I’m genuinely impressed and encouraged. He chose to be kind

Just tried to submit a proposal and my samples were rejected because they contain contact information for the client they were written for since, you know, the client published them to draw in business.

Just got this congratulations message from Upwork. I know it's auto-generated, but it still feels nice to receive.

I'm still relatively new to freelancing, and if everything goes well, my goal is to cross $100K by the end of the year.

If anyone has questions or needs a few pointers, feel free to ask. Happy to help where I can.

P.S. I'd prefer not to share personal details or my specific niche/domain.

For those just getting started, my advice would be to first build a strong foundation through a professional degree or relevant work experience rather than jumping straight into freelancing. You're competing against people with years of experience in the same domain. Unless you have a significant technical edge, a unique specialization, or you're willing to compete primarily on price (which I generally don't recommend), it can be very difficult to land your first clients.

I've been trying to build my Upwork profile seriously over the past few months, but I'm clearly doing something wrong.

So far I've sent around 105 proposals and haven't landed a single project.

I'm not using AI-generated templates. I read the job description, try to understand the client's pain points, explain how I'd solve the problem, and customize every proposal.

My profile is complete, I have portfolio samples, relevant certifications, and experience in ecommerce customer support.

I'm genuinely trying to figure out what's holding me back.

A few questions for experienced freelancers:

• Is this normal for a new profile?

• Are clients filtering out freelancers with no reviews?

• Should I focus only on jobs with fewer proposals?

• Are fixed-price jobs with a $5–$10 budget usually placeholders, or should I avoid them?

• If you were starting from zero today, what would you do differently?

I'd really appreciate honest feedback because I'd rather improve my strategy than keep sending proposals blindly.

Curious on what kind of freelancer would you like to get from inside Claude chat? I didn't know you can have a chat inside Claude chat 🔥

I've been noticing a significant decline in job postings in my category, and it's making me question whether Upwork is still a reliable platform for long-term client acquisition.

Curious if anyone else is experiencing the same and more importantly, how you've adapted. Are you doubling down on Upwork, shifting to other platforms, or finding clients through different channels entirely? Any specific approaches that have worked for you would be genuinely helpful to hear.

This client posted a job offer for an hourly job. I applied, we started discussing, and we figured a fixed fee project would be more suitable. We both agreed on terms.

I have no way to send a "contract proposal" to the client. Am I missing something or is this another genius Upwork move?

Today I Just left upwork forever

my experience : its just a useless website , not actual job hunting , u just spend for proposal which would never convert to any proper offer , its just full of scammer and new client from philipine mostly with 0 previous record keep sending u scam files and projects , 99% of the code i received from almost 20 people were scam and found malicious , i just preferred to quite entirely after all these scams , and upwork does not do anything for this , they can simply restrict more of these behaviors but they don care even when i report they response with nothing found but im clearly explaining the issue and were the danger comes from those codes

Hi guys, I've been on Upwork for a few years now, but I want to get serious about it.

Could you tell me how you evaluate who to apply to?

e.g.:

• Job post seen by client in the last...
• Max number of applicants
• Number of invite sent (you're not there)
• Etc.

Thank you in advance.

A client threatened "nasty" feedback and a chargeback if I didn't refund her for work I completed under an hourly contract (no payment protection). I reported her to Upwork Trust and Safety for her threat. Upwork replied, "We take all customer reports very seriously. We reviewed the situation and took appropriate action in line with our Terms of Service. While we may not be able to share the outcome of our review for privacy reasons, we appreciate your help in keeping Upwork safe."

In practical terms what does this mean? Would the client account be suspended? Given a warning, or was nothing done?

I'm trying to figure out how / if I should respond to the above client message. If she's suspended, then of course, I won't bother. Any insight into what might have happened?

I’ve had the most success with clients from UAE, Europe and Korea. My experiences with clients from some other regions haven’t been as good, so I’ve become more selective.

Hi everyone,

I'm a new freelancer on Upwork, and I'm completely stuck.

Whenever I try to add a payment method to buy Connects, I get this error:

Before this, I was getting:

After a few attempts, it changed to the "maximum number of attempts" error.

• I Waited more than 12 hours before trying again and noting changed.

The problem is that I can't even contact Upwork Support because I'm a new freelancer with no contracts yet, so I don't have access to live chat or support tickets.

Has anyone experienced this exact issue?

