Upwork has changed for the worse - Page 2

chriscarbaugh · ‎03-05-2023

I have been on Upwork for 7 years now. I've been Top Rated for much of that time and have been quite a success story on the platform with over $250k earned, dozens of 5 star reviews. However the last year or so has been my absolute worst time on Upwork and I blame many of the new features and paid add-ons they've introduced.

I know other Upwork veterans are having a similar experience. I also fear for new freelancers trying to get started here with the platform becoming so unfair and not supporting freelances how they used to. Some of my recent issues are explained below.

Unfair Success Score:

In 7 years on Upwork I've been Top Rated and highly rated on the platform for the majority of my membership. Obviously every freelancer is going to have some projects that don't work out, clients who don't leave feedback, or a project that takes longer than expected to finish. For me, any major situations that would contribute to lowering my success score have been few and far between over 7 years. Again, most of the time I've been on Upwork I've achieved Top Rated status and held it for long periods. However in the last year something has changed. I am suddenly unable to get my success score even over 90%. I've been in the 80s for months straight, then I jump up to 94% for just 2 weeks, and back down under 90% again. It is way more random, fluctuating, and just inconsistent with previous years on Upwork. Of course Upwork support will never give me a straight answer on this either. But it is clear I've been largely successful on Upwork, yet my JSS is making me look terrible to potential clients for months straight now.

Project Bidding and Boosting:

My profile used to receive so much consistent traffic and project invites. A profile like mine with a high value and success cases was always being recommended to clients and being given special highlights. Then Upwork introduced the changes to project bidding and boosting. Now my profile gets no views, hardly any of my proposals even get opened, and the boosting system is clearly just out of control. For example, I see a website design and development project with a budget of $2000. It is the perfect job for me with requirements and expectations I can fulfill, so I look to apply. But once I get down to the Boost section, the top 3 boosted proposals have bids over 300 connects. 300 connects for only a $2000 project! I'm seeing this all the time with projects big and small being boosted by proposals with hundreds of connects. It is clearing making Upwork a ton of money, but has destroyed the hiring and project bidding experience that Upwork used to have. Obviously boosting with that many connects is just not sustainable for a freelancer and has created an unfair hiring process on the platform. This makes Upwork on par with the Bark platform which is running the same model. It is terrible.

Keeping my strategy up with the times:

Obviously with changes on the platform, freelancers must evolve and update their strategies. I assumed having a tough last year or two was associated with my once very successful strategies no longer working. So I've tried everything to get back on top of the Upwork mountain. Profile changes, proposal changes, marketplace service changes, seminars, and even investing big time to boost my proposals too. Still I'm being held down and finding limited success. Even more frustrating, while I've been having such a hard time on Upwork, I've been exploding elsewhere. With other platforms and business ventures my time tested and proven strategies are providing great success. But on Upwork nothing works! It is so frustrating and is forcing me to just see Upwork as a waste of my time and effort. Which is horrible because I truly love Upwork and wish I could continue my success story here.

Final thoughts:

I've seen many other freelancers with similar complaints on the forums, but I'm just expressing some of my story here. I am sure I'll get some who relate and agree, and others who think I must be doing something wrong or need to improve. Just because I was successful on Upwork for years doesn't mean anything, I must be doing something wrong or just not staying current right? I'm open to hearing anything and everything but I honestly just feel the platform has changed.

In my honest, objective opinion it just seems like Upwork does not support freelancers as much as they used to. They have rolled out these new features to profit the platform more than anything. Plus their internal processes are more confusing, less open to explanation, inconsistent, and similarly not supporting freelancer success.

I've very disheartened by my last year on Upwork and can't imagine trying to get started on this platform now with how it is structured. If a veteran of the platform is getting so beat up by the changes, new freelancers just don't stand a chance. I have a hiring account too so I see it on both sides. All this to say, Upwork has definitely changed for the worse!

tlsanders · ‎03-13-2023

But, of course, there are exactly zero scenarios in which each of 50 freelancers sending a proposal has a 2% chance of getting the job.

25005175 · ‎03-14-2023

Do you have a better hypothetical that can demonstrate the mathematical application as well or better than the one I presented? If so, please share.

feed_my_eyes · ‎03-15-2023

Jonathan L wrote:
Do you have a better hypothetical that can demonstrate the mathematical application as well or better than the one I presented? If so, please share.

