Upwork Is Officially Dead / It's Become a Cheap Casino Where They Let Anyone In

[1cac6772]

I've been saying this now since mid 2023, but I fully believe Upwork is officially dead. Up until 2023, I was doing over 100k each year on Upwork. I was Top Rated Plus and very close to Expert Vetted. I never really had to apply to jobs and just received invitations. Around the middle of last year whenever they implemented the boost system is when everything changed. My profile views dropped to ZERO and I couldn't get ANY jobs. I haven't landed a client via Upwork since mid 2023. 

* For the love of God, moderators PLEASE do not send me a link on how to improve my profile *

Up until January 2024 I had not been playing the bidding/boosting game. I just thought it would be a waste of money. So around January 1st 2024 I decided to give Upwork one last chance and try it. I bought $500 worth of connects to spend for the whole month of January. What I did was a combination of a few different things. I boosted my profile with 75 connects per day. Meaning whenever someone clicked on my profile, I was charged 75 connects. The other thing I did which was less common was boost some direct jobs that I applied to. If I saw a job that really fit, I would boost it and this was usually anywhere from 50 - 100 connects per job. I stopped all boosting February 1st 2024 and here are my results. The vast majority of days Upwork would take out my 75 connects, but I never received a job invite or anything. So I supposed this means somebody clicked on my profile and then left. There were 2 occassions where I received a job invite. The first one was for a $25 job and the other one was for $5 per hour. I did not get or take either one of those jobs. When it came to boosting my propsoal to the #1 spot for anywhere between 50 - 100 connects, I never received a single reply to any of those jobs. So what was the outcome of my $500 test for January 2024................. well basically that I just wasted $500. The point of this test was to see if paying for connects and boosting was the way to get jobs in this new Upwork system. And it clearly is not.

But I went several years without having to apply to jobs and making well over 100k to now not being able to land a single job in a year. And now I've played the boost/bidding game and it CLEARLY doesn't work. It's crazy how many freelancers have complained about this system, yet Upwork does not give a crap. Upwork is clearly a drain of money and time at this point. On top of that it seems that so many quality clients have left the platform, which I don't blame them at all. If I posted a job and then my inbox was flooded with hundreds of unqualified people, I would also stop using it. They used to filter results by the most qualified and relevant freelancers. Now they just display whoever pays the most connects. Upwork has now just become this cheap casino full of unqualified freelancers who are willing to buy unlimited connects. At this point, all I can hope for is that someone will start building a new freelancer platform that is good. It's unfortunate that Upwork decided to go this route. But I think it's safe to say that "Upwork Is Now Officially Dead".

At this point it's gotten so out of control, it's almost comical. The other day I was playing around with my project catalog, and guess what they had an option for? You guessed it.......the option to boost. Before long every single aspect of the platform will require some sort of paying for connects. Want to log in to your account.....that will be 16 connects. Want to contact support......that will be 16 connects. Want to have the privledge of having an Upwork account.......that will be 16 connects per day. At what point does the corporate GREED stop? But to them it's justified because they had record profits in 2023. Forget that quality people are leaving the platform and it's become worse than Fiverr. But hey as long as the board members and shareholders are happy, everything is all good. 

PS

Every time I turn on the TV now I see a cheesy Upwork commercial. There is no telling how many millions of dollars they are spending on these lame zombie commercials. Just think if they invested that money back into the platform to make it better. 

But no, their marketing plan is to spend millions of dollars on tv commercials to drive new unqualified signups. Then their goal is to milk those people into having to buy connects. Sure, a lot will leave very soon after they realize they can't land a job. But that's ok because their awesome zombie commercials will continue to drive new sign ups. I'm not 100% certain, but I think they might have hired the marketing team from Bud Light for their recent marketing efforts. Now that Upwork has driven away a lot of good clients over the last few years as well as brought it's integrity into question by most freelancers, they've got some serious issues to address moving forward if they ever want to regain the trust of both clients and freelancers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR3SRJ0UQ8w

[atreglia]

Radia, I feel boosting is a mockery of freelancers so I don't participate in it.  Besides, I couldn't boost even if I wanted to because now I am unable to boost for anything photoshop related, depite the fact that's all I really do here.

