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a195dd90
Community Member

Upwork is NOT as great as it boasts

Hi!
This comment is NOT coming from a place of 'sour grapes', but Upwork is not doing enough to keep scammers off the site and the site seems to favor long time users as opposed to new arrivals who in all candidness are likely as good if not better regarding their skill set when compared to the 'older members'.

 

While I always welcome new challenges and projects, graphic art with a dash of technology has been for years my bread and butter. I recently signed up to Upwork, believing (given the volume of new projects listed) that the site would be a good source for additional supplemental income. In my case, I'm blessed and have had a good livelihood with my design work, nevertheless I am quite perplexed by the lack of activity regarding submitted proposals.

Here are my concerns:
a) when submitting a proposal how am I certain the proposal has actually been received and READ by the job poster?
Having done e-blasts for a number of years, I know (technically) as the sender I can actually see when the e-blast was sent, received and OPENED! - (done via php scripts - not rocket science). On Upwork the only indication is when the proposal is sent - no confirmation it was received and more importantly opened / read. Does Upwork offer such services for tracking, similar to an e-blast (email)?

b) Job posters SEEM to indicate an immediate need for talent to their specific project and yet - more often than not, the job post just seems to languish on the vine for days, if not weeks with no action. <-- Regardless of the number of offers received.
Very frustrating - I realize Upwork can't control the response window for job posters, but there should be some way of prodding the job poster to take the next step or simply close the project. The one exception seems to be the job poster who posts a project at 10pm and wants a finished project by the end of business the NEXT DAY!

c) Related to the last point. There is an inherent air of indifference or apathy when concerns are raised by freelancers about their concerns. Instead of addressing the concerns straight on, feedback is usually suggesting reading this or that article, a short 'RAH-RAH' speech (typically by a moderator, who may be just trying to be helpful, but not offering any real solutions) and/or an attitude of move along, nothing to see here.

Although it may appear I am knocking the value of a platform like Upwork - I am not. I have, however seen / read on this board enough posts to know, there is a lingering bottleneck or lack of communication between Upwork, the freelancer and indirectly the job poster.

I have no doubt (depending on one's talent) there are numerous success testimonials and income being made by interested parties. But I also see the frustration, and deflated spirit by a great number of freelancers who in good faith are making very reasonable offers, to the point of almost giving away their talent for free just to land a project.

In closing, not bragging, but simply a point of illustration. I have been formally recognized for my graphic / multimedia expertise. I have done specialized and run-of-the-mill project work for nationally recognized brands, organizations, Presidential Libraries, airlines, museums, the Kentucky Derby® (Churchill Downs), the Tournament of Roses® Parade in Pasadena, Universal Studios® and many others. And yet... at Upwork - after nearly 150+ proposals, NOT one offer for an interview, an invite, a project. As an experiment, I offered my talent for as little as 60% BELOW the published budget and STILL nothing. Just crickets...

 

The only upside - I'm not desperate - just a hearty drive for delivering QUALITY CREATIVITY.
I will step off my soapbox now, thanks for reading.
Best to all.

 

8 REPLIES 8
luqman_mak
Community Member

Thank you, it was a good read.

You can see how many of your proposals sent have been viewed through 'my stats' page - at the bottom of it, there is a graph with a pull down menu above it - if you select 'proposals' from the pull down menu, it will show you how many were viewed. (its still a beta feature so you may or may not have it yet). It doesnt specify which proposal was viewed but just gives you a number.
For job posts that are hanging; there is a a 'hiring rate' on the clients profile with each job post - everyone has different cut-offs depending on their own experiences but when combined with clients history of amount spent, hires and feedback - these help to get a rough idea on the client before you submit a proposal.

Thank you. I was aware of the info you mentioned. I do appreciate your help. 

8c760c47
Community Member

I'm also an industry veteran as a producer, director, editor, and motion graphics designer with plenty on my plate and joined Upwork in early August 2022 simply for the leads and the hope to pick up a project here and there. Gotta keep the pipeline full! After 5 weeks on the platform, I have not received a single invitation for an interview or a simple inquery about my proposal. None of my proposals were read. I, too, have tested the waters by lowering my rates to see if that would spark more interest but came up empty handed.

