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]

Increasing connect costs does not make any sense. Who is approving such policies? Continuously squeezing freelancers on various pretexts is illogical. It appears that Upwork is becoming increasingly unsupportive towards genuine freelancers. No matter how large a business may be, disregarding users and prioritizing profits over them is just not good.

[#3]

can you tell me ?? how do you do e this??

[#4]

Upwork is becoming too greedy for its own good. It's not enough they are taking a significant percentage from every job, they are raising the entry cost as well?!
Highly unfair, and at one point we all will say enough.

Upwork, take a pick, percentages, or entry cost. Both, are not fair.

Bidding by itself is built on an unfair presumption - another p2w.
What is wrong with a first come, first served?

This cost-raising trend, and putting it all on our backs, is unsettling. And I for one will start to seriously consider alternatives to Upwork.

[#5]

I totally "AGREE" .!! 

There are a lot of weird and unfair things happening now on this platform, like the percentage of every job, connects and even with JSS which is devastated me as i cant get any job for 3 months cause of JSS and at the same time trying to get jobs by spending a lot of my money on buying connects.

Ive made jobs for something like 550$ and didnt benfit of it but only 200$, and the other spended on connects and the upwork share of every job. and ive even cannot get anymore jobs cause unfair JSS percentage as I made all my jobs done with no bad rating from anyone.

And now they doubling the connects for every long job.!! 

Cant believe what happening for real, and guess I wont keep working on this platform as I get no income of it.

[#6]

Agree. This only makes it harder with constant "features" that aim to get some extra income from freelancers such as bidding "casino" and raised prices for bids.

I'd suggest Upwork take this seriously, because the competition is tough, and lack of quality leads (read: clients) can affect the overall experience of using this platform for many is becoming frustrating and dull at best. Meaningless scrolling through jobs 50-60% of which are being posted just to ask a question and without the intent of hiring.

Without attracting CLIENTS (not freelancers) this platform is going to face very-very-very difficult times. Mark my words

[#7]

A couple of days ago to submit a proposal we would need 2-6 connects. Now, It's up to 8 connects.

Additionally, the boost feature is totally a "disaster". Currently, for most of the jobs, the client would only notice freelancers with the highest boosting bids. You are turning it to gambling. Now we have to use double the connects as 20 - 200 connects per job only to be noticed by clients.

Is that all Upwork is about now just collecting money from clients and freelancers?

Please stop making it harder for us day by day.

[#8]

I do agree with you too. They are just squeezing every bit of income from us instead of getting new clients. And there are not even enough quality jobs. 
I can not recommend this site to anyone anymore. 

[#9]

Hopefully, UW takes a look at this. 

[#10]

I recommend that the boosting system be discontinued, as it may not be feasible for everyone to afford the high amount of connects required. I have observed that some users have to spend over 700 connects just to boost their proposals.

[#11]

The boosting system has been profitable for Upwork and hasn't caused the number of freelancers to decline, so it's not realistic to think that they might discontinue it. They wouldn't be expanding it if it wasn't working out for them.

[#12]

I thought I was imagining it yesterday, or it was some kind of bug. But no, this is a real problem. And, for example, until you click on submit a proposal, there are 2 connections. When you open it, there are already 4. Similarly, for submit a proposal with 4 ends, there are now 6 ends, for submit a proposal with 6 ends, there are now 8 ends. Is this a glitch or an innovation? I ask the Upwork team to explain this and sort it out. Thank you

[#13]

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Vladyslav Z wrote:

I thought I was imagining it yesterday, or it was some kind of bug. But no, this is a real problem. And, for example, until you click on submit a proposal, there are 2 connections. When you open it, there are already 4. Similarly, for submit a proposal with 4 ends, there are now 6 ends, for submit a proposal with 6 ends, there are now 8 ends. Is this a glitch or an innovation? I ask the Upwork team to explain this and sort it out. Thank you

---

Hi Vladyslav,

Feel free to check out the product update linked to the original post here for more information about the changes. 
As for the issue you're referring to where different amounts of Connects were showing in job search and on the job post page, it has already been fixed. 

[#14]

I hope everyone is doing well!

I have noticed a very sad thing from Upwork recently. Before I bought the Plus Membership, all the jobs were costing 2, 3, 4, or rarely 6 for any job.

As soon as I bought the membership,  all those jobs require 8 connects to apply for. I literally feel it is some kind of scam from Upwork itself. This doesn't make any sense as all the jobs require 8 connects minimum now on my end.

