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Harsh's avatar
Harsh Y Community Member

I've lost all my connects for bidding on job but I haven't won a single project yet.

So, my name Harsh and I got registered on Upwork as a freelancer a month ago. Fortunately, my profile got approved in just a day. I got 18 connects for the first time for free of cost. 

I bidded on 3 jobs and lost all 18 connects.

1 job - **Edited for Community Guidelines** I spent 6 connects for bidding on this job.

2 job - **Edited for Community Guidelines** I spent 6 connects for bidding on this job.

3 job - **Edited for Community Guidelines** I spent 6 connects for bidding on this job.

 

I'm attaching the screenshots of cover laters I sent to these jobs.

It's my first time on Upwork so please anyone of you experts please come to me and suggests to me what should I do more to make myself perfect here?

My profile link - Harsh Upwork profile

 

Waiting for your response.

Kind regards.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Christine's avatar
Christine A Community Member



Hi Harsh - It looks like people already gave you advice yesterday, but you didn't listen to anything that they said. Your biggest problem is that your portfolio still only shows parts of web pages - nobody is going to hire you until you fix that! And you should remove the screen grabs that show nothing but html code, especially since the particular pages that you're showing aren't complex at all.

 

I'm afraid that being a full time student will work against you; there's nothing wrong with trying to make some money on the side, but most clients on Upwork - given a choice - are going to hire someone who can give a project their full attention. You might try to reassure them by saying what your working hours each day will be (i.e. "I'm available from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST each weekday"). 

 

As for whether or not you should stay on Upwork, only you can make that decision, but I'm going to be honest with you. You have a lot of very tough competition - tens of thousands of web designers and developers - and you don't seem to have a lot of experience or knowledge about freelancing. That doesn't mean that you can't learn, but if you're already discouraged after placing 3-4 bids and not winning a project, then perhaps this website isn't for you. The majority of freelancers on Upwork face a long and hard struggle - sometimes months of bidding - before winning their first job, and if you read these threads, you'll see that lots of people are frustrated with the lack of opportunities. If you're not prepared to work hard on improving your profile and portfolio and learn how to bid effectively (start by consulting the help pages and read all of the information there), then you're going to be very unhappy here. 

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19 REPLIES 19
Martina's avatar
Martina P Community Member


Harsh Y wrote:

So, my name Harsh and I got registered on Upwork as a freelancer a month ago. Fortunately, my profile got approved in just a day. I got 18 connects for the first time for free of cost. 

I bidded on 3 jobs and lost all 18 connects.

1 job - **Edited for Community Guidelines** I spent 6 connects for bidding on this job.

2 job - **Edited for Community Guidelines** I spent 6 connects for bidding on this job.

3 job - **Edited for Community Guidelines** I spent 6 connects for bidding on this job.

 

I'm attaching the screenshots of cover laters I sent to these jobs.

It's my first time on Upwork so please anyone of you experts please come to me and suggests to me what should I do more to make myself perfect here?

My profile link - Harsh Upwork profile

 

Waiting for your response.

Kind regards.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**


First of all, you don't "lose" connects when you apply to a job, you "use" them, you need to factor that into your cost of doing business, like the cost of your internet, or electricity. 

Re your profile - specialised profiles are supposed to have different texts, otherwise they make no sense, and I personally don't like if somebody talks about himself in the 3rd person, but that's a matter of taste.

Lastly you compete with tenthousands of other freelancers in your field, so you really need to stand out to win jobs. 

Harsh's avatar
Harsh Y Community Member

Hello Martina ma'am,

Thanks a lot for your response to my post. It's really helpful!

But, could you please tell me actually, is there any sense of profile in this crowd of talented freelancers called 'Upwork'?

Do you think I should stay more here because I'm fresher here? As I haven't won a single job here yet. You're a top-rated freelancer. I think when you'd won your first job here it will be too low competition. Kindly suggest me some tips I can to make my profile job winning. And what should I do more and more to win jobs

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

Kind regards.

