workflow questions in proposals

[mehsaan1719]

Some jobs have questions like "explain how this can be done" or "how would you approach this"
and if i explain that , even shortly , it gives off a lot of my value already , since i am an experiecned developer and constructing out workflow of a scenario is one of my skills.
And once i construct a workflow , they can use it to work with any person who has a cheaper hourly rate 
to get the job done 
I know it is not as bad as it sounds, but it does give off value for free

[wlyonsatl]

If answering specific questions or designing solutions is an important element of your expertise and part of what you expect to be paid for, find a way to answer them without answering them too completely or tell the client that what they are asking is part of your solution to their problem.

So they can hire you for only providing those answers, leaving them free to hire you to do the complete the job, do the work themselves or hire another freelancer.

But you won't be doing any free work that helps them finish the work themselves or hire another freelancer to do.

[kat303]

In Will's reply to you, he gave you a perfect response to reply

Hi XX, answering specific questions or designing solutions is an important element of my expertise and part of the solution to your problem. Besides that, providing those exact answers to you would be giving away free work and that is against Upworks TOS. You can set up a small job for that information. Just click on the Hire button and I will provide those answers in detail to you. After that, if you are happy and satisfied we can set up a contract for me to complete the entire job for you. Otherwise you are free to hire another freelancer to complete the rest of the job, or do the rest of the work yourself.