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.

[1d33e6bc]

Hello Upwork,

My message might not make you to chance your ways but I believe since I’m a member of upwork I have a say. Nowadays you are making things hard for freelancers or agent with this your bid strategies. I prefer the old way upwork operate before where we don’t use bid to boost proposal everyone will be on neutral ground. But now you first introduced bid of proposal which which you can use any amount of connect to boost proposal and competitors won’t know the amount you used. Now recently you implemented another strategy which when applying for job you will be able to see 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions this is killing use. Imagine a job that require 1 connect a competitor boost it with 10 to be on first position that means I will have to boost mine using 15 connects which is bad. We can’t be using all our earns from upwork to purchase connects and that doesn’t guarantee that you be hire.

[malikrehan21]

Hi Upwork!

Recently Upwork introduce a new bidding feature and it's really frustrating. Personally, I talked to many friends already using Upwork 80% of them are getting discouraged by this feature. This feature enables the elite to work on Upwork how the newbies and struggling freelancers can compete in this scenario? I mean first, we spent hundreds of dollars in purchasing connects then after wasting 100 of connects we get a $50-100 job then Upwork deducts 20% from it. We are here to earn a smart income to fulfill our living needs not to pay you guys. Staying focused on my agenda let's suppose a purchase 50 connects and try to apply for a job that is suitable for me but a guy already bid 40-50 connects for that job so how I can compete and which thing encourages me to make a purchase again or even log in to Upwork, it's become a nightmare. 

Everything about you is great. I mean as compared to other marketplaces Upwork is 100 times better in terms & conditions, payment transaction scenarios, client & freelancer securities, and rights but a few of your things discourage people not to use it. Believe me, people leave the platform once they get negative about it, and later on, a platform and a community need much time to get that credibility in the market. 

Request: Please reconsider your business policies and features and try to facilitate freelancers & clients so they get encouraged to use Upwork. Thank you

Rehan

[wlyonsatl]

Hi, Rehan Ur R,

The boosting option is no doubt costing some freelancers a good deal of money compared to the value of the projects they are applying to, but I haven't seen any evidence from Upwork that boosted proposals are significantly more successful than unboosted proposals.

Have you tried doing a significant number of both boosted and unboosted proposals (50? 100?) and compared your success rate for both?

I have my doubts that good and great clients regularly pick proposals that are clearly marked as being at the top of the list only because the freelancer paid extra money to be there, but I never use boosted proposals so I can't say whether or not they work in the types of projects I work on. But I do know that I stay busy with new projects without boosting my proposals. 

[malikrehan21]

Cutting long story short I think this feature sucked. Now there is only a connects war and elite are winning it because they have investment and the new people or struggling one looking at each other faces and quitting the platform. 

[19thjuly2010]

Upwork should remove the boosting system to save regular and good Freelancers. If someone bid for a job 2 hours ago and if i bid this job with boost system then he will be behind far away than me. This will not be a good thing. Never ever

[meliboom]

If this is something Upwork is absolutely assertive about implementing in the longrun, there should also be a way of freelancers being rewarded connects more frequently aswell. 

Here are some ideas that come to mind: 

If a job is posted and noone is hired, connects should be refunded. 
For every x amount of $ earned within a contract, connects could be rewarded. 
For every five star review, connects could be rewarded. 
Or those who have "top rated" and "top rated plus" badges could be rewarded more connects monthly. 

I find it mindblowing after using this website professionally for several years, that ontop of the whopping 20% cut, I find myself spending money that I don't have on connects despite being a top rated plus freelancer. If Upwork favoured their freelancers as well as their clients, maybe they would have long term quality workers who stick around. Godspeed to those who are just starting out.

[michelle-reyes_f]

Agreed.  Thanks for posting the issue AND your solutions. Excellent ideas!

[81852f33]

Thanks for your feedback

[ndugavictor]

Very true...

[david-nyaga]

These are very good solutions if only Upwork can implement them! this bidding war is not going to end soon. This boosted proposal is affecting all freelancers across the board and Upwork is losing its worth! But as I had said in an earlier post Upwork seems not to care a bit. Another suggestion I have is that a client should decline a proposal you submitted early enough so that life goes on. I have proposals I submitted like a month ago without any response!!

[e00b050e]

I think the best way is to go back to hidden bided proposals.

it is better they hide the number of people that bidded for proposals than making it public or live.  With This it will favour the new freelancers!

[81852f33]

I think it’s better to boosted proposals than increasing transparency efforts

[d81fb4e6]

God speed indeed...

[81852f33]

Yes I agree

[vikrant-sam]

I think it is a money wasting. Old feature is good than this new boosting features.

[vikrant-sam]

Some times we saw a job post that seems to be best suited for us. But when we apply on this then we see somebody paying 60 connects, some one paying 100 connects on this, then i leave this job because of high connects. But before i spent on every job post that seems fit for me and i won many jobs. Please upwork, stop this new stragesdy. I think old is gold.

[cssunnyverma]

I need some help to removing live boosting proposal system in my profile.

I don't waste of money speding alot of connections for a single dollar job.

Please help me how to remove this feature.

[81852f33]

Hello there!
Look your proposal and change edit badge connects bids . Or ask direct from your clients .


Sent from my iPhone

[feed_my_eyes]

You can't remove it - just ignore it and don't use it.

