I’ve been applying on Upwork since January and still haven’t landed a single client.

I’ve spent more than I could afford on Connects, profile boosting, and even paid someone to help improve my profile. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. Most of my proposals receive no response, and I’m no longer sure whether the problem is my profile, proposals, job selection, pricing, or something else.

I want to be honest: my financial situation is becoming serious, and I may not be able to pay next month’s rent. I understand that Upwork is not a guaranteed or immediate source of income, so I’m also looking for work outside the platform. Still, I would like to understand what I’ve been doing wrong before spending any more money on Connects.

I’m happy to share anonymized screenshots of my profile, proposals, and statistics if that would help. I’m not looking for shortcuts just honest, practical feedback.

For those who eventually landed their first client, what did you change that made the biggest difference?

White image is what the client paid and what they see

Black is what I will get and what I see

Anyone have any idea for this ?

Hi guys,

If anyone has insight on this, it would really help .

I was banned from upwork a couple of years ago , I was green and didn't know lead coordination/ outreach would make me seem like I was phishing/spamming leads on upwork for a real estate client . I was posting listings for them . So I tried explaining my situation to the mods but they refused to reverse this.

I've tried opening another upwork with a second email and Gemini says upwork embeds ip addresses /bank accounts etc

I've found a different client through reddit and they want to use up work for accountability purposes .

Will this be an issue?

Hey, guys. I'm pretty new to Upwork. Been applying for jobs for about 2 months now and... yeah, still got nothing.

I always assumed the proposal was the #1 thing. My thinking was basically:

write a good proposal -> client reads it -> maybe checks your profile -> interview/hire

But recently a friend of mine, who actually hires people on Upwork, showed me some of the proposals they were getting.

And it kinda changed my perspective.

When I looked at the freelancers, I realized I was checking their profile first - photo, JSS, badges, reviews, work history, etc. Then I'd decide whether I even cared enough to read the proposal carefully.

So now I'm wondering if I've been approaching this backwards.

Maybe it's more like:

profile/first impression -> "hmm, this person looks legit" -> read proposal -> maybe check portfolio -> interview

rather than:

great proposal -> check profile -> hire

So for you experienced Upwork people:

How important is the proposal really compared to the profile?

If you had to rank these, what would you put first?

• Profile photo/overall first impression
• JSS/badges
• Reviews + work history
• Profile overview
• Proposal
• Portfolio
• Price

And esp for a new freelancer with basically zero Upwork history, what'd you focus on first?

Would really appreciate some honest/constructive opinions. I'm not looking for the usual "just send 100 proposals bro" advice

Im trying to understand how clients actually decide who gets their attention.

He has an extremely common name. Basically "John Smith" type common name. There is just no way this is accurate information. It is for a job I was assigned on monday and need to have booked by end of week. I have submitted a ticket but I don't know what to do. The email says: We’ve temporarily restricted your account because someone with the same name as your newly added payment method is on the U.S. Government’s list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN).

Before we can allow you to continue on Upwork, we must verify that the name on your payment method is not the same person that is on their list of persons we are not permitted to do business with.

Don’t worry, this is a common request and verifying the identity of is simple.

To do so, just click the link below and it will walk you through the entire process:

But the process requires me to take a photo of my bosses government ID, and maybe I am insane but I am just not doing that. I do not feel comfortable asking for my bosses ID to send to a third party? And the Ai chatbot is ridiculous. Half the time it removes the option to even type. And it turns practically everything I say into a ticket or reopens the ticket for me to edit. I don't know what to do.

I don't know much about stocks, but since Covid I've been low key obsessed with how Upwork as a platform is actually doing. Not the usual client/freelancer relationship stuff we talk about here, but the business itself.

Back in 2019 when I joined, you actually had to optimize your profile to get accepted. I got rejected the first time. That barrier was never foolproof, but it did weed out a chunk of unskilled freelancers. Didn't matter if you'd been there since 2010 when it was still Odesk, the platform worked. Upwork was a genuine tech company then: screenshot tracking app for client assurance, secure payments for freelancers. It worked well.