[wlyonsatl]

Yes, Anna, a more relevant number would be $2.40 multiplied by the average number of proposals a freelancer has to submit in order to win one new job.

[atlinguist]

It is, if clients won't even pay below market rates, i.e. $0.04/word for translations. How do you expect to recoup those connects investments on minimum wages? Better to put up a (paid) Google advert and see what's out there. No reason to stay on this platform.

[1cac6772]

It's ridiculous. 

[calado-marco]

I agree with you, but the fact remains that this is not just a UW problem, it happens in all platforms. This "clients" are just "fishing". So how can you control or at least reduce this kinds of posts?

Personally, i think that UW should apply to this clients some sort of fees (or connect system) that can be deducted if they don't make the contract in this platfform.

I.E; a client buys X number of connects to post jobs. If he doesn't go ahead with the job the connect is deducted. If the job goes ahead the connect is returned.

In my view you'll create an engagement, you'll make sure the client is trully interested and you'll keep out the grifters.

[tjmisny]

I agree, Marco and I have suggested something similar in other threads.  Why should Freelancers take on 100% of the risk when applying to a job?  

[calado-marco]

Sure. If UW wants (and needs) to keep the projection of a true professional/responsable community, then they must find a way to keep off the grifters, bu let me be clear; It's not only the clients that are grifters, there's lot's of freelancing accounts here that should be reviewed. Like you said; risks will always exist on on-line work, but they must be shared.

[1cac6772]

Wow..........that's insane. These are exactly the type of profiles that need to be removed from the platform. But Upwork does nothing to stop it. People still probably boost their proposals when applying to their jobs 😂

[5d835742]

Discouraging words for someone like me whose trying to find traction and maybe make some pocket money. 

Probably going to get worse with all these layoffs and new "Talent" joining up.

Keep on keeping on, right?

[1cac6772]

Ya at this point I don't see how it gets any better. Upwork clearly has no intentions of changing anything and is definitely not listening to freelancers feedback.

[crart]

Perfect description of this zombie place, I've been telling this for many months, criticizing UW's greed and lack of any direction other than "let's milk them dry", often by using questionable techniques and luring people into false advertisement. Funny, censorship was quicker to act than tech support as UW is falling apart technology-wise as well 🤣

[1cac6772]

It sure does feel like they are trying to milk us dry before the ship sinks. Ya you have to be careful not to get censored. They don't seem to like the truth on these forums. Somebody mentioned they fired 150 employees last year, but it sure doesn't seem like they are lacking in the moderator department. 

[the-right-writer]

They fired 15% of their employees.

[spectralua]

I see no critical censore here. Always wrote the truth but still not banned. Forum is loyal for that.

We can write whatever we want, that's good. It’s bad that no one cares about what we write.

[1cac6772]

I get censored all of the time. A post I made yesterday got taken down. It was simply a post that contained the names of people who were running Upwork. Which is weird because Upwork has a dedicated page that has this information. It's titled "Our Team". So if it's something they don't like, they will censor it or take it down. It doesn't matter if it doesn't violate any terms.

[marjan22]

About employes from A Message from Our CEO :

"As a result, we are reducing our workforce by approximately 15% of full-time employees, or 137 roles.We are also eliminating a number of hybrid workforce (independent team member) positions."

Also :
"...budget—which we are reducing by 94% for the second half of this year—in response to the realities our business is facing" -
This part points that big part of Upwork profit in 2023 is made from reducing costs and spendings, not from seling expensive connects which probably will be more expensive in the near future and target group will be freelancers money especialy new profiles, which i think they are priority in the game now and that is why only new freelancers are reporting that they are getting jobs or jackpots in the Casino system.

You can read the whole thign here A Message from Our CEO | Upwork

[1cac6772]

Ya after Elon laid off 80% or 6,000 Twitter employees and claimed that the company was running just as good as it was before, most of the major "tech" companies followed suit and did the same thing. So it's no surprise that Upwork experimented with this as well. But I don't think that their record profits are due strictly to layoffs. Sure there is no doubt that it's helped. But it has to be that combined with the connects. Which one brought in more profits........only Upwork would know that. But my guess is that they are making more money with connects. Especially when you consider 2 factors:  1) How many new people have signed up to Upwork in the last few years. 2) When you look at where Upwork hires their employees. Meaning they aren't hiring people from countries that have higher wages.

