Boost Your Proposal to the Top of List (March 2022 Update): Questions & Feedback

[MichaelJ]

Today we’re reintroducing the boosted proposals feature with some changes. Read the announcement from James, Director of Product, here and let us know your thoughts about these updates in the comments below.

[martina_plaschka]

It's the worst idea ever. 

[msshussain]

Yes, I am a Top rated Freelancer and I don't like this idea. I believe the community can speak up so the Upwork team can consider about it and may be make some changes. Especially the outbidding part is not acceptable because the outbidding for a proposal must only be done through "talents" > good score, good earnings, good reviews, not by connects. The platform encourages the talents and it must stick to that fundamental. I hope they reconsider this. 

[pibeastie]

Am I understanding this right? I applied to a gig, in which the employer stated "Be sure to prove you read this by sending us a  note in chat after applying" but after applying, I realized there's no way to chat w someone until they chat w you first.

So I withdrew my application, then went to reapply with an added explanation, and the system says I can't reapply to a job if I withdraw a boosted submission?

WTAF? Is there any way around this?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi William,

If you withdraw a boosted proposal, you can’t submit it again (with or without boosting) and you will still be charged as if you had not withdrawn. A notification would show on the Withdraw Proposal screen highlighting this:

I'll also be moving your comment to the thread dedicated to questions and feedback about the feature.

[peal]

Sorry to say but 'Boosted Proposal' is just another way for Upwork to leech money from hardworking freelancers! We are already paying you a 5% service fee on EVERY contract. This should be a sign enough that we are committed to Upwork's platform!

Please note where you need to do the real work. Stop the scammers! Clean the platform for serious freelancers and clients. If you're  REALLY committed to providing service, every Client should be bound to verify their payment account before they even post a job.

Half of the time, the client posts a job and disappears into thin air. This means that a freelancer loses his/her connects.

Please stop making every situation a win/win for yourselves and actually start thinking about the community! Otherwise the platform will loose it's credibility when freelancers are forced to take their talent elsewhere.

[hirewebi]

5% service fee 😱??? The fees upwork takes from hardworking freelancers is actualy 20% , only after the contract reaches/passes $500 value, the fee is reduced to 10% for the contract, plus additional 20% VAT/Taxes on those fees they charge us. Thats surprising that not everyone gets to pay the same fees. 

[ruizvictoria]

For the second time I am having the same experience; Since the Boost Proposal started, I have had practically no interviews, even though I continue to apply in the same way as before.
Without Boost Proposal, out of 10 applications I send out, I get 4-5 interviews. With Boost Proposal, I have more than 10 applications and no client answers.
I wonder what happens.
I think that for those of us who have built a portfolio, a good reputation and responsibly fulfilled clients, we are being harmed by this system.
In turn, clients see in their list first, not those who are better qualified, but those who invest the most connectors, something is confusing when evaluating the worker.
I don't understand what the purpose of the Boost Proposal is. The only thing I see is that we will have to buy more connectors and the only one that makes a profit is UpWork.
Please clarify this issue for me. Thanks

[ericaandrews]

I agree:  It's basically creating a 'shortcut' for freelancers that may not be the best qualified for the job to 'jump to the top' of the list of proposals the client sees.  However, I have heard negative feedback about that feature from clients because it shows them who 'paid the most to bid' at the top of the list instead of the 'most qualified' or 'best fit'.  

As a result, some of the clients I know have actually told me they have started IGNORING proposals that come in boosted (It shows a little icon next to the proposal that basically says "This freelancer paid more to be noticed".)    So some clients are perceiving the 'boosted' proposals as coming from freelancers who are desperate and skipping over those proposals. It's like if you walked into a job interview holding up a sign saying "Please hire me. I need work." - you're probably not going to get hired. In other words, 'boosting' a proposal might be having the opposite effect for the freelancer doing the 'boosting'.    If the proposals are now coming into to clients "reshuffled" by who paid the most instead of who is the best fit, you probably have clients that simply abandon the job post because the 'top' of their list is not qualified, or create a new job post that is 'invite only' or simply use some other site/platform for hiring. 

