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zsummers
Community Member

Public or Private? What's the preference?

Hey Everyone, 

 

Zach here, and I'm worndering what everyone's preference is. Right now my profile is set to private to the UpWork community, but I'm curious what everyone does. Do you prefer public or private? Thanks so much.  

6 REPLIES 6
JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Zach,

 

You can decide whether to set your profile as "Public" or "Private". To help you decide, please check out this help article. Thank you!

~ Joanne
Upwork
zsummers
Community Member

Thanks so much. I do know how to do it. I was actually wondering how most people have their setting. Thanks for the reading though.

For most freelancers, this setting is not going to have any impact on their ability to earn money. But if a freelancer has had some good experience on Upwork, it makes it more likely that clients may send them invites after finding them in search results. So setting their account to private can make a difference by eliminating the ability to be found in searches.

 

Personally I keep my profile public, but I set my availability status to "unavailable" nearly all the time. This has essentially the same effect: to prevent clients from finding me in searches and sending me invites. I do this because I can only work on a few projects at a time, and I don't want to have clients sending me invites when I don't have time to work on their projects.

varungs
Community Member

Some people like to showcase their skills (or show off) while others prefer to keep their work details a bit more private. Up to you, really. I personally hate having my information online, but of course, having a public profile slightly increases your chances of a client contacting you without you having to send them a proposal. 

I have always believed the difference between showcasing their skills and showing off -- is the willingness to share those skills.

Food for thought.

petra_r
Community Member


Zach S wrote:

 

Zach here, and I'm worndering what everyone's preference is. Right now my profile is set to private to the UpWork community, but I'm curious what everyone does. Do you prefer public or private? Thanks so much.  


You can also pick the middle route, and keep your profile set to Upwork users only, so it is not "all out there" on the web, but clients can still find you for invites.

 

Many people got their best and most valuable clients via invites.

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