Your 2% stat would only be valid if all of the proposals are from freelancers who have the exact same skills and experience in the same industries, and obviously that's not true. Here's a hypothetical that's probably closer to the truth. I'd say that at least 1/3 of the people proposing haven't read or understood the project description and are spamming every project that they see; they have a 0% chance of being hired. Another 1/3 might have skills but a lower level of experience than the client is looking for, so they would have a better chance of being hired, especially if their bid is lower than the client's budget. Then let's say that the top 1/3 are very good matches, but there's one person who has a portfolio piece that's exactly what the client has in mind, has just finished 20 nearly identical projects with glowing feedback, and wrote a killer proposal that addressed all of the client's needs. That person probably has a 50/50 chance of being hired - given that many Upwork clients disappear and don't hire at all - not a 2% chance.

Jonathan L wrote:
Boosting puts the average increase in convert-to-hire at 55%

I would take that with a grain of salt as well. It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. Are boosted proposals more likely to convert because they were boosted? Or is it more likely that candidates who are a good fit are more willing to spend money on connects?

25005175 · ‎03-15-2023

Christine A wrote:
I'd say that at least 1/3 of the people proposing haven't read or understood the project description and are spamming every project that they see; they have a 0% chance of being hired. Another 1/3 might have skills but a lower level of experience than the client is looking for, so they would have a better chance of being hired, especially if their bid is lower than the client's budget. Then let's say that the top 1/3 are very good matches, but there's one person who has a portfolio piece that's exactly what the client has in mind, has just finished 20 nearly identical projects with glowing feedback, and wrote a killer proposal that addressed all of the client's needs. That person probably has a 50/50 chance of being hired - given that many Upwork clients disappear and don't hire at all - not a 2% chance.

Christine, your hypothetical is more realistic. Two things: 1. that 50/50 chance proposal is probably lower because the excellent Upwork algorithm will bury it. 2. It neglected to demonstrate the mathematic principle of what the 55% chance improvement would look like. Let's break it down.

Assume 52 proposals overall (just to make the math nicer).
1/3 (17) of proposals are spam.
- 0% organic chance.
- 1.55 x 0 = 0. Boosting will not improve chance.
1/3 (17) of proposals are inexperienced / lower quality.
- Let's say that the odds of the Client choosing from this category is 25%.
- 0.25 / 17 = 0.0147. So each individual proposal in this category has an organic 1.47% chance.
- 1.55 x 0.0147 = 0.0228. Boosting will elevate the chance to 2.28%.
1/3 (17) of proposals are very good matches.
- Let's say that the odds of the Client choosing from this category is 55%.
- 0.55 / 17 = 0.0324. Each individual proposal in this category has an organic 3.24% chance.
- 1.55 x 0.0324 = 0.0501. Boosting will elevate the chance to 5.01%.
1 proposals is outstanding.
- Let's say that odds of the Client seeing this one proposal is 25%, because it could be buried or late to the party and the Client already hired or moved on.
- If seen, let's assume that the Client has a 80% of choosing this proposal.
- 0.25 x 0.8 = 0.20. This proposal has an organic 20% of being selected.
- 1.55 x 0.2 = 0.31. The average Boost effect would elevate the chance to 31%.
- Reality: assuming that the Client does not ignore all Boosted proposals, the aforementioned 80%-if-seen stat reigns, such that Boosting elevates the chance from 20% to 80%.

I would take that with a grain of salt as well. It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. Are boosted proposals more likely to convert because they were boosted? Or is it more likely that candidates who are a good fit are more willing to spend money on connects?

I agree that is an important consideration. The Placebo Boost trial may provide some insight into that. But I think the reality is that proposals are more likely to convert because they were Boosted, because of the importance of being seen. Of course, that is not true in all cases. As testimony throughout the forums shows, some Clients auto-ignore Boosted proposals. And it may be that happens more for some types of jobs than others. There is a lot of nuance here for which Upwork has not supplied the results (but I'm confident that they have them). Ultimately, all we have to work with are our own experiences, the anecdotes of others, and the average 55% stat that Upwork provided - which is notably higher than even the top Boosted slot stat that they provided in Spring 2022, implying that Boosting has become more effect, on average across the marketplace.

kbadeau · ‎03-15-2023

I have applied for 5 projects this year, 3 organic and 2 boosted. Two of those proposals were viewed, one organic, one boosted. I was only interviewed for the boosted one and was subsequently hired. I used fewer than 10 connects for the boost.

