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1b0f4be1
Community Member

Strongly suspect my proposals not visible to clients

I have a strong suspicion that my proposals are not visible to potential clients. I only submit proposals to projects that best match my skills, write a convincing cover letter, and yet, I get nothing. Even the projects where clients happily accept proposals from newbies like me for simple tasks, are going unresponded. I have used up all my connects twice now after buying them. I am so frustrated. Am I missing something?

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yofazza
Community Member

Strongly suspect my proposals not visible to clients
It is visible. Just be prepared that when you send 10 proposals, only 1-3 of it will be seen. And it's normal.
 

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d9fc6d8d
Community Member

If your proposals are not being viewed, it's because they're not "convincing".

Or they could be buried under 50+ garbage proposals.

True, but that's the part none of us can control. Most of my proposals get viewed now because I worked on them. Just a couple of months ago I was having the same issue as OP.

Have you boosted any of your proposals?

No. Never.

Hi Andre. No, I have not tried boosting my proposals. For one, the projects that I apply to, being a newbie, are very generic in character, so I think of saving my connects for more jobs.

I would love to know what you do differently now. I am working on my skills and making progress, albeit the frustration of not being able to land the simplest of jobs is making me lose confidence.

Thanks, Jeanne. Let's just say I am down on luck at this time. 

yofazza
Community Member

They must view it first before they can be convinced, aren't they?

d9fc6d8d
Community Member

No, the clients can see the first 10-12 words of a proposal in their inbox. If those suck, the client's not even gonna open it.

yofazza
Community Member

I always put clickbaits in the first two lines.

 

It might affect a little. But I'm more believed my proposals got buried so deep where clients doesn't even scroll through to see even that first two lines.

 

Capture.PNG

 

I've seen the viewed vs sent ratio are usually 10 to 30% for most freelancers. Some above, some below, where interestingly some new freelancers got the ratio so high. Well not too interesting actually, if we connect this to what they said a few months ago, "now everyone has a chance".

 

If your "view" is improved, it should have something to do with something other than the proposal content.

Dear Ze, thanks for your reply. You're right. But I do try my best to be as convincing as possible. For projects that say "no experience or skills needed, happy to accept all proposals for a simple task".  I am a newbie and I keep that in mind when applying to projects. I never want to waste my connects or the client's time on something I cannot deliver.

2ef54d61
Community Member

Respectfully, Zeeshan, your skills appear to be very common and non-specialized. Clients looking for virtual assistants and data entry likely get hundreds of proposals per post. What would make you stand out in a field of 200 people that cost the same and have more visible experience? 

Dear Stuart, thanks for your reply. A part of me agrees with you on my skills being nothing to write home about. But as I said, I mostly apply to job postings that require very straightforward skills, just to get my foot in the door. For example, "write a review on a website", "only hiring newbies", and "accepting all proposals". Not being able to get even those is what irks me most. 

yofazza
Community Member

Here's a freelancer in a similar niche getting 6 jobs in the first month.

 

I've seen another few new freelancers in the VA/research/data entry that can be considered very successful. The algo might have something to do with it.

celgins
Community Member

Sometimes, it does not matter how convincing you are. Clients are human beings and people are enigmas. If a client reads five proposals with five convincing cover letters, which do they choose? Their choice could depend on a lot of things that are specific to that client (i.e., something they want or expect, but did not reveal in their job description, their current working environment, their schedule, and many other things).

 

Like Jeanne said, your proposals are probably being buried beneath a pile of 50+ garbage proposals, many of which could be automatically submitted. Competition is high your service area, so I am confident each job receives almost 50 or 50+ proposals.

 

The only thing you can do is continue to write a convincing cover letter and hope the client believes that you are their best option.

yofazza
Community Member

garbage proposals.

There's something interesting yesterday. Someone posted a thread that includes words, "We're in need of an active freelancers".

 

Suddenly, in around 30 minutes, the thread is filled with "proposals". Some of them (that got deleted) are the standard-boring wall of text proposals, like the ones that started with "dear hiring manager" that doesn't even address the job post (or the first post in this case).

 

Weird. They shouldn't be bots, because unlike the regular occasional bot spam, they're not advertising a website. Most likely they came from real people with bad English.

 

Combine all the above including the bot part, also with the willingness to spend money to buy connects, you'll have your 50+ garbage proposals. Seeing just a few of them makes clients mad, and run away. Explains the no views on your buried proposal, also no interviews/hires on the posted job.

 

In the other hand, some clients are clueless and can be "snared" by the wall of text boring proposals. Proofs are there in the client forum where they rant after they felt they were scammed. This also explains why people are doing it (bots, copy paste, boring wall of text), because something the opposite of what you think about a good proposal can actually also works.

celgins
Community Member

Suddenly, in around 30 minutes, the thread is filled with "proposals". Some of them (that got deleted) are the standard-boring wall of text proposals, like the ones that started with "dear hiring manager" that doesn't even address the job post (or the first post in this case).

Exactly. Some automated bots scan for keywords and generate cover letters on-the-fly, which is why those cover letters rarely match the job requirements. 

 

Freelancers have to be detectives in recognizing scam jobs; clients have to be detectives in recognizing spam proposals. The circle of the survival across the Upwork marketplace, it seems.

yofazza
Community Member

I have a strong suspicion

No need to suspect, can you share your proposal sent vs viewed ratio? Look here, scroll to bottom, change profile view to proposals, and Last 7 days to 90 days.

1b0f4be1
Community Member

Thanks for your reply, Radia. Here's a screenshot.

yofazza
Community Member

now that's weird... how could the view got lower than interview? a bug? the first time I saw it.

1b0f4be1
Community Member

I honestly don't know, man. Do I need to raise this with Upwork? And if yes, how?

 

yofazza
Community Member

I hope a mod could explain.

 

But anyways, if your viewed proposals are at least the same with interview (which is unlikely), it's still inside the "normal" range. 

 

If you're interviewed but not hired, you need to work on how to be more convincing during interviews.

 

If you're viewed but not interviewed, you need to work on your proposal, and profile.

 

If you're not even viewed, well, that's where I said it's "normal" where the view vs sent ratio is between 10 to 30%.

yofazza
Community Member

Strongly suspect my proposals not visible to clients
It is visible. Just be prepared that when you send 10 proposals, only 1-3 of it will be seen. And it's normal.
 

how in the world is that normal? I get 2x more views cold emailing them directly than sending Upwork proposals. these are warm* leads. something is off

What I mean by 'normal' is simply that they fall within "the average view-to-sent ratio posted by people here in this forum".

 

And of course I also meant to be a bit sarcastic too 😁

mpanaitescu
Community Member

Hi,

 

To see how many times your proposal was viewed, click "Find Work" - > "My Stats" and then select "Proposals" in the dropdown at the bottom.

 

Best regards,

Marius

Hi Marius,

 

That one useful feature is still in test. 50% of us don't have it yet.

 

Nevermind, misunderstood something.

8be8b899
Community Member

And yeah, on top of what others have said, many of the jobs posted are fake.

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