Marketplace Updates: Changes to Upwork Application Prices

[StanG]

Our goal is to make the number of Connects per proposal better reflect the demand for work in the Marketplace. This change will help us facilitate better matches, increase flexibility to price projects accurately, and attract more top tier clients to the platform.

Check out the product release for Marketplace Updates: Changes to Upwork Application Prices, and let us know your thoughts and question in the comments below.

[a97eca24]

It seems really unfair that I buy connects with money and then apply to jobs that clients post. Then they go inactive and after 30 days job post is archived and all my connects are gone. You can check maximum of my proposals are like this. I use connects to apply to a job then clients stop being active or interview a few people take them out of upwork and just stops coming back to upwork. I think you guys should be more strict about these things. As I'm losing a lot of connects and cannot apply to new jobs now. You can cancel job posts after 29 days of inactivity so we get our connects back maybe. Can you also check my proposal history to check if I'd get any connects back please ? Thanks in advance.

[khadija_sheikh24]

In 2023,Upwork has changed it connects policy.You need 3$ investment to apply for a single job.16 connects for most of the jobs with boosting feature available.How can a newbie can invest money at the beginning? 

Clients post job,take some interviews and never come back.Our connects are wasted.Is there any solution except quitting Upwork 😏 as most of the freelancers leave Upwork after spending their money on connects 

Is there any way to cope with this daunting situation? 

I could not get new clients after September 2023.I was earning well before this difficult time.

Can you suggest some valuable advice to motivate me to continue my freelance journey on Upwork.

I'm very optimistic that one day my day will come.Hope for the best 🙂

[spectralua]

Nope. Clients gone, freelancers gone. Only scammers and bots left.

I'm realistic, sorry for that. I hope that someone will give to you some optimistic reason soon.

[salakuzzaman]

Hi khadija,

Nice topic and it's a serious unbalance in a days. You notice very good issue , client sometimes view/ interview then gone, no response, other clients post a job then the stop. in the mine time, we lost huge Connect. I Hope UPWORK notice this issue and slove it 2024. 

On the other hand , this year (2023) i am benifited because i get many job, last few year my ID was irregular, but now i got most job, some i get boosted & some are organically . But i have to buy many connect. i don't count yet.

*** I am shareing my experience for motivation, pardon me, if i wrong.

Thank you

Happy Freelancing. Best of luck. 

[khadija_sheikh24]

Thanks a lot for your motivation.

[thephotoshopdude]

"Why is Upwork charging a lot of connects for applying to a job?"

[ashrafkhan81]

Nitin, they probably want to make a lot of money and want to discourage freelancers from mindlessly sending proposals to every job and flooding clients' inboxes! If the connects required to send proposals are high freelancers will think twice before sending proposals. 

I think I am careful these days before sending any proposal when I see the required connects above 10 and if decide to apply to any job requiring 10+ connects I will be very thoughtful in crafting my proposal. So, that might be working! 

And even with high connects, I see 20-50 proposals on most jobs, imagine if the connects required were 4 or 6? 

🙂 

[ahmed1288]

The platform takes me approximately $1.5 or more to submit a proposal on a job that the client has posted Considering that it is a real job for a real client (not affiliated with any agency of theirs) | There are no restrictions on the client. For example, he can post a job that looks great and leave it for 3 months without hiring any of the freelancers. At that time, the job is archived and the value of the proposal (Connects = money) is not returned to the freelancer. This is one of the platform’s clear criteria on its page.

As a freelancer, I suggest adding a feature that allows me (as a freelancer) when sending (a proposal on the project) to specify a time (12 hours - a day - two days - a month... I am free to control my (Connects = money) and manage it on the platform).

If someone is hired during the period I specified, I have paid for a real opportunity. The value of my (Connects = money) as a freelancer will be returned to me if the offer period that I specified by myself expires.

I am talking about the fair and transparent investment of time and effort on your respected platform...and also that your gains and financial returns are authentic.
Greetings to all of you
Ahmed

[whutwang]

Agree.In fact I spend over 50$ on this platform and only get one reply.I feel my money wasted

[spectralua]

It is sweet but never will be applied. Sorry.

[piuslove]

You are very right, to bid on some jobs you need even about $5 and wait that long without the employee interview any of the freelances. Its so painful that your connects you would have used to win the other job are just locked up in there

[chadrack_code]

I agree with you

[mvdeleon20]

Why does Upwork proceeded to charge the 10% Upwork fee for top rated when in fact the work has been done or logged in hours before 2023 ended?

