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Boost Your Proposal to the Top of List

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Update 10/13: Our Boosted Proposals test has ended, for now, so we can study the results and learn. We sincerely appreciate all of the feedback you gave us during this test, and we’re taking time to review our data and plan some improvements with your input in mind. 

We will share more information about our plans for a re-launch of Boosted Proposals. So stay tuned!

 

Open auctions will run their course; however, no new boosts will be available.

Our goal remains to support the best outcomes for Talent and Clients and help you win more. We’re working to make this feature even better as part of that effort!

 



We are testing a new way to help you
make your proposals stand out to clients. We’re dropping the required price of proposals to 1 Connect and allowing talent to bid for a chance to boost their proposal to appear in one of three promoted slots at the top of the client’s proposal manager. With boosting, you can promote yourself to clients by signalling that you are highly interested in their job. You can use your Connects to boost your proposal and increase the chances of being among the first that’s noticed. When clients see “Highly Interested” next to a blue lightning bolt, they’ll know these proposals are from talent who paid to express their interest by investing extra Connects into their proposal.

 

 

How it works 

When you submit a proposal, you can choose to boost it by spending additional Connects — whatever amount you think it’s worth. If you bid high enough relative to the other bidders, we’ll boost your proposal to the top of the stack, so it’s one of the first proposals the client sees.

 

  • Decide. If you really value a job, choose to bid to be eligible to boost your proposal above others. 
  • Bid. Set the number of Connects you’re willing to use to outbid other freelancers. We encourage you to bid the amount you truly think the job is worth.
  • Submit. Your proposal will be boosted to the client if your bid is high enough. If another freelancer bids more than you and your proposal is not boosted, we will refund some of your Connects (if boosting did not result in an engagement with a client). You’ll be notified either way and your proposal will still show up for the client, even if you’re outbid. 
  • The auction will last up to 7 days. It starts when the job is posted, and it is cleared after 7 days, or sooner if the job is closed or a hire has been made. 
  • Using Connects. The value of a job is always up to you, and you never have to worry about wasting Connects if you over or underbid. 

 

  • For example, if a job post allows for 3 boosted proposals, the top 3 bids will win those slots, and the final cost will be set by the lowest of those 3 bids. 

  • So if you spent 7 Connects to boost a proposal, and the lowest of the top 3 bidders spent just 5 — you’re in! Plus, you’ll receive a refund of 2 Connects to match the cost of the lowest qualifying bid.

  • What if you had bid just 3 Connects instead of 5? No worries! Your proposal won’t be boosted, but it will still show up for the client just like a regular proposal, and you’ll be refunded all the additional Connects you spent to boost your proposal.



We know you put a lot of effort into developing quality proposals, especially for projects you’re excited about. That’s one of the reasons we created the option to bid to boost your proposal, so you have an even better chance of being seen by clients for projects you’re really passionate about. We see this as a way to express your level of interest while increasing the odds of being noticed. So, in cases where boosting your proposal results in an engagement with a client, you will be charged - even if you are outbid, since this exposure can often lead to future interactions. An engagement means one or more of the following was done by the client (in other words, the client engaged a freelancer in at least one of these ways): viewed your proposal, messaged you, shortlisted you, sent an offer, and/or archived or declined your proposal. It’s another way to make your Connects work for you!

 

Screenshot from September 8, 2021 9_20 AM.png

 

For more information about boosting your proposals so you’re more likely to land the work you really want, check out our help article.

 

Excited to try this out? We are eager to gather feedback while we’re testing this feature. Let us know your thoughts so we can continue to make the work marketplace even better for you.

629 Comments
a_lipsey
Community Member

Claudia Z wrote:

Amanda L wrote:


Additionally, most states have statutes following the same rules as well. 

 


The states statutes don't follow the same rules on the whole. Usually there is an act model and the states enact it following the model act, they can choose alternative a,  b or whatever, they can refuse some rules. Maybe it's the same for this specific matter but I don't know exaclty what is this act, time consuming to look further....


That isn't how it works. Neither is your prior comment how it works. 

 

It is "time consuming" to understand it all. I encourage you to leave it to those with expertise in this area. 

m_terrazas
Community Member

Nancy Edith C wrote:

I happen to like the idea, for some projects I'd definitely want to use more connects, then again, I try and bid only on jobs I really, really want to get. So, writing out a good proposal and trying to boost it, wouldn't that show the client one is really interested? They can always choose the best person regardless of how much they boosted right?

