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a1-analytics
Community Member

How to use targeted RSS feeds to automatic job alerts

I like to respond to new and highly interesting job postings as soon as possible.

The below method describes in detail how to automate job notifications for very specific categories of job search queries.  I use a combination of the following, which I'll show you how to do in this article.  This is a courtesy to fellow freelancers, and I may not be able to respond to your questions.

I take no responsibility for any of the results you may encounter, so use this method at your own risk.

1) Create very specific job queries using Boolean connectors
2) Test these out and then copy the RSS feed
3) Paste the RSS feed you just created into a Newsfeed application
4) Test out the news feed on your iPhone or Android and set up synch and notifications

The following demonstration is not meant to answer all your questions, and I do not have the time to respond to any technical problems you might encounter.   If you follow these instructions exactly, it 'should' work for you.

1) Create very specific job queries using Boolean connectors:


Suppose I want to search for jobs having either Python, or Code Guru, or Javascript in the title?
The Boolean code that I've found works best for multiple words and phrases is this:
For some reason, Upwork's editor is inserting sad emoticons where I use a colon : and right (
title:((Python OR ('Code Guru') OR Javascript))

It probably deserves a separate article to explain how best to construct Boolean searches.

 

NOTE: There is a 40 character rule if you attempt to your search in the standard box.

So, just enter Python for now by clicking on the Advanced Search:

Image_Advanced_Search.PNG

The Advance Search hyperlink opens up this form and is where I entered Python (due to the 40 character limitation).  You have other valuable options here that you can use, such as All of these words, Any of these words, etc.  However, to obtain best results, I want to use my own Boolean search string:

Image_Python.PNG

Notice that I pasted (over-wrote) the search box:
It originally had this due to the 40-character limitation in the above shown form:

Image_Python_Orig.PNG

I entered the desired Boolean search string in the topmost search box circled in red and hit the ENTER button on my keyboard to lock-in the new Boolean phrase I want.  This over-wrote what was originally in the box from the above shown form.

title:((Python OR ('Code Guru') OR Javascript))

 

Image_Boolean.png

 

At this point, you can see the results and if they match your desired expectations.  If not, just play around with the Boolean syntax until you get it right.

 

Image_Search_Results1.PNG


I then clicked on the green Filters button (circled in red) to expand my options.  You can now fine-tune your query based on the boxes and options, while keeping your new and improved Boolean search phrase.

Image_Search_Tweak.PNG

Next, I click on the Save search button.  It defaults to the text in the search box, but you should give it a logical name.  For example, I'll call this search "Upwork - Coding"

 

This is not user-friendly but is the default name the system provides:

Image_Save_Search1.PNG

 

Give your RSS search feed a short - logical name:

Image_Save_Search2.PNG

 

2) Test these out and then copy the RSS feed

First, click on the FIND WORK tab at the top of the page:
You will now see your new Saved Search listed as "Upwork - Coding" or whatever you named your search.
Notice that you have two options
A) Click on the name "Upwork - Coding" (This enables you to delete the custom search as described below)
B) Click on the green < symbol with three dots (This is how we will get our RSS feed link)
(B only appears if you move your mouse over the area)

Imaged_Saved_Search.png

 

If you click on the name 'Upwork - Coding', you can examine the results again one last time.  Now, click on the 3 green dots and a box will open up (I have drawn a red box around it, so you can see the 3 green dots and the resulting drop-down box when you click on the 3 green dots

Ignore the RSS option for now.  You can also use the "Remove topic' option to delete your custom query.  The delete option is very valuable because you can experiment with several custom queries, and then delete those variations that don't work as well to keep your Saved Searches panel cleaner.

Image_RSS.png

 

3) Paste the RSS feed you just created into a Newsfeed application
Go back to the Saved Searches by clicking at the top of your page 'FIND WORK'
Hover your cursor over your desired Saved Search (In my case it's 'Upwork - Coding'

Do not click on the Saved Search Title for 'Upwork - Coding' in this example, but on the > symbol shown

 

Image_Click_Here.png

 

This will open the following window, which has the green RSS radio wave symbol in the smaller inner red circle I've drawn.  You want to right-click on the RSS option that pops up and select "Copy Link Location".


