Hisham Sarwar
Upwork is one of the world’s largest freelance Marketplace. It is a merger of elance and oDesk, both were very famous websites. Recently, every freelancer knows how difficult it is to find new work on freelance marketplaces.
In the saturated world of high competition where the number of freelancers exceeds the number of projects posted, Upwork is a hope for many freelancers. It is by far the best freelance marketplace. It races ahead of other freelance marketplaces because of a balance maintained between the number of projects posted and the number of freelancers placing their bids on project placements.
If you are a freelancer, you know how frustrating it is to find work online. Freelancing is gaining a lot of popularity recently. Many people are preferring to work from home, become self-employed and offer their skills at their own pace at the comfort of their own work hours.
Realistically speaking, the number of freelancers has outstretched the number of opportunities available online on different freelance marketplaces.
A typical project placement attracts around hundred-odd bids from different freelancers all over the world. Only one lucky candidate can be selected — making it extremely hard for every freelancer to cement their place online.
From the client’s point of view, it’ is not easy to receive so many proposals running in line to get noticed, most of them do not even get close to what client actually requires. It’s a big challenge not only for clients to select the best but also for a freelance marketplace to maintain a proper balance between the number of projects posted and freelancers bidding on projects.
Aware of such challenges, UpWork has brought substantial changes in its platform. From 15th July, there is no free bidding on the website.
This extreme yet important step not only strikes a perfect balance between the number of projects posted and the number of freelancers placing their bid on the projects but also enables every freelancer with equal probability to win a project.
A single connect cost $0.15 and typical bid price ranges between 4 to 6 connects. A single bid will cost between $0.60 to $0.90. Now, this may sound a little expensive to all freelancers but everyone will benefit in the long run. Putting a price on every connect has its own advantages. The unwanted competition that was hanging around every bid will fade away — leaving space for paid freelancers who are skilled and serious in winning projects online.
The new system will encourage more clients to come on UpWork and post their projects. They will know that unlike other freelance websites, they will not be bombarded with a huge number of freelancers responding to their project placement.
If you are a struggling freelancer who has tried their luck on all freelance marketplaces including UpWork in the past, you may want to come back to UpWork and try your luck again. This time around, you are surrounded with paid freelancers and this gives you a fair chance of being noticed and selected for a project.
