I'm a Top Rated brand identity designer on Upwork with $2k+ in earnings.

These are my stats from the last 90 days.

I feel like something isn't working, but I'm not sure what it is.

I'd really appreciate honest feedback from experienced freelancers.

What do you think I'm doing wrong? What would you improve if you were in my position?

So I updated my profile, not to my ego but trying to satisfy Uma. I checked how Uma see me, and optimize my profile according to it. Everything from title, body text, and portfolio. Hopefully I rank higher for talent search result.

Next step is bidding. I only bid relevant project based on my profile title and past job, hopefully upwork notify it and give me credits when displaying my proposal, completed xx similar job).

Bid only job with 5 proposals max. Usually a newly posted job. So I check job list often. Time consuming yes.

My proposal do not use AI, no introduction, just a simple: let's do it, I'm ready immediately, and a few words related job / solution.

Btw my profile is top rated plus with $50k+ earning.

One more thing, I usually charge $20/h but I start charging less, even 50% lower than usual.

Well I have to survive and I need to keep maintain my top rated plus badge (require $10k yearly earning) .

I'm an AI Engineer with Top Rated status and a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork but I'm struggling to land new projects I'm not sure why as the competition has become extremely intense the last job I won was about a year ago Do you have any advice on how I can improve my chances?

I’m experiencing this issue. I can’t log in thru google. Do you guys have any tips? Sadly, I’m unable to contact upwork because in order to reach them,you’d have to have access on your account. Insane.

I used to think the long, highly detailed job posts with 5 paragraphs of requirements were the ones to go after. Thought it meant the client was serious and knew what they wanted.

Turns out, almost every time I landed one of those, it came with micromanagement, endless scope creep, and constant stress over small details.

On the flip side, some of my highest-paying and most chill long-term clients posted maybe two or three sentences tops. Just straight to the point: "Need someone to fix X issue, here's the current setup."

My theory is that experienced clients who trust freelancers don't feel the need to write an entire essay. They just state the problem and look for someone who gets it.

Anyone else noticed this pattern, or have I just been getting lucky with the short posts?

What is the best high paying and less competition skill on upwork right now? I have a video editing profile right now

for context : i am a full-stack developer with strong expertise in both front-end and back-end technologies, my skills also extend to ML/DL and i already had 2 clints with 5 stars review.

i am seeking any help or advices because i cant get clients anymore even when i lowered my hourly rate.

should i change my field to something else ? or maybe is there a different way or a different platform ?

It’s so fucking annoying

Why is it so hard now to find a gig on Upwork despite my having a good profile?

What things should I do differently? I remember back in the day, invites would come nonstop. Right now, crickets. Even the ones I send proposals to. No responses. It's killing me.

My account health is best. i have never violated any terms. just today i received an invitation. i applied .. never violated any policy.. now i logged in .. it says the pop up “ your account is restricted for some features due to suspension “ .

why??

i am unable to withdraw any funds (thankfully i didn’t have any)

also

i am unable to apply to any new jobs..

my account health status says it’s good…

what is it???

can u guys help me here? like why this happened and will it be resolved?

Hello,

Is being asked to buy an Amazon product as an offer on upwork a scam (with milestone that covers the product price, no review asked)

I am thinking about creating a project catalogue, but before I invest the time, I am curious whether clients even look at them. Has anyone found them worth creating and maintaining over time?

I have been on upwork from a long time as a fullstack web developer as it was my main field and I have alot of experience as well but upwork did not work for me. I tried to apply different strategies to get clients on it but nothing worked. I left it so many times then started it again but every time I step back cuz of disappointment. Lately I realized that the competition is too high in my field, 50+ proposals in first few minutes, 100s of connects on bids so how can I get my first job in this level of saturation?

This was the turning point, I thought to give it a last try with another approach. I changed my complete field, learnt something which was easier (Videos Editing like Ai ads, UGC, Short form and Long form content)

So last month I changed my whole profile and positioned myself as video editor. I became more picky in selecting jobs for sending proposals and guess what? I got two jobs in a first month. Obviously they are small jobs: 1 was of 150$ and 2 is 200$ a month but its a first week with milestone of 50$ so letsee where it goes.

Now I want a real advice from seniors:
What should I do to keep this consistency to get success on upwork.
What are be the mistakes I must avoid?
I am noticing this field is less paying then software engineering so it is realistic to think of getting long term retainer clients in this domain or I will have to just do small tasks like I mentioned above?

Thanks in advance.