[wlyonsatl]

Marjan,

The $ volume of work done on Upwork for the first nine months of 2023 was about the same as in 2022 for the same period.

However, Upwork's revenue rose about 11% over the same period, which Upwork attributes to "Marketplace revenue benefited from a number of pricing changes implemented in 2023. In the first half of 2023, we increased the number of virtual tokens, which we refer to as Connects, needed by talent to bid on projects and ads products on our work marketplace for a limited number of categories. In the third quarter of 2023, we expanded this change across all categories. We also implemented a simplified flat service fee structure in May 2023 and introduced contract initiation fees for clients in April 2023. For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, Marketplace revenue also benefited from changes to client fees... "

Additional revenue from connects purchases by freelance was likely a big contributor to the higher revenues in 2023. And since there is very little to no cost for Upwork in selling connects, that additional revenue went straight to bottom-line profits.  

But dramatic cuts to advertising and marketing spending, lower set asides for bad debts and the slimmed down workforce also lowered costs significantly, also contributing to Upwork's strong profitability during the period.

But those increases and reductions can't be repeated every quarter. We'll soon see how things have gone in this respect in the last three months of 2023.

[1cac6772]

Upwork has realized that they can essentially be their own bank and print money out of thin air or as they like to call it "virtual tokens". I think they'll let the platform crash before they change this system, even despite all the negative feedback regarding the connects system. I can see it being profitable for a year or two, but after that I don't see it working. People are already leaving in droves and this system will continue to force more people out. At that point all you are left with is a platform full of job posting scammers and unqualified freelancers. And soon the newcomers will realize the system is broken and wont' continue to buy connects. 

[wlyonsatl]

How do you know, Dale, that " People are already leaving in droves"?

I have never seen an official count of how many people are using Upwork as either clients or freelancers.

[the-right-writer]

I believe it's mentioned in one of the quarterlies. I will see if I can find it and post. The figure was, at the time, 18 million freelancers to 870, 000 clients. In another statement, Upwork stated how many were joining every day, which was an incredibly large amount. However, there don't seem to be any stats on those who have abandoned the site and are not in competition for the few jobs.

[wlyonsatl]

Upwork showed 814,000 active clients in its 2022 10K (Page 4), which was higher than for the previous year (771,000).

I don't remember ever seeing any number for active freelancers. Or an update about client count for 2023, which might be included in the company's 2023 10-K due later this month.

The average client paid Upwork $696 in 2022 compared to $600 in 2021 (calculated by dividing annual Marketplace Revenue by the "Active client" count).

[bobafett999]

That is not going to happen.  New comers have seen those you rube videos and are dreaming about raking money.  They will keep on buying connects and feeding Upwork.  Successful freelancers are still able to find jobs that are profitable to them.

May be they have sixth sense to find gigs

[williambernal]

DD,

"Job posting scammers" is 100% correct.

I was a Top Rated US Freelancer for many years (starting back when it was Odesk) then took a break in late '21 until recently returning.

And I am shocked!

Looking for legit work here and now is an almost complete waste of time.

On my feed (copy/content/creative writing) I would conservatively estimate that around 70% of prospective "clients" (7 out of 10)  are now typical "No verified payment method"/"$0 spent"/"0 Hires" scammers.

(and usually 1 of the other remaining 3 is openly and brazenly asking for free work with totally shady requests for "tests"/"trials"/"samples")

I've also noticed that UW no longer allows FLs to "Flag as inappropriate" these scammers or includes the "Asking for free work" option when giving thumbs down on a listing. I'm assuming UW has completely given up on any proper, professional client oversight and are just committed now to dragging the largest "buy connects" net they can manage along the bottom of their freelance ocean while the shady scammers chum the waters for gullible (and probably unqualified) newbie fish.

And, yea, this does not seem like a sustainable long term strategy for anyone.

For years UW was a reliable and robust source of income for me with a reliable and diverse global pool of rock solid, professional clients searching for great FL work at a fair price.

Now?

For experienced FLs, not worth the time, the effort, and certainly not worth flushing your money down the drain. 

Really sad that UW never heard of what happened to the goose that laid the golden eggs...

[wlyonsatl]

Not to argue with your main points, William B., but there is a "Flag as Inappropriate" link on the job postings I see, which includes a "Client is Asking for Free Work" choice of reasons for flagging.

