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atikju
Community Member

Upwork Connects Calculation doesn't work

Okay, so I have been working Upwork (Prev. oDesk) for more than 5 years. I have seen many changes over the years. Since when it started to reduce number of application someone can submit, I saw big improvements in projects availability. 

 

I believe most people used to post a job then forget. But because of the 2.5% fees, only serious buyers were active I believe.

 

But now, what happened is - I can see less number of jobs posted. Bogus amount and job length are added to a job.

 

For example, lets see the job post below:

 

**Edited for community guidelines**

 

So, this guy says his job is gonna be longer than 6 months and it requires 6 connects. I can guarantee you that this job will be ended in a week if he ends up hiring. He joined on upwork a year ago and spent only $900. He posted 10 jobs and hired 7 times. At an average, he pays around $120 per job. How come he hire a person for 6 months with this statistics?

 

Well, he is not alone! There are tons of clients like this. They don't really care about these terms.

 

Everyone is losing their connects unnecessarily. The new connects system is a trash and it actually #^&$. 

 

I started getting more response on another platform where only cheap freelancers used to work. But, I can guarantee you that TONS of clients are posting jobs or finding freelancers on another platform which might become the #1 Freelancing platform in a few years.


I request upwork management to make the platform freelance friendly. We understand you need to make money but isn't cutting off 22.5%  enough? Why do you have to trap us in the connects purchase hole?

 

I am truly disappointed. Losing my hopes over upwork.

24 REPLIES 24
lysis10
Community Member

Don't bid on it then?

atikju
Community Member

Your response doesn't make any sense. If I skip all the jobs then where do I bid? You are saying in such a way that someone got headache, you suggest him to cut his head!

wlyonsatl
Community Member

MD Atiqur R -

 

This is why I think the number of connects required for a freelancer's bid on a particular project should be based on some (weighted?) average value of that freelancer's previous projects on Upwork. That is likely a better predictor of the value of the future projects the freelancer will successfully bid on than for Upwork to try to design "connects needed" algorithms based on what clients say about their own projects. Especially when those algorithms so frequently come up with 6s.

 

But if the current new system of setting the connects is serving Upwork's primary stated goal - reducing the number of proposals submitted by freelancers on all new project - Upwork would see no reason for change.


Will L wrote:

 

This is why I think the number of connects required for a freelancer's bid on a particular project should be based on some (weighted?) average value of that freelancer's previous projects on Upwork.


That would not work on so many levels.

It would result in the cheap-job freelancers having 3 times as many bids at their disposal as those who win the big contracts...

 

It would also mean that the freelancers bidding on the same job would get charged 3 different numbers of connects.

 

How would giving the very people whose proposals Upwork wants to curtail 3 times as many bids than those Upwork wants to encourage work?

atikju
Community Member

Mr Will L. 

 

My problem is - clients do not follow the metrics. And new clients don't even know how long a job would take to finish. So, they just put random number of months. Hence, the estimated connect system doesn't work.

 

And lastly, I believe job postings has been dropped in recent months!

praina
Community Member

You are absolutely right! 
The system is not fair at all. No matter what we have to pay 6 connects for mostly every job and the worst thing is that back replied are not coming back from the clients end.

 

--
Regards
Pawan Kumar | Certified Marketing Professional
iNFIN Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
tlsanders
Community Member

It's starting to seem like the best way to put to rest all this obsession with the way the number of connects required is calculated and freelancers expecting clients to tailor their postings to make the jobs less expensive to bid on would be to make all bids 6 connects with no regard to size, budget, etc. We went years with all bids requiring the same number of connects and rarely if ever heard complaints about it not being fair that smaller jobs cost the same as larger ones.

Agree with Tiffany. Meanwhile, everybody should just budget for six connects per proposal. And when one only costs two or four connects, consider you found 30 cents or 60 cents under the sofa cushion.

How easy it is to say like this! Someone is expressing his frustation and you are kinda making fun out of it! Interesting!

tlsanders
Community Member


MD. Atiqur R wrote:

How easy it is to say like this! Someone is expressing his frustation and you are kinda making fun out of it! Interesting!


I'm not making fun out of it. I'm completely serious. The assignment of differing numbers of connects does not appear to work well, and it seems to be a source of constant frustration and confusion for many freelancers. It's bad for everyone. Standardization is the simplest, clearest, and most easily implemented solution. 


MD. Atiqur R wrote:

How easy it is to say like this! Someone is expressing his frustation and you are kinda making fun out of it! Interesting!


It's not clear whom you're addressing but if it's me: I'm not making fun of you at all. I agree completely that the method they are using to assign connect cost to job post is not working well at all. Because there is no feasible way to ensure clients do a good job of scoping their projects when they write the posts, I agree with Tiffany that UW should just make all bids cost six connects (or four, or ten, or whatever--just stop making it feel like a crap shoot). Until they do, we should all assume that every bid will cost six connects and when we find one that is less, consider that a little good luck. Instead of hoping every one will cost two connects and considering it bad luck when they cost more. 

 

A key element in my business plan is to look for ways to reduce my own frustration. Choosing how to think about things I cannot control, and finding ways to adapt, always serves me well.

 

Phyllis wrote:

MD. Atiqur R wrote:

How easy it is to say like this! Someone is expressing his frustation and you are kinda making fun out of it! Interesting!


