Proposals not getting any response

[#1]

Hi !!

I have been submitting customized proposals for each job. I am not randomly applying to every job. I have also replied promptly and diligently to every invitation I received, yet no successful conversion. I have lost a lot of my connects. I have tried everything from the articles that talked about perfect proposals but of no use. I am on the verge of discontinuing. 

Kindly help.

Suvidha.

[#2]

Hi Suvidha, 

Your profile looks good, pretty well written, IMO, but a little long. There are a lot of nice gems that go to your writing style, but then some generic stuff too. You could try and tighten it up. Maybe look at your proposals and split the wheat from the chafe (sp?) too? 

If you want to share a proposal privately, I'd be willing to give you some feedback. But if you just joined recently, I'd say that it's a little bit of a numbers game to get your foot in the door. These days it takes a few months for new freelancers to get a good ongoing cohort of clients. And your field is fully saturated, so it's even harder. 

I think you should keep at it. It might require an investment of some connects, but keep trying. We hear stories of people submitting 100s of proposal before they get the snowball effect and are at capacity for work. Everyone has their own magic formula to the proposal as well. The tutorials are okay, but generic. You have to figure out what formula works for you. 

[#3]

Thank you for all the suggestions you gave. All of those were insightful. I'll try working on the given instructions.

[#4]

How are things going now? Did the suggestion help? 

[#5]

Hello there, I have a similar experience, I too am new to the platform, have submitted several proposals and used a dozen of my connects, but have had no conversions as yet, though got like 2 invites but havent succeded yet in getting actual work to(havent been offered work yet).

Kindly advise how best to do it or different approach I should  use to land a job(work). Thanks

[#6]

Please help check my profile too, i have used up all my connects and still bought 20 more connects.

i am not getting response why?

[#7]

Hello Amanda, 
For a Long time, I am also facing the same issue.
I am submitting the proposal and I am not getting any revert.
kindly show me some paths and I am happy to share my proposal privately where you can share some feedback on it.

Please let me know how can I share my proposal with you?

Thank you,
Vaidehi

[#8]

Hey Amanda.

Can you please check my proposals and guide me on where I am going wrong? I have been applying for a month, and 4 of those proposals were opened too. But no reply from clients. 

Thanks!

[#9]

Hey Amanda 

Do you think you can take a look at my profile as well and offer me some advice on how to improve. I've been working on landing my first client on Upwork but no response because I have no reviews or jobs that I have completed. That would be appreciated, Thanks!

[#10]

Hi Amanda. I am a new freelancer on Upwork and have submitted at least 20 proposals in the last 10 days but none of the clients bother to even view it. I put a lot of effort into creating my cover letter and proposals. Please provide some suggestions for my bio in my profile and may I please send my cover letter to you so that you may determine if it is professional and nice?

[#11]

Amanda, I have a similar issue - no response on Upwork although I am pretty good at what I am bidding for. I have a network outside Upwork as well, and they sustain my business - I get a lot of referrals so must be doing something right. However, Upwork does not believe me when I say that. I offered free service in exchange for a good rating, but that does not get any attention either. Not sure how to proceed. 

[#12 · Accepted solution]

Honestly this is the landscape and you are in an area that has a ton of competition. You seem to be doing the right things in terms of applying to those jobs that make sense and your profile has personality. However, you are new with little UW experience and so there is a hill to climb. I receive invitations all the time and a very high percentage never bother to respond (makes you wonder why they invited you to begin with.) Maybe others in your field will have specific suggestions but like absolutely everyone here, it's a grind to get going. You may need to compromise a little to start in terms of the exact nature of the job in order to get reviews. I say "compromise" though and not dumpster dive. Beware of the race to the bottom with rates. You would be better to discontinue than do that. Know your value and be confident and professional when you do discuss with clients. 

[#13]

Thank you for your insights.

[#14]

Hey Scott,

I'm also facing the same issue. I started UW in the month of Jul. So far only 1 job has been completed. Since then I'm just submitting proposals, all customized. The solutions are explained right at the beginning of the proposal. But there was no response.

The submitted proposals do show some interviews, but there is no hiring. I checked the last month's proposals. Out of 15 submitted proposals only 1 was hired.  This month again I checked the last 10 proposals, there is no hiring so far. Whereas all the employers hiring rate varies from 50% - 70% and few have 100% hiring rate. After a month the project is archived. The connects get wasted. What is the issue? I'm very demotivated.

Thanks

[#15]

Hi there!

Subject-I am getting views on my cover letters but not getting replies from new clients.

I'd like to inform you that I have been submitting customized proposals for each job that match my skills however not gotten new responses for the last 20 days. The response rate went down up to 70%(I think).