[mbelv]

Yes this is true! They should have implemented it on the hours logged beginning this week and not those which were accomplished on the last week of 2023.

[ross_solar]

Hi to everyone 

I am aware there was a change in Upwork's fee/commission % last year to flat 10%. However, I didn't expect it to be applied to my old existing contracts (and it wasn't applied, i was checking that several times during last couple of months). But this week I noticed that I've been shaved 10% off instead of 5%. Is it some new rule got applied from Jan 1st?

2Upwork:

Look, I don't really promote my services, neither apply to the new jobs at Upwork. Almost all of my customers are really long-term ones with first contracts dated 2015-2016. And some of these customers were brought to Upwork by me. I don't see a problem if you apply that new scheme to the new contracts. But how do you explain it gets applied to the existing ones? Don't you think that 10% + VAT is a bit too much just for the 'accounting' service you provide me? For only the difference in fees I am paying you monthly I can hire a dedicated accountant full time who will do invoicing / track payments, etc. And since most of my contracts can be taken off the Upwork without violating T&C,  I don't see how Upwork will benefit from this...

Regards,
Vlad

[spectralua]

It was anounced for old existing contracts as well. Maybe you missed 2023, whole year it was disscussed here. To be correct, not discuseed: freelancers claimed and was ignored.

[ross_solar]

Gotchya! Well... I wasn't tracking it closely, being busy with my work. Just took a quick look into it and then checked my statements, saw that there were 5% being applied to my contracts and just moved on. 

[9ab9aa1f]

I'm Dishant Sojitra and I'm a freelancer.
I have good experience in upwork about how it works. But there is a problem with freelancers about loss connects.

I was bid to a job(client) then my connects is deduct that well. But clients hire directly to existing past freelancers. I seed in job details no any Invites to developer and no any interview then direct hire that means client and freelancer he is know about that person, ok no issue BUT other freelancer see a job and how is know about that so other  freelancer apply bid in job and loss connects so i request to return that connects when client is not invites and not any interview i mean clinet is hire to past freelancer then we need to return connects to other freelancers.

I hope you understand because my many connects are lost in that type of job and other freelancers.

And another think connects purchase very high price by upwork i just suggestion need to reduce price in buy connects. 
Also if the client job rate is low $5 and apply to bid we need to spend 8 connects. So that is not perfect from upwork. because we buy 10 connects with $1.5 then what we hand $ you can assume.

I say to you just my feedback, not other aims, Because need to improve from the freelancer side.

[avinay_web]

Hi,

I juts want to attention all regarding upwork new paymenst regarding Coonects and using Bidding connects 

I really seen this insane because there is lots of issues in this new system 

first we have to buy 80 connects for USD 12

Subtotal$12.00

Estimated taxes : $2.16

Estimated total : $14.16

So the total goes to : USD 14.16

it's really insane upwork is chargung a lot 

Assume I am bidding for 50 USD project so I buy 80 conect of USD 14.16 and then one bid cost appro.12- 16 connectes so assume in 80 connects I can bid 5 project and if I do so for every project 50 USD I get one reply not for all and then if by chance I get hired for one of 50USD then now here is real calculation I spend 14.16USD and then I finsih all connects and get 50 USD prokect so after getting project and paid by client  I get 45 USD after deducted upwork fee and now also deduct 14.16 USd which I spend on bidding so I get : 30.84 USD which is really bad and then I again buy 80 connects and spend on bidding and no chance to get project then its all come to zero 

So here is my request to upwork Please initiate on this 

as I see every bid is 12-16 connects there is by chance any bid goe sto 8 connects that is only when client is new to upwork

so I requested to upwork to make a slabs for bidding connects 

like if project is under 100 USD then only 2-4 connects for bid after that its all upon freelancer he want to boost his bid but it must be 2-4 connects 

so this way like if project is under 500 USD  connects must be 8-12 for that 

This way we can secure and save some money becuase every single freelancer know that after spending 300-400 connects or more than that some of freelancer get a chance to have project some of not all so its really lots of money freelancer loosing 

please its an humble request to take a quick action on this connects spending thing so freelancer get some relief

Thanks 

[ed0f29aa]

I came just now to this exact community for the first time, because this was on my mind right now. After spending again over 200-300 connects, I got a nice little job, work I like to do, but actually 40% below my average quoted prices even. This however, is even worse if I have to deduct all the lost connects on the other 20-25 proposals I send out. 

I keep sitting behind my desk even for like 8-12 hours daily, to really apply to jobs that fit most to me, something that always used to work until the recent past.