I'm still not sure if clients love it or hate it or if it's of any value but I tend to think for first time clients it can have value. I would rather see it as something like a top rated perk though, or even for folks who are new to the platform but letting people just throw 100 connects at a job seems unhelpful for both clients and freelancers.

melaniekhenson · ‎03-17-2023

Kelly B wrote:
I have applied for 5 projects this year, 3 organic and 2 boosted. Two of those proposals were viewed, one organic, one boosted. I was only interviewed for the boosted one and was subsequently hired. I used fewer than 10 connects for the boost.

I'm still not sure if clients love it or hate it or if it's of any value but I tend to think for first time clients it can have value. I would rather see it as something like a top rated perk though, or even for folks who are new to the platform but letting people just throw 100 connects at a job seems unhelpful for both clients and freelancers.

As a client, meh, I don't care one way or the other. I pick the person who is best for the job, not the person who went to the front of the line.

I want a job done and I want it done well. Thats my priority.

melaniekhenson · ‎03-25-2023

Kelly B wrote:
I have applied for 5 projects this year, 3 organic and 2 boosted. Two of those proposals were viewed, one organic, one boosted. I was only interviewed for the boosted one and was subsequently hired. I used fewer than 10 connects for the boost.

I'm still not sure if clients love it or hate it or if it's of any value but I tend to think for first time clients it can have value. I would rather see it as something like a top rated perk though, or even for folks who are new to the platform but letting people just throw 100 connects at a job seems unhelpful for both clients and freelancers.

From my client side I don't like it or hate it. I still select the way I did before, to wit: best person for the job, not the one who spends the most to get seen.

Your example is a sample size of two, so let us know how it goes forward from here, as we don't have much anecdotal evidence besides complaints from those who are finding it tough to get work. Those who are obviously adequate for the job - as in your example above - already had a greater chance of being selected. Trust me, the client didn't say, "I'm impressed that this person was willing to buy her way to the top of the heap. Hired." 😄

melaniekhenson · ‎03-17-2023

Jonathan L wrote:
Do you have a better hypothetical that can demonstrate the mathematical application as well or better than the one I presented? If so, please share.

The thing is, this doesn't need to be calculated based on a highly unrealistic hypothetical factor, it is in action right now. And from both the client and freelancer ends we can all clearly see that boosted proposals are nowhere near 55% of hires. I mean they will be soon, simply because most freelancers will routinely be boosting. But that's like saying that if most freelancers who get hired have two eyes, then you should try to have two eyes because statistics show these with two eyes have a 97% increased chance of being hired over those with one eye.

I mean...if it's becoming a given that FLers boost, then of course 55% of hires will be shown to have boosted. That doesn't mean boosting increases your odds. It means tons of FLers are boosting. What is the percentage per job of boosted proposals that do NOT win the job, might be more to the point.

People see that 55% stat and they think...sweet, all other things being equal, a I'll probably get hired half the time, because look, over half of won jobs are from boosted proposals.

No. 😃

25005175 · ‎03-17-2023

Melanie H wrote:
The thing is, this doesn't need to be calculated based on a highly unrealistic hypothetical factor, it is in action right now. And from both the client and freelancer ends we can all clearly see that boosted proposals are nowhere near 55% of hires. I mean they will be soon, simply because most freelancers will routinely be boosting. But that's like saying that if most freelancers who get hired have two eyes, then you should try to have two eyes because statistics show these with two eyes have a 97% increased chance of being hired over those with one eye.

I mean...if it's becoming a given that FLers boost, then of course 55% of hires will be shown to have boosted. That doesn't mean boosting increases your odds. It means tons of FLers are boosting. What is the percentage per job of boosted proposals that do NOT win the job, might be more to the point.

People see that 55% stat and they think...sweet, all other things being equal, a I'll probably get hired half the time, because look, over half of won jobs are from boosted proposals.

No. 😃

Melanie, you misunderstood what the 55% statistic represents. Your misunderstanding is precisely the reason for the hypothetical demonstration. The 55% stat is NOT the percentage of Boosted proposals that convert into a hire. It is the PERCENTAGE INCREASE in the organic chance of a Boosted proposal converting into a hire. So if your organic chance is 10%, then Boosting - on average across all Freelancers - will increase that chance to 15.5%.

melaniekhenson · ‎03-17-2023

Jonathan L wrote:
Melanie H wrote:
The thing is, this doesn't need to be calculated based on a highly unrealistic hypothetical factor, it is in action right now. And from both the client and freelancer ends we can all clearly see that boosted proposals are nowhere near 55% of hires. I mean they will be soon, simply because most freelancers will routinely be boosting. But that's like saying that if most freelancers who get hired have two eyes, then you should try to have two eyes because statistics show these with two eyes have a 97% increased chance of being hired over those with one eye.