Image_RSS2.png
It's difficult to show this with a normal screen capture, so I took a photo with my iPhone:  Here's what you want to do:

 

Image_Save_RSS.png

 

You can copy this to notepad or a text document.  You will need to use this link in your RSS Newsfeed application.

 

Here's what my RSS link looks like:
https://www.upwork.com/ab/feed/jobs/rss?q=title%3A%28%28Python+OR+%28%27Code+Guru%27%29+OR+Javascrip...

There are several RSS Newsfeed applications that are free.  I was using "rss to email'
https://ifttt.com/applets/wyiP45c8-rss-to-email?term=rss from IFTTT.com
This enabled me to send Upwork searches to my Gmail on a regular basis.
Today, I prefer the Newsify iPhone application.

 

This is the 'Dark' theme.  As you can see, it has all my customized Upwork searches using the special Boolean query syntax.  I can easily see unread job opportunities.

 

Image_Newsify.png

 

If you prefer a lighter theme, that's easily done in settings:


Image_Newsify2.png

 

Here, I selected Sepia as a Theme and it's also very easy to read.  You an also set up daytime or nighttime themes to automatically switch over.

 

Image_Sepia.png

 

You see that I have 8 Tableau jobs listed.  When, I click on 'Upwork - Tableau' I see headlines of each job, and I can modify the view a few ways.  I like the list view:

 

Images_Results.png

 

I'm seeing advertisements because I am using the free version. The adverts don't bother me enough to pay for a subscription, but I might out of appreciation to the developers.

 

When I click on the most recent Tableau job, here's what I see.  It provides me a direct link, and also remembers my Upwork ID and log-in.

 

Images_Results_Detail.png

 

Let's add a new RSS feed, based on the 'Upwork - Coding' example we just created:

You'll recall that we saved the RSS link after right-clicking on the saving the link as I described above.  I just send all the links in a text file to my iPhone by using an email or WhatsApp.

Then, I insert them one-by-one into Newsify using this method:
Click on the large + symbol at the top right of the Newsify screen, under my 56% battery icon:

Image_Sepia.png

 

Ignore (if you choose) all the links that pop-up - they are just suggested RSS feeds by Newsify.

You will use the Search or enter an ad(dress) field at the top to paste the RSS link you saved for your custom search:

 

Image_Newsify_RSS.png

 

Assuming you saved the RSS link correctly, once you paste it into the top search field, it will automatically populate the title as 'All jobs | upwork.com'

 

Image_Newsify_RSS_Good.png
Congratulations!  You made it this far?  Wonderful!  Unfortunately, Newsify will name ALL your new RSS links 'All jobs | upwork.com' so you will want to change the name to whatever seems logical to you:

 

Image_Newsify_Rename.png

 

Here, I'm renaming this link from "All jobs | upwork.com' to 'Upwork - Coding'

Image_Coding.png

 

Now, when I go back to the main screen in Newsify, I find my new custom Upwork RSS search at the bottom, circled in red.

Image_Newsify_Bottom.png

 

I can click on the Edit link at the top-left of my Newsify screen and then drag and drop to re-order this new RSS feed to put it in alphabetical order.  You see I have 29 new jobs to bid on that met my criteria:

Image_RSS_Complete.png

 

4) Test out the news feed on your iPhone or Android and set up synch and notifications

You'll want to play around with the Synch Settings in the Newsify application (shown immediately below), as well as the Newsify application in the iPhone Notification Settings (shown at bottom):

Do not use my settings, as I have since adjusted them to something that works best for my own purposes.

 

Image_Newsify_Settings.png

 

While most settings are within the Newsify application, the Allow Notifications are within the iPhone settings for Notifications:

Image_Newsify_iPhone.png

 

I hope you found this useful.  By creating highly targeted job search queries and receiving them automatically, with alerts, as soon as they appear on Upwork, you can be one of the earlier candidates to send the potential client a proposal.

The rest is up to you!

Good luck - Greg G.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

I'd like to thank everyone who responded critically and productively to the approach Gregory shared in this thread. Also noting that I've removed a few posts from the thread which were discussing information unrelated to the conversation and which is prohibited by Community Guidelines.