Then 2020 happened, and that whole gate disappeared. Anyone with an email could join. Freelancer quality dropped, and the only thing keeping the business model afloat was Connects, pay to apply.

Investors loved it though. More applicants meant more Connects sold. And honestly, as a freelancer it wasn't a problem yet, the ROI was still there. Upwork's matching (invites) was solid, and if you did well, their SEO worked in your favor too. During Covid they went full aggressive on marketing. Remember the zombie ads? Fun, but wildly unnecessary.

2023 is when it started cracking. Layoffs began, post pandemic overhiring officially. Around the same time users got loud on the Upwork forums about all the changes. Upwork didn't want that negative sentiment reaching investors, so they slowly started dismantling the forums, even the huddles, which used to genuinely help freelancers worldwide optimize their profiles and positioning. 2024 brought more layoffs, and the forums were killed off completely. They wanted to control the narrative. The changes on the website felt like staging, good only from the outside.

I haven't touched on AI much because I think it fooled a lot of companies into inflated profitability projections. Upwork post AI is arguably worse at actually helping users than it was pre AI boom, back when it was still "just" an algorithm that used to work well.

Now with heavy insider selling, it looks like investors are bailing. Maybe that forces some sanity into decision making. Or maybe it's too late, there aren't enough clients left to match the freelancer pool that's ballooned. Upwork still needs to make money, and a lot has to change.

As a freelancer, sinking money into Connects in this bidding race isn't for me anymore. I kept telling myself it might get better, kept spending. A decision that never used to feel like a gamble because the ROI used to justify it. My advice: diversify. Traditional client outreach, other platforms, whatever works, just don't die on the Connects hill.

Hey guys, I recently got 30 Ad Credits on Upwork and I’m a little confused about how I’m supposed to use them.

If I can choose between the different ad options, I’d probably go with Boosted Profile. But when I try to boost my profile, it shows that it’s going to use my Connects. I don’t see any option to use the Ad Credits instead.

So how exactly do the Ad Credits work? Are they supposed to automatically be used before my Connects, or is there something I need to do to activate/use them?

I’d really appreciate it if someone could explain this because I don’t want to accidentally spend my Connects when I have 30 Ad Credits available 😭

I started upwork and i am new to it. I am in talk with the client hoping to get the project it's a very small project part time of fixed 50 dollars. I am not bidding more than 50 dollars i am a web developer with 3 years of experience. If i get my first work will things gets easy for me?

Anyone else feels lately difficulties in having a customer review, even if they are satisfied?

I worked really hard on low paid job. $200 USD that took a lot of sweat and grit on a project that wasn't as simple as advertised. Goal was to make a little side income and get a great review to relaunch my profile and hopefully relaunch my top rated status.

Customer was really nice. Project went very well. He even appreciated my diligence (his words on DM).

In the end I requested feedback by DM and by sending a review request button after a week.

He thank me the review I left him and disappeared. It's no the 1st or 2nd time this happens. I have my profile filled with happy customers who didn't left stars neither reviews. And that harms immensely my profile. It’s unfair.

I feel a bit like a clown. 😅

Question in title.

Has anyone here already tested the new Upwork MCP? Please share your experience

I am transitioning from corporate to freelance and want to edit my Upwork job title to make it feel more freelance-friendly.

I currently have my title on Upwork listed as a Business Consultant and have had the titles "Process Improvement Engineer" and "Senior Lean Six Sigma Specialist" while working in corporate.

However, these terms are either too vague or don't feel very human-centered and approachable which is important, given that my work can feel very dry and technical.

For a little background, I help small and medium-sized businesses develop a well-defined strategy to improve their operational efficiency, reduce costs, and encourage sustainable revenue growth.

Thus, the strategy-based services I offer are process improvement, project management, and data analytics/visualization.

I have a decade of experience and the degrees, certifications, and case studies to back up my resume. So I would consider myself to be at the "expert" level and my hourly rate will be in the 80-90th percentile within the Upwork "marketplace" for my skillset.

In terms of personality, people often think I am very serious and intense upon first impression. However, they usually seem to realize I am kind and chatty, while also still being a little intense, once they get to know me. Hence, I want the job title to feel more friendly.

