Re: To all freelancers looking for help - Page 14

the-right-writer · ‎01-01-2023

I have always had freelancers come to me for help. In the last year, the river has swelled into an enormous ocean.

You don't need me; Upwork provides an enormous amount of information that few ever use. If, after you have gone through all the information I provide, you still have questions, that is when you ask additional questions in the forum.

If you think you will make big bucks right away, you are mistaken. The majority of freelancers never land a job because they have no skills and aren't interested in educating themselves. Others believe online freelancing is a path to full-time employment. It can be, but highly unlikely on this platform.

Freelancing is not for everyone. It means you are self-employed and must adhere to all regulations and laws governing responsibilities, such as paying taxes. Freelancing means you are on your own. No one has your back, including Upwork. If you don't follow the rules, no one will or can help you.

If you are willing to work hard, follow the rules and prepared to spend a lot of connects and proposals, you can be successful, as many are on Upwork. While so many fail, it is almost always due to lack of skills and treating freelancing like employment where the employer will make sure you do the job correctly.

If you want to succeed, start with the Terms of Service, then read this from Wes.

Then go here. Then here. Next, check this site regularly for events such as webinars and other learning opportunities.

After that, go here for safety information, and then here. If you still need help, after you have gone through all the previous steps, you can find additional help here. This thread is dedicated to new freelancers. And here are announcements from Upwork that can help keep you up to date.

It will take some time to go through all the information. I'm not suggesting people should not post in the forum, I am suggesting before you ask questions and want help, you need to help yourself first.

From Prashant P: "And have relevant profile picture of your face. Not some desks, or Mickey mouse, or full face covering."

From Susan S: "And patience! Have patience! It takes a while to get started, even after going through all the information available."

From Martina P: "Only one thing you forgot, namely telling people to use all 15 skills, if you have all 15 skills"

And with advice from Maria T, I will say,

Refrain from personal messages, please read all the links I have added.

allpurposewriter · ‎01-27-2023

Every freelancer WHO is not asking for or demanding a job ... not "that."

Who is for people ... that is for things.

Pet peeves aside, Jeanne, you have another convert on your side. It seems I'm getting noticeably more cynical day by day. This thread has been a painful eye opener for me.

the-right-writer · ‎01-27-2023

Oh, no! Please don't take one of my little badges away!

researchediting · ‎01-27-2023

We use:

who and whom for people
which for things
that for people or things.

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-reference/relative-pronouns-and-rela...

researchediting · ‎01-30-2023

Douglas Michael M wrote:
We use:
who and whom for people
which for things
that for people or things.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Um, I give a source for the text quoted and it gets "Edited for Community Guidelines"? So now it looks like I'm trying to speak with the voice of God and lay down the law?

I'm not.
I gave a source.
This is a longstanding feature of English, so sources are readily available.

AveryO · ‎01-30-2023

Hi Douglas,

I'm sorry for the mistake. I've reinstated the link.

Douglas Michael M wrote:

Douglas Michael M wrote:

We use:

who and whom for people

which for things

that for people or things.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Um, I give a source for the text quoted and it gets "Edited for Community Guidelines"? So now it looks like I'm trying to speak with the voice of God and lay down the law?

I'm not.

I gave a source.

This is a longstanding feature of English, so sources are readily available.

~ Avery

researchediting · ‎02-04-2023

Thank you, Avery!

the-right-writer · ‎01-27-2023

"That" certainly can be for people. I stand by my post.

allpurposewriter · ‎02-06-2023

Jeanne,

Of course, you stand by your post, Jeanne. That's a given.

the-right-writer · ‎02-06-2023

I stand by my post. If it is wrong, post your evidence or send it to me privately.

feed_my_eyes · ‎01-23-2023

Anthony H wrote:
In addition, I'm not convinced the less skilled workers upset the Upwork marketplace in any shape or form. The less skilled workers have always been there; now, because of Upwork, they are more visible. That doesn't mean they didn't exist before.

I would have to disagree with that. It used to be a lot harder to fake your way into freelancing than it is now. People can pretend to be translators using machine translations, people can pretend to be writers by using ChatGPT or by spinning articles that they find online, people can pretend to be graphic designers by stealing templates and other designs from stock websites.