I mean...if it's becoming a given that FLers boost, then of course 55% of hires will be shown to have boosted. That doesn't mean boosting increases your odds. It means tons of FLers are boosting. What is the percentage per job of boosted proposals that do NOT win the job, might be more to the point.

People see that 55% stat and they think...sweet, all other things being equal, a I'll probably get hired half the time, because look, over half of won jobs are from boosted proposals.

No. 😃
Melanie, you misunderstood what the 55% statistic represents. Your misunderstanding is precisely the reason for the hypothetical demonstration. The 55% stat is NOT the percentage of Boosted proposals that convert into a hire. It is the PERCENTAGE INCREASE in the organic chance of a Boosted proposal converting into a hire. So if your organic chance is 10%, then Boosting - on average across all Freelancers - will increase that chance to 15.5%.

That is my point. It is way too easy to see this stat and think: wow, great! I'll boost and I'll get the job.

Just no.

Here is a metric that would be far more helpful: what percentage of proposals, total, are boosted? (On average.) Because if the majority are boosted, then of course 55% of boosted proposals are getting assigned jobs.

I'm not sure I'm explaining this clearly. I'm running on very little sleep.

tlsanders · ‎03-25-2023

No, because the mathematical application you are attempting to apply is false.

Let's say a client receives 10 proposals. 4 are cut-and-paste spam with no direct application to the job at hand. 2 are people who write decent targeted proposals but are brand new with no ratings and beginner-level skills. Two are medium-level skilled at the task, and charge about the same rate, but one writes a good proposal and the other sends a quick, generic bid. One has high-level skills and charges about the same as the medium-skilled ones. Another has high-level skills and charges double what the two mediums and one high-level applicant do.

Obviously, each person on this list (except perhaps the four who are total spam) have very different chances of being hired. To say that the highly-skilled person charging mid-level rates has a 1 in 10 chance of being selected in this scenario is absurd. To apply any kind of meaningful math, you would need to know at least the approximate actual chances for each individual freelancer...and, of course, we couldn't, because there are other variables as well, such as whether the client is more interested in quality or price, whether location matters to the client, etc.

If we look at it from an individual freelancer perspective, my hire rate ranges from about .25 to .33. If we apply Upwork's 55% claim to that, it means my changes of being hired would increase from 25-33% to 38.75-51.15%. That seems worth a few bucks to me. But, of course, even that is meaningless in the context of any particular job.

melaniekhenson · ‎03-17-2023

Jonathan L wrote:
Upwork's latest stat publication regarding Boosting puts the average increase in convert-to-hire at 55%. In a hypothetical 50 proposal situation with all proposals having a 2% chance, that increases the average chance of the Boosted proposals to 3.1%. Of course, that is an average across ALL Boosted proposals, such that poor matches will have less success and good matches will have better success (again, in general).

Latest as of when?

25005175 · ‎03-17-2023

March 8, 2023. See the linked announcement.

melaniekhenson · ‎03-17-2023

Jonathan L wrote:
March 8, 2023. See the linked announcement.

Aha, well, there you go. A much larger percentage of freelancers are routinely boosting. So chances are, about half (at least!) of job offers go to boosted proposals. That doesn't mean boosting caused them to be more visible, since a large percentage of proposals seem to be boosted now. It literally is correlation without established causation.

25005175 · ‎03-17-2023

Melanie H wrote:
Aha, well, there you go. A much larger percentage of freelancers are routinely boosting. So chances are, about half (at least!) of job offers go to boosted proposals. That doesn't mean boosting caused them to be more visible, since a large percentage of proposals seem to be boosted now. It literally is correlation without established causation.

Incorrect. The fact that the median chance increase (not the final chance) has only been 55% (perhaps I should write this as 1.55x, because apparently the % is too confusing) across 3 Boosted slots against typical 50+ pools of proposals is a very clear indicator that most hires are NOT Boosted proposals. Also, the only way that the majority of proposals are boosted (when there are more than 5) is for each subsequent proposal to raise the bid. But at any given time, only 3 (now 4) proposals are Boosted.

melaniekhenson · ‎03-25-2023

Jonathan L wrote:
Melanie H wrote:
Aha, well, there you go. A much larger percentage of freelancers are routinely boosting. So chances are, about half (at least!) of job offers go to boosted proposals. That doesn't mean boosting caused them to be more visible, since a large percentage of proposals seem to be boosted now. It literally is correlation without established causation.
Incorrect. The fact that the median chance increase (not the final chance) has only been 55% (perhaps I should write this as 1.55x, because apparently the % is too confusing) across 3 Boosted slots against typical 50+ pools of proposals is a very clear indicator that most hires are NOT Boosted proposals. Also, the only way that the majority of proposals are boosted (when there are more than 5) is for each subsequent proposal to raise the bid. But at any given time, only 3 (now 4) proposals are Boosted.

