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Upwork removing 5% commission bracket and moving everyone to 10% bracket

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Re: Upwork removing 5% commission bracket and moving everyone to 10% bracket

#111

Post by distantaidenn »

bomewish wrote: post #109
ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #66

Why are they still afloat? Last time I checked you couldn't find any work there: - You could only find jobs if you were ready to underbid everyone else. - The disproportion between the amount of work and job-seekers was abysmal. - The platform did nothing to protect the workers from untruthful or exploitative clients (from anecdotal evidence). - Upwork attracts clients who can't find contractors any other way, mostly…

> Upwork attracts clients who can't find contractors any other way What is the best 'other way', though? Situation: Technical guy at a small company or nonprofit who needs _X_ more complicated technical task done. The choice is either to learn some new skill (lots of time) or find an expert. What other expert marketplaces are there that offer a substantially better environment or experience for all parties?

Ask around. I'm sure there are some technical people in your extended circle that you may not have considered. Also, there are tons of tech job boards out there. Many many years ago, I was a contractor on upwork, but my last foray with them was as a client.

For the tasks I needed done, it worked well enough (translation mostly). However, I wouldn't dare to hire an engineer from the platform. Not because of skills, but because of what it has done to the market. Also, it's a race to the bottom.

Re: Upwork removing 5% commission bracket and moving everyone to 10% bracket

#112

Post by samspenc »

asnyder wrote: post #10

This is in addition to the % fees they also charge the buyer. As a very long time user of Upwork since before the days of oDesk and Elance, don't understand the greed here. They used to at least offer discounts on the rate when you had over $10K billings with a client. This just increases prices across the board as contractors will raise their rates to account for the fees. Silly as it gives their users motivation to…

Yeah in addition to the 10% headline fee, they always charge an additional 5% to the buyer, so it's really at least 15% in fees.

Re: Upwork removing 5% commission bracket and moving everyone to 10% bracket

#114

Post by jt2190 »

jt2190 wrote: post #68
fbrncci wrote: post #41

When I started out as a freelancer / independent contractor, I made the conscious decision to not use any of these platforms, out of fear for my client base or finances being tied up and taken away from me due to a simple ToS violation; the fees never sat with me either. Admittedly, it took so much longer to get a consistent base of clients (1-2 years), but it feels like a fresh of breath air over having to rely on a…

> NET-14 Impressive! Assuming that I’m correct and that that hyphen should be read as “minus”: How are you able to get your clients to pay in advance? Assuming that I’m wrong, it’s still impressive.

For clarification, “NET -NN” and “NET NN” are common shorthand for describing cash flow, where the minus signifies that the customer pays before receiving the product or service, and a positive number signifies that they receive the product or service before paying.

Freelancers are typically paid after providing a service.

Re: Upwork removing 5% commission bracket and moving everyone to 10% bracket

#115

Post by oivoodoo_ »

biql wrote: post #89
oivoodoo_ wrote: post #85

I lost believe to work via upwork to be honest. I have the profile 10 yo. and after the changes with connects to use to send for the dead job posts as result it's really unfair. then they added more commissions and the rules are always changing. I feel like now it's better to search the job in LinkedIn via the connections and the jobs posts with Fast Apply option. I don't promote LinkedIn but it's more attractive for…

They do help with promotion by giving "top rated" and "raising talent" badges and work history. Hard to say how much value and leverage it really gives and whether it worths all the downsides.

work history is github or linkedin or gitlab to show your the real examples. But the ideas around connects, fees, it's really unsuitable to deal with the platform. Even the job post could be dead because the author left the platform and found the freelancer in the other place. and as result the connect points could not be restored. at least I had such experience by buying connects to apply and then I skipped this idea and didn't come back.
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