Upwork used to also have some minimum standards, in that they didn't approve profiles that were barely filled out or filled with nonsense; now, they accept anyone and everyone. If clients are being inundated with proposals from people who don't know what they're doing, do you think that creates a good impression of Upwork as a place to hire professionals? If I were a client who posted a project and the first 10-15 proposals that I read were crap, I wouldn't keep reading - I would go elsewhere. So yes, bad freelancers do impact the marketplace as a whole.

c18f1786 · ‎01-23-2023

Mostly, I agree (although I do think design templates have their place). The point is that it's a lot easier to look qualified than it is to be qualified. But many freelancers don't even seem to achieve the former.

allpurposewriter · ‎01-23-2023

Yeah, good points Christine. I have vaguely wondered about translators. I purchased a translator for my son who is headed to Europe soon and it translates 150 languages or something like that. I hadn't given it that much thought, but it certainly could be a quick moneymaker.

But is that so terrible? People in all kinds of work use gadgets and tools. Why should translators not have the option to do that? Robotics isn't only scaring translators, after all.

As far as marginally-skilled workers diluting the standards around here, that makes sense. But, and I'm just a guy who thinks out loud, what about the clients who want a 0.1 cent a word writer and come to Upwork only to find all these high-quality writers who charge $1 a word, driving them to seek freelancers at another site because Upwork is too high-brow?

I'm just thinking out loud. I always think the answer is to let the market sort itself out, because I think manipulating the system provokes unexpected consequences.

For example, there's the successful pizza shop on Main Street and a second pizza shop opens up across the street. The owner of the first shop is furious. But over time, it turns out that the area becomes known as the place to get good pizza and more customers flood in because of that. Business at the first pizza shop actualy goes up. And I didn't make up this example, it came to me thorugh a business class way back when.

I don't have any way of quantifying my remarks here; just speaking off the cuff here, as it happens. No research -- just guesswork.

feed_my_eyes · ‎01-23-2023

I have no problem with freelancers who charge low prices, or with entry-level freelancers who bid on entry-level jobs. I'm talking about blatantly dishonest freelancers who misrepresent their skills and bid on projects for clients who are seeking experts, thinking that they can scam their way into making money here. That's the real problem.

What do you think happens when somebody hires a translator and finds out that they paid just to have somebody copy/paste their text and automatically translate it, and that it makes little sense as a result? What happens when somebody hires a logo designer and finds out that they don't own the copyright because it was stolen from a stock website? Do you think that clients like that will ever trust Upwork or hire here again?

allpurposewriter · ‎02-06-2023

Christine,

I don't know what happens when someone hires a translator who uses a translation device. I know that most chain restaurants simply microwave their meals, which they pawn off as made in the restaurant ... and most people don't complain about that. Many franchise restaurants with a bank of freezers and a wall of microwaves in the kitchen do pretty well.

On the other hand, sure, you could have a mess with someone who steals intellectual property and resells it here on Upwork. I can imagine that happens and is hard to stop. How often this happens, I have no idea, but just knowing it happens doesn't propell me to believe it's rampant.

On the other hand ... I review profiles and about a dozen or so new members ask for profile reviews each day. That can only be a small-ish percentage of new members, I imagine. And, yes, many of those new profiles are people with 2-3 years of experience that they say is enough to call themselves experts. I highly doubt this is true. Their write-ups are not very credible and their portfolio images are frequently very questionable. (Writers often post photographs in their portfolio instead of writing samples, for example.)

If Upwork is shooting themselves in the foot, there isn't much we can do about it. I've read complaints for five years and more on Upwork that include the idea that Upwork turns a blind eye to problems when they are brought to their attention by freelancers. Clearly, Upwork sees the market value of flooding its membership with unchecked "experts." They have their own profit-oriented motivation; that's been clear from the start.

12047d16 · ‎10-04-2023

Yes i need work

williamtcooper · ‎10-04-2023

Uzmaumer,

Please complete your profile and use your photo. Click the Academy link on the top of this page for instructions and success tips.

the-right-writer · ‎10-04-2023

Go back to the top of the page, read the post, and follow every link. Currently, you are going to be scammed, because you haven't done the work. You must go through everything to learn how to use the platform safely.

Freelancing requires marketable skills. I'm not trying to be mean; I'm trying to help you. You don't have any marketable skills, and your one sentence introduction is garbled.

If you don't have those marketable skills, you will fail. You have to bring skills with you, not develop them on the client's time. You won't find work, but only scammers.

Please give freelancing some serious thought. It takes marketable skills, money for job access and to run your business, time, patience, and again, marketable skills. In your situation, you may find employment more suitable.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎01-23-2023

Anthony H wrote:
Is there a gentler way to say that?