Either way, I wouldn't change what you are doing as a freelancer: I think the 'novelty' of the 'boosting' will wear off as clients realize that what is being shown now at the 'top' of their list is not always the best qualified, but simply who paid the most to be seen.   It's actually very deceptive to the clients, since most clients want the most qualified, not the most 'in need' of a job.  Eventually, clients will either ask Upwork to turn the feature back off or simply start ignoring and immediately archiving 'boosted' proposals more and more.  

I personally haven't seen a change in the responses I get. However, I have seen an increase in INVITES from clients that post a job, get bombarded with unqualified proposals (including 'boosted' ones), and take matters into their own hands and start inviting people they think are qualified themselves. I got an invite from one client that got 50+ proposals and stopped reading them after the first few because the top of his list was all 'boosted' proposals from people not even remotely qualified. Possibly, it's messing up the chances for the freelancers that bid and were actually qualified if 'junk' profiles and proposals are being bumped to the 'top' of the list simply because somebody paid more. I don't see this feature sticking around too long if that type of client frustration continues.

[crart]

Same here, I get more invitations. But less responses to applications. I do not use boosting, it is cheap and lazy feature made solely to milk freelancers naiive enough to spend their connects on this. I literally had two invitations among many I received since this "feature" started infecting the system, where clients directly informed me they had a flood of irrelevant bids boosted by freelancers not even near the scope of work that was needed and they hope to find a good fit by looking for the freelancer on their own. It says a lot about how shortsighted UW is re. this feature. They simply cannot imagine consequences because their vision ends on $$$ they can earn in couple of days. This "feature" of pay-to-win jobs is harmful to whole community, not only to freelancers but clients as well, if they still don't see it I have low faith anything changes.  After asking for feedback (lol) and receiving mostly negative one rergarding boosted proposals, one could think that common sense will tell them to remove this from UW...

[ericaandrews]

I believe it will change when:

1. Clients start complaining to Upwork because they are getting proposals sorted in a 'distorted' fashion based on who paid the most with a bunch of 'garbage' proposals at the 'top' of the list instead of the 'best matches'

2. Clients start leaving and hiring on other platforms

3. Freelancers stop using the feature because it's probably not doing any good for them

I still get the same ratio of responses, mostly because clients are starting to treat 'boosted' proposals on their  dashboard the same way most people treat 'sponsored' search results that show up at the top of the page when you search for something on Google:  Our eyes have become trained to ignore anything that says 'sponsored' and SCROLL past it to the real stuff.  

I tried the 'boosting' feature during their 'pilot' program back in the winter (like December or so), and actually got fewer responses to proposals and fewer profile views.  When I found out that when you boost a proposal the client saw an icon next to your proposal that says 'highly interested' and a note that said 'this freelancer paid more to be noticed', I immediately understood why I was getting fewer responses. I wouldn't respond to a proposal that had a 'desperation' tag attached to it.  They've since changed the labled to 'boosted' from 'highly interested', but with the same note saying "this freelancer paid more..."

I immediately quit using the feature after I read the FAQ about 'boosting'.

If I was a client hiring on here, the other thing I would 'see' if I saw a boosted proposal come in is the following: The freelancer sending it lacks respect for rules and processes and lacks patience and temperment.  Nothing screams "lack of respect" for rules and norms and "impatience" like a person who 'cuts' in front of the line at a grocery store, movie theatre, or anywhere.   Think about it.  If they 'cut' corners and 'cheated' to get to the top of the list before the interview, what level of integrity can you expect from them after you hire them?  Not much, in my opinion.

[crart]

All this is true and logical. Then why UW is forcing such stupid changes I wonder... What else must happen to finally show them how wrong they are? For now it looks like arguing with 3 years old, with UW being this 3 yo: no because no, yes because yes.

[4c5b9f71]

Yeah i suspected something like this would be happening, thanks for checking eith the client and writing what's going on. 