I have earned more than $44k on Upwork and have been working on this platform for the last 4 years.I have tried everything from the articles that talked about perfect proposals, also tried custom SEO proposals, applied with speed but of no use.

Can you please let me know what is the issue or if this is just a normal wave?

Regards,

Mukul

[#16]

Hi Scott,

I'm also facing the same issue. I started on Upwork in June and have completed only one job so far. Since then, I've submitted over 22 customized proposals, clearly explaining the solutions at the beginning of each one, but haven't received any responses.

While some proposals show interviews, there's been no hiring. Every day, I send 2-3 proposals and even boost them, but I still haven't been hired for any projects. I'm feeling very discouraged as my job depends on Upwork. Despite having a strong portfolio, I'm not getting hired.

Can you please address my concerns?

Thank you.

Best regards,
Parul

[#17]

---

Suvidha R wrote:

Hi !!

I have been submitting customized proposals for each job. I am not randomly applying to every job. I have also replied promptly and diligently to every invitation I received, yet no successful conversion. I have lost a lot of my connects. I have tried everything from the articles that talked about perfect proposals but of no use. I am on the verge of discontinuing. 

Kindly help.

Suvidha.

---

I saw your post earlier and I thought I like what I am seeing.  In particular what I find appealing is you clearly are trying to build a good approach and are looking to succeed.  You may not be aware but probably something like 99% of the people who have the same problem come off as they are expecting things to just work.  I really appreciate that you see that you have to work at it and I would say right there, you have put yourself in a different category.

Nobody can tell you, including you, what you are on the verge of.  I know coming here sending proposal after proposal and not hearing anything was a struggle.  I think what you have to hold on to is what you know you have to offer.  Then you have to think, then re-think your strategies constantly. 

When you write a proposal to a client you want to make sure that the first thing you are doing is addressing their problem.  You only have two lines to make an impression and what you want to do with those two lines is set the tone that you understand the client's need and now how to solve it.  You have to take what you know and say something that demands attention.  In order to be engaged you have to be engaging.

I follow a sales guy on LinkedIn and he had a post the other day and he said one of the most powerful statements you can make in sales is "things have changed."  Think of how to apply something like that as an experiment in something you propose.  You start laying an idea for a client that changes their perception you might just capture their attention.

I can tell you the vast majority of people's proposals and profiles start out as:

Hi my name is so-and-so and for the last twelve years I have been doing blah for blah blah blah.

Compare that with:

People used to think that the way to achieve good search rankings was by doing blah but now it is way more effective to...

You think a client won't want to finish that sentence, that paragraph, that proposal?

The simple messages that I feel proposals should have are:

I understand your problem

I know how to solve your problem

I am here to help

Pick me and your life will be way easier

[#18]

Thank you,

That reply was both enriching and encouraging. I will definitely try experimenting with the style of writing the proposals.

Regards,

Suvidha.

[#19]

Please check and review my profile too. I have 150 plus jobs/ratings on my upwork profile but recently I am not getting any response for the proposals I have submitted!

[#20]

Suvidha,

I am in the exact same position. I feel the need to scream on my profile: "Though I am new on Upwork, I'm not new to the work!" but am assuming that would be unprofessional (ha).

As suggested, I have submitted a few proposals, but the writers haven't even been online in over a week.

Do I just buy more connects? Do I wait? I'm grateful that this is my side gig. This would be devestating if this was my primary occupation.

Any thoughts, Gurus?

Thanks,

Laura Sebastian, M.Ed

[#21]

Hi Laura,

I can totally understand your plight. You won't believe I have written that (New to Upwork but experienced in the field) in a couple of my proposals. My profile also refers to it in a subtle way. I thought of adding it because I feel clients filter proposals only on the basis of the amount earned by the freelancer till now or basis the rating a freelancer has. If this is the usual case how will we fetch any work? a newcomer shall always remain a newcomer with this practice. 

Let us hope the Gods controlling Upwork answer our prayers and we are blessed with more work. Ha Ha!

Suvidha.

[#22]

Just Keep Your Rates Low Initially. I Guess You'll Get Some Success If You Charge A Bit Lot. 

[#23]

Have you checked what you're up against?

Generic editing and proofreading is one of the most competitive domains on this platform.

It would probably be better to focus on some narrower niche to improve your chances.

[#24]

I have submitted 1 proposal yesterday but I didn't receive any reply and today I tried but I didn't receive reply pls check the problem.
Thank yoi

[#25]

Hi Jaswita,

Submitting proposals doesn't always guarantee that you will get hired or get a chance to be interviewed, but you shouldn't give up on sending proposals to potential clients. You may check our Resources and find some excellent topics there.

Thanks!