Marketplace Updates: Boosted Proposals and Connects

[ShannonL]

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.

[celgins]

The full announcement is here.

[nelick]

Sorry, but your link is not exactly what I was talking about in my post.
The most appropriate section would be this one:
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Product-Release-Notes/Marketplace-Updates-Boosted-Proposals-and-Conn...

This novelty, however, is not trustworthy, still 😕

[792b4606]

Why do my upwork keep saying this, I owe 40 Connects under Boost Profile(Need Attention). These Connects will automatically be deducted when you restart. but i never remembered borrowing any connect, and also my profile setup got to 100% and haven't gotten Rising Talent yet

[LuiggiR]

Hi Victoria,

We’ve escalated your community post to a support ticket. One of our agents will be in touch with you soon to assist.

[nelick]

I've read some of the reviews about this innovation. I'm not impressed.

The thing is that in some cases there are really too many applicants for a good job. I'm not going to say what part of these freelancers are just spamming the proposals in the hope of being heard. But

But such a policy only protects the client's time. However, this innovation is completely unbalanced and only spoils the experience for newcomers to Upwork! itself.
As for regular freelancers, are not so important the "Academy" or general advice in the style of "let's improve your profile" or something else. Unnecessarily increasing the number of contacts per job is destructive.

After all, a really good job that is worth 8 Connects automatically raises the level for other garbage jobs.

And it is impossible to achieve transparent competition in this way. After all, the customer chooses the freelancer not by the number of connects, but only on the basis of his skills, portfolio, level of communication, and other professional skills.
Anything that does not fit these criteria often does not end with the contract and the job. Just wasted time and money on connects. I have been working with Upwork for a long time to be able to say this with confidence.

[aaron-messer]

Hey Upwork, 

I want to suggest a good idea for you. If you allow freelancers to update their proposed connects after submission, then you guys get more and more money. It will be good for freelancers as well since they can boost more if they get pushed over 4th slot. 

Does it sound good? It's good for both Upwork and freelancers.  😎

[4aa629ba]

hello dear how r u

[patrylo-scott]

Connect pricing is substantially higher. Low priced jobs used to be 1-5 connects, at most. Now, it appears most jobs are 4+ connects, regardless of the project price. Before this change in connect pricing, you could only buy a maximum of 80 connects.

Now, $1 million dollar companies are purchasing 9,999 connects in one go, because you can now enter a custom amount, there is no limit. These $1 million dollar companies are now spending upwards of 200+ connects, ON ONE PROJECT BID. More power and monopoly for the 1% of top earners (these million dollar companies). 

Upwork tries to make their freelancers happy while increasing their profit, so they now charge 10%, instead of a 20% fee, but raise the connect pricing. The amount of money a freelancer is spending to bid, equals out to that 20% fee still being there, but now it is related to connects and not a fee. Same idea, make more money for Upwork, have their freelancers spend more money. It's just going to get more expensive, at the expence of the freelancers working on Upwork.

[ihabf]

I strongly believe that the "boosting" option should be removed. The sharks on Upwork can afford boosting with rediculous number of connects that the ordinary hard working, talented freelancer cannot afford, killing too many competent, eager freelancers from ever being able to do any meaningful work.

In addition, in too many instances, clients post jobs without the real intention of hiring anyone. They do that just to collect information and gather ideas from freelancers bids and interviews, then the job stays hanging there. So a suggestion would be to introduce a small fee for posting a job, that would be refunded (fully or partially) when they hire someone.

And as suggested by many others on the forum, Upwork can limit the number of proposals per job, for example to max 50 proposals (while boosting is removed of course). This can be split between agencies and individual freelancers, just for example, 10 agencies and 40 individual, or 15/35, somrthing like that.

Also, as suggested, a job has to have an expiry date, before which the client has to hire or lose the fee, and after which the client has to re-post the job if he/she really want the job to be done. This will encourage only serious job posting, and preventing Upwork from being a "Google" platform for collecting free ideas from freelancers.

I hope these suggestions make sense, and may be considered by Upwork.