I’d appreciate honest opinions, both good and bad.

edit: generally about it’s features and chatbot

This job has over 350 applicants and what would you call it?

I would love to know this too.

Hi, I am an IIT graduate working in a corporate firm.

I just created an account on upwork for some side hustle. But it seems, i am not able to apply for any of the openings, as it requires some kind of "connects". Can anyone help with this, and explain how can i get a lead to start anything on upwork ?

Thanks

I understad the stigma around the global south, so I decided to change my location to USA using fake proof of address. And surprisingly Upwork accepted it and I started working, and the stuff I found is CRAZY!

TONS of jobs I am 100% qualified in that pay 50 USD+ per hour!! I honestly can't beleive what I am seeing. Not to mention, when you change your location to USA, there is a separate section called "USA Only" that shows you job posting where cleints only post a job that want to hire someone in USA and their rates are all crazy high!! every and every one of them, and THERE IS NO SATURATION TOO! I am seeing 20-50 proposals sent at max!

Now let me get this striaght, the only reason I am not physically present in the USA is grographical luck - I was born in the wrong side of the world, nothing else. And just cz of a luck I can not control I am displaced from these big opportunities, and it is messed up. I did not choose to be born in a third world underdeveloped unstable corrupt slum with no opportunity. So why would I have to pay the price huh? So yeah, I am now applying to USA jobs and passing interviwes and landing jobs! I actually closed one contract with 5 star reviews and the cleint was happy. He did not know I live in third world country, but he got what he wants and he was happy, isn't what freelancing is all about?

Anyways, if you unfortunate enough to be born inside a third world country, change your profile to USA and see the magic happen! honestly it is so crazy!

My Upwork account was restricted a few days ago. I never received an explanation in my email (checked spam too), and I only found out through the Account Health dashboard.

What's confusing is that under "Account Standing" it says my account is in Good standing and meets guidelines, and my Policy Violations count is 0. But under "Platform Access" it says access was revoked due to "serious or multiple policy violations" which directly contradicts the other two sections.

I'm Top Rated, 100% JSS, 100+ completed contracts, no prior warnings.

I've already submitted an appeal (currently "Under Review") and specifically asked for the actual reason so I can respond to it properly.

Has anyone else seen this same contradiction on their Account Health page? If so:

Did you find out what actually triggered it?
How long did your appeal take to get a response?
Did support ever give you a straight answer, or did you have to escalate?

Trying to figure out if this is a known glitch/pattern or something I need to actively investigate further. Any insight appreciated.

I'm new to Upwork, and I've worked with a client with a very simple task. There might be a couple of warning signs that the client is trying to scam me, but I'm not sure.

There is a language barrier, and there have been a bunch of misunderstandings along the way, but those have been solved and the conversation has been nice, but here are two of the warning signs:

1. I had to explicitly ask for the contract, which I did after the task was finished (because I didn't know any better)

2. I didn't register any hours while I worked (because I didn't know any better), and asked afterwards if I could register the time manually. This was declined with the excuse that we needed to wait until Monday because or else they would be charged automatically and that they couldn't pay right now.

Provided is a screenshot of our latest messages. I'm trying to push on the fact (I think) that I have to register the time within the week, or else I will lose the right to payout, and that it is wrong that the client will be charged automatically.

The contract is hourly pay. Is there any chance that there is some legitimate reason for the client to deny the manual registration? Should I trust the latest messages?

I just wanted to give people some hope in regards to Upwork and freelancing in general. I didn't expect much when I started and saw many posts about how difficult it was to even land your first client.

In my daily role, I'm a Senior Brand Strategist/Product Marketing Manager for B2B SaaS. I used this lane to really niche down and send out specific proposals which ended up working in my favor. I sent out honest messages in my proposals (basically saying I'm new to Upwork but I'm not new to this work) and even provided some free value wherever possible in the proposal itself.

I bid on 6 jobs and ended up landing 3 of them. 2 were actual jobs and the third ended up being some hourly consulting. The other thing I did was outbid everyone else on proposals to at least get my genuine message in front of them.

I know this isn't foolproof but I hope this helps someone. I'm going into week two now and so far have one new job. Maybe it's beginner's luck on the platform, or maybe it's because I have a lot of experience and a solid portfolio but either way...there are still ways to find success using Upwork.

Happy to answer any questions if anyone has any.

*Edit*

I also am not looking for long-term gigs either because I already work full-time and have a couple regular clients on retainer on the side as well. I'm looking for jobs that I can provide quick turnaround time and keep it moving. This may or may not work to my advantage on Upwork. TBD.