 

I'd love to see the conversation continue as I'm sure other users, especially new freelancers, would be very interested in hearing more about the different approach successful and experienced freelancers are taking. 

~ Vladimir
Upwork

View solution in original post

29 REPLIES 29
petra_r
Community Member


Gregory John G wrote:

 it's CRITICAL that you get in FAST to bid on suitable projects. 


 

Considering that clients do **NOT** see proposals in the order they were received, and take on average 3 days to hire, this whole mammoth post is based on a faulty premise: That getting in first will win you more jobs.

 

Obviously applying when the job is still fresh is a good idea as the client may have their shortlist already if you get there too late, but there is no "Make sure you're top of the list" thing going on, because you can be last to apply and be at the top of the list the client sees or first to apply and hidden at the bottom or even in an "unlikely to be suitable" folder.

 

I can’t speak for your experience and you are entitled to your opinion.

I did a correlation analysis between my interviews and the number of pre-existing proposals.

There was a strong negative correlation. In other words, statistically, the more proposals already submitted, the less likely it was to get an interview.

I don’t have time to watch Upwork for suitable jobs, so I automated the process as I describe in this thorough post.

You can keep using whatever method works for you.

Obviously, I devoted a lot of thought in automating this process, so you can imagine how much effort I saved the people who want to use RSS feeds effectively but don’t know where to start. I just handed them a roadmap.

Best wishes to you.

PS: In fact, I just received new suitable jobs as I was responding:

Spot on. 

pkaufman
Community Member

This is an old thread but for me at least, something was said here that I was not aware of and is critically important. I think the quoting may get messed up because of the age of the post - not my fault 🙂 

 

Petra said: 

"Considering that clients do **NOT** see proposals in the order they were received,'

 

Can you please explain this in detail. And, any tips on on how we can get further up that list?

Thank you. 

 

Hi Peter, 

 

Clients have an option to sort proposals when they view them in the list. Sorting them Newest or Oldest First are options that are present there. Best Match is the default sorting option.

~ Valeria
Upwork

Hi,

 

Thanks. While I post the occaisonal job as a clent as well, I never noticed that. I hope that the best match does not use the same algorithm as the one that proposes freelancers to clients. That one is not good!

tlsanders
Community Member

If "odds" have anything to do with the likelihood that you will or will not secure a client relationship, you are in the wrong line of work.

Gregory, your methodology may work well for you, but its applicability may be limited for freelancers who don’t charge anywhere near $525 an hour.
__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

When I first started applying for jobs on Upwork, I was taking much lower paying jobs. I still do if I think it will open doors.

Most of my work comes from former associates and their professional network, so I don’t need Upwork, as it provides about 5% of my work.

I’ve made $15 an hour on some jobs I did to win more business.

Sometimes, I’ve earned $2,500 an hour on a fixed price quote to a hospital from outside of Upwork.

This method was helpful for lower priced projects as well as higher ones.

I much prefer milestone projects, where my client only pays if they are completely satisfied with each step toward success.

I got started in marketing in my early twenties as a graphic designer (PageMaker, Illustrator, Photoshop) and writer before migrating into data science.

Frankly, I found writing and graphic design are more demanding because it’s harder to re-purpose your creative work.

Data science, on the other hand, enables me to leverage prior work in new ways much more easily.

I also earn more than my days as a graphic designer or corporate writer.

Creative work was more fun, and I have my best brochures, newsletters, and videos archived for the creative pride.

I don’t save predictive models out of similar pride.

This is outdated. The UpWork screens have changed. There is no drop down to find an RSS feed.

Hi Susan,

 

Here is the help article with instructions on how to set up an RSS feed and receive automatic updates.

 

Thank you! 

~ Bojan
Upwork

Thank you for your response. By ‘odds’ I mean ‘probability’.

There are many factors that impact the likelihood of obtaining a client meeting and offer.

One factor I have found to be of importance is the speed at which I submit a proposal.

The method I describe makes it possible to craft several highly targeted saved job searches and trigger RSS alerts that are displayed on Newsify on my iPhone.

Data science is my focus, and ‘odds’ or ‘probability’ is ideally suited to my line of work.

Treating people with respect is a practice we all benefit from, and it doesn’t require statistics to figure that out.



