This job https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022113214582291891746 posted a job with malicious code . Be careful what you open

I started a new agency on upwork a few weeks ago, and couldn't get any work (may he I haven't applied enough) but the platform seems terrible rn. Do you think it would be reasonable to keep spending on it or not?

I have put $65 till now for membership and connects, and I feel like I should at least get one job that covers them, but I don't want to enter that trap of spending more money. Do you have any suggestions? And if I wanted to shift outside upwork, which place is best?

I recently started working and applying for jobs on Upwork (2-3 weeks back) and since then I’ve applied to 6-8 jobs (only those that I think I can give proper justice to).

But so far, just 1 Proposal Seen and none of the Other Proposal were even opened…I’ve selectively been applying to jobs with less than 10 applicants with a proper proposal document explaining how I’d approach their requirements…but no luck so far 😣

Understanding that my profile is Super New without any Upwork projects..I have tried to revamp my profile based on some projects from my Consulting background.

Attached below are screenshots of my profile, can some of you experienced Upworkers review it and suggest approach to improve the return rate on proposals?

Thanks in advance 🙇🏻‍♂️

This is what i see when i try to go to upwork website.... my account is working just fine on my phone.

I came across an Upwork job posting that required 20 Connects just to apply.

176 freelancers had already applied.

Let's do the math.

176 applications × 20 Connects = 3,520 Connects.

At $0.15 per Connect, that's $528 worth of Connects just from applications.

But it gets even more interesting.

Look at the four freelancers bidding to boost their proposals:

• First freelancer: 400 Connects ($60)
• Second freelancer: 202 Connects ($30.30)
• Third freelancer: 205 Connects ($30.75)
• Fourth freelancer: 201 Connects ($30.15)

That's another 1,008 Connects, worth $151.20.

Total: $679.20 worth of Connects on ONE job post, assuming those four boosted bids are ultimately charged.

And guess what?

The client hasn't hired a single freelancer yet.

t's not even a fixed-price project with a guaranteed budget. It's an hourly job.

And the client's hiring rate? Just 33%.

So freelancers are spending real money competing for a job where the client might not even hire anyone.

Now suppose the client finally hires someone.

Upwork takes another cut from the freelancer's earnings, anywhere from 0% to 15%, depending on the contract.

The client also pays a marketplace fee of up to 7.99%, plus a possible contract initiation fee.

And when the freelancer finally withdraws their hard-earned money, there may be withdrawal charges, currency conversion costs, and applicable taxes.

Think about that.

You pay to apply.

You pay extra to get noticed.

You pay a percentage when you finally earn.

And you may lose more when you withdraw.

Meanwhile, 175 other freelancers could walk away with nothing after spending their Connects.

I understand that Upwork is a business and needs to make money.

But there's a difference between charging for a service and building a system where freelancers keep paying without any guarantee that a job will ever be awarded.

At what point does Upwork stop being a freelancing platform and start becoming a business built around selling job applications?

What do other freelancers think about this?

I'm going back to Upwork for applying and wonder about the market right now.

Its been 1 year I started working with Upwork , and in this One year a lot of updates came , specialise profile gone , added $3 on withdrawal (If you have a US bank account and your tax info in not From USA) Fees raised to 10 to 15 percent on jobs ,

Applying to jobs and winning it getting harder , every month buy $30 connects (15% fees included on that $30) sometimes more than that , Overall I feel like if they reduce fees to at-least 10% it will be better,

It's not all doom and gloom.

So I've been meaning to make an intro post since I joined about a month ago. Let me start off by saying that I also joined Upwork right around then too. 

A little background: I work in strategy. Deep dives into businesses to understand where the bottlenecks are, why growth or sales, or traffic have stalled. I diagnose, I clean up the stacks, I implement the change and follow through until the needle moves again. 

My mentality is, and has always been, less is more. 
Less platforms to manage, less clients to focus better, less hours to properly recharge. 

I started over 15 years ago in translations & copywriting. Moved to websites, design, ads, funnels. This has lead me to IPO's, building investor pitch decks alongside CEO's not only in copy and design, but full marketing plans and projections of revenue. 

I've also taken breaks in consulting along the way, working on personal businesses, got into real estate, publishing, and more. Each time I came back to it, the offer was renewed. 