Based on that info, which title do you like best?? Feel free to comment any other suggestions!

TIA!

Hey everyone, i wanna ask your feedback, just created my account in upwork yesterday. Obviously haven't gotten any work there yet. I do have some good client work done from USA, so how do you guys leverage your already done projects here to get your first client here ? Im on software industry. Genuinely would love some feedback

Has anyone gotten any clicks from “Boost a Message” on Upwork?

I’ve tried multiple times to increase the number of clicks and my budget, but I still haven’t received a single click. Now it’s showing 60 Connects per click.

Please let me know if anyone has any insights or experience with this.

So for the past 3 months, I've been putting a lot of Connects into proposals and also using the profile boost feature. Here's the thing though, not a single client came from any of those proposals. Every client I've actually landed came through invites, not proposals I sent out.

I'm honestly confused. Maybe I set my profile up wrong when I first started boosting it, or maybe something else is off. I ended up lowering how many Connects I spend now since it just wasn't working, but I still don't really get what went wrong.

Part of me wonders if Upwork's algorithm somehow got "trained" the wrong way because of how I used boost and Connects early on. Does that sound possible, or am I overthinking this?

If anyone's dealt with something similar and can point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it. Trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong here.

Hi everyone, I'm new to Upwork as a freelancer and I'm hoping to get some tips on how to navigate this.

I have sent four proposals in the past 4 days, and from what I can see, none of these proposals have been opened.

An example of what I see:

The jobs have been posted between a few days and 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure what to make of this. Is this normal?

Hey everyone, could really use some advice from anyone who's crushing it on Upwork. I'm a designer doing ad creatives and video, been selling to clients since 2021, so I'm not new to this. My prices are not crazy high, my profile is clean, I have a solid case portfolio and real experience, and everything lines up nicely with the niche. On paper it should convert. But lately I feel like I'm leaving a lot on the table.

I've been tracking my funnel to figure out where deals die. Out of 20 recent leads: 9 ghosted, 4 declined, 7 still awaiting. The biggest hole is at the "client replied and asked questions" stage, where 5 of 13 closed leads ghost me before price even comes up. Another 3 ghost and 2 decline as "too expensive" once we actually get to pricing and scope. So conversations keep breaking off either right before I name the price, or right after.

My hunch is the pre-price ghosting is mostly clients shopping around, messaging 10-30 freelancers, then forgetting or deleting the job without hiring anyone. The only lever I have there is probably speed of reply. The "too expensive" side feels more like something I can actually fix. I'm already working on the cover letter, but the drop-off pattern feels bigger than just the pitch.

So what actually moved the needle for you once the basics were in place? Better job filtering, response speed, how you structure pricing (packages vs phased vs one number), how you frame value before quoting, follow-up cadence after ghosting? Any honest tactics from people who've pushed past this stage would help a lot.

The client has 300+ 4.6 star review and 200k+ total spent

I've submitted my verification on August 5th and it's almost been a month now and I still haven't heard anything back. I've tried the virtual chat agent multiple times but it just keeps looping and won't connect me to a real person,

Has anyone else dealt with this? How long did it take for you to get a response, and is there any way to actually reach a human on the support team? Any help is appreciated, this is really stressing me out.

Almost a year after finishing a project for a previous client, I sent them a very simple email.

I just sent this

That email eventually turned into a $2,500 project. And we are discussing now about more improvements after the first draft.

This is something freelancers/developers often overlook:

Your old clients are probably your warmest leads.

You already have trust. They already know your work. And there's a good chance the thing you built for them has evolved, broken, become annoying, or simply needs improvements.

I have a question about Upwork fees. Suppose a client posts a $10 fixed-price project on Upwork.

1. How much does the client actually pay Upwork in total, including any client fees?

2. If a freelancer accepts and completes the $10 project, how much does the freelancer actually receive after Upwork’s freelancer service fee and any other applicable fees?

3. If we assume the freelancer service fee is 10% or 15%, what would the final amount received by the freelancer be?

Basically, I want to understand the total amount paid by the client vs. the final amount received by the freelancer from a $10 project.