Gregory John G wrote:
Thank you for your response. By ‘odds’ I mean ‘probability’.

There are many factors that impact the likelihood of obtaining a client meeting and offer.

One factor I have found to be of importance is the speed at which I submit a proposal.

The method I describe makes it possible to craft several highly targeted saved job searches and trigger RSS alerts that are displayed on Newsify on my iPhone.

Data science is my focus, and ‘odds’ or ‘probability’ is ideally suited to my line of work.

Treating people with respect is a practice we all benefit from, and it doesn’t require statistics to figure that out.



To be clear, "one particular factor" for your n=1?

 

What's your ratio of proposal submission to contract enactment? Diving in here to additional impact factors such as freelancer proposals: content, structure, proposed rate, etc. Other factors impact, of course, from the client-side; it's difficult to weight those unless you have the opportunity to essentially survey the client. 

 

I'm always conscientious about overfitting the data. 

 

I'm frequently invited to respond to client RFPs. I've not bid within the context of the open market place in...oh my...months I'd say (too busy at the moment to pick through exactly when). So, I'd be an n=1 that your correlational analysis wouldn't generalize to. 

 

I would agree that one strong correlation (for me!) is the number of Flers they're already interviewing or have invited (I've got my own internal KPI thresholds that serve as a quantitative guide for my "should I or shouldn't I" decision tree, and those are directly related to my niche, the demand for my skillset on Upwork -- I perpetually research this -- my hourly rate, etc.). But, even then, there are other supporting data points that I look for when drawing down to a binary classification.

 

Edited: Because I'll be copyediting myself until the end of time. 

 

 

This will be my last response.  If you feel you would benefit from using this RSS feeds to more accurately target and more quickly respond to reqs that fit your specifications, then please feel free to experiment with the method I have provided.  It may not be perfect, but it works for me and I have found it very useful.  Otherwise, I wish you all well in whatever method you are most comfortable with.

On a personal note, I don't come here to earn 'Kudos'.  If this method benefits someone, it's just my way of giving back to the community for the help I have received over the years from others.  I was taken aback by the negativity expressed by a few supposed 'gurus' - some with compulsive amounts of activity on these boards.  The lack of kindness, appreciation, or simple decency expressed by them is curious.  Rather than respond with equal sarcasm or scepticism, I'll end this message stream with this:

 

Life is short, so let's all make the best of it by sharing our insights to help others less fortunate.  When people attack your acts of kindness, it could be they are in pain.  Send them rays of love and best wishes for prosperity in all areas of their lives.


Gregory John G wrote:
Thank you for your response. By ‘odds’ I mean ‘probability’.

There are many factors that impact the likelihood of obtaining a client meeting and offer.

One factor I have found to be of importance is the speed at which I submit a proposal.

The method I describe makes it possible to craft several highly targeted saved job searches and trigger RSS alerts that are displayed on Newsify on my iPhone.

Data science is my focus, and ‘odds’ or ‘probability’ is ideally suited to my line of work.

Treating people with respect is a practice we all benefit from, and it doesn’t require statistics to figure that out.



I know what odds means. 

 

The problem is, as you said, there are many factors impacting hiring choices. And, in my experience, for any client worth working with, quality and professionalism account for the vast majority of the decision. 

 

Of course, your experience and mine may differ, but that's an important point from a data science perspective, isn't it? You're one person who has submitted a limited number of proposals to a limited pool of clients within a specific field. That's tough to extrapolate to hundreds of thousands of freelancers in different fields at different skill levels (etc., etc., etc. ). Honestly, it seems hard to extrapolate even to yourself on a meaningful basis unless you've submitted thousands of proposals and gone through at least one full seasonal cycle. 

 

Many of my clients take days to hire, or even weeks. Many have a lot of proposals and haven't hired and then I send a proposal two or three weeks after the job was posted and get hired pretty quickly. 

 

I'm not saying there's no value to your RSS system. Honestly, I didn't read through the whole walk through because that's not something I care about. Many freelancers do, and I'm sure they appreciate the instructions. 

 

My objection is to feeding the idea that racing to bid is the way to well here and claiming that it's data-based when in fact as a professional you are surely aware that your personal numbers have little or no predictive value for the masses, and that most people reading your post won't know that.

