Some Suggestions from Freelancer's POV

[ae125c83]

As a freelancer, it's understandable that we are looking for ways to make the Upwork platform work better. Here are some suggestions that you may find helpful:

1. Increase the Reward for Job Replies: Upwork should give rewards to freelancers for every job reply they receive because for now, they are rewarding only a few. This would incentivize freelancers to apply to more jobs, and it would also help to compensate them for their time and effort in creating proposals.
   
   

2. Refund of Connects for Removed Jobs: Upwork could offer refunds for the connects spent on jobs that are removed by clients after a certain period of time, say 1 month, without hiring anyone. This would be fair to freelancers who spent connects on jobs that ultimately went nowhere, and would encourage clients to be more diligent in their hiring process.
   
   

3. Refund of Connects for Invited Freelancers: Upwork could consider offering refunds for connects spent on proposals that were never seen because the client invited a freelancer and ultimately hired them. This would be fair to freelancers who spent connects on proposals that were never going to be seen by the client, and would also encourage clients to be more thoughtful about their hiring process.

Overall, these suggestions would help to make the Upwork platform more fair and equitable for freelancers. By incentivizing them to apply to more jobs and compensating them for their time and effort, Upwork could help to create a more positive experience for freelancers and ultimately help them to be more successful on the platform.

Please share your views so we can convince Upwork that these suggestions are necessary from a Freelancer's Point of View.

[yofazza]

Please share your views

ChatGPT is missing the latest trends. Making the platform more fair and equitable for freelancers  are not in the interest of Upwork. They don't want to do that when they have an unlimited supply of freelancers and a greatly imbalanced supply and demand. What they need to do is to make things harder for the supply (freelancers) to reduce their numbers, or, to profit! from them so they don't just flock here everyday only to put burden to their expensive servers.

Well yes they can try to create a high-quality freelancing marketplace  where they will need to attend to the freelancer's needs so the freelancers will show their 'true potentials' I guess. I think that's what they've been trying to do for years, but that doesn't seem to work from the business' POV. I believe most experienced freelancers are independent and don't need Upwork to help them managing their 'clients', 'invoices' etc. So it seems like they can't profit from a high-quality freelancing marketplace.

They are now focusing on short-terms, and maximize profits from their unlimited supply of freelancers, and a few other things, which are quite logical from my POV. Logical, but only time will tell if they'll work or not.

We now just have to observe if those changes can really/finally bring them net profit or not.

Will they beat their historically-lowest point in the next couple weeks? 😁

[spectralua]

No profit will be there.

It is must be a freelance platform. But it is gambling, scamming and spamming platform with no jobs. How many money newbie will waste here before gone, $10, 100 in total? I think less than 50 in average. It wont cover servers, lazy employees (Or all them already fired? Thats why site is laggy and support is missed), ads. 

[yofazza]

We don't know the actual detail.

But if we assume freelancers spent $10 before they gave up, that means $10 million IF there's only a million freelancers (while there are actually 12 millions of them). That's still a whole lot of extra money, which is much better than leaving the freelancers roam freely.

That's why suggestions around 'refunding connects' will be ignored. They even raise the connects needed per project, removed the upper cap of connects that can be posessed, and added a boosting slot, instead.

gambling, scamming and spamming platform with no jobs

Those has the potential to eventually bring everything down. We'll just observe 😊

[tlsanders]

$10 million sounds like a lot to you and I, but to a company with more than half a billion in annual revenues? That's about a 2% increase.

[yofazza]

We don't know the actual detail and I simplify a lot of things in mentioning the $10 million.

I was responding to Mykola who said there's no profit from what they're doing lately, which might be true, or not, we'll see.

[estrategic]

My 2 pieces of silver again on "boosting".   I think some freelancers have found a way to score infinite free connects while the rest of us pay for them.  I say this because I have noticed a trend.  Here is an actual job spec:

"Web design needed - I would need to discuss my needs with you to figure out which way to go from here."

And guess what - its been boosted 30, 27, 25 and 5 connects.  

For the record - job ID ~01eee4865837b8287d for 2 connects to apply.

Is this job worth the 32 connects someone has spent? I believe not.  Upwork admin needs to address this urgently.

[spectralua]

It is correct. I know the way how to recive unlimited connects for spamming. It is unaplicable for legal freelancers but useful for scammers and spammers. Upwork also know it. Why this backdor alive and won't be closed? I think you know the answer. 🙂

[ae125c83]

Absolutely, Steven, Upwork should definitely take some action for this.