Mary's avatar
Mary W Community Member

First of all, we were all new once and yes, the competition was fierce way back then.  I agree that your profiles need to be different and to address your various talents/ skills.  Clients come to Upwork looking for experience and expertise - you need to be more specific in your profile as to your skills and background.  It takes a while to get traction on Upwork.

Harsh's avatar
Harsh Y Community Member

Hello Mary,

Thanks for your attention towards me.

Yes, I'm gonna edit my profile. Can you give me some tips which i can follow to be success?

Martina's avatar
Martina P Community Member


Harsh Y wrote:

Hello Martina ma'am,

Thanks a lot for your response to my post. It's really helpful!

But, could you please tell me actually, is there any sense of profile in this crowd of talented freelancers called 'Upwork'?

Do you think I should stay more here because I'm fresher here? As I haven't won a single job here yet. You're a top-rated freelancer. I think when you'd won your first job here it will be too low competition. Kindly suggest me some tips I can to make my profile job winning. And what should I do more and more to win jobs

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

Kind regards.


Well, young man, just because I'm oldish don't mean my upwork career is, it's a quite youngish 12 month old. 

Nobody can tell you what to do, it is your business. 

Harsh's avatar
Harsh Y Community Member

That's okay! I'm gonna spent 1 month and some money here. If I get a good result, i'll sty here otherwise I'll do job.

Abinadab's avatar
Abinadab A Community Member

Harsh, the era of free Connects only just ended and the one of paid Connects only just began.

 

You'll soon be the legacy guy, so you'll help new freelancers who sign up several months/years later to understand what it was like to be new on Upwork and not have any free Connects.

But for now know that none of the experienced freelancers on here can tell you what it's like to be new to Upwork and not have any free Connects.

More experienced freelancers will shortly jump in to make suggestions, but none can speak with the same authority of having been there before, having walked in your shoes before as they might speak on other matters.

Harsh's avatar
Harsh Y Community Member

Hey Abinadab,

Thanks for the response. I'm satisfied with your comment but can you please once open my profile and check it. Could you please tell me I should stay more on Upwork or not? Should I buy connects?

Sheila's avatar
Sheila F Community Member

So if you spent 6 connects for each proposal, does that mean the projects were large and complex, i.e., full web site development from start to finish? If so then it's unlikely a client will take a chance on a new freelancer with no history here. Try to bid on smaller jobs, troubleshooting or updates of existing web sites. Built up some experience here and then go for the bigger projects.

 

It may take a while before you start getting work so budget some amount each month or week for connects. 

 

Use your portfolio to showcase the best of your past projects. Add multiple screenshots for a project and discuss your role on each in detail. I don't like the screenshots that show part of a page. Was that on purpose or just some weird cropping that happened on upload?

Harsh's avatar
Harsh Y Community Member

All okay! Can you please once have a look at my profile and tell me about change?

 

Abinadab's avatar
Abinadab A Community Member

Hi! Harsh.

Please refer to Christina's comments below.

Upwork has of recent made quite a few changes to it's business model.

With these changes, Upwork hopes to incentivise using Upwork on a full-time note, and disincentivise using it on a part-time or sporadic note.

So you need to have made the decision that you'd like to go all in on Upwork. You must make that decision yourself.

 

You may want to start by studying your competition (but not copying their profiles), to see what skills your competition have that you don't.

 

If you've confirmed that you're as skilled as your competition and would like to move forward, consider spreading your connects spend, like $5 / week.

Also look for projects that offer higher project value/connects ratio. You may want to avoid the 6 connects projects, at this time.

 

Richard's avatar
Richard W Community Member


Abinadab A wrote:

Harsh, the era of free Connects only just ended and the one of paid Connects only just began.


Yes, we've passed from the Freecambrian era to the Payleozoic.

Harsh's avatar
Harsh Y Community Member

Hello experts,

As I'm a new freelancer on Upwork. I got 18 connects for free when I recently got approved but I've lost all 18 connects for bidding on the job but I didn't win a single job.