[dd807ea4]

I love the idea of fee for posting a job. 👍🏻

[jvbonzi]

Has anyone experienced better response rates / closed deals since the connection price went higher?

Just out of curiosity. 

I did. But I'm not sure if it has to do with the increase in connections/less applicants per job. Just wanted to check if anyone had a similar experience.

[patrylo-scott]

Great question - I would bid on 10 projects and get 8 people who wanted to work with me, it was so easy. Now, I place 80 bids and I am lucky if I get 1 reply, I'm not joking. This was since the connection price skyrocketed in price.

[jvbonzi]

Huum! That's interesting. For some reason, my numbers have improved a lot this month, and coincidently right at the month when the connection prices went higher. But it could have been due to other factors, such as being more selective when applying to jobs, or that I have just turned 100k in profits. Not sure..

[patrylo-scott]

Hmm! Want my opinion? Luck and job saturation. Since Corona hit businesses hard, they are looking for work on the cheap. Hard to be more selective on jobs when you are bidding on very job that shows up. I have $100k+ profit and have had that for awhile. Anyway, that's great!

[kelly_e]

Vitor—

No—like Scott, my 2023 pre-increase was awful, and now post-increase, has plummeted to near zero.

When I had steady(ish) growth on UW in my time before this year. Experienced pro before UW, Top-Rated since being on the platform. No reason for 2023 being a black hole getting blacker... except whatever UW knows but ain't telling.

[792b4606]

Hello. Got question

Why do my upwork keep saying this, I owe 40 Connects under Boost Profile(Need Attention). These Connects will automatically be deducted when you restart. but i never remembered borrowing any connect, and also my profile setup got to 100% and haven't gotten Rising Talent yet.

[e513e427]

I do not agree that freelancers have to Bid to get a work. Is like paying to be hired. 

Up work should not allow this. All of freelancers should have the same opportunity. This should be change, is my oppinion.

[792b4606]

Hello, please have got a question

 why can't i turn off my boost profile

[solla4ever]

Let's talk about this with an example so everyone will understand how much this is unfair.

* Let's say a group of people who work in Upwork for a very long time and have excellent profiles with feedback. And let's say everyone earns very good money and each and everyone has their private profile and each person applies for jobs but they share the work.

So these people have enough money to buy connections so they can boost each and every job with high connections. So when the client checks the job posting and he will simply select that person (and of course, their group will share the work and complete it) so in this scenario, whoever earns more and whoever has a group only gets projects. And even very talented people who don't spend on connects will not be able to survive here. 

This boosting system must remove and come up with another solution. We already have stars, job success scores and etc... So this boosting system was implemented completely in money minded. And this will never help freelancers. 

[Anonymous-User]

It's getting very cr**zy on Upwork right now ... This boosting of proposals has made the site complicated to get jobs and makes only the rich freelancers get seen most of the time.

Imagine i stay online all day and apply immediately the job is posted, but then the client isn't online to read my proposal at that moment, then one lazy freelancer comes in 2hours later and boosts by 50+ connects and when the client comes online he assumes that is the best candidate and ignores the rest.

Look the boosting of proposals should be removed...

[d9fc6d8d]

If you don't like boosting, don't boost. There. Simple.

I don't boost and I still get my proposals viewed and I still land jobs.

[Anonymous-User]

That's you... It affects alot of proposals from being seen from 3 spaces to 4 spaces now.

That means you automatically take 5th on every proposal not boosted and many people apply... That's if you were even first to apply.

When i joined Upwork there was no boosting.. And it was cool .. 

I get jobs still with all these boosting but that's after missing out on the best jobs because the rich kids boost and get seen first

[d9fc6d8d]

Absolutely, Upwork was better without boosting. That's why I don't contribute to that problem and don't boost.

Any client worth working with will see your proposal if it's well-written, don't worry.

[glen-s]

It was introduced - much like the recent change to the fee charges - to improve Upwork's profits. Increase competiton, make people spend more and Upwork benefit. That is the only reason for the change, so it's here to stay. Upwork don't listen to freelancer's ideas. The community section gives the pretence that they do, but their only concern is profit. If that means it is at the expense of the people who have helped to make this platform what now is, then so be it.