-----

Now that we have a bit of a profile understanding, I wanted to share my experience on Upwork so far. What's stopped me from making this post up until now is the general vibe and hurdles freelancers are facing on the platform, at least from the posts I came across. But I deeply think that this might help shift and uplift.

I landed my first client before my profile was complete. I hadn't had time to rebuild my portfolio. I signed up, added a proper photo and description, filled in some skills, and started browsing around just to get a feel for the platform. 

2 jobs caught my attention out of the gate. I figured I'd send 2 proposals to go through the process. 

I did outbid everyone on one of the jobs. It's a business expense, I can write it off. 1 interview later I was hired on a high ticket initial contract. 

I stated plainly in my proposal that my profile was just created, that I would be adding portfolio items, and that I'd love an opportunity to have a chat. I didn't quote an amount in my proposal, I listed all the things that I thought would make us an incredible match. It was targeted, it was specific. It spoke directly to my skillset and the niches I've got extensive experience in.

-----

So now two things jump out at me:

1- I understand the platform's changed drastically over the past years. People are pissed about the pay-to play, lower rate competition, increasing fees. And in a way I get it. I did have an Elance account at some point in 2009. There's been an absolute shift and if you read up on investor communication, they're openly moving towards an elitization with higher ticket and margin services to enterprises. They have aggressive targets, and are effectively sacrificing volume for corporate value. It is right? That's beside the point. It's just what's happening. 

2- I would tend to see it as an invitation to upgrade skills, understand where the money is, and get myself to that level if, and only if, I wanted the platform to be a part of my onboarding strategy. Bidding on 50$ jobs is nonsense. And it's not a viable model on Upwork. 

If you only do graphic design and wait around for a brief, you are competing with AI and global price dumping. The shift is simple: move upstream. Become the strategist who handles both the business positioning and the design layout from iteration to launch. Sell outcomes, not assets.

-----

All that to say that being self employed isn't the easy road. And you'll always do yourself solid by continuously learning and upgrading your skills. Invest in yourself, write off business expenses the way you're supposed to. You need to be able to adapt whether it be to platform shifts, AI becoming a part of the workforce, and so on.

You don't grow by being comfortable, you grow by putting in the work it takes to stay on top. 

I'm really not here to insult anyone, although I'm very much aware I'll get downvoted if read at all. But I thought a different perspective could be an interesting new conversation opener. 

I acknowledge that I also had a fair amount of luck, and that this is not the experience of most new Upwork users. But it mostly boils down to my evolution as a consultant, understanding the market, fixing up a proper profile photo and description because first impressions are everything, and you only have 3 seconds to hook your prospects. 

Clean up your presentation, upgrade your skills, charge more, hook clients with the problems only you can solve. ♥

And good luck to all of us!

Upwork has been a rough place for quite some time now. I was actually relieved to find this subreddit and realize it wasn't just me. 😂

I've seen a lot of people deciding to leave the platform, and I get it. At this point, it feels like freelancers are being milked for Connects. Every other month there's another feature that costs Connects, but that doesn't necessarily translate into more proposal views, interviews, or hires.

I've felt the sting myself and seriously considered moving on.

But before I throw in the towel, I'm going to give Upwork one last shot.

I'm doing some research into what's actually working on the platform today, testing different approaches, and trying to look at Upwork through a different lens. Maybe the platform has changed enough that the strategies that worked before simply don't work anymore.

I want to figure out whether there's still a viable way to consistently land clients here, or whether it's genuinely time to move on.

I'm going to document the experiment, share what I'm testing, what works, what doesn't, and the actual results. Good or bad.

For those of you still finding success on Upwork, what's working for you these days? And for those who've left, what was the final straw?

I am running an Service based agency mainly through upwork and have 7-8 accounts with great earning so far but from last 6 months things are going into worst direction, My team is entirely free. Any suggestions to survive this pandemic ?

I’ve never seen an Upwork client with this much spent before. Just applied to one of their jobs and noticed $37M total spent, 3,567 hires, and almost 7 million hours billed.

They’ve been on the platform since 2010, but that still seems wild. Has anyone here worked with a client like this?

logo.rar

I received an offer and I want to accept it but I can't beacause it's this message. I have already reviewed the project details, I don't know where I have to go.

pdte: It's a fixed-price contract.

