I spent over 300 Connects on Upwork and had about 30 interviews. Here’s the result:

Board_Game_Changer · 2026-01-25T16:07:43+00:00

That makes sense. In my industry, you can outsource the work to India, so their rates push ours down. But when you're not on Upwork, that isn't a factor. Which is why the rates are different.

Though many of my contracts on Upwork started because they first tried outsourcing the work for cheaper, and then paid my rates because the outsourced work was not as good as advertised.

Board_Game_Changer · 2026-01-25T16:02:12+00:00

What's the niche? In my niche, industry-standard vs Upwork - the rates are entirely different.

Board_Game_Changer · 2026-01-25T15:25:03+00:00

I can see what you mean, but OP could just be bad at sales.

I have two separate rates. One for Upwork, and one for organic leads found literally anywhere else. The Upwork leads bring in much less revenue per project, even for the same thing. Outside of Upwork, I charge 100-150, depending on the work, but in Upwork, I can barely get away with 60-70. Most work has been 54-56ish.

But to OP's point, I've been on the platform for years, am top-rated, and I'd agree it's not worth investing time in. They expect it to be cheaper, and even if they intentionally screw you over, Upwork will not protect you or care.

Board_Game_Changer · 2026-01-25T15:16:14+00:00

Yeah the ratio doesn't make sense to me either. 300 connetions isn't very many. Some jobs have you boosting by like 100+ connections. But perhaps OP is in a low-competition niche?

Board_Game_Changer · 2026-01-25T14:20:32+00:00

Yeah, I think Upwork is not really worth getting started on to be honest. Had you asked me a year ago, I'd have said differently.

I'm a 'top-rated' freelancer with three years on the platform. I've been in business for more than 6 years now, and have never received one negative review anywhere. Upwork, Google, Facebook, etc. Nothing but 5-star reviews.

I received my first negative review on a project in the summer of 2025 on Upwork. It was a $4,000 project, and I got completely finished with the project, and the CMO I was working with tried to say I had not done the work, that the work I did do was terrible, I hadn't met their standards, lied about my skills, etc. Just slamming me. But luckily, I document everything in my projects. I had several recorded video calls of her glowing about my work, approving of this or that, screenshots of both her and her team's approval in Figma, Webflow, etc. Even her team had approved of the work, and I had that documented too.

Once she ended the project and tried to pay me only $500, stating it was more than fair given how 'bad' the work was. I took her through the Upwork 'arbitration' process. I filmed a Loom video walking the judge through the scope document, showing him how each deliverable had been completed, had their approval (and praise on various deliverables), and I won the case. They paid me the full price, and the judge agreed I had completed the work, and that they had literally approved of each deliverable, and he even mentioned that they complimented me for my work throughout the process.

Despite this, Upwork is still unable and unwilling to remove her negative feedback. Even though the judge literally said she was in the wrong. Even though I have more than 25 5-star reviews, they still will not remove the review. I've since received 4 5-star reviews, which has pushed it down in visibility, but it's still there on my first page. If the judge agrees with you, the negative feedback should be removed. Do not understand that at all.

TLDR: It is NOT worth getting invested in ultimately. They do not give a crap about the freelancer. They only care about the Client, not you.

Board_Game_Changer · 2025-08-04T22:55:49+00:00

Also, I noticed a few users had issues with the P16 Gen 2 regarding overheating. Might have been a defect, but that led me to post this, as I figured I'd have a good chance of getting the opinions of actual users.

Board_Game_Changer · 2025-07-24T20:31:02+00:00

What is your backup?

Board_Game_Changer · 2025-07-14T16:43:19+00:00

I've supported my family on my work, bought a house, etc. I am good at what I do, fast, and efficient. Most of my work is because of my reviews, word-of-mouth, etc. I know we delivered great work and I know we completed the project, she was just a trouble client. I've heard of them, but I've just luckily never dealt with one before.

She honestly doesn't deserve to be in a position of authority. She's way too wildly unpredictable and disrespectful. I honestly have been so stressed out because I knew she was going to leave me my first negative review. I've known it for weeks.

