Marketplace Updates: Boosted Proposals and Connects

[#1]

Two new Marketplace updates: 

1. Introduced a fourth slot in Boosted Proposals, increasing your chances of being noticed, while continuing to let clients see who is most interested in their job post.
2. Adjusted the range for the cost of Connects per job to better match the demand for jobs in the Marketplace.

Check out the product release for Marketplace Updates: Boosted Proposals and Connects and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

[#2]

It seems competition is still fierce and adding extra 2 connects isn't helping much. Plus, be it boosted or organic; the chances of even getting highlighted have been reduced by 80% compared to the past.

I think you will need some solution as the majority of freelancers are losing trust in this platform. If you ask me, Upwork was more stable 3 years ago when there was no boosting of proposals and talents were only chosen with their strength in proposals.

[#3]

I've noticed recently that most of the jobs I bid on went from 2, 4, or 6 now up to 8 connects most of the time. Did Upwork crank up the cost to bid on projects across the board? 

[#4]

I'd say so...so - on free plan, you get to bid on one project.
Which is fine with me, since 98% of those "job postings" are never awarded anyway (just checked my stats).

[#5]

Listen, I'm willing to pay 8 connects and maybe even more. But only if I see that the client is reliable and is really going to hire. If it's a beginner with zero feedbacks, 0 % hire rate or "payment method not verified", then it's just a waste of connects. Make a ceiling of 5 connects maximum for new clients' projects. Then it would be fair!

[#6]

So - I did some math based on my 2022 upwork experience.
I'll need 1200 connects - that's $195 to apply for the same number of jobs I applied to in 2022. In 2022 I didn't get a single job (apart from a few small edits from my long term client).
So - pay $200 - get nothing.
No, thanks...

[#7]

Yep. I've paid twice as much *to date* (less than 3 mo) for Connects as I did in *all* of 2022, yet only seen one new job from it because views have plummeted. (No views, no jobs.) And now with the charge higher... well, Upwork's interface with the big bad world isn't sustaining itself anymore. It doesn't work.

I worked for myself without a middleman for many years before... if this is now more expensive than before—and has zero results, when it used to get me work... what am I here for? I can get that "on the outside."

I'd pay for results, but I can't pay infinitely for nothing.

*sigh*  I really used to like UW.

[#8]

Upwork has to realise that profits increase is linked to client satisfaction which in turn is linked to freelancer satisfaction.

Client satisfaction is increased when the job gets completed successfully and for that to happen, it has to be easier for the client to find the right person for the job. Having tons of proposals thrown at a client works against that, hence the increased connect cost to apply. It's not a popular opinion, but I agree with this action.

Yet, when it comes to freelancer satisfaction, Upwork fails on a few fronts. One of them mirrors the client's frustration: just like they have to go through tons of freelancers' proposals, many of them inadequate, we have to filter through tons of useless job postings. What is being done about this? Nothing currently. We need the "connects cost" equivalent for clients, or freelancers' satisfaction is going to continue its downward trend and while the clients are the ones bringing the money, the freelancers are the ones putting them into Upwork's pocket. Ignore this aspect for long enough and nothing good can come out if it.

To mitigate this issue, Upwork could go about a few ways:

1- introduce a small fee for every job posting. I know this is not favored by some freelancers from what I've seen here and possibly by Upwork either, but it would discourage lots of job postings that are more like a google search "what would it cost me to have this done". It's not phrased like this most of the time, as no one would apply, but rest assured, many clients have no serious intention of hiring.

2- "Payment unverfied" jobs should cost nothing. If they're not willing to show that they're serious about hiring, then perhaps, sifting through 50+ proposals is an appropriate cost for asking questions/info, instead of us paying in order to educate them.

3- another way of discouraging clients to use Upwork instead of google, would be to incurr some kind of penalty after the hiring rate drops below 50%. This is acually not mutually exclusive to either of the two above, since it alone, wouldn't address the "payment unverified" merely curios or downright bored client.

There are, of course, many other ways to address this and my proposed solutions might not be the right ones, but I'm sure there are some.

tl;dr Increase the connect costs all you want, it's fine by me, cost of doing business and all that, but address the other half of spamming, that is job posting spamming, not just proposal spamming.

[#9]

I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Yes, Upwork is trying to solve the problem of spam on proposals under projects.
However, that shouldn't been done by the expense of Freelancers.
They need to work with the ethics of customers, and not rely on the fact that the other half of the Upwork community will simply swallow it!

[#10]

Why do I need to use 4 connects for a 5 Dollar job? Upwork didn't reduce the connect price or give me any big sale offers. This situation is making Upwork an unreliable marketplace indeed. As a newbie, it's hard to join the competition. Upwork should do something about it

[#11]

  Hi Upworkers.
Maybe I missed this news. However, the cost of applying to jobs offered by employers has increased a lot lately. I mean the amount of Connects that are required to apply.

In general, on my profile, I see next: to apply for a job I need to spend 8 Connects. While previously, for a similar job, the ceiling was only 6!

  Other Jobs now costs me 4-6 Connects. And this is a category of jobs that have very poor requirements or no clear understanding of what the client needs. This is also a category of clients who usually have low ratings and a low-level hourly rate paid.😔

  On average, I spend a consistent amount of Connects per month to win a job. And from that, I plan my monthly budget. So I have to buy more Connects to maintain my income on a previous level (read - I have to pay the platform more to maintain the previous reward).

  Now I have to limit the number of jobs that I can apply for because it's getting unreasonably expensive. Clients don't really care about how many Connects their potential freelancer spends. They may not even consider the request from a freelancer. And in this case, the freelancer simply wastes 8 Connects to nowhere, because the task may not specify clear requirements or the desired result.