 

I don't understand why are people upset, I just tried it on this one job and will see how it goes. I am delighted and I believe this is cool and will benefit us in the long run. 

 


Well I'm glad you like it, but haven't you read the whole thread?
Because I think everything that can go wrong has been said. I mean, because some of us don't like it.

claudiacezy
Community Member

Amanda L wrote:


That isn't how it works. Neither is your prior comment how it works. 

 

It is "time consuming" to understand it all. I encourage you to leave it to those with expertise in this area. 


Still, fairness and transparency, so vague, you didn't provide the text of the requirement that applies to this boosting.

 

Anyways, for what it's worth, there's something to that ... like offering clients the option to allow freelancers to boost their proposal, do not make it an automatic feature. There is also so much talk about spam bidding ... on the flip side, the boosting may look or feel like intrusive, unsolicited.

m_terrazas
Community Member

Hi Valeria,

If there are already three bidders, and the client withdraws those three proposals, are the positions filled again with the following bidders who were left out the first time, or do the featured positions disappear?

a_lipsey
Community Member

Claudia Z wrote:

Amanda L wrote:


That isn't how it works. Neither is your prior comment how it works. 

 

It is "time consuming" to understand it all. I encourage you to leave it to those with expertise in this area. 


Still, fairness and transparency, so vague, you didn't provide the text of the requirement that applies to this boosting.

 

 


First: the "text" that you refer to would take day and days to read and explain. I think you discovered this upon your short time trying to Google it. 

 

Second: Fairness and transparency is one small part of the matter. Federal procurement rules are vast. 

 

Third: My question was for Upwork and if they have questions of me they will ask. You seem to be under the impression that I owe you an explanation. I do not. My intention was in no way to provide resources or education to anyone here on the matter, but to raise the concern to Upwork, which I did. 

aia_studio
Community Member

Did the beta testing go online for sometime tonight & then was brought back down?

I was prompted that all jobs are 1 connect now and that I get to choose if I want to add connects to my proposal to top the list if I'm interested .

But then again it went off back & all job went back to their relative amount of connects

Is it being toggled on and off?

 

P.S:I guess it is a double edge sword but interesting concept if not abused.

AndreaG
Moderator

Hi Amer, 

 

I can confirm this test is still running, please note that the option is available only for select jobs during testing. That said, we are planning to expand it. I've merged your post to the Announcement thread where you can find more information about this test.

 

vbx3
Community Member

Hello, community!

I would like to raise a question regarding the new connect bids system. Previously Upwork showed freelancers by rating(i.e. Top Rated 95% first, 81% last). Now anyone can take the first place just rising their connects bid as I understand. If rating does not affect this now, I'm wondering if Upwork really decided to raise their income despite freelancers will lose their rating&badges benefits. 

 

pay2work.com domain costs only 12.17$ on godaddy.

mar_work
Community Member

I read the full thread of my title, but I assume that I am new and therefore cannot participate in it. (Could a moderator move this post to the thread in question so that I can participate?)
I think very valid doubts have been raised about this initiative. I am new to the platform and I still think it is a bad initiative. Also, is the client's well-being taken into account? Naturally, he will now have to evaluate and filter more proposals, as he will receive many more. Anyone can spend a "connection" so irrelevant proposals and garbage are likely to be generated. Isn't this a problem that the platform had to solve in the past? Why wouldn't the same happen now? Isn't that what happens on other platforms? Also, I don't understand why the highest paid freelancers would be prioritized. It's absurd, and it detracts from all the effort to get good grades and customer reviews.
If the goal is to raise money, they could simply increase the cost of the connections and voila. Or are they really looking to generate traffic on the platform? At what cost? I think it is very risky. The projects will surely have more than 50 proposals before closing or expiring. I ask again: will customers feel comfortable with this change? If they were already struggling to find a good freelancer through proposals, how could this make things easier? And in any case (I'm thinking out loud), if they wanted to implement this "boost" option, they could have implemented it without lowering the cost of connections. One connection per project? If this is finally imposed, there is no way it will not attract spam or junk proposals.
I am attentive to the opinions of other freelancers and also some clients. It would be nice to know how they perceive the change.
Greetings!

webdev7847
Community Member

Valeria K 
Have you withdrawan this new rules ? I am not finding any project where i can bid on with this new rule . I like this new system and i want it to be lanuched for all jobs soon. Thanks