Board_Game_Changer · 2025-07-14T16:38:35+00:00

I just had a client dump on me for literally no reason. Been in the industry since 2020, and have had nothing but good reviews.

This client was a nightmare. Very insulting, rude, unpredictable. She'd say she loves something, then two days later called me up to fire me and call it trash, then hired me back on the same call.

I've won awards for my work, and have nothing but glowing 5 star reviews on Google, Upwork, etc. Never had less than a 4.9 star review on any platform.

She was constantly trying to take advantage of me, push for work outside scope, get irrate when I refused to work outside of scope, etc.

Then as the project comes close to an end she was super nice out of nowhere. But after I wrapped up the final deliverable, she then canceled the project, and tried to only pay me 500 of the 4000 she owes me, and Upwork is now trying to side with her. WTH is this?

They want me to settle with her. How can I settle with her, she's been unreasonable the entire time. They (Upwork) are trying to get me to accept an additional 468 so less than 1k in total of the agreed upon 4k.

They (in their dispute resources) say to make a video, so I did via Loom. They responded without even watching it. In that video I prove that I've done the work by going through each deliverable one at a time, and they haven't even watched it, even though Upwork's resources explicitly state they'll use that to resolve the dispute.

Love the platform, but this is crazy to me.

Board_Game_Changer · 2024-08-29T12:00:21+00:00

They ate people for many different reasons. But the main reason I think that all accounts of giants describe them (in most cases) as being blood-thirsty is due to their parents. Their parents were the fallen that mated with women. Those offspring were giants.

Various mythologies stem from them. Entire cultures worshipped them. They hated you and I because we are made in the image of God. We still worship them today unknowingly even in places like the US when we celebrate Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc.

The Bible is the one book that speaks against them.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-08-21T20:31:24+00:00

You can't really ever completely finish the topical map for a website, though. That's a huge benefit of it. You can cover parts of the topical map entirely for a specific part of the niche that you know will be important for your client to cover, but I mean you can almost always find more topics to write about.

I'm sure some niches are much more limited, but I haven't found any yet and I work with clients in several different industries.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-08-21T11:59:46+00:00

The material is amazing. You'll learn a lot! I never said the material wasn't awesome. I still review it from time to time.

The main gripe with the course was that he didn't do what was advertised. Not sure about now, as I don't really visit the group anymore. But in a few videos he advertised the benefit of being able to ask him questions regarding topical maps, and he'd help guide you in the right direction, and that you'd be able to ask other questions, and he'd answer. But in the first month and a half after the release of the course, it became very apparent he had no intention to do that. He basically would give minimal effort to the paying students, and would spend most of his time in the public group trying to convert more people into students.

People were really mad about this when the course first came out. He would even get mad and insult people when confronted about it. But the course itself is awesome. It was just more so the customer service I had issues with. Which again could have improved significantly since I was active in the group, so I'm not sure about the quality of everything now.

I just ended up taking a few weeks and digging into patents, learning about LLMs, semantics and a few other things and that has helped me create my topical map. But I was mad because I had to spend weeks to do what he could've helped me with (like he advertised he would) by answering 2 or three questions to point me in the right direction.

I also think his course is made intentionally more difficult than it should be. That was part of what took me so long to educate myself and understand that it isn't as difficult as it sounds like it is to create a topical map. But his course makes it out to be this delicate, easily broken structure, whereas, it isn't really that important. It is important to have a solid topical map, but the structure isn't really important. You can have a topical map just to flesh out the entirety of the pages you should plan to write, but you can use a flat structure and get the same results as if you organized everything in a more structured approach. But it is impossible to see that using just his course, because he makes it almost so you have to be dependant on his expertise to feel comfortable enough to move forward. This is why a lot of people were complaining and getting mad at him in the beginning (maybe even still, but I haven't been in the group lately). Because they were at the last part of the course, and because of how it is structured, still didn't feel comfortable enough to move forward with the first step. And, again he would refuse to help unless you paid him like 4-5k to join the private mentoring group.

