Increasing Transparency in Boosted Proposals

[kochubei_valeria]

Our team recently launched a test to increase transparency around bidding in Boosted Proposals to help you make a more informed decision around spending Connects.

Check out the product update about this test here and let us know your thoughts about this update in the comments below.

[9fe872eb]

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Douglas Michael M wrote:

I'm a literalist by nature.

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I don't have a problem with that, although, doesn't something like "What do you mean Mark is a doofus" pretty much literally mean "Please elaborate on that claim" rather than "What's a doofus"?

[81f2681a]

For a job tha pays $9,400.00 fixed price, it is completely worthy biding  1311 connects (1311 x 0.15 = $196.65) . I would do the same if I had enough money to bid. 196 is just 2.09% of 9400. The profit is 97,91%. This is a very small investiment if compared to potential earnings.

I knows, I knows, the vast majority of jobs don´t pays this ammount. The bidder must be wise before spending his connects. Anyway, I would spend this ammount of connects in jobs that pays high ammount and if I had enough money to bid.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hamza and others,

We understand concerns many of you raised regarding some bids being boosted with a rather high amount of Connects. We're looking into that and continue to keep a close eye on the impact of boosted proposals in general.

[799bf2eb]

I just want to cry when I see this...

[elisa_b]

It makes me laugh instead...!

[spectralua]

It is for $1.000.000 job? Yep, too small, greedy boosters. 🙂

[799bf2eb]

It was for a $150 job 😪 So the job was not even something that high paying.

[marcusgrimm]

I've seen this same image in numerous threads, which tells me it's fake.

[0814b5b5]

This is very wrost thing i according to my view, after this new system I wasnt able to win any of job because some people are bidding more than 400% of connects than that we use, so our connects are also wasting quickly 

Please revert this one to the previous one, Clienct can decide who is the better one for his work, 

That will be a justice for both clients and freelancers

Very Dissapointed about this new system 😐

Thank you 

[c1c96949]

More than a transperancy feature, it seems like a competition to me. And new freelancers like me who can not spend this much of connects are really disappointed by the fact that there are very less chances to get the visibility on their proposal and honestly this disappoints me a lot. 

[mehwishwaqar1993]

Hello fellows,

I am happy to see this discussion open. I have been working with Upwork as a Top rated freelancer since 2015, but it is difficult to get projects after the recent updates, especially for new freelancers. Please remove this boost proposal feature. I have seen that some freelancers use up to 50 connects to get the projects. It means we should earn and spend our money only on Upwork.  After

Project Fee 20%
Paid Connections
Money Transfer Charges

Now we have to pay extra for connections. Let everybody send their proposals and allow clients to decide for themselves and choose the best person for their jobs.

[dekuji]

Since UpWork put a higher cut in every project, some of my clients started to advice me that they will pay me out of UpWork which I had to decline since It's against the policy but then I always had a second though now UpWork are using this boosting/bidding system that make it more understandable for even client don't want to pay through UpWork anymore, they said that they don't feel good paying a good amount of money to the freelancer that deserve it but because of the system, it got cut too much plus everyone has different currency so there's another cut. Quoting my client, he said, "yes, I paid your service well but UpWork took your coffee allowance"..

[anne-spicher]

Well now it's 500 connects. They still are bad, no fit for the job, unknowing, and clients do not know what to do. Many of them think Upwork is referri g the first freelancers to them. This is scam

[radhipatel_19]

This boosting features is not good for new freelancer as they don't have income that can be spent on buying connect and use for boosting. this way the ones who can spent have benefit of using boost feature and gaining the project. Kindly remove the boosting feature as it is not good for new freelancers.

[mobidesign]

Seriously I am very unhappy with this this is a waste of connections please remove it.

[c86fec03]

Remove Boost System otherwise you will lost freelance who start their career from upwork

[30b94c9b]

This unfair please remove that's 

[brandonekai]

So now we have to invest in heavily connects for you to get noticed or hired? Thought Upwork algorithm was based on the skill set. It's a complete waste of money and connects; Upwork should reconsider its decision.

Freelancers waste connects on the availability status, then again waste on boosting proposals, not worth it.

[kamalshakoor]

Our proposal are not being viewed by clients anymore.
This war of connects will cut off newbies permanently.

[1680aeb8]

Hi Valeria,
This feature is not good for freelancers. Because some freelancers spend more than 100 Connects in single project. For me this is not a good feature. Please remove this boost proposal ASAP.
Thank you.

[samhls]

This would be the worst feature upwork could have comeup with to increase their profits and freelancers spending on a project. This war of connects should be STOPPED. It is a open platform for everyone so it should provide an equal opportunity to every freelancer trying to work here. 

[81f2681a]

Some points about boosting system:

1 - Boosting proposals makes you be seen? Yes. But just very little.

2 - Boosting proposals makes you land more jobs? NO.

3 - Clients will hire those who boosts most? NO. Clients aren´t dumbs. They will hire who will do best work for the cheapest price. Yes, be realistic, clients wants to pay less for the best work, and you want to do the smallest effort work for the most highest earning. Finding a balance is what happens in every negotiation.

4 - Can I still be seen without boosting? YES. Clients can just scroll down and click "load more" and they can see 20+ proposals in same page. So boosting proposals helps very little to be seen.

5 - What realy makes the diference for a client to take the final decision of hiring someone? A boosted proposal, or a very good proposal done by a skilled freelancer? Definetively a very good proposal done by a skilled freelancer. 

Clients will hire who they thinks is a best match for their jobs, no matter how many connects was spent to boost proposals. So don´t worry about the top 3 proposals.

Final conclusion: Boosting is a complete waste of connects. Don´t boost, NEVER boosts. This features is almost irrelevant and helps so little, using it isn´t worthy. It is used just to makes you spend a lot of connects. Focus on your proposals.