On top of that, I have to basically risk and inject easily 100-300 dollars, to get loaded up with work again, to go on to the next time of upwork roullette. It was cheaper with 20% fees if you ask me, and I got more work at that time too. 

It also simply amazes me, how 50-100-200 dollar jobs get like 20-30 proposals within just 5-7 minutes, while top bids are already at 25-30 connects or sometimes even 50-100 connects for a 500-1000 dollar webdesign job. That means more money is spent on connects than the job is even worth, to then still pay 10% fees aside the client paying fees too lol. 

Also I wonder if I am the only one complaining, I am certainly not cheap and used to do paid advertising too, but the amounts of connects people bid, makes it seem as there is mostly people with endless connects.

In theory this entire system is prone to abuse of monopoly as well. If you would run multiple agencies with all freelancers having their own accounts like happens in India, and you just keep bidding on each and every job from dozens of accounts, you will likely also end up with a big percentage of all those jobs, and earnings back the costs of the connects. 

Having hired myself as well friends, in the same sector as I also freelance in, I have noticed patterns of exact same behavior and speaking, while dealing with dozens of ''different'' freelancers, as those proposals were basically pushed to me on the first 1-2 pages.

[ed0f29aa]

To answer your specific thing directly; the entire problem with the connects is that sometimes you do get contact with just minimal bids an sometimes very high bids have a higher chance. There is no science on it which makes it like gambling. 

I actually think I even get more money out of direct invitations in the past months, the sad part with that is, I can't control when or how many etc on that end at all too. Those jobs are more like a bonus, if they even match. Sometimes I get joke offers.

If you are on a starting budget I can imagine its even worse, you would risk ending with zero even you re-invested earnings into connects, but you also need to pay payment fees multiple times + wait for actual payouts with delays lol (why on earth does upwork still not offer us the option to for example use earnings to get connects etc).

[ed0f29aa]

Job offer: landing page made with Elementor, one page, 150 dollars (nice job).

Proposals after 5-7 minutes:
80 connects first bid
77 connects second bid
75 connects third bid
etc etc.

The connects and fees alone actually must generate like 2X the job value on all the 50-70 proposals being send in, as the minimum in these cases is usually already near 20 connects per person too.

I mean, even you are within a minute, how would you be able to actually write a proper poposal in 30 seconds, and even you do take the time, and then send it out for a decent 25-30 connects only, you would refresh 10 minutes later to see you are on the bottom. I can tell too by the stats, 95% of proposals are never even seen by the clients, while im Top Rated and on a discounted rate. Knowing this makes it even worse, because it means the only solution is to send enough proposals, to fetch enough of that 5% read proposals and turning those into clients, but that means having to spend sometimes 50 dollars, or 500 dollars, before getting it back + more. It also means I have to charge more than I otherwise would need to, to compensate for it. Google ads is cheaper at the moment.

And if you finally got lucky, you are happy with the job, did it all as asked, you could still get a bad review and lowered rating if the client feels like it, what a life, being a freelancer lol.

That being said, i am happy to use upwork for on the side, it is great for that but it is a shame to miss out on so many perfect matching clients, who often still come to me months later for small fixes, as someone they paid all their money to, messed the job up.

[avinay_web]

yes its ture my profiel is alos Top rated plus from past 3 months and I spend more than 200 USD on connects only but didnt get anything and yes its true peoles are spending alot on connects and in back they get nothing like zero 

[marjan22]

We all loved Upwork before last CEO came, the days when alll freelancers can get jobs. 

But thoose days are long gone, and, Upwork is now Casino and yes you might win on short run, but nobody won Casino long term.

Now Upwork target group are freelancers money , they dont give a flying f*** for clients and hiring,and quality jobs or quality freelancers,and, that is why we see, fake jobs, repeting jobs, and everything that they can think of, like, Profile boosts, proposals booosts, offers from AI, Adobe, buy this buy that etc.

They now understand that only way to make money is to take the freelancers money not clients money, becuse freelancers are the ones who holds the cash at the end of the working day, not clients.

Now Upwork is sending notification if client seen your proposal and that should be highlight of freelancer day for his money, not getting job. Just awful.

Spend money on connects and get nothing in return, its not sustainable strategy, neither for Upwork, neither for freelancers, and its just a matter of time till it colapse completly, and in my view, only thing for complete colapse, is just if new platform on the market, and  downfall of Upwork will be over night.

[avinay_web]

Yes I agree with this its really annoying and upwork have to take some action against connects and paymnet we are spending for connects..