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share a few quick insights from my time freelancing on Upwork. Like many here, I went through a rough patch where proposal view rates were low and connects were just burning away. After tweaking my strategy, things started turning around, and I thought listing these might help someone going through the same grind:

1. The First 2 Lines Are Everything: Clients only see the snippet before clicking. I stopped starting with "Hi, my name is..." or "I am an expert in..." instead, I immediately address their specific pain point from the job description.
2. Keep Proposals Short & Direct: Busy clients don't read essays. A concise 3-4 paragraph structure with 1-2 relevant work samples links beats long cover letters every time.
3. Quality Over Quantity: Applying to 3 highly relevant jobs with tailored proposals yields a much better response rate than spamming 20 generic ones.
4. Selective Profile Optimization: Highlighting specialized skills (like niche SEO or specific Web3 growth strategies) worked way better than calling myself a "General Digital Marketer."

Would love to hear from other freelancers here—what was the single biggest change in your process that improved your reply rate on Upwork?

Cheers!

should i buy connects or take the plus membership for the first time on upwork , i have completed 2 jobs

Anyone had experience being invited to work for Student Loan Exchange? What was your experience?

I've become increasingly frustrated with one aspect of Upwork: unresponsive clients.

Many clients post a job and then disappear. Their profile shows "Last viewed by client: weeks ago." No one has been invited. No interviews have been scheduled. The job just sits there.

Meanwhile, freelancers spend connects applying, hoping for an opportunity that may never be reviewed. Over time, I've lost hundreds of connects on jobs where the client never came back.

I understand that plans change and projects get delayed, but when a job is abandoned without any activity, it feels like freelancers are paying the price.

How do you handle this? Do you have a strategy for spotting inactive clients before applying, or do you simply accept it as part of using Upwork?

I am a Marketing and Outreach Specialist, and I'm curious about the best ways to find and reach out to potential clients outside of Upwork. I am particularly drawn to working with wellness and fitness brands, nonprofits, and other mission-driven organizations.

I have consistent work for now and have found all of my current and past clients through Upwork, but I definitely want to branch out because I haven't seen as many Upwork postings in my areas of expertise.

If you've branched out, how do you identify and reach out to potential clients? What strategies have worked best for you?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can provide!

Hi guys, I am currently facing a situation where the client is asking for my email to give access to their platform. But the contract has not been placed yet. Is there any possibility of sharing the email before the contract is placed, or does the client have to place a contract before the email is shared?

Hi Im new to Upwork. I'd like to know some tips for a starter, what should I do to start off. And are there any pros and cons I should watch out for. thanks!

A client on Upwork asked me to complete a pre-screening form before moving forward. The form asks for my Upwork profile URL, links to published articles, and a few questions about my writing experience and approach. It doesn’t ask for any off-platform contact details.

Is this allowed under Upwork’s Terms of Service before a contract starts, or should all pre-screening stay within Upwork? I just want to make sure I’m not violating any rules. Thanks.

I think it's completely unfair that clients have the power to significantly reduce a freelancer's Job Success Score by leaving a negative review, especially when the issue isn't always the freelancer's fault. There should be an appeal process, similar to a payment dispute, because a lower Job Success Score can have a significant impact on a freelancer's ability to win future projects.

If a freelancer has consistently received stellar 5 star reviews, they should at least be given the benefit of the doubt. A single malicious or unfair review should not have such a substantial impact on their Job Success Score. Instead, only drop the job success score if there is a repeated negative review and not just one malicious review from a client.

I'm guessing this is a new AI-powered feature where it matches your profile with a job post, inviting you to apply. Showed up in my notifications, and when I clicked on it, it invited me to apply.

I worked on an hourly contract without payment protection. I work that way for most clients. I worked 10 hours and the client approved the hours. She then asked for more and more changes. I did not log hours against the time I made the additional changes. I finally got to the point where I was done making changes. (As a side issue, she didn't understand how to do the project herself, so she put my project through a generic AI used it to generate a list of everything that needed to be corrected. )

I'm a writer and there were things AI was dead-wrong about. After several iterations of her putting my work through AI, I said enough; I am done. Your AI is unreliable and objectively wrong about this topic.)

Weeks later, she wants a refund for the entire 10-hour project ($90/hour). I like happy clients. I have 100% JS and over $100K of earnings. Most of my clients are long term clients. So I like to keep my clients happy. This client was particularly difficult - when she told me that everyone she had worked with on Upwork had let her down, I should have rejected the project. Shame on me.

She stated that if she doesn't get a full refund by Sunday (7 days from now) that she will go to her bank for a chargeback. She stated that she is trying to avoid the dispute process on Upwork -- WHY? I don't know. So I am wondering if I can raise the dispute on my side. I have reported her to Upwork for having 2 accounts but I'm not sure Upwork is doing anything about that.

I would like to go through the dispute process because I have been very fair in this matter. If Upwork says that I should ultimately refund her the rest of her money, I will - but I'm trying to do this in a way that won't cause me problems, i.e., restricted account access with a chargeback.

Ultimately, I put in time and effort, and I have worked on hundreds of these projects but somehow she thinks the generic AI knows more than me. OK fine.

Any advice how to raise a dispute?