[anampiupheneas]

After reading through the comments and putting in consideration my experience on the platform and my view on the feature, I think the feature just came in to mess up the freelancers. 

[basel-ahmed]

Hello Valeria,

I guess you made the boosting feature

to let freelancers who make real proposals (not copy/paste ones)

be shown more so the client can choose between them easier

However, this led to connects war between

freelancers and made a lot of them upset

Before that, you decreased the free connects a lot

and made freelancers pay for them to solve

the same problem and it didn't work too

Your idea is to make it easier for clients to check the proposals

So just you can be the hiring manager for them 

one of your employees can shortlist the bidding freelancers to 5-10 best of them

and the client can choose the best of them

another option is to make people like standing out 

for example, if you make discounts on connects for freelancers

who make organic proposals (not copy/paste ones)

and put a badge of 'organic proposal freelancer' for them 

that will appear when on their proposal when they apply to any project

and you'll choose them with only 1 condition

that's you find their proposals stand out (not using common templates from the internet)

A LOT OF freelancers will change their mindset 

So you'll reach your goal and they'll get some benefits too

Motivating people is much better than forcing them

Hobe this helps

[94874d1f]

It really consumes points. It is an unfair bidding that will choose you either invisible or betting all your points on one job in which you may not get the job.

[sani100]

[sofia2008]

I think some people will lose a lot of Connects. Or there is a bug.

[sani100]

I think recently Upwork shows their live proposal option boost proposal is good but this live proposal don,t help freelancers. 

[7d9d0d70]

I don't like this new update by Upwork, this will simply put the struggling new sellers like me out of competition.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Atiquzzaman,

I've merged your comment into the feedback thread about this test as we'd like to keep all the related feedback and discussion organized in one place. I've also posted a response here earlier today about the screenshot you're sharing. 

[2cab5914]

This is not a good feature because first of all, it will demotivate the freelancers who have skills, experience and but have "fewer Connects". He/she will not submit their proposal for that job. and the result is the client will not get the right person who has fewer proposals and the freelancers will demotivate to apply for the projects.

In my opinion, there is no boosting option in the proposal. everyone has the same right to apply the projects. Now it's up to the client how they can filter out the freelancer whether on the basis of their earnings, their skills, their JSS, their badges or by checking their profiles.

It should be open to the clients.

and in the last, it will cost too much for the freelancer to buy so many "Connects" and use all of them in a single proposal.

I am requesting to please remove the boosting option and give everyone equal rights. 

[emarketics]

I think it's a selfish step by Upwork 

Upwork is becoming just money making platform 

I think such type of steps will encourage switching to another platform

[10aa2cca]

I do not like that new Boosted Proposals option. So please remove this option and also the old Boosted Proposals option. There is no need to boost the proposal. 

[7892aa3e]

In my opinion, this new feature is really not healthy both for freelancers and clients.

This feature tends to pressure freelancers to get more connects in order to place a bid on a job. 

The other boosted feature is way better than this one. (My opinion though)

If am asked, I'll say this feature should be removed with immediate effect.

[9fe872eb]

I am fine with the newly introduced "transparency" feature and I can also live without it, but I would definitely want you to make up your minds quickly and shorten the "testing" period to a minimum; otherwise you are giving half the freelancers a dramatic advantage over others.

I think you have got a wierd concept of doing A/B testing - the two user sets are supposed to be isolated so that one set acts as the control group and you can derive useful insights about the relative performance of the new feature. The control group doesn't even need to know what the other group is seeing. I would be interested in knowing what kind of insights you are hoping to draw by just competitively disadvantaging half the freelancers compared to the rest. I mean, of course the group with access to the new feature would likely perform better on the whole than the other; and they will likely also perform better than how they performed in the past because their competition would be blunted a little on the whole. So that's the part I would ask you to rethink.

[marcusgrimm]

I agree with this take. I'm fine if the feature stays, goes or evolves but it's definitely changing the dynamic of bidding, so understanding the test parameters would be instructive. At the same time, we're kind of the guinea pigs, so I guess it makes sense we don't know them. 

[9fe872eb]

Yeah, although after giving more thought it I feel it's not in the interest of freelancers as a whole, because all it's likely to achieve is drive up overall bid values.

Think of it this way - until now I place a bid according to my confidence in how good a fit I am for the project and how much I want to do it - and to signal that to the client. It shows I am willing to lose some connects if an interview doesn't materialise because the upside of increased visibility is that high for me;  If someone else thinks they are an even better fit and go for a higher bid than me, so be it - that's their own independent take. But in the new system, I have to place bid keeping in mind that others can see what I bid and can place a bid just higher than me, so I would feel pushed to look over my shoulder and place a bid that's not only high enough from my perspective, but to make it *out of reach* as much as possible for potential competitors who can now see what I bid. I'd be naturally inclined to bid at higher levels overall than without the transparency feature.

This will likely drive up Upwork's revenues, but do nothing for either freelancers or clients. So if Upwork asks me, my vote would be to remove this "transparency" thing and revert to how it was before.

[kambojprince72]

Hi Valeria, I am working as a Shopify Developer and have top-rated plus profile but want you to make #removeboostedproposals

[d204d3a8]

What if instead of monetizing connects, Upwork made them "merit tokens" instead and awarded them based on work performance and any other relevant factors? Could this help freelancers work more diligently and apply to the jobs they like all while preventing job spamming? 

Of course, this has a low chance of being considered as it would no doubt undercut Upwork's revenues, but still, I can't help but wonder.  

[yahmad]

Hi everyone,

Upwork - Don't start this war of spending connects, leave it to the client to choose the right resource. 

Regards