[Anonymous-User]

Honestly, its something else.... Its now a game of spend more and make less

[kajatep]

I used to get interviews and be hired regularly before all this boosting frenzy but recently I have been receiving hardly any replies to my proposals, not talking about getting a job. It seems that without boosting, clients don't even notice

the proposals. Most of my proposals remain unviewed, which didn't happen before. Honestly, it is really off-putting to constantly spend a lot of connects without being hired in the end. It is great that the fee is going to be reduced to 10% but at least I paid from something earned, now I am paying without actually earning. I don't think it is sustainable like this.

[Anonymous-User]

Hi Karolina..... this is exactly my experience as well. If you dont boost, you will barely get any jobs recently just once in a while. If the application rate is high just forget about it if not boosted. The client will not even bother to read more than the first four boosted proposals and make their pick.

Its really frustrating... could this gradually lead to lots of freelancers quitting the site.. its getting too expensive applying and not gettting anything. Upwork is just making maximum profits at the moment at the detriment of lots of freelancers.

[fcca14]

You may like to check my two comments under  "Increase in connects required for bidding"

[792b4606]

Please, why can't I turn off my boost profile

[ArjayM]

Hi Victoria,

I see the team has responded to the support ticket you raised about the boosted profile concern. Please visit your ticket on this page or your email for more details, and don't hesitate to coordinate with the team if you need further assistance; they'll gladly look into that for you.

[arifzilane]

Review the Connects Spending Structure. Spending 8 Connects for Non-Payment Verified Proposals!

I think Upwork should review it for the new Freelancers. Or specify the connects spend structure. 

I hope Upwork thinks about it for all. And restart the 10 connects Free for those who get the replies from clients.

$5 - $10 - Spending 1 Connects

$10 - $20 - Spending 2 Connects 

$20 - $50 - Spending 4 Connects 

$50 - $70 - Spending 6 Connects 

$70 - $100 - Spending 8 Connects 

[792b4606]

Please, Why can't I turn of my boost profile

[sbaig2]

This is not fair to freelancers. So freelancers literally have to spend 4-8 connects before they can apply for $5 job. Also connects for availibitly badge.  Upwork is making the platform more and more difficult for freelancers. As freelancers will erarne more upwork will get more charges. So we would have to say by by Upwork.

[9e20af5f]

Yes you are right.

[eaed8e08]

Increasing the connection per job application will backfire. Reasons & all steps like boost connect and increasing connect working against experienced developers, soon Upwork will incur huge loss in terms of Experienced developers availability.

a). It's Recession time, so job postings are very low.

b). Developers who are working on Upwork for the last 8-10 years are struggling to get projects, so very soon they will join any company and start doing 9-5 jobs (nobody can wait more than 2 months to survive on Upwork without a project).

c). Boosting is totally an illogical option for experienced developers, it is working against experienced developers.
d). Soon Upwork will be a platform with freshers if this will be continued for the next 6 months, and once this will be traced by job posters they will leave the platform.

e). Upwork should introduce many things instead of imposing more terms on existing businesses, like new service sectors, accounting, consulting, and other jobs that are possible to do remotely.

There is a huge resentment among supplier and providers, I think this will disturb the Upwork's business Model.

[fcca14]

I invite you to check my two comments under  "Increase in connects required for bidding"

[kaurramandeep_35]

Hi

I have beed doing bidding but the connects that freelancer is taking is too much 8 conencts for a bid . And after getting the reponse u are getting back any single connect.

Is it right. Either u get or not get a resonse deductions is too much for the connets .And we are  not able to bid regularly as our bids gets finish and gets no response.

Its not ok with upwork as its is the trusted frellancer plateform beacusye of this so many freelancers has stooper working here.

Regards

[sbaig2]

Also so many fake jobs which chucks the connects. 

[saddiq_tayyba]

Too expensive. Upwork will lose its clients. This feels like we can't survive on Upwork and we should look for alternative tools. 

[792b4606]

And what alternative do you suggest?