 

I take professional responsibility seriously, and know that many people take things at face value from someone positioned as an expert, so I don't view it as an act of kindness to make potentially misleading statements about the importance of a particular variable.

Again, spot on. I find the smarmy attitudes to your feedback to be interesting. I concur, however you are only as good as your weakest link, i.e. if the feed isn't sending you listings that are fresh, this strategy is completely destroyed. 

VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thank you, Gregory, for taking the time to describe and illustrate your search methodology in such detail!

~ Vladimir
Upwork
VladimirG
Community Manager
Community Manager

I'd like to thank everyone who responded critically and productively to the approach Gregory shared in this thread. Also noting that I've removed a few posts from the thread which were discussing information unrelated to the conversation and which is prohibited by Community Guidelines.

 

I'd love to see the conversation continue as I'm sure other users, especially new freelancers, would be very interested in hearing more about the different approach successful and experienced freelancers are taking. 

~ Vladimir
Upwork
versailles
Community Member

TLDR - Upwork has an RSS feed.

 

 

 

 

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

TLDR:  The reason the article is longer than most is because it explains in detail and screenshots how to use Upwork's RSS feed feature so that you can receive customized search notifications by using free newsreader apps on a regular interval.  If you are not interested in that capability, then of course - skip the article; it's not intended for you.  The reason I wrote the article is because it's not a simple process, and if someone had given me this instruction at first, it might have saved me time.  I wish you the best.

Thank you, Gregory, for posting this information. I'm sure that many people here will find this information helpful.

Grefory's RSS hack brings up a broader issue (or set of issues), though. First, I notice that, for the editing/proofreading/academic writing jobs that I am trying to land, it is common for 10-20 people to submit proposals within the first hour of posting. I can't help but think that most of these proposals are generic: unless you happen to see one of these jobs when it first pops up, it's hard to imagine being able to craft a decent proposal in that amount of time. Despite this, it is very common in my experience for clients to begin interviewing folks within the first couple of hours of posting, even when their job description doesn't indicate anything about it being a rush job. As a result, the client's chances of hiring the best possible freelancer for the job may be greatly reduced (and this doesn't even account for freelancers living in different time zones, who may be asleep when the job pops up!). My 2 cents is that it would be really helpful for Upwork to educate new clients on the platform about the importance of waiting until they have received a critical mass of applications over a period of time. Although it may result in the client having to cull through more applications, the likelihood of hiring the right freelancer for the job would be much greater.

Thank you Michael, I agree with you.  Upwork eagerly pursues price gouging but is either uninterested or lazy (both perhaps) when it comes to investing a little bit of thought or money in their platform.  Upwork is also very petty in the way it hides your profile if you don't feed the beast often enough.

One idea is to simply let you, me, and others know when a prospect has viewed our proposal.  This seems fundamental.  Imagine sending out emails in a campaign and telling your boss that you aren't tracking delivery or read statistics because it's not important or requires a little effort.  This simple request has been out there for years, and Upwork is still asleep at the switch.

With regard to your point, it would be easy for Upwork to randomize all responses in the first 5 hours for example, so that being first to respond or last to respond in the first 5 hours would not matter.  The proposals would be fed to the client in a more random order.  This is just one concept.

Upwork could take this a step further, by using an algorithm that detects whether someone is just sending a canned response or a poor quality response.  They could then push those to the bottom of the list of proposals a client sees.

I'm not sure if either of these concepts are the solution, but certainly with a little thought and effort, the process can be improved for both contractors and those seeking our help.

Upwork served my needs well when I needed this service most a few years ago.  Today, I earn less than 5% of my business from Upwork.  I published an article on Upwork's poor quality effort in online advertising.  The jobs they were investing in paid search keywords were not the types of jobs that generate the most income or fulfill my needs.  I also showed where search traffic fell off a cliff.

I got a response from a C-Level executive at Upwork, who wrote me an email something to the effect of, "You're an idiot to think we don't know this.  By the way, do you want to work for us full-time in data science?"

I see Upwork as the top player in this space, only because LinkedIn's ProFinder service is much worse.  As soon as the U.S. Government incorporates temp jobs, freelancer, and contractor jobs into something like California's EDD.ca.gov more effectively, Upwork will likely deservedly fade away due to it's exorbitant fee structure for newbies, and low quality leads for various skill sets.

