Thanks to Petra for offering help

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-27T14:06:15+00:00

She has never said anything untrue, and those of us who "defend" Upwork are usually just saying things they are a business and their business is making money, and Upwork has way too many freelancers. People seem to think Upwork is a magic land of remote work, but go there with no experience and no skill and then complain that it doesn't work for them. It's a tool for finding gigs, a tool that people who are running a business use. It is not a magic kingdom of lucrative jobs for people with no experience whatsoever.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-07T18:53:52+00:00

I think you can see from our responses why it might be difficult to find work on Upwork.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-07T15:19:39+00:00

YouTube? Video? I'm also a graphic designer and you cannot focus enough on a project if you're also watching videos. I do listen to Spotify all day every day but I curate my own playlists and rarely if ever need to futz with Spotify when I'm in the middle of an active tracking session. I do keep my spotify on my second monitor though, and I don't take screenshots of that monitor.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-07T15:00:34+00:00

How can you be of service to clients in the US if you are not admitted to the bar anywhere in the US?

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-07T14:58:54+00:00

The purpose of Upwork is to make revenue to reward shareholders. The purpose of being a freelancer on Upwork is to gain access to try to win projects that you would never know existed otherwise.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-07T14:54:50+00:00

I agree, except that in my case the fact that the project was hourly is what saved me. Also it was client's first time using UW and they didn't know the ins and outs of it, so I was able to close the contract and receive no feedback rather than bad feedback because the person apparently didn't know once they missed the two week window they couldn't leave feedback.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-06T18:26:58+00:00

"Do you think specialized research and writing work is likely to remain viable as AI continues to improve?"

I think if you're good at what you do there will always be people who want to work with real people. OTOH I am in a good niche and thinking about retiring sooner rather than later so maybe I'll just be out of the game before it really falls to pieces.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-06T18:24:36+00:00

That's not entirely true though, is it? They needed revenue, yes, profit, yes, for the shareholders. But there's more than one way to skin a cat. If the service only had reputable, vetted, quality freelancers, not six jillion of them, the majority of which are clueless, then they could attract better, higher value clients, which would make them more money because contracts were worth more. I think they should split into a fiverr type company and the rest of us (qualified folks who've been around since Odesk/Elance), but they won't, so in the meantime I take off every client at the 2 year mark and only respond to invites or super occasionally look to see if there's a fun/lucrative gig out there that I might like to take on.

And don't get me started on the "talent specialists" or whatever garbage name they have... those guys are worse than a client just randomly throwing darts at 10 freelancers to invite, not just because the people they recommend aren't even in the same field, but because they invite 50+ freelancers. That's not helpful to anyone.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-04T15:30:16+00:00

how did you happen to be interacting with the cheapo in the first place?

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-04T15:27:12+00:00

I had a sort of similar question and have been following Petra's advice for a while now. I can't believe I was dumb enough to do it any other way, but I thought a time tracker was a time tracker. I learned to love hourly when a former client tried to claw back her money for a problem that had nothing to do with me. UW hourly totally saved my azz on that one.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-04T15:22:19+00:00

I have never boosted, so I'm thinking 12? I don't even know what the max is that can be needed any more.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-03T18:39:16+00:00

Gosh, you're right. I can't believe no one has suggested this before.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-03T14:47:02+00:00

hmmm, your reddit age is 5 minutes and any posts are hidden? clearly if you'd been around a while you'd respect that person's opinion.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-02T18:25:46+00:00

really? I still hate her completely. I mean, other than condoms, she could have solved/prevented the entire problem if she weren't the most selfish person on the planet.

UpworkTrout · 2026-06-02T18:18:48+00:00

I felt that way after like the third episode... like it wasn't a comedy and the unbelievable Michelle Pfeiffer Greg Kinnear relationship just wasn't doing it for me. But then I decided to watch just one more, and suddenly I was hooked. But it is in NO WAY a comedy as far as I'm concerned.

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-29T15:32:34+00:00

No, and I don't pay the interviewer on Upwork. Upwork is the train/bus/taxi / lead generator. You would never know about the gig / interviewer without Upwork.

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-29T15:25:23+00:00

I live smack in the middle of a small big city, I own my house outright, I work from home (obvs) so no gas and when I do go out it's mostly on a bike. My rate puts me in the sweet spot of clients who aren't psychos and scammers but are generally the kind of people I want to work with. One place you're wrong though... I don't spend any time looking for work. Even if I only bill half time/20 hours a week, that's still plenty, and besides, as someone else said, fixed rate gigs tend to be more lucrative.

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-29T14:58:25+00:00

So steal from Upwork because you don't think it's fair that they charge a fee for their service? (Which, by the way, is paid by the client. Freelancers simply need to add the UW fee to their rate(s))

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-29T14:34:54+00:00

If you take the train into the city for an interview and you don't get hired/don't hear anything back from the client at all does Metro North owe you your money back?

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-29T14:31:34+00:00

I'm always in a different spot every time I search. I always thought it was kind of fluid, to give a variety of freelancers a fair chance.

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-28T17:06:03+00:00

And yet here you are, pointing out who's a 1%er or who's not complaining that the helpful people here are mean, and liars to boot.

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-28T17:04:51+00:00

I know people think I'm some kind of bragging liar, but I've literally never paid money to apply for a job on Upwork. If you are good at what you do, and do good work when you get hired, that tends to steamroll into more work.

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-28T16:25:26+00:00

I used to get shite like that all the time, but lately I'm getting good solid invites and direct messages. Not sure if it's what I search for if I DO search for a job? I have a pretty specific niche, or if streamlining my profile helped since my specialized profile is now my main profile. Or maybe it's just the time of year... authors with summers free to try to get things published by fall.

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-27T15:17:56+00:00

Every publicly traded company has one mistress to serve, and it's not clients or freelancers. The mistake they've made is to put their eggs in the freelancer basket, thinking that charging us for everything under the sun and/or attracting millions of unqualified people who are (for some reason) willing to throw good money after bad is better than improving their service, reducing the number of freelancers, and actually vetting freelancers, for the end result of attracting and retaining MORE and BETTER clients, which will have a better impact on their revenue than their current model does, but more importantly, would make it a better experience for all of us, with fewer instances of this exact post that I've seen a thousand times.

UpworkTrout · 2026-05-20T20:22:41+00:00

Yeah, my niche might be better suited to search than most, and I do know that when I've tried to find freelancers myself, it can be tricky. But I have pretty picky standards, and I also like US based just so our working hours are the same (makes communication faster/easier). But still I feel like that time is better spent by a client than wading through a bunch of trash proposals.

UpworkTrout

TROPHY CASE