I have reviewed perhaps hundreds of profiles and find a great deal of people who seem to have no clue what the word freelancer means or implies. But I would not jump to the conclusion that they are lazy. And many appear to be marginally skilled given the standards of an educated person from a modern, developed country. But you have to be dead to be unskilled. If you can talk on the phone to some employers that qualifies as skilled. I think we can raise the rhetoric to a more generous or maybe just a more polite level than lazy and unskilled.

In addition, I'm not convinced the less skilled workers upset the Upwork marketplace in any shape or form. The less skilled workers have always been there; now, because of Upwork, they are more visible. That doesn't mean they didn't exist before.

It's up to the marketplace to sort out the highly skilled, the marginally skilled, the hard workers or whatever else. It's not Upwork's place to tamper with that anymore than necessary.

Actually, it is Upwork's place to "tamper with that." The primary ROI for FLs using UW is expediting payment transactions and providing access to qualified leads, by which I mean prospective clients who are actively looking for specific services I offer. The better quality the FL pool is perceived to be, the better caliber clients the platform will attract. Welcoming anybody who can fog a mirror to plunge in and start trying to be a FL serves nobody, least of all the aspiring FLs who lack both marketable skills and the business perspective and know-how to establish a professional practice. At best, they waste their own time and energy with no return; at worst, they fall prey to scammers and thieves. And they provide useful camouflage for scammers operating on the FL side of the table.

c18f1786 · ‎01-23-2023

Spot on. In all this talk about large numbers of low-quality proposals, I realised something. It's not even necessarily about the proposals.

If a new client comes to Upwork for the first time and searches for freelancers in their work area, what are they going to think if they see a raft of poor profiles? Corporate clients will likely perceive Upwork as a Mickey Mouse operation, perhaps within minutes, and quickly take their business elsewhere.

On many levels, it is incomprehensible why the platform has taken the course it has over the past 12 months. Just a couple of years ago, Upwork was regarded as one of the best places to go to find freelance professionals. That's what brought me here in the first place. Now, it's rapidly becoming Fiverr 2.0.

They can't seriously be offsetting those losses with Connects purchases, can they?

the-right-writer · ‎01-23-2023

It certainly seems the connects are the thing. Why let in an opposable thumb only to let them buy as many connects as possible? Revenue is one thing, short-sighted cash grabs are another. Upwork is quite aware the clients are drowning, but they apparently will push until something breaks.

Raise the cost of connects - but how much would they have to raise it to make up for 17 million that won't or can't pay?

If you multiply 18 million freelancers x unlimited connects, that's a lot of revenue.

allpurposewriter · ‎01-23-2023

Actually, it is Upwork's place to "tamper with that."

I did say "any more than necessary."

Anyway, I have no way to run into, observe, discover, unearth, all those freelancers who are outright thieves, crooks, frauds, scoundrels and scofflaws as seems to be obvious to so many others. This kind of hits me sideways.

I do see lots of profiles, as I've indicated, and I have been curious lately about profiles that say "I have 5 years experience," but the write up doesn't discuss any of those past experiences. I rarely see these profiles spell out "My local customers love my work," or things you might expect to see. And then I see long lists of software applications and, sure, you have to start somewhere, so I'm sure they aren't absolute pros at each of those programs. But it is expected that people reach a little to get some jobs; it's just a matter of how much and trust is at a premium here. Hard to operate Upwork without clients trusting freelancers and visa versa.

I did know someone (still do) who had a remarkable track record obtaining jobs and when I asked her once how she did it (my ex-wife), she said two words: "I lie." I was stunned -- a very good liar, it turns out. But then, invariably, six months after landing a job the employer would find out she ddn't really know what she was doing. She never got canned, but she got demoted once or twice.

d0903988 · ‎10-19-2023

Kindly check my profile and give me honest feedback!

https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~01c40339962b2ea14c

the-right-writer · ‎10-19-2023

I have spoken with you before, and you haven't made the changes. The photo does not look real. If I recall, you drew this, and that's fine, but not on Upwork for your profile. No drawings, no colors, just a basic photo of your face. It doesn't matter how nice, it's not a photo. It does not look professional, no matter what your career.

You still need to use the top post and learn about your profile. There are multiple steps you can take that's freelancer 101, right in the post. There is an abundance of information on Upwork that you could use to have a stellar profile. The choice is yours.

2297e2bc · ‎05-30-2024

LOL- I thought that was how mankind worked! (don't want to specify countries)
Seriously, thanks again for all your insite Jeanne. Your help is under-appreciated here me thinks.

lucioric · ‎01-14-2023

And when you have an hourly project but the client makes you pause work for 9 days, and you get no new invites NOR any job applies answered after spending hundreds of connects, but you at the end of month have the car mensuality and the rent, you are off.