 

I've spent far too much time parsing through projects, and writing proposals with nothing to show from Upwork.

 

I think there is some level of discrimination (if you want to call it that) when your value is judged by the number of projects you've completed and how many recommendations you have.

 

I also teach drums on the side and use 2 similar platforms with the exact same model. Although I've had success on those platforms, it seems like Upwork is an uphill slog to have your profile rise to the top of the pile before people start seeing your proposals.

 

I've also had more success on Guru in a shorter time frame. 

 

I've already spent a ton of time fleshing out my Upwork profile (and I continue to tweak) and I'm not about to abandon the platform, but I'd appreciate some insight and guidance from this group to see how I can turn this around. 

First - and I should not have to say that - you need to know the terms of service and make sure you don't violate them. Any violation by a new freelancer without ongoing jobs is going to be sanctioned swiftly by upwork (suspension without recourse), since there are far too many people trying to get work already. (It's the picture, this is not allowed). 

Next - I'm sure you bring a lot of experience to the table, but you fail to sell it. Your profile is not a resume. It's a marketing pitch. What benefit will the client have hiring you? What problems will you solve? Address that directly. Your profile should not be about you, it should be about your client. 

 

Hey Peter,

I'm not sure what the secret sauce is. Freelancers may get offers within hours or days of launching a profile on one freelance site, yet they may struggle to gain traction on another.

If your profile isn't working, you're free to experiment with different ways of setting things up. Having seen your profile overview, it's a bit of an omnibus read. You mention video editing in the title, but you've got a ton of other skills. Having diverse skills is an asset, but a client reading about all of them at once might be a bit overwhelmed, and they might not be able to easily pinpoint how your skill set will work with their project because there's too much information.

One way you could approach this is to look at the specialized profile option because this allows you to set up a different profile using a particular subset of your skills or past experience (in addition to your main profile page, you have the option to set up two specialized profiles). There are lots of ways to work with this. One potential category I see based on your current profile is medical explainer videos because you have a few of those in your portfolio. I notice in my freelance work that if I've done one type of project, it will usually be easier to get similar ones.  You might think about whether there are any similarities in the projects you've done in that area. Do doctors come up with similar types of questions, and are those projects handled in a specific way?

That's just an example. From what I've seen, it might help to package your skills and experience in smaller chunks that are more easily accessible to clients. You can keep your main portfolio page, but see what happens if you set up a specialized profile with a subset of your skills or a subset of jobs you've worked on that are similar in some way. So you could use this option to tailor your presentation to a particular audience.

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013750068-Create-a-Specialized-Profile

8c760c47
Community Member

Renata - thank you for the insight. I've modified my primary profile and created one of the additional profiles. I liked the 2nd profile so much that I copied it to my primary. 

 

There seems to a difference between my primary and the secondary profiles and I was wondering if you know how modify it. 

 

In my primary profile, there's a SKILLS section that's visible to the public, but in my secondary profile it's listed as SKILLS AND EXPERTISE, with a nicely fleshed out list of additional skills. Is there a way to match these between the 2 profiles?

Hi Peter,

I like what you've done with the specialized profile! And I'm delighted those insights were helpful (and engergizing!). In my work, spend a lot of time contemplating how people consume information (and thinking about what I read, what confuses me, and what I skip over).  It's good to try to imagine your audience's mindset and how people might be processing the information they find in your profile. Often less is more, but getting to the right version of "less" is a distillation process.

You're absolutely right about the skills and expertise section looking so much better in your specialized profile. Unfortunately, I think we're stuck with just the skills section on the main profile page for the moment. Also, in a previous incarnation of the main profile page, the skills section used to show up ahead of the entries about past projects. People have been trying to get Upwork to put it back in that position since they moved it.  I think it's easier and faster for clients to begin by scoping out skills keywords than it is to dive into specifics of particular projects.

tjmisny
Community Member

Well said Michael, I agree with all of your points.

 

Upwork empowers thoughtless / careless / abusive Clients to waste Freelancers time.  

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