This reading your tread should make the upwork team shake as I think it's creating a crappy system 

[freelanceup]

Hi Mike,
I hope that you are well. I cannot see how to boost my proposals when I send them- what is the process? Thanks for your feedback and help

Best, Christian

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Christian,

The option will show at the bottom of the "Submit a Proposal" page and would look like this:

Note, however, that boosted proposal auctions run for up to seven days or until the client makes their first hire. If the auction is closed but the job is still open, then the boost option will not be available. So that may be what have happened for jobs where you didn't see the option. You can still submit a proposal regularly though.

[4c5b9f71]

Valarie, with respect go your position as a member/advertising on this forum there are several threads that have asked a question go why thos system. 

It's very convinebt to see that you only anwer people who want to know about the system and not anwer people questioning its relevance. 

Please stop being partial in your response and fairly anwer all of them, some of them will be tough to anwer but since your playing the role of a representative of upwork you should anwer all. 

Thank you 

[jyotikumari29]

Hi Upwork,

Why Upwork has introduced the Proposal Boosting feature to force all Upwork freelancers to purchase the connects in huge numbers or let the unskilled freelancers rank at top positions to get hired over deserving freelancers??

This feature has ruined the life of all talented freelancers. It is the most terrible feature I have ever seen in Upwork. 

I'm not boosting while applying for the jobs because I believe in genuine Winning not cheating with talented and skilled freelancers. It's effective my work progress and not getting any responses since this feature has been introduced. 

If this feature wouldn't discontinue till the end of May. I will leave the Upwork and will start using other platforms to find new opportunities.

I hope any senior will take my concern seriously and will provide the resolutions. 

Rest wanted to say to every freelancer to raise the complaint against Upwork new updates. Are you with me??

Regards,

Jyoti

[crart]

---

Jyoti K wrote:

Rest wanted to say to every freelancer to raise the complaint against Upwork new updates. Are you with me??

We tried. We raised complaints multiple times. But when you face stubborn $$ machine, blind to any logic and arguments, there is nothing you can do. 

As a side note, their new "feature" with raising fees for clients is currently making many clients leave the platform. **Edited for Community Guidelines** Also the end for many freelancers but UW showed many times how little they care about ethics. It is a money making machine but somehow they forgot that while they do need to make money as a corpo, we, freelancers, are here primarily to - surprise, surprise! - make money. Now that balance and fair-play flew out of the window, it's a paradise for all kinds of scammers. Yay.

[sani100]

Hey, guys, are you all satisfied with the Upwork boost proposal option?

[pgiambalvo]

I can only speak for myself, as always, but I wish they'd get rid of it again never bring it back.

[martina_plaschka]

I can speak for myself and the many other freelancers who absolutely hate it. 

[mike_zimmerli]

I absolutely hate it. It's a waste of connects, and clients don't understand it so they think they're getting a better freelancer because they spent an extra dollar on connects to make them "rise to the top." Hate it. Did I mention that before? Hate it!

[filip_knezevic]

We hate it. 🙂

Most irritating thing is:

We heard a lot of bad vibes from the community but we figured we dont give a single futk and went ahead with the change 😄  

[4c5b9f71]

No!!

[hardiksanghavi]

Hello,

I reviewed some cons of the boost proposal for new freelancers. 

Example: A new freelancer who started his career in Upwork, he just invested some money to buy the connects. Now they are waiting for the new job post and quickly add the proposal on it because they want to get that new job. Right now his proposal is top due to not many proposals there. After a few minutes, many freelancers add the boost proposals and their posts are going to the top. Here disadvantage is for the person who tried first and waited a whole day to get the new post and wants a job, his proposal goes down due to other boost proposals.

Suggestion:  I am not against the boost proposal, but if you really want to implement the boost functionality you can apply as below.

1. You need to create a range of boost proposals and it will apply only between them. Like 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-50, 50+. So if the freelancer daily finds the job his proposal will be arranged in that range, not at the bottom.

2. If the client wants that boost post functionality, you can add that feature for them.

I hope you can understand my suggestions. 

Thank You,

Hardik Sanghavi

[sourceprouk]

NO, don't!