Even today, you get many requests that go something like this:  I have a client who has the following need - You must be expert in full marketing stack and prospecting (AWS, Google, Adobe Marketing Cloud, and Python), plus mobile application development to build an online store and predictive platform that connects the ideal products with the ideal customer worldwide, based on psychographic profiling that earns $1,000,000 a year in under three months.  I am looking for experts only and will pay $75, but you must build a functional working prototype to prove that you are capable, and to transfer your code to me so that I can verify it all works before I can award this project to you. 

 

As soon as you read the words, "I have a client who/that..." it's most likely an incompetent small agency who found a sucker (client) and promised them the moon, but has no talent or resources to deliver, so they turn to Upwork to pay you pennies on the dollar if you earn anything at all.  I've had this happen a few times, and they essentially 'borrow' all your ideas / solutions and then disappear.  One of these clowns was from a top 5 consulting company with an impressive LinkedIn profile.

I am still grateful for members like you for contributing to these boards; and for the opportunity to showcase our work history and 5-star reviews on Upwork.  If you get a few sarcastic or condescending responses from so-called 'Gurus' here, just ignore them.  Most 'Guru's are quite good, but a few feed on your energy like mosquitoes on plasma.  Don't give them your energy, and they will fly away hungry.  There is a clique of people who appear to spend every waking hour on this board, belittling others and their ideas. 

One will leave a sarcastic comment, and their coterie of malcontents then give them Kudos.  I call it the Upwork Kudo economy 🙂 - Call me crazy, but I prefer earning real money, so I don't spend much time here.

You can make decent supplementary money from Upwork, and you get out what you put in (minus, time, taxes and Upwork's heavy fees).

Best wishes Michael!

ctkrug
Community Member

This is one of the most detailed and useful posts I've seen yet. I've come back to it multiple times over the past year, often stumbing back here from a google search. Despite the snark that seems to flow through these forums, it was extremely useful to me in learning how to construct advanced searches, wade through the job posting flow, and spot new jobs quickly.

 

Thank you for taking the time to put it all together.

Thank you Christopher!  I haven't used Upwork in several months, but your message caught my inbox attention.  It was generous of you to take the time from your busy day to type your kind words.  I have a mantra I use to respond to those who are negative.  "I am a love satellite.  I radiate love in all directions."  This mantra really helps me keep a positive mental attitude.  I wish and your loved ones continued health, prosperity, and the joy that comes from doing work that others appreciate!

I have to say, I found this post extremely interestinfg, and I plan on taking this approach. Thanks for the work on this.

Agreed. It's also interesting to track relevant topics over time, which shows their relevancy. 

gregorymedeiro18
Community Member

I recommend you check out Glen Cathey's, Boolean Black Belt blog. Glen, and the folks at LinkedIn, know search perhaps better than most - I would say only Google knows it better. Boolean logic is key. However, this strategy is dependent on an RSS feed that is functioning as expected, i.e. sending you relevant results in a timely manner. But I agree, knowing how to parse boolean expressions (without allowing your own beliefs to get in the way) is where the magic happens. People limit themselves through the questions they ask (or don't ask). 

 

I am curious to better understand what Upwork's caching TTL policy is, as this would decide how often the feeds are refreshed. If they have a policy of caching the TTL  that extends past every hour, (which is the standard) for the sake of better performance and lower bandwidth, that puts the last nail in the "timeliness" coffin for the Job Feed, and the naysayers that say timelines and the number of proposals on a job don't matter can say I told you so.  I certainly hope they get this resolved.

andriibelyaev
Community Member

Thank you, very useful for me! Your post inspired me to create a bot that sends new offers from Upwork to Telegram -- **Edited for Community Guidelines**  I invite all who are interesting, it is free.

d61b91b4
Community Member

Hi Gregory, Thanks for this, it's still useful. In fact, not only is this going to save me time, but I've been trying to get access to the API for weeks to set up alerts, and you've shown me that's not necessary at all. 

 

I completely agree that getting a proposal in early clearly improves the chances -- on average of course and all else being equal -- of being picked by a client.

 

Thanks again!

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