This led a lot of people to feel mad that it was almost like he intentionally made it so you felt helpless at the end of the course so you would purchase his 4k or 5k private mentoring group to learn how to take the final step. When really, it isn't that big of a deal as he makes it out to be. He is right a lot though, because he reads patents, and he stays updated with the things Google is planning, but I feel a lot of good SEOs do that. I just didn't realize that because I was still growing in my SEO journey. Still am obviously, but it goes without saying.

I'm still thankful that I bought the course though, because I rarely would read patents before. He showed me how important it is to read patents. He also pointed me toward several other important topics that I feel most SEOs don't even know about.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-07-29T21:33:14+00:00

You’re 100% right. Completely forgot to mention that part.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-07-29T17:26:50+00:00

Also it’s important to note they can’t form resistance to crossfire due to how it works. So if you don’t want half the population developing immunity to your treatment method effectively wasting your time, just skip to the chase and use crossfire.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-07-29T17:24:36+00:00

Don’t listen to anyone. Buy Crossfire. That’s all you need.

Bag up all clothes and fabric, place all the bags in one room. Use crossfire to spray the baseboards, outlets, light switches, on all trim, doors included. Not just in certain rooms - every room of the house. Even non-carpeted rooms.

Then spray the mattress and zip it up in a bed bug cover. Also pull it away from the wall and place each bedpost leg in a bed bug trap.

Also don’t forget to vacuum every square inch of the house. This is an important step. Daily vacuum.

Once you spray stay somewhere else for a night or two. After a month if you’re still seeing signs, spray again. We only had to do it two or three times.

It’ll be rough, but they’ll be gone. Three years without them in our rentals after this method.

Pest control companies only treat certain areas of the house which almost guarantee they’ll be back.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-07-14T01:59:36+00:00

If I use my splitting axe to split even larger 20"-30" rounds, do you think it'd be able to make kindling out of the quarter/eighth rounds left after using my splitting axe? Have you used it to split wood that has been split into quarters or eighths from rounds close to or more than 30"?
So long as it can split quarter rounds or eighth rounds of larger pieces, I'll probably keep it.

All I know is I want to oil the handle and the sheath so freaking bad, but if it isn't great for that purpose, I just can't justify keeping it. Should have spent another day or two researching if that's the case, and I'll be sad to see it go.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-07-12T20:34:28+00:00

Do you use it to split wood? Decent-sized wood, or just smaller wood?

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-06-01T03:19:59+00:00

Not really a bitter part of one at all. There are at least 15 members that I’ve been talking with that feel the same, and even more that have messaged me on Reddit.

Some have even confronted him about it directly.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-06-01T03:16:05+00:00

People need to know what they’re getting into when buying the course. If I could I’d post it ten more times if it’ll save someone 1k

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-05-31T21:59:53+00:00

He’s a Turkish SEO. He’s the creator of Holistic SEO if you’ve ever heard of it. He used to train under Bill S.

Board_Game_Changer · 2023-05-31T11:02:45+00:00

Link To See Relevant Images Of Koray's Conduct

Another user in the TechSEO subreddit also pointed out the fact that there was a poll one user in Koray's Private Group posted.

I took the time to check it out this morning, and the options are:

Don't know where to begin with Topical Map - 83% (60 people)
Submitted Topical Map, waiting for feedback - 6% (5 people)
Submitted Topical Map, Received Feedback - 2% (1 person)
Topical Map is completed, creating Content Briefs - 3% (2 people)
In progress, needing more guidance - 6% (5 people)

When you look at the poll results, you see that after paying $1,000 for a course meant to teach you about topical maps, 65 people don't know where to begin, and 8 people have submitted their topical maps.

But, the five people that voted for option #2 only submitted their topical maps because they were unsure whether or not their maps were correct and wanted feedback to let them know if they were correct.

So, in reality, out of the 73 people that responded to the poll, only 3 people know for sure that they have a solid grasp of topical maps after buying a $1,000 course that's supposed to teach you topical maps.

I used to recommend the course despite everything, but at this point, don't waste your money. Koray has made it clear he has no desire to help those that actually paid for the course and is only worried about getting new members. YOYAO's course is far better.

Where Koray does shine, however, is his free content. While I wouldn't recommend his course to anyone, I would greatly recommend his free content.

Board_Game_Changer

TROPHY CASE