16 Connects For a Job Post
Is Too Much.
Luckily it was a bad dream
Did you notice Upwork raised the number of connects required to send a proposal at the beginning of the month? There were already 983 angry comments from freelancers in the community!
But we have very good news for you if you were as outraged about the raise as we were! Today, it seems, Upwork has canceled the raise and the job proposals cost start at 4 connects.
But for the last 2 weeks it took 12-16 connects to apply for a job, that is almost $2.5.
And unfortunately, this change falls into the overall disturbing trend:
first, there was this aution-style update with boosting proposals, urging freelancers to pay more connects to Upwork;
then the commission became flat 10%, which mostly affected agencies causing them to lose a considerable amount of income;
- then they tried to take 12-16 connects from freelancers instead of 2-8 for each proposal.
Let’s be clear, we don’t mind $2.5 bids for a 10k project. But there are a lot of job posts on Upwork for $5, and paying $1.2 to bid for them seemed too unreasonable. Especially if you are a new freelancer on the platform with just 40 free connects. The 4-16 range would make more sense, and we are really happy Upwork reconsidered the change before losing its best talent.
Of course, $5 jobs are not interesting agencies, but if Upwork kept the increase, it would push individual freelancers our of this lower segment as well. 12-16 connects for a job post would means doubling the lead cost (which is especially painful taking in consideration they canceled 5% fee). Many agencies will probably seek to explore the market outside Upwork if they continue to push these kinds of changes in the future.
But we woke up today to happily see the change was cancelled and job proposals start at 4 connects. So, the fact that Upwork listened to freelancer’s feedback and canceled the raise is very good news! Let’s hope their future changes will also reflect the needs of the talent.
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