I have found it takes Upwork many days, if not weeks, to remove the posts I flag (usually reporting multiple versions of the same project, not for asking for free work).

[celgins]

Upwork has its share of problems, but I don't think Upwork is in danger of shutting its doors right now. However, I do believe Upwork no longer works for many freelancers, while it works quite well for many others.

There was a huge influx of freelancers during and after the pandemic, and many of them are low-skilled and unqualified. Upwork chose to monetize the sheer volume of accounts created, which spurred most of the problems we see today.

Many of us noticed--over the past year and a half--a shift in the way Upwork's algorithms rank and position our profiles, and they appear to place more emphasis on profile structure, content, and associated skill categories.

I know those boilerplate "how to improve your profile" links sent by moderators are a headache, but having success (hundreds of thousands of $$ in earnings) doesn't mean a profile can't be improved. I've seen many $1M - $3M earners with frightful-looking profiles. Granted, they're often Expert-Vetted and get attention because of their earnings, work history, etc., and not because they have stellar profiles.

Speaking of profiles--yours is not set to Public. I'm sure you know that clients cannot see you and invite you to jobs when your profile is Private. I did a quick search and did not see your profile. If your profile is set to Only Upwork users, it should be visible in search.

Also, your profile visibility must be public to use the boost feature. I'm guessing your profile was Public when you boosted it during your experiment in January 2024? Or, maybe Upwork doesn't disable the boost feature for Private profiles, and allows you to boost (pay Connects) but never actually boosts your profile?

Upwork does not clarify if the Only Upwork users visibility setting allows freelancers to boost their profiles.

[1cac6772]

I never said anything about Upwork "shutting it's doors". Why would they do that when they are clearly getting people to continuously buy connects. What was meant by "Upwork Is Officially Dead" is that it would seem that it is no longer a viable place to make money for most freelancers. And I have yet to meet a freelancer that feels this new system works well for them, but maybe they are out there. In terms of my profile, it's updated every few months. But thanks for checking. 

[yofazza]

Why would they do that when they are clearly getting people to continuously buy connects

Right, the changes seem to have provided them with their first profitable months after nearly a decade.

 no longer a viable place to make money for most freelancers. 

Right

 I have yet to meet a freelancer that feels this new system works well for them

Theoretically, because of the "unbalanced" rotation, we'll still eventually get a job after spending some connects. So we just need to make sure that the job can at least cover the cost, both money and time.

Some people have proven the theory. They can still profit. Will L above is one of them, I guess. Most of them admit that things have changed now, where they simply adapt.

I'm not one of them. I'm part of the group that prefers either to leave or just observe, not participating in "the game" (actually, 10+ years here and I can never got serious in this site). Just don't be among those who are really being preyed upon by Upwork, don't spend hundreds of $$ without getting a single job.

Profile

I also did a search and also can't find your profile. I didn't check the entire pages, but if it's really set to private then your complain about not getting invitation and profile views are solved.

[1cac6772]

I'm fully aware of how to set the visibility of my profile. Thanks

[atlinguist]

I'm not sure how this "unbalanced rotation" algorithm works, but it won't work for me if it's like the proverbial busses (coming in threes after you've been waiting for ages).

I get only 10 free connects per month and would have to make sure my clients pay at least a semblance of market rates (!) for me to recoup the cost of more connects (because, of course, most jobs require 8-16 connects to apply, with very few going at 4). This means that during a lull, the jobs would have to be there (!) for me to fire off my offers (which they aren't), and when they do start coming (due to the rotation), those clients would have to be flexible timewise (which they usually are not). 

So this system of boosting and rotating is not helping me get access to clients the way a platform is meant to do. 

[yofazza]

coming in threes after you've been waiting for ages

Some people have reported that, including me. I have experienced more than once, two consecutive "proposal views" before going back to no views for 8+ proposals.

--

I do small jobs. I feel that I can still get jobs within the rotation and still profiting. I can (let's say) get $100 after spending $50.

But it's not worth it because it's not like I'm selling products, I need to work both the actual work and the looking and crafting of proposals. Not worth it.

To make it worth it on the rotation, I need to play with volume and aim for larger jobs. Need to work/complete my profile, etc. But then again I have this other principle of not being too attached to a broker (3rd party).

