Project Catalog Consultations: Feedback and Questions

[MichaelJ]

We’re introducing a new feature to help you make the most of your time and expertise on Upwork so you can increase earnings, build a network of clients, and boost your reputation. With the new consultations offering within Project Catalog™, clients can book time with you for your subject-matter expertise. 

Check out the announcement here and let us know your thoughts about these updates in the comments below.

[dyumnin]

There is a category of Projects which can be templated as
"I want a PCB with <Sensor> Accessible via <Interface> On <OS>

I was trying to setup an consultation  for this. But found that it is not possible to offer consultation in the field of Electronics.
Is there a specific reason why electronics is not available in project catalog?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Vijayvithal,

Consultations is still a relatively new feature and we are planning to expand this option to more categories. We'll make sure to notify the Community when it happens. 

[yousaf-1]

Hello everyone,
I tried submitting the consultation project twice but I get this.

We're sorry, your project "You will get Consultation" was not approved yet. Please review your feedback and submit again"

But I don't know where I can see feedback, no hyperlink, not in the consultancy listing.

Please help.

Thanks,
Yousaf

[BojanS]

Hi Yousaf,

One of our agents will reach out to you directly via email with more information regarding your concern.

Thank you! 

[chrismoyer84]

I also submitted twice and eventually deleted as it was unclear what was being looked for.  I seemed to have gotten hung up on an 'IMAGE'.  I included an image of a menu I had created in an application.

[yousaf-1]

Hi Bojan,
I appreciate that, Thanks

[aia_studio]

When will the areas of expertise expand?

(Interested in areas like Architectural Design - CAD - 3D Modeling - Interior Design - Architectural Technical Advice - etc.)

Regards

[joechiu]

One of the banners in constant rotation asks that I set up a consultation; but my category is not represented in the area of expertise, so I cannot set up a consultation.  The setup screen allows for additional topics (keywords), but unless one of the features areas of expertise is selected, you cannot proceed.

If it Upwork's intent that only the features areas of expertise is allowed to set up consultations?  Or is this an error in design and other non-featured areas of expertise are wanted?

Thanks.

[BojanS]

Hi Joseph,

It looks like the option isn't yet available in your category. I apologize for any confusion this prompt has caused. We are planning to expand this option to more categories soon though! So stay tuned!

Thank you! 

[517acd3d]

Hi Upwork Product Team,

The current list of areas of experiste under Consultation Project Overview does not include my areas of expertise (automation, Google Workspace, Google Apps Script). And Areas of expertise is a required field. This means that I must pick an area that isn't relevant to me or is too generic.

To address that, can you please:

1. Make Areas of expertise optional.
2. Feed any selected Custom topics into Areas of expertise if I select fewer than five areas of expertise.
3. Make selecting at least one area of expertise OR one custom topic mandatory.

Please see attached screenshot for details.

Thanks for your consideration.

Ben

[BojanS]

Hi Ben,

Apologies for any confusion this has caused. We are planning to expand this option to more categories soon though! So stay tuned!

Thank you! 

[66303f11]

Hello,

Why my book a consultation call is pending.

[5510af19]

Its should accept from your client

[mahmoud_ameen]

Can freelancers refuse a specific job (for example the client asks for a consultation on a project I have no experience in!)

[MichaelJ]

Hi  Mahmoud Abd Elhame,

You can cancel any time before the consultation. If you cancel more than 24 hours before the consultation, the client will get their money back and they won’t be able to leave you feedback. You could also message the client in advance so that they can cancel it from their end.

[52bf3193]

Hello fellow professionals. Hope you're all having a good day. 

I don't know what I'm supposed to do with the 'set up consultation' bar in my profile. Can anyone please explain?  

Thanks for your time. 

[BojanS]

Hi Anika,

I've merged your message with the post related to the feature you're referring to. Please check Mike's announcement here and feel free to follow up with any additional questions you might have.

Happy working! 

[52bf3193]

Hello Bojan. Thank you for taking the time to respond. The concept is pretty clear to me now. This was helpful. Thanks!

[melaniekhenson]

Is there a delay before the consultation info shows up on a profile? Mine still isn't there but I got a message that it was approved earlier today. Thanks!

