Marketplace Updates: Boosted Proposals and Connects

[#1]

Two new Marketplace updates: 

1. Introduced a fourth slot in Boosted Proposals, increasing your chances of being noticed, while continuing to let clients see who is most interested in their job post.
2. Adjusted the range for the cost of Connects per job to better match the demand for jobs in the Marketplace.

Check out the product release for Marketplace Updates: Boosted Proposals and Connects and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

[#2]

Who is most interested has nothing to do with who is most qualified for the job, which should be Upwork's aim.

And heck, who is willing to *spend most* doesn't have anything to do with interest, either. I never send a single proposal where I'm not sure of my qualifications *and* tremendously interested. Yet my proposals never even get opened anymore, nevermind responded to, because of the utter glut of garbage that potential clients are seeing.

Upwork makes more $$$, on more freelancers using up more Connects, boosted and not boosted (no more 1 Connect jobs, I note), and clients (and freelancers) get zilch in relief.

I thought UW was trying to go upstream—but it appears to be a race to the bottom now.

[#3]

I agree. All updates come to make the platform worse for the users. Never an update that improves our end.  

[#4]

I just came across this Job post, and it's the first time I have seen a job that takes 8 connects to apply. Wasn't it 6 the max? Is it new?

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#5]

I haven't ever seen a job post that costs 8 connects to apply to, is this a new change or a bug?

[#6]

I have seen a job which costs 8 connects to bid, and it already has 50+ bids. Will wait and see, but seems plan is dead from the start.

[#7]

Just had one that looked iffy but decided to go for it anyway.  Clicked the button and found the deal required 8 connects (6 being the top-end in the past).  Did we get a price increase on top of the connects bidding war?  Wow.  Not imaginative in creating new revenue, but it will thin out the herd I guess...

[#8]

I think I will just stop investing in it, stop applying for jobs, and just answer the invitations.

I feel that I am putting in so much effort, 2+ hours a day analyzing and sending proposals, and answering clients, and instead of things getting better, it just gets worse.

Availability Badge Connects, Boosted Proposals, Increase in Jobs Connects Costs.. the list goes on..

Every month there is a new update to squeeze out the max of us without any improvement on our end. It's just not paying off anymore.

I make less money now that I am a Top Rated Plus with 100k profit than before that, without those updates.

[#9]

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Vitor G wrote:

I think I will just stop investing in it, stop applying for jobs, and just answer the invitations.

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You still get invitations? I don't. 

[#10]

Not sure if they are legit though. I get invitations, but they rarely reply back. I don't understand.

[#11]

Yes I have seen that too. I got an 8 today

[#12]

I can't say I like this. This means we have to invest more and more in purchasing connects. This platform should serve people to earn money. 

[#13]

"This platform should serve people to earn money." You're exactly right. Freelancers shouldn't have to "pay to play." Upwork already charges both freelancers and clients on the backend during active contracts. They're getting greedier. Charging more and more to use a WORK platform defeats the purpose of helping people earn a decent living. 🙄

[#14]

Yes, this is a little bit disappointing.

I'm begging my freelancing career here and it's challenging to win a job because I'm new on the platform, so investing money in proposals and connects is not so easy.

[#15]

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Cicely C wrote:

Charging more and more to use a WORK platform defeats the purpose of helping people earn a decent living. 🙄

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"Helping people" is not Upwork's purpose - it's not a charity. This website exists to make a profit, like all businesses. (Whether it ever achieves this goal is another matter.)

[#16]

"it's not a charity" - True, but as I stated, they already make revenue by charging both freelancers and clients during active contracts. I've used this platform for quite some time, off and on, and I've seen the number of new paid features they've added over time. They want to continually increase their revenue, which is understandable for any business, but adding gimmicks like connects and bids cheapens the platform in my opinion.  

[#17]

They are reluctant to charge clients to list a job, which makes the platform a free for all of scammers, bad clients and low ball job listings. If they charged clients to post the number of jobs would go down but they would be better, that's not their business model though it's volume equals more profit.

[#18]

If they don't help freelancers then they will fail because they're not the only game in town, freelancers are paying their salaries all through the process with little regard for all the crap here.
I understand their business model it's a numbers game, more jobs on the books more profit. Precisely why they don't charge clients to post a job, which if they did it would weed out a lot of the BS postings.
It's not my company but I certainly wouldn't run it this way, I'm not sure it'll get better since I have been here since day one and it's much worse now than ever.

[#19]

correct...
lets wait for a time freelancers connect together and develop another platform... a cheaper one.. and competitor of UW... however long it takes to get established completely.

[#20]

I don't use the boosted connects. I can't afford to use 40 connects to boost my proposal, but I also notice that UW is not letting clients see my proposals. I highly dislike the boosted proposals. Clients are not getting to see the freelancers' proposals that are actually the right fit, they're seeing the ones who have paid the most, thus defeating the entire connects program. Unless the entire program's purpose is to make us buy more connects so they make more money. Then it's working perfectly.

Last month, I had more work than I could almost handle, this month? Bupkis. And I'm putting proposals out there. I'm a top-rated freelancer. Seems to me that, boosted connects or not, top rated freelancers should be promoted, not punished.

[#21]

I have seen two job posts requiring 8 connects and also have 4 boosted spots. I believe this was only rolled out in the last day or so. I have not seen any announcement on it. Curious if anyone else has?

[#22]

6 connects was already a lot. And all good projects are now 8 and still full of proposals.

[#23]

its called... earning money with both hands...  some financial guru at UW thought of this scheme... of taking advantage of UW goodwill

[#24]

I'm confused about some recent activity on Upwork. I noticed that 8 connects were deducted from my account for a high-budget job, even though I didn't increase my bid. I'm not sure why this happened. Additionally, I didn't receive the 10 free connects that Upwork usually provides when a client responds to my proposal. Can someone please explain what might be going on?

[#25]

And no more "1 connect" jobs

[#26]

Hello.
Tonight I noticed that the cost of responding to customer requests has risen. Everything would be fine, but now the average price is 6 connections per response. I thought this was an isolated case, but I have at least 5 requests in the feed in the last hour that cost 8 connections. I did not see any information or news about this.

P.S. It seems to me that I will soon be giving 50% to upwork just for giving me at least a job.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**