Okay, so spend boosts. 🙂 I haven't, and my work is no different - no fewer or more approaches, no fewer or more offers, I'm good. But if the numbers look great to you, they do, and you should go ahead and spend.

kbadeau · ‎03-15-2023

You only have three projects (out of a lot) with feedback last year; what's up with that? And then the one from this year is obviously not great; that's going to drag you down for a while. I have tons of old still open but inactive projects that I've been trying to close maybe once a month so I don't end up with a bunch of no feedback given contracts.

engr_khurram · ‎04-03-2023

With plateform more than 10 year's

At that time it's called odesk... But these recent changes makes things worst

alexbis987 · ‎05-04-2023

I totally agree. The quality has tanked in the past year.

raj_tejani · ‎06-04-2023

I believe this disappointing feeling on this platform is mainly because Upwork hasn't handled demand to supply ratio. I see a lot of other platforms have stopped taking new applications or have been putting them on hold, or tightening the vetting process. Before the pandemic, there were only new freelancers who were complaining that they are not getting any clients on the platform. I think that's why Upwork added boosting features. But now the new joiners and top-rates both are unhappy with the platform. I believe Upwork should tighten the vetting process, improvise the job feed algorithm(because I see only irrelevant jobs), and improvise dispute strategies.

2 Weeks earlier I had to dispute with one of my previous clients. He was expecting enterprise-grade quality at the price of peanuts. He took all the deliverables and rejected them for paying. Now if the client doesn't approve deliverables then Upwork should allow freelancers to take deserializes back and make the client sign NDA to not use that deliverable. But Upwork will not do it. And the shocking part is that the milestones were 350$ and the dispute fees are 317$. I don't understand why there is a dispute fee. Don't they take 10% fees already? And if they take 10% fess to get leads for the project then why is there connect system? So that's why I think Upwork needs to re-design its business model. |

I see a lot of frauds(advance level) happening on this platform and I'm worried how soon they will resolve them.

PradeepH · ‎06-05-2023

Hi Raj,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your experience with the client and how you feel about the mediation process.

I would like to clarify that Upwork will only facilitate the discussion and may not make judgments regarding work quality, quantity, or usability. Further, we will propose a mutual, non-binding resolution based on the discussion and evidence shared on the dispute ticket. In case, either of the parties disagrees with the resolution, we will move the dispute for Fixed Price contracts to our neutral third-party arbitration service provider. The arbitration fee is charged by the third-party arbitrator and not by Upwork. Feel free to respond to your dispute ticket if you have further questions and our Meditation specialist will be happy to answer them.

Thank you,

Pradeep

rlouw · ‎06-05-2023

I think the user experience or usability of the platform may be outdated or needs improvement. For example, some clients don't bother finishing the onboarding process of a project catalog (maybe due to multiple chat threads created, too many steps) and may go to a competitor site. Usability and experience (not only UI, but overall) for clients and freelancers is something that could be improved.

janrozs · ‎06-14-2023

I gave it a lot of thoughts over the past two years. At this point, it is safe to say that the questionable changes they made created a long-lasting effect on Upwork marketplace. The only winners in the new environment are dishonest clients. They are now perfectly positioned to do whatever they want. I frequently noticed that the worst clients I worked with have many or even all negative feedback removed, maybe it is yet another paid feature, and if so, a very non-transparent one. As for the honest clients who pay decent money for quality work, they got discouraged by multiple things, just like honest freelancers. There are many new agencies, they often have several profiles, the middle man became much more pronounced which means less quality work for more money for the buyers and less money for the freelancers. Lies are abundant. This situation lasted so long that it now defines the marketplace. And given the many changes they kept doing lately, every new change now just adds to uncertainty and undermines the trust people have in Upwork. It is hard to believe **Edited for Community Guidelines** to do the opposite of what they should do, and miss the best timing to grow the platform. It almost seems that there are some **Edited for Community Guidelines**.