It's not clear whom you're addressing but if it's me: I'm not making fun of you at all. I agree completely that the method they are using to assign connect cost to job post is not working well at all. Because there is no feasible way to ensure clients do a good job of scoping their projects when they write the posts, I agree with Tiffany that UW should just make all bids cost six connects (or four, or ten, or whatever--just stop making it feel like a crap shoot). Until they do, we should all assume that every bid will cost six connects and when we find one that is less, consider that a little good luck. Instead of hoping every one will cost two connects and considering it bad luck when they cost more. 

 

A key element in my business plan is to look for ways to reduce my own frustration. Choosing how to think about things I cannot control, and finding ways to adapt, always serves me well.

 

I only have one way of choosing how to deal with things I can't control, I don't think about them.


Hi Everyone,

 

 A few posts and replies on this thread have been removed as they were in violation of Community Guidelines. Please be mindful of the Community Guidelines and be respectful of each other when posting. Thank you. 

~ Joanne
Upwork

Joanne, why is my user name displaying in posts above, where other posters are quoting my comment?!?!

 

 

Please refer this to whomever can fix it! Thank you.

 

Hi Phyllis,

 

Please note that this happens when comments are quoted in a certain way. I updated that part of the quote but would like to link an explanation we shared a while back on a thread which discussed this occurrence.

~ Vladimir
Upwork


Vladimir G wrote:

I updated that part of the quote but would like to link an explanation we shared a while back.


... and forgets to link 😉

 

 

 

Petra R wrote:

Vladimir G wrote:

I updated that part of the quote but would like to link an explanation we shared a while back.


... and forgets to link 😉


Well, he did say he "would like to link." Smiley Wink

Upwork needs to do a better job educating the CLIENT on job postings.  Many clients do not realize it costs us money to respond to speculative postings, poorly described jobs that have potential, etc.  Sure, I and many others do not write proposals to these jobs, but POTENTIAL PAYING CLIENTS walk away wondering why there are not getting any good responses.  They walk away with a very poor opinion of UpWork, frustrated with an awkward JOB POSTING form and zero help in making a proper job description.

 

I like the THUMBS DOWN thing on the postings, but there should be better categories, like POOR JOB DESCRIPTION and REQUIRES TOO MANY CONNECTS.  Most of the categories are, for lack of a better term, stuipid.  I"M OVER QUALIFIED?  Client doesn't care.  NOT IN MY PREFERED LOCATION?  Client doesn't care.  JOB POSTED TOO LONG AGO?  TOO MANY APPLICANTS?  Come on.  I love that it "grey's out" the job when I pick something so I don't have to see it again, but these thumbs down should provide feedback to the client that their posting sucks and suggest changes and improvements.

Oh, and why have a BOLD button when it doesn't actually make words in the post BOLD?

 

Here is bold.  This shows up nice in the editor, but in the posting it is very hard to tell that it's BOLD.

 


Joe M wrote:

Oh, and why have a BOLD button when it doesn't actually make words in the post BOLD?

 

Here is bold.  This shows up nice in the editor, but in the posting it is very hard to tell that it's BOLD.

 


Joe, absolutely nothing constructive to add unfortunately, just kudos for your avatar, best I've seen 🙂

tlbp
Community Member


Joe M wrote:

Upwork needs to do a better job educating the CLIENT on job postings.  Many clients do not realize it costs us money to respond to speculative postings, poorly described jobs that have potential, etc.  Sure, I and many others do not write proposals to these jobs, but POTENTIAL PAYING CLIENTS walk away wondering why there are not getting any good responses.  They walk away with a very poor opinion of UpWork, frustrated with an awkward JOB POSTING form and zero help in making a proper job description.

 

I like the THUMBS DOWN thing on the postings, but there should be better categories, like POOR JOB DESCRIPTION and REQUIRES TOO MANY CONNECTS.  Most of the categories are, for lack of a better term, stuipid.  I"M OVER QUALIFIED?  Client doesn't care.  NOT IN MY PREFERED LOCATION?  Client doesn't care.  JOB POSTED TOO LONG AGO?  TOO MANY APPLICANTS?  Come on.  I love that it "grey's out" the job when I pick something so I don't have to see it again, but these thumbs down should provide feedback to the client that their posting sucks and suggest changes and improvements.


The feedback is used internally by Upwork, the client never sees it. Upwork is more of a static ecosystem that you learn to survive in or not more than something you can change to suit your needs. You can make suggestions, and you'll be thanked for your input. But if you want to earn on Upwork, it is more effective to learn how the current systems works than to rail against it. 

slimboteam
Community Member

Thanks.  Where does one provide feedback to improve UpWork and get thanked instead of being politely told to shut up and sit down?

Joe,

 

Hang around this board long enough and you'll quickly find out which posters will defend Upwork's every move (or lack of movement). The same posters are quick to harass and demean posts and posters they don't like.

 

Ignore them.

 

Great businesses listen to their customers. Upwork can't change everything to suit every client and freelancer, but I don't think that means management pays no attention at all to user criticisms.


Joe M wrote:

Thanks.  Where does one provide feedback to improve UpWork and get thanked instead of being politely told to shut up and sit down?


That's not really a thing. Periodically, a moderator will drop by and SAY a polite thing about passing it up the line, but then that's pretty much the end of it. 

 

Upwork occasionally solicits input from long-time freelancers, but that's typically done directly, so they're choosing who they want to hear from based on usage patterns or whatever.f

 

ETA: As to "which posters defend Upwork's every move," the answer is "none." Everyone has things they object to and things they think are fine. But, "Upwork sycophant" and "are you on the payroll?" are the knee-jerk reactions among people who can't fathom that someone might simply not agree with them.

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