[ArjayM]

Hi Melanie,

Thank you for reaching out to us and congratulations on the approval of your Project. I can also confirm that your project has been approved. You may check your Project Dashboard page to confirm the approval. Let us know if you need further assistance.

[mrgaut]

Hi, 

I've set up a consultation service but when I share the link, people get "This page doesn't exist".
With the same link if they try 4-5 times they actually do open this page, but most people won't try that unless I specifically tell them to.
Can I do something to fix that?


Also, generic title is really strange, and it's not useful to clients.


And lastly, I can't do a search where I find my consultation in search results. So I'm guessing the only way would be for me to share that link with someone or if someone finds me specifically and then discovered I'm offering that type of service as a consultation. Seems unintuitive.


Is this something that will be updated over time?

[MichaelJ]

Hi Bruno,

Yes, consultations will soon be available to all clients and in public search. This feature is still in testing and is not yet fully available. We’ll keep the Community updated about the full release. In the interim, if you ask the client to go to upwork.com/consultations first, they will be able to view your project without getting the error.

We also appreciate your feedback about the titles.

[nhansen]

I don't see a way to add multiple consultations to the project catalog. And some services that are included in projects would lend themselves better to consultations, e.g. local experts in the travel category. How could one create a local expert consultation call and get it listed in the local experts part of projects?

Also, if I create a "consultation" for WordPress, I don't see the same options that I see on these like for number of questions and website audit:

https://www.upwork.com/services/product/website-consultation-for-new-websites-1455344370478960640

https://www.upwork.com/services/product/wordpress-website-design-design-consultation-wordpress-wesbs...

Others like this one seem to be able to tag their projects with tons of services. I see no option for this, nor an option to even create a WordPress project in the consultation category.

https://www.upwork.com/services/product/1-year-of-fully-managed-wordpress-hosting-and-ongoing-site-c...

I'm interested in using projects/consultations but it is simply confusing about how I can create something that looks like what is already there.

Also, what are the fees that Upwork takes on these, the standard ones?

These are called consultations but look a lot more like projects.

[MichaelJ]

Hi Nicole,

Thank you for your message. The links you shared are not using the new consultation feature. Currently, the consultation feature is only available to Web, Mobile, and Software Development; Digital Marketing; Legal; and Accounting skill categories. We will be adding more categories with the intention of eventually having all categories. For the projects you shared, these are traditional catalog projects for which the options may vary by service/skill.

In terms of fees, the same fees apply to consultations as other catalog and marketplace projects. You can learn more here.

[chrismoyer84]

Will there be an announcement when the consultations will be available in search?  I had thought this feature was for finding new clients?

[b44d323b]

Hi

I need help in consultation i add it 1st April but it still under review. i want to know why its happen. Thanks.

[LuiggiR]

Hi Hafeez,

I can see that you should've received a response from the team as a result of reviewing your Consultation Project. Can you please check your email and see if you got a message from them with more information? Don't hesitate to let us know if you need further assistance.

[075f877a]

Similar Issue. Been waiting since March 8th for a consultation to be approved. It's currently March 27th. No emails in my mailbox. Please help. 

[AveryO]

Hi Geoff, 

Let me follow this up with the team, and we'll come back here once we have more information. 

ETA: Apologies for the delay, as our team is currently receiving an unusually higher volume of requests. Kindly allow our team more time to review your consultation project. Should the team need more information about your submission, they will contact you via email with details on how you can edit the project for approval. 

[075f877a]

Since some of the features (like consultations) take up to 20 days to approve due to the increase, are there any other aspects of Upwork that I should be pursuing? If you take a glance at my profile, you'll see I'm five stars across the board for anything to do with writing (screenplays or novels) as well as treatments, loglines or anything film & tv related.  This appears to be a highly specialized field on Upwork and yet there are numerous clients looking on Upwork to write something new or revise something existing.  I can help to do that but buidling a reputation on Upwork is slow.  Reviews take up to 30 days before clients are able to post.  Consultations take 20 days to approve. Is there anything (like Consultations) that I may not be aware of that can help build a reputation online fast?  Or is the best advise to just pay monthly fees, go Pro, and keep applying for work from Upwork clients? 