[81852f33]

• Hello Valera k
• as I am concerned . I suggest to you must look direct contact from your clients direct proposal from clients only can change take or change your connects proposals.anything's else just direct ask from our community support  assistant representatives
•  

[3945485e]

Hey Upwork, 

I applied for many jobs and only got one job. What's going on these days? kindly remove your connects boost feature. I'm going into depression because I don't have any work.

Thank you 

[df602768]

Connects boost could be an issue. Then, again, your proposal or low JSS might be as well. 

The thing with Upwork and freelancing is that there's no guaranteed work. And getting rejected is part of the game.

[81852f33]

Hello there,
Because
Some of connects we need to buy for it so that we can apply for the proposal so we can apply for some job to post.

[azxanikzaman]

"Boost your proposal"

This is a very bad way to wast our connects and money. Upwork should hide what or how much other freelancers are boosting. this option is causing harm for getting works based on performance. This option is only helping upwork not freelancers like us.

[491a02ce]

Truely awful, there are people bidding 20 connects on a 2 connect job, why? Who has 20 connects to waste like that? I'm baffled by this update, rather give us top 10 positions so we can get passed the over bidders atleast. Everytime there's an update like this, sales plummet and you can't survive as a freelancer. Why are you tryng to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place? Why are you making poor frrelancers spend their hard earned money on buying more connects and then not even see any returns. I vote to remove this feature, if not the whole bidding war altogether. 

[242fc44b]

Well, they want us to spend our connects as much as possible so we stay more on the app with our monthly subscriptions, because to be honest it takes months to get refunded of the connects spent. This system it's shame, it only favours high earners. Ridiculous 

[protocol117]

Not sure what's happening, but I have'nt gotten work since the change. I currently have 13 active proposals after going through and removing 30+. I haven't gotten a single job invite since then either. Not sure what's happening, but it's pretty disheartening, especialy since I have %100 positive feedback and am top rated, have been for quite a while. 

I guess I'm posting this to see if I'm not alone. 

[prriyyanka13]

I totally agree with you, something seems to be not going well past 2-3 months. No invitations, no responses on proposals. Top rate plus badge seems to have no impact

[protocol117]

It's greed I think. They already take so much off the top of every job and now they are forcing us into paying for connects just to get work. 

[242fc44b]

And job posters take months to refund us of the connects bidded. Shameful system 

[242fc44b]

And neither has the availability badge

[jules_durham]

I think it's the same for most, unfortunately. From what I'm seeing it makes no difference if you're top rated etc. I haven't boosted for 2 months +. It makes no difference so I would recommend not boosting. 

[richards37]

Upwork Admins and Stakeholders deliberately disrupt a system that is working. Imagine, for the past two months since the change no work. 

I've been boosting and boosting with others rearly outbidding me, but yet no interview talkless of hiring.

It seems as if upwork has taken down the clients message button on their profile, no message is coming in from sent proposals not even one for the past two months.

What have we done upwork? Despite being a top rated freelancer, everything is now being rubbished. It now seems as if we don't know how to do it anymore.

What's happening? Why are you changing what's not damaged?

This is bad! We're getting heart attacks with this. Save our souls and revert the changes you have made to the system.

[9f395534]

Based on my analysis and opinion, boosting the proposal is not actually working,  the ss of my own personal profile explains it all.

I have spent a lot of money buying connect to make sure it works but unfortunately that the connects spent on boosting the proposal are a waste of funds, time, and resources.

In the last 7 days, I have sent 30 Proposals, the math shows that I sent 4 per day, I know I have tried, 12 out of my 30 sent proposals were boosted, and guess what only 3 were viewed and non-led to interviews or converted to hire "The Boosted proposals", but  2 out of the organic proposals led to an interview doo it has not yet been converted to hire, I hope and believe it will. so boosting proposal is actually a way to make things cumbersome for sellers.

Upwork need to do something about this issue, before every seller on Upwork run away from the platform, we both need each other to make it work, and freelancers' happiness also counts.

Everyone's suggestions will be appreciated.

[david-nyaga]

This bidding war is not going to end soon! Upwork is not reverting back to old ways I can assure you that! What we need to do as freelancers is to up our game, personally am changing going to change my tactics but one thing is for sure am not boosting my proposals!

[81852f33]

I agree with you for that

[9f395534]

Sound nice, kindly share your game-changer tips if you don't mind. @David N

[551c9066]

Hello Valeria:

Dont know who came with this bidding idea - its useless activity to create war between freelancers to spend their connects unlimited - Upwork is only winner in whole process making huge $$$ on every single project post as freelancer wastes connects.

Some recommendation for healthy competition
a. First come First show proposals in client feed list is better way like before.
b. In case you want to keep this feature - keep it limited to first 3 freelancers.

c. Ideally every project should get max of 30 first proposal - algorithum should match most experienced freelancer to client requirements & show as per it in his/her feed.

Above recommendation will make it win.win enviornment for clients, freelancer & Upwork.

[9f395534]

Nice recommendation @Humair Ali K

[appunison]

In last 10 days, I have submitted 10 proposals, boosted 1-2 proposals only, but no profile views, and got response from one client. Even, I am top rated plus freelancer!. Something is wrong with the new boosting system. Earlier, I was getting  response from 2-3 clients (approx) after submitting 10 proposals.

I also noticed that when a good job is posted, it gets more than 50+ proposals is no time. I think most of the bidders are not spending much time (or no time) now in writing good proposals as per client requirement. Just copy and paste and hit the submit button. This may be happening because freelancers now think that if they delay in submitting proposals they will require to more connects to boost the proposal!

I did not like it. I request Upwork to revert this boosting system.