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jjentz
Community Member

Am I doing it wrong?

So I've successfully completed 3 fixed price jobs so far but I'm wondering if I'm doing it wrong.  What I *think* I'm supposed to be doing is accepting the "write an article for me" contract, then I write the article, then I send it via upwork messenger to the client asking for their feedback, they say 'looks good', and then I submit it for payment.  

But, I now haven't heard back from someone (it's only been 48 hours but they were super communicative prior to me completing the work so it got me thinking) and I was wondering - if someone asks me to write an article for them, should I just write it and submit it for payment without asking the client what they think of it?  What do people normally do?

Thank you in advance upwork peeps!

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prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "...then I send it via upwork messenger to the client asking for their feedback, they say 'looks good', and then I submit it for payment."

 

You are not violating any Upwork rules by doing it this way.


But that is not what I do.

 

That is not really how the user interface is intended to be used, either.

 

The way I personally do it is I finish a project, and (because I am the professional who was hired by the client), I know when the requested work is done.

 

So when it is done, THEN I submit it using the official "Submit Work / Request Payment" button.

 

Doing THAT presents the client with an opportunity to request changes.

 

Maybe not every freelancer is comfortable doing that. Maybe they want to check with the client first. But for me, what works well is NOT CHECKING with the client first, but submitting the work when it is done.


If the client does nothing, then I will get paid automatically, without any delays waiting for a client to respond to messages.

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10 REPLIES 10
mystudiomke
Community Member

Hi Jessica,

 

What I found most helpful is sending the work (whether it was preview or final) to the client and noting in the message to 'review and let me me know if you have any additional comments'. Then the client can eiher approve or request for changes on the milestone. That way your end is secure that you submitted the work.

 

Hope that helps 🙂

Lila

Jessica, you did everything right. Perhaps your client was offline during the weekend. But if I were you, I'd go ahead and request milestone approval, along with a polite message -- perhaps something like you're doing this for record keeping purposes -- so in the worst case, the milestone will be automatically approved in 14 days.

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"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "...then I send it via upwork messenger to the client asking for their feedback, they say 'looks good', and then I submit it for payment."

 

You are not violating any Upwork rules by doing it this way.


But that is not what I do.

 

That is not really how the user interface is intended to be used, either.

 

The way I personally do it is I finish a project, and (because I am the professional who was hired by the client), I know when the requested work is done.

 

So when it is done, THEN I submit it using the official "Submit Work / Request Payment" button.

 

Doing THAT presents the client with an opportunity to request changes.

 

Maybe not every freelancer is comfortable doing that. Maybe they want to check with the client first. But for me, what works well is NOT CHECKING with the client first, but submitting the work when it is done.


If the client does nothing, then I will get paid automatically, without any delays waiting for a client to respond to messages.

Thanks Preston - this is what I was getting at.

As you say, as a professional you know when the work is done.

That's what really hit me this morning about asking if the work was "ok" or not - that it sounds like a newb thing to do.  🙂

I think it is NATURAL for new freelancers to want to ask the freelancer if the work they submit is acceptable. There is a certain amount of deference there.

 

That's not a bad thing. We want to be polite and professional with clients.


But the way I look at it is this: The official button we use to submit our work literally does all this for us. It is Upwork's automated way of telling a client that we finished what they asked, while at the same time asking them to review the work and let us know if something needs to be changed. It even provides a button they can use to ask for changes.

 

So I don't think it is in any way presumptuous to use that button. Using the button AND sending a message actually just complicates things by doing the same thing twice.

 Maybe submitting work through the 'Request Payment' method within your field of expertise works, but when it's something creative or subjective, such as writing, art or musical composition, it doesn't really work as intended.

 

 Sure, as a proffesional writer, I know when the work is done subjectively, but the clients perspective might be different. Maybe they want a different voice or tone, maybe they want to make small edits here and there. Going through the 'Request Payment' method tends to complicate this process.

 

 There's also an issue that most clients are not, for the lack of a better term, proffesional clients. That means that they are not necessarily aware of the intricacies of Upwork's various systems. You can't imagine the number of contracts I've seen where the client flat out says they have no idea what they should be paying.

 

  This issue is compounded by the fact that one bad piece of feedback can tank your JSS. If you request payment on a work that a client might expect to be edited, but where it's not necessarily indicated, can cause your JSS to drop like it's in a bottomless pit.

 

 As a writer who's been on this site since 2014, here's my tips:

 

 - Agree beforehand with the client the number of edits you are going to do. This gaurentees that you aren't going to be doing several edits for a difficult client.

- Present your work for approval before submitting it for payment.

- If the client doesn't respond, wait a couple of days. If they still don't respond *then* submit what you have for payment.

- If the client *does* respond, then alter it according to your agreement until the client gives the green light, then submit for payment.

 

Unfortunately, the truth is you have to bend over backword for clients if you're in a field like writing. The market is saturated, and finding good, long term contracts is pretty hard. Ultimately, you need to chase that high JSS to stand out, and that means that sometimes you are going to get screwed over.

 

As a freelancer, you have to assume a certain amount of loss from uncopoerative clients.

triciajo
Community Member

I usually do the same - send the work via messages and the client approves the milestone. For me, it was just a natural progression as I usually communicate with clients through messages for ongoing projects and I just pop the work there for approval. If the client needs a nudge I 'submit' the work officially, with a polite message. 

datasciencewonk
Community Member

On the occasion when I do agree to a fixed rate contract, the writing is always sent via the request for payment function.

 

Edits are not adding content. They can have one copyedit per milestone. That's it. On to the next project/client. 


@Kat C wrote:

On the occasion when I do agree to a fixed rate contract, the writing is always sent via the request for payment function.

 

Edits are not adding content. They can have one copyedit per milestone. That's it. On to the next project/client. 


 I have been wondering why so many people have issues with edits. 

 

I have never, ever recieved requests to edit anything, which leads me to believe that -

 

1) My work is so good that it never needs editing, or, 

 

2) All my clients are clueless, and can't recognize poor quality work even if it jumps up and hits them in the face

 

 

 

jjentz
Community Member

OK - I've taken in what everyone has said - thank you all!
I think the biggest lesson I've learned here is that there is not one right answer.

Albert B - thank you for pointing out that Preston H is not a writer. I probably should have put "writers" in the title but I posted this in the writer forum because I feel that, as you stated, with creative projects it can be more complicated. You want the client to receive what they want, but as we are humans, we don't always communicate clearly, even when we think we have.  I have spent most of my life as an Accountant, and if someone asked me to reconcile their accounts, I would just do it and submit it for payment - no need to see if they "liked it", but writing is different.
Also, thank you for the idea of discussing quantity of edits up front. I hadn't thought of that. So much to learn!!

Reinier B - Wow. Never? The very first project I did the client asked me to rewrite it 3 times - by the 4th time I told him he would need to pay me more and he declined so we ended the contract.  What I didn't realize when I was in the middle of it is that he essentially had me write 3 different articles for him on the same subject matter. Each with different tones, audiences, and pov. What I can say is that it was a good learning experience.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to weigh in. I greatly appreciate it!