications here and no one has responded. That either means that the platform isn't for you, or you simply aren't living up to expectations. 

Okay 

I appreciate and understand that

But Seriously, I strongly believe that this job ( the medical writing)is generally considered a very critical and semi mandatory matter.

I depend on it mainly as 

My salary as a family medicine doctor within a month is about (( 235$ )).🙂🙂

 

00137e0a
Community Member

Hi there Shereef,

 

I'll give you my honest feedback.

 

I'm not a native English speaker as well, and I can clearly notice that your English skills could really use some improvements if you want to write professional articles in that language. 

 

Grammarly is cool. I use it all the time, but it's far from being perfect, and at least in my case, it often offers bad suggestions. It's great for small corrections, but it can't take your medium-level English to a native fluency level. The technology is just not there yet.

 

 

versailles
Community Member

Shereef, do not listen to anyone criticizing your English here. You're right, your English is not only native, but it's also immaculate.
The reason why you can't get a contrct here is not because your English, it's because Upwork. Just go ahead and delete your account and keep working on the other platform where you have some success. Follow my advice. You do that and you'll thank me one day. You will.

You, and many others here.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
kochubei_valeria
Community Member

A number of replies have been removed from this thread as they were in violation of the Community Guidelines.

We'll be closing the thread to further replies since the arguments have been exhausted and the conversation is moving into an unproductive direction.

~ Valeria
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