Attracting higher quality freelancers

[6f4d634f]

I've tried using UpWork to find talent for a while, but so far it just has not yielded the right freelancers for the work I need. Before I swear off UpWork completely, I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

Here are the problems I'm having:

- Applicants claiming to be fluent in English and US based when clearly they are not

- Freelancers rejecting the invitation saying "Budget is too small" even if no budget is specified

- Freelancers accepting the job and then disappearing without completing the work

I know a lot of people have used the platform successfully. They must have a better way of writing their posting or filtering applicants...so I'd love to know the secret.

[youssefbahaa]

Hi Jeff,

Here are some thoughts that might be helpful for you to solve these problems:

Re: - Applicants claiming to be fluent in English and US-based when clearly they are not.

----> You can easily find out the freelancer's real fluency level by requesting a Zoom meeting in the interview phase. I believe having a Zoom call before hiring somebody is essential in most cases to make sure that you are on the same page.

Re: - Freelancers rejecting the invitation saying "Budget is too small" even if no budget is specified

----> Why would you need to worry about them? just consider that they are not interested in the work described and they made a huge favor for you by filtering themselves out without wasting your time.

Re: - Freelancers accepting the job and then disappearing without completing the work

----> Well, for this you might spend some more time in the interview before choosing the appropriate canditate. You might see this profile reviews and what his previous clients said about him.

I hope this helps. Wish you the best of luck!

Youssef

[feed_my_eyes]

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Jeff L wrote:

- Freelancers rejecting the invitation saying "Budget is too small" even if no budget is specified

---

Freelancers can see how much clients have paid for their previous projects. If the client has been paying low rates, then freelancers with much higher rates might think that it's not worth responding to the invitation. The biggest factor in attracting top talent is being willing to pay for it.

[magreth]

Freelancers also use your job history to estimate your budget and come to the conclusion that your budget whatever it is is too low.

[prestonhunter]

Post jobs as hourly contracts. Quality freelancers want to know that they will be paid for their time. If a freelancer prefers fixed-price contracts, she knows that she can ask you to set up a fixed-price contract instead.

Use short but specific descriptions.

A quality freelancer does not want to both with a job posting that is three pages long with lots of requirements and details. But they want to have a clear idea about what type of work they will be doing.

If you have a complex project, don't hire one freelancer to do everything. Hire specific freelancers to handle specific parts of the project. One job posting for photography. One job posting for content writing. On job posting for illustrations, etc. Quality freelancers don't try to be "all things to all people."

re: "Freelancers accepting the job and then disappearing without completing the work"

Plan for this. Manage your project accordingly. Even a GREAT freelancer might disappear without completing the work. What if he dies? Make sure the work is archived and available in a central place so that others can continue the project.