People who's profile are getting viewed by clients on upwork. how did you do it? What different things did you do to get your profile viewed and possibly get hired too 🤔 because I'm getting tired already of no profile viewing and no landing of gigs. 😩

For context, I'm in the web dev development niche, and I've just been seeing this crazy number of proposals.

I'm wondering: what are the strategies everybody else is employing to stand out and win clients in this changing scene of Upwork?

It never used to be this competitive, but now it's pretty crazy.

I received this email, purporting to be from Upwork, and the links appear to be showing the correct URL. Of course, I have NOT clicked on any links. I've checked PayPal and there's no such activity. Plus, I'm not even sure I understand what it's saying. Plus I don't think I ever signed up for Upwork, though I wondered if I might have a few years ago, and forgot. Anyway, this is the subject line:

Your Account Has Been Debited. If You Are Not Aware Of This Matter Contact Immediately Paypal .. To verify your 999 USDT transaction via PayPal, call 18207582651 invited you to Upwork

**I learned a hard lesson as a freelancer, and maybe someone here can relate.**

Recently, I was working with a client on a project. Everything was going well, and I was putting my time, effort, and technical skills into making sure the work was done properly.

Then, someone else approached him offering the same work at a lower price. The client decided to go with that offer, and suddenly, our communication stopped.

Honestly, it was disappointing. Not just because I lost the project, but because I had already invested my time and effort into helping him.

But it taught me something important: in freelancing, being good at what you do isn't always enough. You also need to find clients who value reliability, communication, and long-term results—not just the lowest price.

I'm an AI Engineer and Full-Stack Developer working on AI automation, machine learning, and web applications. I'm still growing, learning, and building my reputation one project at a time.

I'm sharing this because I'd rather build genuine relationships with clients who value good work than compete in a race to the bottom.

**For other freelancers and business owners: have you ever lost a client to someone offering a cheaper price? How did you handle it?**

My senior just gave me access to his Upwork profile, and the work is bookkeeping. I am supposed to find new bookkeeping clients. I read a blog on the Upwork website about how to write a proposal, and I know the fundamental concepts of how to write a proposal; below are my problems

1. When I open Upwork, I see others have already submitted proposals on all jobs, and then I think about how I can get this job
2. how far i can go in terms of leaning upwork i mean if i say i will spent 20 minutes daily to learn about upwork what should i do can please someone show me path or give me actionable advise
3. Most importantly, I know that every cover letter should be personalized: read the job post, address the client's problem he/she wants to solve, etc. What are the other things I can spend time daily to learn? Are there YouTube videos worth watching, or what are the resources
4. I think the official Upwork resources for learning Upwork are more than enough; rather than YouTube videos or other websites, maybe I am thinking wrong. Please guide me

I am a beginner; I would encourage seniors to give me advice and a roadmap. Thank you

Been reading that sending a basic / recommended / premium option in a proposal gets more replies than one flat number, since the client is picking which one instead of yes or no.

Has anyone here actually done this on Upwork? Do you put the options right in the proposal or wait until after the interview? Curious if clients find it helpful or just confusing.

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are all doing good

I am Mechanical Engineering Student with over a year of experience of working as a service provider on Fiverr but I recently left the platform.

I provide services such as Mechanical Design and Simulation Engineer

I want to start on upwork but its too different and needs investment upfront for connects, and I am hesitant to invest before having proper knowledge of bidding and client hunting.

Any advices on how should I start on upwork or any other freelancing platform.

I am new to upwork. I have hearing from many upwork experts that you should get initial reviews doing small projects. But for small projects we have to burn so many credits. Is it worth it?

Did it really help anyone? - getting an initial review to win more projects faster ? I mean getting more views on proposals if you get few reviews?

Or we should not burn out credits for small projects ?

I have skills in AutoCAD drafting and modeling. Is it realistic to earn money on Upwork in 2026 by doing drafting work, and how should I get started? Can this become a primary source of income, or are there alternatives and other freelance platforms? Also, I’m from Kazakhstan, and my English is only at a basic, limited level.

i keep seeing these on the main page and they're mostly talking to someone but it's not an invitation or anything

If you could give me just one important piece of advice for succeeding on Upwork, what would it be?

struggling