I have attached the screenshots where you can easily see that a normal entry-level job with less than a month's time also requires 8 connects.

Upwork should consider the fact that entry-level job with less than 1 month of time.. ...should be 2 connects at max

Also, it doesn't make any sense to charge the freelancer 4 connects or 6 connects for the job of 5usd or 10usd

[#15]

I have personally never come across jobs requiring 8 connects, probably this is some thing new! 

If you suspect plus membership is causing this, cancel your membership.

[#16]

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Saif U wrote:

As soon as I bought the membership,  all those jobs require 8 connects to apply for. I literally feel it is some kind of scam from Upwork itself.

---

Well... it is not the case. See the announcement below.

Marketplace Updates: Boosted Proposals and Co... - Upwork Community

As for the job screenshot you posted, you should not apply to it and flag it as they take you to an outside link.

[#17]

I think you have upgraded to plus membership on the day they atarted rolling out the 8 connect update. I am not on plus membeship, and I am seeing 8 connects everywhere. 8 connects even for the retyping job post even... I just started on Upwork and it just became better in March. My proposals started getting views...and then this.... I don't know how I am going to survive anymore.

[#18]

I would like to propose that the connect boosting system be discontinued, as it may not be affordable for many freelancers on the platform. With the current exchange rates, 150 connects can cost up to $24, which is a significant amount in some countries.

Additionally, it is observed that a vast majority of job postings boosted over 100 connects, making it difficult for freelancers who cannot afford to do so. The recent increase in connect prices to 8 connects further exacerbates the issue, as jobs under $100 now require 6 connects, which may not be fair to freelancers who cannot afford to boost their proposals.

In the interest of promoting fair competition and considering the needs of all freelancers, I suggest that the connect boosting system be discontinued. This will ensure that the right talent is considered for job postings, regardless of their ability to afford connect boosting.

[#19]

I am in a country where the exchange rate is $1.00 = R18.00.  I cant afford to do this. My rate is low so that I can encourage business, but with the price of connects, the boosting etc... I am "spending" too much and its prooving impractical. All these additional charges that Upwork earn are now on top of hte 20% commission. I feel that there is no longer a balance and that freelances are being taken advantage of.

[#20]

If you apply for a job that pays $100 and boost your proposal with 20 connects, and you are subsequently hired, Upwork will deduct $20 as fee. When you transfer the funds, an additional 3% transaction fee will also be deducted depend on your pay system and converstion rate. This means that you would receive $74 after all fees are deducted - $2 from your proposal fee and $20 for the connect boosting fee, with an additional 3% transaction fee.

[#21]

Absolutely agree. The increase in connections is killing young freelancers who do not have a top rate and the opportunity to grow is now almost non-existent. Looks like it's time to look for a new place to work.

[#22]

I think this system is great ...for milking freelancers doing multiple small gigs each week. I won't say the name but some other platform have 100 times better UI/UX and feature set for such gigs! Unfortunately the other one it's not what i am looking for, hense the reason why I have worked on oDesk/Upwork for more than a decade. This betting system will get some quick money for Upowrk, but it will hurt in the long term. Personally I link this panic move to the trend i am seeing on NASDAQ: UPWK. I woudn't be super happy if they solved it by rising the 20% cut for the first $1000 instead of $500 but at least it wouldn't have ruined the platform for vets and the serious clients.

[#23]

Upwork said they have more freelancers than needed.

Instead of doing some kind of vetting (as some of their competitors do), they keep the gate open and implement the boost thing so they can have something good from those more-than-needed freelancers. Good thoughts, actually.

I heard they also just raise the max required connects per project into 8 connects.

There's no reason for them to listen to your complaints. They want to make money, not to create a "fair" ground for freelancers.

They will only change this if the boost thing eventually lead into more "unsuccesful" projects → disappointed clients → less clients. I hope that's not what's currently happening right now.

[#24]

haha, good sense of humor. 
Correct critizm

[#25]

It's really hard to get jobs for freelancers. Many fake and unprofessional guys boost their proposals and took the top 4 slots.
So the other developers don't have enough chance to show their proposals to the clients.
Vise versa, clients have fewer chances to hire professional developers because many new freelancers(0 earned) boost their proposals to take the top 4 seats.
The boost option is not a good idea for both clients and freelancers.

[#26]

Absolutely true!