[0246da3b]

Just Curious what type of freelance work you do.  I am fairly new to UpWork since November of last year and have more then enough work.  It could be that you are in a highly competitve area of work on UpWork.   I also notice your profile is private but im sure you are well aware of that fact.   But I am curious why I am having great success on Upwork with my average hourly rate on open projects at about $90 per hour.  I guess it depends what area you specialize in 

[1cac6772]

Hi Adam

That's a great question you bring up. Why is a newcomer like yourself that charges $90 per hour killing it while an established freelancer like myself can't land a job. The only thing that I can think of is that it's my profile. And this is what everyone at Upwork says it is so it must be true. Sure I have close to 300k in earnings, 100% JSS, stellar 5 star reviews, a good portfolio, and a profile written by a professional copywriter. But all of that's probably not good enough. And probably not nearly as good a profile as yours. 

[lizablau]

No, no. That's not it!  Your profile isn't been seen like it was for years because of recent changes with the rotation, boosting, and algorhythm.   You're more or less "hidden."

My experience is similar to what you wrote in your original post.  Lived off invites for years, and when they introduced boosting, suddenly stats & views flat-lined.  Only when I experimented with boosting did it kick-start views again.  But it became too expensive with meh results -- not like the good old days of many high quality invites per week.

Sure, some freelancers are still killing it.  But I think Upwork is rolling this out slowly and I wouldn't be surprised if all invites stop so everyone has to Pay to Play.

[0246da3b]

Not sure why you get so defensive about everything.   Did i comment that your profile is bad?   No I didnt even look at your profile because my profile in my opinion is lacking for sure.   I asked What area of work you specialize in because I specialize in Sales and Marketing Automations and CRM Customization and from what I have seen my field of experience is not saturated with freelancers but it is in super high demand.   I asked what everyone specializes in.   And Since you want to be defenisive .  

Your PROFILE IS PRIVATE YOU WILL GET ZERO INVITATIONS SINCE NO ONE CAN SEE YOUR PROFILE. Maybe thats the problem you are having is having a private profile.   If your profile was public you could get views.

I also Pay to Boost my profile and pay for availability because like any business you have to spend money on Advertising.   

[1cac6772]

Thank you Adam. I've been working on Upwork going on 5 years now and I had no idea that my profile was set to private. You are a lifesaver.  🤦🏻‍  😂  🤡

[calado-marco]

Maybe you hit the nail there and haven't noticed; "Sure I have close to 300k in earnings, 100% JSS, stellar 5 star reviews, a good portfolio, and a profile written by a professional copywriter. But all of that's probably not good enough".

I do think you're up to something there; "why the hell a guy like me that got 300k with 5 star reviews and is awsome, can't land a job althought i have a hidden profile? Is it possible that the clients are so dumb that they can't even wake up in the morning with my portofolio in their heads and send me invites'".

Hey Dale, stop crying about your "white-girl-self-entitled problems" and grow up man.

[danglad]

Brother, I made a pittance on this platform (and now I understand that I was just lucky to find a couple of good clients) who paid a small rate of 15-20 dollars per hour, but it was not super difficult work.

Having spent months here filtering out spam job vacancies and writing messages to clients, I understand that now it looks terrible. If this is what freelancing should look like, then it’s better not to do it at all, at least not on this platform.

If you have problems with such a profile, then good luck to all new profiles finding a job here. I’m generally silent about clients who offer to work for 3-5 dollars per hour, but I honestly wish them to receive the same amount for their work.

[1cac6772]

No, it wasn't always like this. It seemed to have changed sometime around the beginning of 2023. If you browse the forums you will see everyone complaining about this new system. Prior to this the platform seemed to work quite well. Upwork still took a hefty percentage out of each contract, but I understood that was the cost of doing business on the platform. It seems that greed has now taken over the heads of Upwork. If it somehow made the platform better I would give them a pass. But instead it's ruining the platform. 

[fa9d1717]

You know what? I am glad to have an account here in the forum section. I've learned a lot! I did have an old account in Upwork even my friends way back when works in Upwork and we NOTICED the big difference thank you for speaking out! Have you noticed? those who are against the truth are the ones who are satisfied with what they have?