Regarding Wasting Connects

[#1]

Dear Everybody

In this Virtual Platform it has been seen that Clients frequently posting Jobs with 8/10/12/16 Connects. But whenever most of the Freelancers Submit their Proposal, they do Interview very few out of many Freelancers & then suddenly dis-appears from the Platform, without Hiring any Freelancers.

The Freelancers expensive Connects gets wasted in these kind of similar Jobs posted with higher values of Connects.

Has anybody experienced these kind of similar problems of "Wasting Connects"?

Kindly respond.

Regards

[#2]

She didn't say that your proposals should be only 2 lines. She said that the first 2 lines should grab the client's interest so that they want to open and read the rest of your proposal. Nothing about your niche is special in this regard.

[#3]

Hi Romel,

Let's take a step back for a moment. Because there are so many people bidding on jobs, the clients need some way to quickly decide which proposals are worth their time to read further. There isn't enough time to read all of them.

What you are missing is the point that all these freelancers with no chance of getting hired are standing in line to have their proposals read, taking up the limited amount of time that clients are willing to sit in front of the computer and sift through proposals, compromising the chances of truly qualified individuals being heard.

Everyone has their own agenda, and this is all well and good. Freelancers want jobs. Clients want their work done, and the third corner of this triangle is Upwork itself. They want to make money. Their businees model says that connects are a good way to do this.

How do they get more revenue from connects? They let anyone with a pulse, regardless of their skill level, bid on jobs, as long as they can pay. They don't care whether you get hired, as long as they get their connect money. This is good for them, but, see above, they are driving away clients, and talented freelancers, who are fighting over the scraps of what is left after clients have left the platform.

This model is unsustainable in the long term for the qualified people here, so go ahead and keep believing that the first two sentences don't matter to the people who are still left standing. You'll be waititng a long time, and spending a lot of money on connects.

[#4]

Dear Martin

I read the message. In this virtual platform Freelancers works in several Domains.

Sometimes two sentences are not sufficient to convince Clients with their respective Domains.

Sometimes you need to expalain equations, which takes several sentences, in summarized ways.

Hope you agree,

Thanks

[#5]

Nobody said you have to write only two sentences, but that the first two lines should be accurately written instead.

[#6]

You are overcomplicating the process. Nobody said you need to, or even want to write the entire proposal in the first two sentences. All you need to do is to create enough interest on the part of the client to want to read more. That's it.

Then, only after you have their attention, do you go into details like equations and other industry specific information. 

You aren't trying to get them to hire you in those first two sentences. You are enticing them to want to read more.

Start with an overview of why you are qualified, and how you can help them. Your help is the only reason they are there. Make sense? Your ability to help them is why you are here. It isn't about you. Telling them how you can help them is all they care about.

[#7]

Dear Martin

The Art of creating interest has to be utilised for, having them. That's True.

That's the theme.

Thanks

[#8]

Romel, the lack of work (and your "wasting connects") is due to a combination of factors.

For some of them, there is nothing you can do (high competition, bot and AI-generated proposals scaring clients away, less and less genuine clients remaining on the platform).

Therefore you should concentrate on what YOU can do, i.e. profile and proposals. You need to make an excellent impression in the first two lines of your proposal, but in all honesty I find your writing style quite cumbersome and not easy to read.

You randomly capitalise words here and there with no apparent logic, and while this may be your style of writing, personally as I client I would prefer to read other candidates' proposals that are more fluent and easy on the eyes. You can also use a free tool such as Grammarly.

[#9]

Dear Elisa

I do agree to whatever you have mentioned. I also understood some of my flaws while typing my proposals, like randomly capitalising words.

Indeed Grammarly is fantastic & is needed.

I would surely work on the flaws as mentioned by you.

Thank you so much for pointing those out, which was really the necessity & has to be worked on.

Best of Luck

With Regards

Romel R

[#10]

We should not divide into a more successful and a less successful freelancers 

It seems that it is going down with the new connects  system. In projects has only  fewer freelancers to post offers  in the projects   which gives the client little choice and he refuses.No need to be limited choise of freelancers client have in the past . Many clients try with small projects before risking larger ones, I have many cases in my practice where a project for $50-$100 can be returned by the client with a project many times more valuable.I do statistics every day for the last 3 years for the categories I work in and I see a 20-25% drop in projects from the last months and down, if we take out the fake projects there are no more than 50% left

One good solution would be if the client does not get in touch with the freelancer within a week, that the connectors or at least half of them be returned to him. The logic is that if the client has come into contact from there, it is the freelancer's skill to convince him that he can realize the project.Also Upwork  do not allow a customer without an payment verifyed  method to  published jobs  , that will save a lot connects because most of these projects are fake. 

At the moment we mainly pay for fake projects. And this is clearly visible through the "Viewed by client" column.  
Now Upwork  is a place where a new freelancer cannot start in any way without spending hundreds of dollars and of that is called "investment"

[#11]

How can anyone that looks at stats possibly conclude that more free connects floating around will give any freelancer a better chance of being hired? I'm no stats expert, but I can handle this math. Your odds go down, significantly. The more people applying, with more connects to boost like mad, means the client sees more proposals, more garbage proposals, and your amazing proposal is buried at number 89. Boosting is not the answer either, unless you know you will be one of the top two applicants. Otherwise, it's just giving Upwork money.