  Also now, the "Availability Badge" becomes absolutely useless. After all, in addition to the high-bet Connects, I'm constantly paying for this badge, which is of no use.

  In general, advise please what are the solutions for this situation, and maybe someone has faced with similar?

Thanks you.

[#12]

The full announcement is here.

[#13]

Sorry, but your link is not exactly what I was talking about in my post.
The most appropriate section would be this one:
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Product-Release-Notes/Marketplace-Updates-Boosted-Proposals-and-Conn...

This novelty, however, is not trustworthy, still 😕

[#14]

Why do my upwork keep saying this, I owe 40 Connects under Boost Profile(Need Attention). These Connects will automatically be deducted when you restart. but i never remembered borrowing any connect, and also my profile setup got to 100% and haven't gotten Rising Talent yet

[#15]

Hi Victoria,

We’ve escalated your community post to a support ticket. One of our agents will be in touch with you soon to assist.

[#16]

I've read some of the reviews about this innovation. I'm not impressed.

The thing is that in some cases there are really too many applicants for a good job. I'm not going to say what part of these freelancers are just spamming the proposals in the hope of being heard. But

But such a policy only protects the client's time. However, this innovation is completely unbalanced and only spoils the experience for newcomers to Upwork! itself.
As for regular freelancers, are not so important the "Academy" or general advice in the style of "let's improve your profile" or something else. Unnecessarily increasing the number of contacts per job is destructive.

After all, a really good job that is worth 8 Connects automatically raises the level for other garbage jobs.

And it is impossible to achieve transparent competition in this way. After all, the customer chooses the freelancer not by the number of connects, but only on the basis of his skills, portfolio, level of communication, and other professional skills.
Anything that does not fit these criteria often does not end with the contract and the job. Just wasted time and money on connects. I have been working with Upwork for a long time to be able to say this with confidence.

[#17]

Hey Upwork, 

I want to suggest a good idea for you. If you allow freelancers to update their proposed connects after submission, then you guys get more and more money. It will be good for freelancers as well since they can boost more if they get pushed over 4th slot. 

Does it sound good? It's good for both Upwork and freelancers.  😎

[#18]

hello dear how r u

[#19]

Connect pricing is substantially higher. Low priced jobs used to be 1-5 connects, at most. Now, it appears most jobs are 4+ connects, regardless of the project price. Before this change in connect pricing, you could only buy a maximum of 80 connects.

Now, $1 million dollar companies are purchasing 9,999 connects in one go, because you can now enter a custom amount, there is no limit. These $1 million dollar companies are now spending upwards of 200+ connects, ON ONE PROJECT BID. More power and monopoly for the 1% of top earners (these million dollar companies). 

Upwork tries to make their freelancers happy while increasing their profit, so they now charge 10%, instead of a 20% fee, but raise the connect pricing. The amount of money a freelancer is spending to bid, equals out to that 20% fee still being there, but now it is related to connects and not a fee. Same idea, make more money for Upwork, have their freelancers spend more money. It's just going to get more expensive, at the expence of the freelancers working on Upwork.

[#20]

I strongly believe that the "boosting" option should be removed. The sharks on Upwork can afford boosting with rediculous number of connects that the ordinary hard working, talented freelancer cannot afford, killing too many competent, eager freelancers from ever being able to do any meaningful work.

In addition, in too many instances, clients post jobs without the real intention of hiring anyone. They do that just to collect information and gather ideas from freelancers bids and interviews, then the job stays hanging there. So a suggestion would be to introduce a small fee for posting a job, that would be refunded (fully or partially) when they hire someone.

And as suggested by many others on the forum, Upwork can limit the number of proposals per job, for example to max 50 proposals (while boosting is removed of course). This can be split between agencies and individual freelancers, just for example, 10 agencies and 40 individual, or 15/35, somrthing like that.

Also, as suggested, a job has to have an expiry date, before which the client has to hire or lose the fee, and after which the client has to re-post the job if he/she really want the job to be done. This will encourage only serious job posting, and preventing Upwork from being a "Google" platform for collecting free ideas from freelancers.

I hope these suggestions make sense, and may be considered by Upwork.

[#21]

I love the idea of fee for posting a job. 👍🏻

[#22]

Has anyone experienced better response rates / closed deals since the connection price went higher?

Just out of curiosity. 

I did. But I'm not sure if it has to do with the increase in connections/less applicants per job. Just wanted to check if anyone had a similar experience.

[#23]

Great question - I would bid on 10 projects and get 8 people who wanted to work with me, it was so easy. Now, I place 80 bids and I am lucky if I get 1 reply, I'm not joking. This was since the connection price skyrocketed in price.

[#24]

Huum! That's interesting. For some reason, my numbers have improved a lot this month, and coincidently right at the month when the connection prices went higher. But it could have been due to other factors, such as being more selective when applying to jobs, or that I have just turned 100k in profits. Not sure..

[#25]

Hmm! Want my opinion? Luck and job saturation. Since Corona hit businesses hard, they are looking for work on the cheap. Hard to be more selective on jobs when you are bidding on very job that shows up. I have $100k+ profit and have had that for awhile. Anyway, that's great!

[#26]

Vitor—

No—like Scott, my 2023 pre-increase was awful, and now post-increase, has plummeted to near zero.

When I had steady(ish) growth on UW in my time before this year. Experienced pro before UW, Top-Rated since being on the platform. No reason for 2023 being a black hole getting blacker... except whatever UW knows but ain't telling.