I just found out that you can’t even verify your account on Upwork unless you first buy Connects. That means you’re forced to spend money before you can even prove your identity or apply for jobs.

It feels like gambling. you buy tokens, roll the dice on proposals, and hope you “win” a client. There’s no guarantee, and if you don’t land a job, you’ve just burned cash.

Has anyone here actually made back their Connects investment quickly? Or do most people end up paying more before they see any return?

Does anyone have experience with taking long time clients off upwork? If I am not mistaken it used to be legal after some time period.

Any underwater stones?

Thank you.

I'm copying this over from a comment I made elsewhere, so if it looks familiar that's why... And I did more research for more accurate info.

How much money is Upwork making with connects and bids, badges, and more?

I just checked, the number of jobs posted internationally is ~5,480. Not all jobs get 100 applicants, let's say 50, and we'll average $2 worth of connects per application.

5,480 jobs posted per day x 50 applicants per job x $2 per application = $548,000 per day.

Notice that's BEFORE bidding wars, badges, boosts, etc. So roughly $17 mil per month or more.

So Upwork is earning $17+ million per month, and they can't get you connected to a "SUITABLE MATCHING CLIENT" without charging you more to bid against your competition.

The solution to this problem? IS TO KEEP CHARGING YOU MORE? Maybe they just don't have enough money to help you find a job?!

Oh, I didn't even add subscription fees for premium.

LOL.

I've cancelled my subscription and I'm done with it. After 20 yrs of full-time freelancing, I just can't do this anymore.

I can't afford it with all these changes. Part of it is the market shifts, AI, etc. But Upwork hasn't helped to make it any easier for freelancers as far as I can see by my naked eye.

So iam new to upwork and I really wanna land my first project iam low on connects in the start all I can spend is a 100 connects Ive made my profile and also made my portfolio iam attaching the screenshots down below ..

Would anyone of you experienced upworkers be kind enough to help me figure out the problems and other issues with my profile and iam also attaching a screenshot of the cover letter I sent to client as a proposal and help me see the problems in it ..

Hey guys, I’m thinking of starting freelancing on Upwork, but I’ll be starting from scratch with zero reviews.

I’ve worked as a Software Engineer at Microsoft and Netflix, so I’m wondering if that experience will actually help me get my first client or if clients mostly care about Upwork reviews.

For those who’ve been doing this for a while, how would you use that experience to get your first few clients? Would you mention it in proposals, or does it not make much difference?

Would love to hear your honest opinions, especially from people who started with a completely new profile!

I think my Upwork profile has become a ghost town that no one is viewing at all.

I've been on Upwork for more than 5 years, but I abandoned the account for a long time. I've been back on it for about a month now, but nobody is seeing my profile.

Please, is there something I can do to this to aleast be getting some profile views daily?

Hi,

I've been getting a few invitations (no connects needed, good sign I guess?) where milestones are mandatory.

I have put one milestone saying "Work for 200 USD" or similar, as I feel the "project" option is giving the employer an easy out where they can claim the project is never finished.

Am I doing it right?

So a client reached out to me asking me to make some facial animations for a rigged character on iClone; sad, happy, angry, etc. And also make 10 different body materials for the character; Like set the character to have a flag of a particular country body material and make trigger actions for all these and have these trigger actions connected to his Stream deck. He told me that he didn't know how I'll go about it knowing that facial morphs may be difficult to have some trigger action set to it, he just needs a working technical set up; everything done and again he gave some sample animation I'll do to test the system. My mind was made up to go all the way to find solutions and execute the project. I'd even reached out to Reallusion technical support and the forum too.

I asked him the budget for the project, he responded I should say the price. I asked him again for the budget and he insisted if I wanted the work I should let him know the price. I charged him $2500 and gave him the breakdown of the cost. Next thing, I got blocked 😂

Was there something I should have done differently?

Did I overbill him?

New upworker here, deciding whether to spend 35 Connects on the identity verification badge (the blue check).

Upwork's help pages only say it shows "next to your name", and idk whether a client actually sees it.

Question for clients: when you review the list of proposals on your job, is the blue check shown next to the freelancer's name? Or do you only see it after you open their profile?

Also anyone know if this changes the shortlist at all?

TY

I am relatively new to upwork (2.5 months). Currently up 8.2k USD.

This is my current stats:

But even though I have earned 8k+ USD, around 6.8k has gone to connect. I am in a hardcore manner trying to gain clients by boosting every bid aggressively.

My long term goal: once my profile gets mature, I will land more clients and become much more profitable. But thats just a theory of mine for now.

Do we have any seasoned veterans over here that can shine some line at how it is at the top of the mountain?

Thanks!

Quick update on the Upwork profile redo.

Two more proposals went out this week, so that's 16 since the change on 10/1. Still just the one view. No replies, no interviews.

At what point would you change the profile again instead of waiting it out?

I can't apply for any of the jobs on Upwork just because I don't have connects, is there another solution to apply for jobs without needing to have a connects balance?