So, now I want that please once check my profile and tell me what should I stay more on Upwork and buy more connects so that I can make a career here?

Regards.

Martina's avatar
Martina P Community Member


Harsh Y wrote:

Hello experts,

As I'm a new freelancer on Upwork. I got 18 connects for free when I recently got approved but I've lost all 18 connects for bidding on the job but I didn't win a single job.

So, now I want that please once check my profile and tell me what should I stay more on Upwork and buy more connects so that I can make a career here?

Regards.


You asked this before. Keep in mind that asking the same question is considered spamming and not allowed. 

Again, as long as you think you are losing connects when applying, you are not in the right mind set to run a business. 

Christine's avatar
Christine A Community Member



Hi Harsh - It looks like people already gave you advice yesterday, but you didn't listen to anything that they said. Your biggest problem is that your portfolio still only shows parts of web pages - nobody is going to hire you until you fix that! And you should remove the screen grabs that show nothing but html code, especially since the particular pages that you're showing aren't complex at all.

 

I'm afraid that being a full time student will work against you; there's nothing wrong with trying to make some money on the side, but most clients on Upwork - given a choice - are going to hire someone who can give a project their full attention. You might try to reassure them by saying what your working hours each day will be (i.e. "I'm available from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST each weekday"). 

 

As for whether or not you should stay on Upwork, only you can make that decision, but I'm going to be honest with you. You have a lot of very tough competition - tens of thousands of web designers and developers - and you don't seem to have a lot of experience or knowledge about freelancing. That doesn't mean that you can't learn, but if you're already discouraged after placing 3-4 bids and not winning a project, then perhaps this website isn't for you. The majority of freelancers on Upwork face a long and hard struggle - sometimes months of bidding - before winning their first job, and if you read these threads, you'll see that lots of people are frustrated with the lack of opportunities. If you're not prepared to work hard on improving your profile and portfolio and learn how to bid effectively (start by consulting the help pages and read all of the information there), then you're going to be very unhappy here. 

Honey's avatar
Honey V Community Member

I''m also in same condition - confused, not sure what to do there right now. Losing connects and can't win bids. Clients came , interview , took advice and disappears. I notice, most of them, they don't hire anyone.

Not sure what to do. Is it something to do with my profile, the portfolio iterm, my experience , the free connects I'm missing or something else. Can you please add some light on this thing, what thing I'm missing there.

Harsh's avatar
Harsh Y Community Member

Hehe..:) Sir, you're a top-rated freelancer! Then, why are you asking this?

Anastasiya's avatar
Anastasiya S Community Member

Hey, Harsh! Honestly I think that Upwork earns money both - on clients and on freelancers - there used to be a limited number of free connects, now everything is paid - therefore, even if the client does not appoint anyone, the platform will still earn on this.

I think in your case it will be best to reply only those projects where connects are returned when the client does not hire you (this was introduced not so long ago). - because you at least do not spend the connections to nothing. Of course, I understand freelancers here who tells that you don’t spend it but use it, but you spend it! because you have not had a chance to earn yet!

for example, I’m in top, and now I applied for few projects that interested to me and my skills good for it - but either clients  don’t answer me at all, or  closes the project - and  I'm sure  that my bids was hided. Therefore, I have big questions about the transparency and honesty of the system.

I wish you good luck and gorgeous clients here! 😊🤗

Avery's avatar
Avery O Community Manager

Hi Anastasiya, 

If you want to know the status of your proposals, you may check your proposals page here. You will see in the Archived tab more information on why your proposals are archived. In the active tab, you will see the proposals that you have submitted. I can confirm that your clients receive your proposals and they are not 'hid.'

 

Submitting a proposal has a financial cost, just like the other expenses you incur as a freelancer running your own business. If a client never hires but doesn’t close the job, your Connects are not returned. In this situation, we continue to encourage the client to hire or close the job, but ask that you consider the cost of Connects as part of your business expenses.


~ Avery