[cyber_sec007]

Hi,

I understand why a project catalog is important, and I'm spending time developing productized services as much as possible in my area of expertise. I have set up a consultation as well. But to be honest with you without proper statistics, I have no clue if it is worth it or not. We talking about a product here, it would be great to know the followings:

1) How many times the project/consultation was viewed

2) For what keywords

3) From which geographic location (I mean at least at continent level).

I'm pretty sure that freelancers from marketing and sales can come with additional indicators, but for me, that would be enough, to know at least if I want to spend 8-16+ billable hours to develop my next project offering for the catalog.

Is there any chance for these in the near future?

[d5abc94e]

my project catalog is in pending for a week. kindly help me

[ArjayM]

Hi Asma,

I can see that you've reached out to our team regarding your concern. A support ticket has been created and I highly suggest you continue communicating with our team through that ticket for updates and further assistance. 

[d5abc94e]

still my project is not approved. i contacted again but didn't get the answer

[d5abc94e]

Please help me to approve my project, I have been trying it for a month.

this is the only hope to earn money. your support will mean alot

[ArjayM]

Hi Asma,

When you create a project we will first review it before making it visible to clients. Our review includes making sure your project is complete, looks professional, and doesn’t violate our Terms of Service. Please note that it can take up to five business days for your project to be reviewed. You can check on the status of your project by going to  Find Work> My Project Dashboard. To learn more about Project Catalog, click here.

Apologies for the delay as our support teams are currently experiencing a higher number of contacts than usual. Rest assured the team will address your concerns and questions via the ticket as soon as possible.

Please avoid creating several tickets or posts for the same concern so that the team could assist you more efficiently. We seek your patience and utmost understanding while sorting this out for you. Thank you!

[numbsain]

I've done a lot of consulting and I've never had a client buy a prepackaged consulting project. (I set up my consultation to cater to Tour de France competitors who are trying to gauge the feasibility of enjoying a lobster bisque while competing. Haven't had any takers yet but eventually, someone will need my expertise in the matter.)

Consulting, as i understand it, is when a  client has an idea or a project and he needs to know the best ways to handle it, or what his options are. I listen to the clients specific needs and I advise him on a course of action. In my experience if you try to solicit consulting work by showing a specific project the client simply says, "Well that's not my project so i'm not interested." it's just not a way to get business. UW is talking about setting up a catalog of fictitious projects with videos and photos in hopes that a client will come along and want exactly that project in that style with those particulars? Or close enough to it that some client says, "hey this is just what we want...to be consulted about!?" Could someone please explain what i am missing here?

This is like if i sat down and said "maybe someone is about to start a company somewhere called "Cannabiserly" So i'll design a whole complete branding package for it and hopefully they'll find me and ask me if i branded their company and then i'll say, YES! YES! I did! I thought you'd never ask! I spent the last two weeks designing your whole brand for you! It's all  ready to go! would you like to see it?" And then they say, 

"No that's okay we'll just pay you for it and be on our way...Well maybe we should take a quick look at it"

So you send it to them and you don't hear back for a week. So you call them and say "I thought you were going to buy that project from me."

They say, "Oh, no...we went with another freelancer."

You ask, "Why?"

They say, "Well, you made the lettering under the logo green and we really wanted blue so your project wasn't even close. We went with a blue lettering guy."

Now picture the scenario with consultation. How do you determine what photos or videos to show them? You make your video about vitamin supplements. So Then you only get consultations about vitamins? "Oh no this is not the guy, we need a mineral supplement guy." "Wait," you say "I have a mineral supplement consultation too! it's on page 1377 of all my consultations i'm offering." Who has this kind of time  and who has ever landed a job this way?

[prestonhunter]

I've done a lot of consulting and I've never...

...eaten soup while riding a bicycle.

[numbsain]

I have! The guy who finished in second place got most of my soup! What I wanna know is how did you, buy quoting me, extract that quote from my post? I've already replaced the wording so you won''t see it's not there if you go look but it wasn't when I read this, preston. You have magic powers eh?

[AveryO]

Hi Ray, 

Consultations provide a way for clients to get specialized guidance from an expert, like you, on Upwork, even if they're not ready to hire for a project. The goal is so that clients will be able to ask questions about the work they need to get done, and will hopefully feel confident to post a job and hire talent on Upwork. 

You can read more about it here, and in this article.