And why are you pushing the client to hire in a week? Maybe they can't find the right freelancer. Maybe every proposal was garbage. Maybe the project was delayed. I have been hired weeks after a job was posted because even with hundreds and hundreds of proposals, clients can't find a decent freelancer.

This non-stop complaining or requesting or demanding connects be returned needs to stop. There are serious issues that need to be dealt with, and people are whining about the tiniest part of their self-employment budget. This should not even be a topic. If you want to freelance, then freelance, which means you pay for everything and there are no guarantees.

If you aren't getting a good return, you have to examine your business. I have found very few legitimate jobs and my work is outside Upwork mostly, because I am not applying for dirt cheap jobs, will not become a farmer, and not going to waste money on jobs that are not legitimate. I've got so many connects, it's sad.

You are incorrect about verified payment. It means nothing, and is no guarantee of payment.  The only thing that matters is the job is funded and the hourly contract or fixed price is set up correctly and funded. Nothing about verified or unverified has anything to do with legitimacy. You have to learn about vetting the client and the job. You have to assume every client and every freelancer is a scammer until proven otherwise.

[#12]

I think there are many reasons to look at that distinction. For one, unsuccessful freelancers aren't making any money for Upwork. Their only contribution to balance out the resources they consume here is paying for connects. 

And, of course, Upwork has more of a vested interest in making things work well for freelancers who are paying them thousands or tens of thousands of dollars than those who are only spending $10-20/month on connects. 

But my point was that freelancer Upwork is working well for are not running around begging to get connects back, because if Upwork works for you, connects are a minor cost of doing business.

[#13]

I would like to chip in something here.

The key to a successful freelance business is being able to make more than you spend!

That said, it surprises me that people still boost their proposals on Upwork. 

Number one, YOU DON'T GET HIRED BY MERIT ON UPWORK! IT'S ALL DUE TO CLIENT PREFERENCE.

Number two: YOU BOOSTING YOUR PROPOSAL MAKES YOU THE BIGGEST LOSER IF SKIPPED OR CLIENT DOESN'T HIRE ANYONE.

Any wise freelancer on Upwork right now would really be trying to spend less, but it amazes me this is not the case.

Simple strategy is try to send less proposals to jobs you have better chance, not many proposals, so that if you do win them, you make more than it costs to get them. Thanks

[#14]

Dear Emmanuel

Sending less proposals & try winning them is a good Choice. But, Clients are Un-predictable.

They might make you wait longer losing your's patience & hence make you Submittig frequent Proposals 

"For Hope".

Thank you

[#15]

In freelancing, you submit a proposal and never look back.

Then, you find another job, and put in a proposal, and don't look back. Repeat until you have a job.

[#16]

If you're losing patience working towards the right project and waiting for honest, serious client while going through many fakes and straight frauds that are present not only on Upwork, then freelancing is not for you. Just saying. You gotta predict, think and estimate, calculate with cold blood.

[#17]

My boosted proposals are consistently more likely to be opened than non-boosted. I want my proposals opened. I don't really consider myself a big loser if two clients don't open proposals I spent $5 to send but the third one hires me and pays me $5000. 

[#18]

Dear Tiffany

This is a nice trick & calculation. Eventually it's risky at the same time.

So it has both its pros & cons.

Thank you 

Romel R

[#19]

It's risky only if you don't do the math and invest accordingly. Running a business is at least 50% about constantly doing that math and finding the most profitable way to operate.

[#20]

Dear Tiffany

That is true the Math is needed. Maths is Self & Dealing is Mutual.

Sometimes combination of Math ( of Self ) & Nature ( of Client ) is Un-predictable.

Correctness is Tough.

Thank you

[#21]

You've been here for a while and more matured kind of financially... Now imagine a newbie boosting, isn't that loads of waste?🙂

Personally i never boost and get jobs quite often, i don't see the sense in boosting because even tho you are the best for a job doesn't mean you will be hired, there are so many times the clients skip the best for someone they just like for their personal reason, for instance someone once told me they only hired me cos i was black lol!! Now imagine how many people boosted on that job and the person was looking for a black person to hire. Lmao. It's all luck and probably a good looking profile

[#22]

My position on boosting is that you should only ever do it if you are virtually certain that the client will contact you if they read your proposal. 

But, that's pretty close to my position on sending proposals at all. I virtually never send a proposal unless I know that I'm going to be one of the 2-3 best qualified freelancers responding to the post. That doesn't mean I'll get hired because, as you said, there are personal preferences. And, a lot of clients can't afford me or don't want to spend that much. But, with the low rate of proposals being opened across the board, it's well worth it to me to spend a few bucks increasing the chance that mine will be one of the ones opened. 

That is, as you pointed out, partly true because I am far along in my career and have reached the point where the cost of a boost doesn't mean much to me. But, I'm always mathing, and boosting does increase the likelihood that my proposal will be opened.