Proposals Not Being Viewed

lisaannburke · ‎03-26-2024

I have been on Upwork for a number of years. Historically, I would submit a proposal and receive a response within a day, many times within an hour. I now have 14 proposals out and only one was viewed and no client has reached out. I'm doing nothing differently and pretty good at proposal creation showcasing my fit for the role and experience or I wouldn't have the earnings history I do. I realize part of the problem may the the overwhelming number of jobs with 20-50 proposals plus all the boosted proposals that have greater visibility but something still seems very off. I'm not paranoid normally but have taken to considering that submissions are hidden. Same for invitations, they have dropped off significantly so that I wonder whether my profile is continually omitted from the choice of freelancers that clients are presented. Anyone else having theses type of issues?

b817b8d6 · ‎03-26-2024

What kind of job do you put out ma'am I do graphics designs like logo business card and lots more

amit-benzatine · ‎03-26-2024

Hello Lisa, I agree with you !!!

We are an agency and we have been submitting proposals for the last 10 months, we have $200k+ earnings on our profile but still, we have not gotten a single project in the last 10 months.

We are also facing the same issue, after submitting a number of proposals and wasting connects on fake/scam jobs we did not get hired for a single job in a year.

After reporting the ample number of jobs, no one is looking into this, the situation is still the same. Clients are continuously posing the same and fake jobs again and again without hiring anyone. Also, previously we were getting lots of invitations a year ago but now the situation has changed, and we are not getting a single genuine invitation.

Waiting for other freelancer's or agencies' opinions!
Thank you.

lisaannburke · ‎03-27-2024

Hello Amit,

I'm sorry that you have been having similar difficulty. I have appreciated Upwork the past 10 years as I've participated in a number of interesting projects but the current concerns are leading me to consider other options. I will stay on the plaform until they suspend me for inactivity as I cannot justify purchasing connects at this point; it seems money wasted and I'm not exactly printing dollars over here!

My best,

Lisa

amit-benzatine · ‎03-27-2024

Yes, you are right, it was a good money-making platform for the past years but from the last year they have been making unnecessary changes and everyone is talking about leaving the platform or choosing the better one.

We are also spending more money on connects but not worth it, even though they have increased the connects to 23 for a single job posting which is unacceptable as after spending this much connects clients don't hire a single freelancer and don't close their jobs so our hard spend connects are wasted and we will never get them back.

I explored many jobs today and it is showing 20 to 23 connects on all good and verified job posts.
How can we spend 23 connects on a single job posting?

Please share your opinions, Lisa.
Thank you.

matthewschenker · ‎03-28-2024

Amit G,

I totally agree with you. I'm fairly new on Upwork, but in that short time I am extremely unhappy with what I see.

I had not even thought about jobs still accepting proposals even after the client has moved on. That's total negligence on the part of Upwork, because in that case they are collecting money from connects for jobs that are just for show.

In other forum discussions, I have outlined some of the problems I see with Upwork. But at this point, I don't understand how they can legally operate the way they do.

I've closed my paid account and switched back to the free one. As far as I can tell, there's no difference.

lisaannburke · ‎03-29-2024

Hi Amit, I did not realize the connects have increased to 20 to 23 per submission. The coonects were just changed to 19 a week or so ago! This is getting out of hand. And, yes, jobs remian open indefinitely even when a hire is made. I beleive the continuous increase in connects is a way to filter down the number of freelancers to only those who are active and can afford to keep paying these increaes. As I said, I cannot justify going along with the continuing increase in connects expenditure when so many jobs are suspicious. And, if I am interested in a job, I will engage in plenty of due diligence before submitting (e.g. client Upwork history, etc.) If I ever do refill my connects balance I will do so only from Upwork earnings.

amit-benzatine · ‎04-01-2024

Yes, you are right, Lisa. If we are paying 20 to 23 connects per job there should be some protection for us like if the client doesn't hire anyone for the posted job, we should get our connects back even if they don't close the job as some clients never close the job so Upwork should take care of it. Upwork is only focusing on earning more money from connections.

portia122000 · ‎03-27-2024

I am having the same issue, and I joined this forum mainly to see if other freelancers were seeing something similar. I'm a top-rated plus freelancer, and I usually hear back pretty fast on proposals, but in the past 10 or so that I have submitted, only one has even been viewed. And even for the one that was viewed, no one has responded to me about it. I don't understand why some proposals aren't being viewed unless some of the proposals are somehow being filtered out so that clients don't see them. I don't know, but it's getting harder to earn money on this site as a freelancer. And I also don't understand why there are so many jobs with payments unverified. Why not just require that someone verify their payment method before being able to post jobs?

Lisa

matthewschenker · ‎03-27-2024

Lisa A. B,

I am having the same experience as you. Except I have not been active on Upwork for as long as you have.

I have submitted numerous proposals in the last couple of weeks that are absolutely perfect matches for the job posting, and I have portfolio samples showcasing in great detail the exact match. And yet, my proposals don't even get a view. That's just not possible that such a perfect match doesn't even get a view! Very suspicious.

Note: I have posted about this same subject in other forum discussions.

heath1974 · ‎03-28-2024

wrote:
Very suspicious.

That's pretty much Upwork in a nutshell right now. In my last 20 proposals, one solitary client view that led to contact, subsequently offering one tenth of the rate in their job listing. Utter waste of time and expense.