I will stop using the platform soon. I will keep my profile just in case things improve but I don't expect it to happen anytime soon. It will take at least a new CEO.

yofazza · ‎06-15-2023

paid by someone to sabotage the platform.

The normal way didn't work (in generating net profit), so they're trying a different approach.

Good freelancers are feeling sabotaged? That doesn't mean it's bad for the business. They have all the rights.

We can just observe, don't get caught in the game if possible. Play it safe, have the last laugh in whatever the outcome 😁

neo7harry · ‎08-28-2023

I completely agree!!!
I've been with UpWork since the time of their constituting companies of Elance and oDesk. The Expereince of working on the Elance platform and even UpWork back in the day was amazing and really smooth.
Their current practices are more like highway robbery where a freelancer has to pay to keep their profiles public, get a decent no. Of connects and then bid for projects with an ungodly amount of connects that keep changing haphazardly. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of % that UpWork takes from us and then nicks off a bit more when you withdraw....

They're not understanding that they're just ruining the market not only for us professionals but for clients as well.
I don't understand how they can't see that they're pushing all the good talent away.

the-right-writer · ‎08-28-2023

Upwork can lose most of the freelancers and do fine. That's why they don't change. With 20 million freelancers and less than a million customers, Upwork doesn't need cogs in the wheel. Freelancers are disposable to them.

3314778e · ‎08-28-2023

I have experienced the worst scenario in last 3-4 weeks. I made greate progress in early 6 months and I was receiving real offers and there was no need to submit proposals. Now i barely get any invitations and most of the clients are just new and are not hiring little communication and then they are offlien for weeks and weeks. I am already accepted and trying to look for a permanent Cyber security job. Giving up on my dream of working as Freelancer

43433f84 · ‎08-28-2023

I will also left this platform as well. what other platform is good?

nabanita97 · ‎10-11-2023

You Perfectly described what we are feeling.

Many Thanks

danielmfriedman · ‎10-11-2023

It's good to know I'm not the only one struggling. I mean, it's a horrible situation, but I'm glad it's not just me. I was once able to make decent money on Upwork and this is no longer the case.

bboro · ‎03-12-2024

While I agree that Upwork lat in too many freelancers and scammers came along which made this platform much worse then it used to be it still works better than others. Mostly because of my status and long time standing.

Upwork got expensive so I intensified my efforts on other platforms and yet.... I got some work on Upwork and non on other platforms.

There are still ways to land a job without boosting the proposal.

7 out of 10 of my proposlas usualy get viewed and I never boost them.

I must admit job quality is lower. Clients get cold feet or run out of funds (or some of them are just outright scammers). The global situation adds to the uncertainty everyone feels these days.

Not everything is Upwork's fault.

rosieboi · ‎04-20-2024

I've just rejoined upwork after a few years away.

Am I right in believing that you now how to use connects/sign up for plus justso clients can see that you are avalible for work?

Do I also have to use connects to push my proposals up so clients actually see them?

Am I getting this right?

ArjayM · ‎04-20-2024

Hi Chris,

You can use Connects to let clients know you’re ready to work on their projects in several ways. You can submit proposals to a specific job post, turn on your availability badge, and boost your proposal to put it at the top of the client’s list. To learn more about how boosted proposals and the bidding process work, go here.

You may visit this help article to better understand how Connects works. Best of luck!

~ Arjay

rosieboi · ‎04-20-2024

Well this is my point, I'm not looking for ways to just use connects up.

So if I don't use my connects to have this avalibility badge or pay for freelancer plus, upwork will hide my profile from clients?

Is this correct?

Also I do have to use connects to push my proposal to the top?

So upwork has gone from the middleman that takes 10% of my earnings to a middleman that takes 10% of my earnings that then hides my visibility from clients unless I pay them and has now also created a micro transactions system against freelancers that forces them to pay to stand out and have their proposals seen?

yofazza · ‎04-20-2024

Not entirely correct, as I don't think they will hide your profile or 'always' hide your proposals if you did not pay. Some people never boost and they can still get clients.

But it's true about them being a too-demanding and tricky middleman (for which they have some valid reasons), so just don't get caught in their game. There might be time when a saturation point is reached, and we'll see.

ibjects · ‎04-26-2024

Agree with you 100% and I'm planning to leave this platform too. Mine is a very similar case as yours. It's seems like whoever pays more now gets the project and it's changed towards the worst. I have been feeling very dissapointed lately that I even bought the pro for a month and it's the worst experience ever. Good freelancers were supposed to be retained but guess upwork got greedy.