[yofazza]

I read about some tricks in other forum during the start of the boost thing, but they're a little doesn't make sense now when the 'bonus connects on interview' are scarce (I believe they're still available - I still got them - but from what I understand this can't be used as a trick to gain unlimited connects anymore).

I do suspect there are other tricks that still works, especially when I saw projects with unbelievable bids that costs higher than the project value, that makes me think:

• The FLs are hoping to negotiate again on interview.
• The FLs are planning to get additional or 'next jobs' from the client.
• The FLs got their connects for free.

[tlsanders]

I never buy connects, and it's not unusual for me to boost with 20 or 25 connects. I lose some to expiration, but I can't remember the last time I ran out. It's all about not going nuts bidding on every job you think you could do.

[tlsanders]

Upwork used to do # 1. They had to stop because dishonest freelancers colluded to create fake jobs and respond to each other to steal connects. 

They DO return connects if the client closes the job without hiring. 

The invitation one makes no sense--if they invited people but also posted the job publicly, they're accepting other proposals. Most clients are smart enough to understand that unless they spend 100 hours searching, they will not necessarily see the best freelancer for their project--in fact, since Upwork only lets you see a tiny fraction of the available freelancers in search, no amount of time investment would ensure that you found the best fit.

[ae125c83]

They Do return connects only if client closes the job before hiring, But What if client didn't hire anybody and neither closes the job. After 1 month, It's automatically closed and in that case, We don't receive our connects back. It's not our fault that Client didn't hire anybody and neither closes the job.

[tlsanders]

Well, we could quibble about whether it's "our fault" if we're not hired. But, you didn't say connects should be returned if the job was abandoned--you said if the client removed the job. That currently does happen, though I don't think it should.

[estrategic]

Tiffany, I believe that you have a valuable point above.   But Upwork should be sorting out the problem and not make honest freelancers pay in.   I have found Upwork in the past to be a life-saver.  When I needed income, I was able to earn.  For that I am eternally grateful.  However,  this calendar year I have applied for about 30 jobs, got none and wondering what my future holds.  By front-loading the payment, the lower end of the market will eventually disappear.   My question to myself is, where am I in this hierachy? 

[tlsanders]

Possibly Upwork wants the lower end of the market to disappear, since it's a high-maintenance, low-revenue sector. 

But consider this: what if the reason you're having trouble getting hired is that it's too cheap and easy to send proposals. What if you're not getting hired because your prospective clients are overwhelmed by dozens of garbage proposals and don't open all proposals, or even abandon the site?

[2779bde0]

Agreed. People are coming up with countless theories as to how Upwork is scamming them out of their connects, and why these connects should be refunded every step of the way.

Hello, they basically just cut their commissions on jobs for most of us, in half. Wouldn't that, in the big picture, make you want to submit more proposals? Are people really crafting heartfelt proposals, that clients want to read, putting time into them, or is the rapid-fire, more is better, at any cost, where people are.

I wholeheartedly agree with Tiffany. Maybe all the garbage proposals that prospective clients are seeing, are making them wonder why they come here at all.

It's tough here, as it is on similar platforms. No question. Even more so since the pandemic. If you were a freelancer in a brick and mortar office, how would you be marketing your business? How much would you spend? You would spend more in the beginning, until you built up your customer base, right?

It takes time and effort to get clients and build your business, by getting, or rather earning those five star ratings, because you can prove to the client, then new, prospective clients, that you'll go above and beyond the status quo for them. Anyone can "say" that they are qualified. Clients want to "see" it.

I am in no way defending Upwork, but at the same time, many people here are  dumping, 100% on Upwork, for their lack of success. Again, it's tough, and often frustrating to put in the effort needed to succeed here, but the alternative is to walk away and try it somewhere else, where the same walls will exist.

[28425c32]

I've applied to 30 jobs this week. Only one of my proposals in the last 3 weeks was even viewed. I honeslty wonder if this platform even has many real jobs and most of them are jsut props to keep people subscribed every month, because it sure seems fishy. 

[tlsanders]

I'm shocked that you found 30 jobs that you thought looked like they would pay your rate and where you were likely to be among the few strongest candidates in three weeks. I've found 11 postings in the past 90 days worth sending a proposal on.