Top-Rated Plus Software Developer with $450K Earnings Struggling on Upwork

Zeke Xanders · 2025-01-07T02:54:53+00:00

I started working on Upwork in 2021, offering software development services, and quickly achieved great success, earning $400K in just three years. I’m a Top...

rlatief

anovikov I got my first "online client" from a local discussion forum. I joined online "marketplaces" only about two years after I started freelancing.

Most of my current clients are repeat clients, some of whom I've worked with for over a decade.

My cousin whom I mentioned earlier, is going to focus on clients within his offline network. I just met him a few days ago, where I told him to, carefully, try Upwork and the likes.

I can say that my current clients (over the past few years, during the "changes of Upwork") are quite diverse. Individuals, businesses, nonprofits, mostly from the U.S., where I haven’t noticed a downturn within their economy.

anovikov

rlatief I only ever had a repeat client once in my career. And once a client by introduction. The rest appear to be "one off" in the biggest sense ever: my project is their first, and last, project in the coding space. They literally churn forever, not just for me...

rlatief

anovikov yeah, I understand. different experiences, maybe because of the nature of the jobs. Yours seem to be one-time big projects, where I work alone, to handle smaller tasks, a helper, so clients sticks.

TopRatedTroll

anovikov oh my bad. I feel like I'm the only person on Upwork who does their own work. lol

alex-vasenin

TopRatedTroll You aren't. There are at least two of us.

Mark

TopRatedTroll I do my own work…eventually

BetterDeadThanAlien

Hi everyone,

I'm in a similar situation and wanted to share my experience.

I'm a web developer, on the platform since the Elance days, 100% Job Success Score, all 5-star feedback, Top Rated Plus. I've had a steady stream of work from regular clients for the past four years and rarely needed to search for new projects. Recently the work has started drying up. I've noticed that clients are very hesitant to invest in new features. Most are only maintaining their current systems.

I had accumulated 1000 connects over past year and applied to around 40 jobs over the past few weeks, carefully picked only those that align with my niche and past jobs. I never had problems landing jobs, I think I know how to write a good proposal.

10 proposals were viewed by clients, 7 clients reached out to me, 1 job was awarded to someone else, 1 job turned out to be technically impossible.
With the remaining 5, I had detailed discussions with two clients, agreed on specs and budget (both small projects), but then they disappeared. So 40 proposals, zero hires.

I still have about 700 connects left, and I'll keep trying until I run out. Maybe it just takes more applications, 80, 100? It is crazy because it sometimes takes an hour to write a good proposal. Not worth the investment.

I feel the market is overcrowded and the best clients are gone. And AI: Upwork job feed is 90% agency bots using AI to apply to job posts written by AI. AI talking to AI and Upwork collecting connects.

alex-vasenin

BetterDeadThanAlien I sent 136 proposals over the last 4 months and I wasn't hired once. Only about 1/3 or my proposals are viewed, and only about 1/3 of the viewed ones did contact me. About half of them aren't hiring at all (various kind of scams or tire kicking). What really bothers me is that not even once I had a technical or skill interview. It looks like serious companies are gone and no-one really bothers how good you are. I've got exactly 1 (one) invite over 4 month despite availability badge (I applied and the client is not reponding).

All in all, only 1/3 of all jobs I applied did eventually hire someone on Upwork. Half from all hires are ended up with <$40/hr rates, even though I skip obvious cheapskates and don't apply on jobs <$50/hr. It looks like Upwork is running a race to the bottom where good freelancers are vastly outnumbered by cheap ones. At least in native iOS development.

To all: what are yours statistics?

P.S. The situation might be slightly different if you are in the US, since there is substantial amount of US-only jobs with higher rates. They aren’t supposed to be visible to freelancers outside US, however I see them from time to time due to the glitch (though I can’t apply).

Robin

Those are really astounding and concerning figures. I remember creating a Community Forum post about the lack of seriousness on the platform about 18months or so ago. Was such a strong feeling then.

Tbh I think it plays into something going on generally in society; there is a lack of seriousness imo in all kinds of ways.

Society has become unreal. It's unravelling imo.

Robin

To my mind, the solution is to buck the trend and to be more & more real. We've become superficial as a people in Western societies. Somebody has to hold up 'real'; and the good ones will see it, be drawn to it, and stick with it.

Meanwhile, we know that numerous, most people, will not be real with us. I'm starting to feel that I just have to get used to this and accept it, learn to spot it early and don't get upset by it.

And then occasionally something will hit real; the others will do nothing or extract what they want and I will remain philosophical and let them go.

TopRatedTroll

Circling back to this thread, I think the freelancing industry has an issue of being known as low quality work. It's been flooded, and we have the issue of people just flat out scamming clients. Generally, I think people go to freelancers and think they will get low quality work until they find someone they really like.

I've had clients make some really truly awful tactical errors but I feel preachy telling them. Like I had a client fund $1000 in escrow and then immediately release. I did the work, but I think a lot a lot a lot of freelancers would have screwed him over. Unfortunately, doing well is the exception to the rule.

I'll always hate on scam freelancers a lot because their actions are really harmful to honest freelancers. Personally, when I was hiring years and years ago for an enterprise client on Elance, the worst freelancers to hire were new people asking for a chance. They usually would ghost and then when I'd ask if they were going to do the work, they outsourced it or just never responded.

rlatief

anovikov And it's not on Upwork, less than a third of those contacts are from Upwork.

From my experience I still have to disagree (based on different 'types' of freelancing too probably). I'm still 'unable' to look into Upwork's job listing right now as there are still quite some to-dos to deal with from two clients, one is an individual (running a specific 'community service') and the other is a registered NPO. Different type of people, both in the US.

TopRatedTroll we have the issue of people just flat out scamming clients. Generally, I think people go to freelancers and think they will get low quality work until they find someone they really like.

I agree. While I'm not saying that there are no real/good freelancers in freelance marketplaces, nor that good freelancers cannot get steady good jobs in freelance marketplaces, most of my long-time clients ~~dislike~~ hates freelance marketplaces.

Alexandra It's a revolution! AI is here to stay

One tiny example: at the beginning of digital photography, "photo developers" could "choose" to starve, convert to digital photo printing business, or do something entirely different. But "humans" did not starve., they are 'advancing'.

For now I see (experienced) it like this. When I need to create some simple images, wordings, or other simple help for my projects, AI helped a lot. I do not need to find a graphic designer, or a copywriter. But, if I need some serious wordings, or specific images, AI cannot (yet) do that.

anovikov It's a general downturn in coding.

Same with coding. Two decades ago web developers are rich & happy. Then there are things like WordPress, no-codes, etc. Then now, we can create websites by just typing prompts. But, one of my current job right now is to convert a WordPress website into a custom-developed one.

WordPress, AI, still cannot (yet) do some serious/specific coding. And when they are, we should not "choose" to become the "starved" ones.

anovikov

I have stopped looking for projects because it's a waste of time. We need to wait out the downturn.
Ah and yes it's not just Upwork. I'm talking to people who sell through different channels and different verticals. Coding projects have disappeared entirely and for one guy i talk to for instance, in the volume of initial contacts that would normally land him 10-15 deals totalling over $1M, in the last 3 months, he closed 0, with one $15K project still a likelihood... And it's not on Upwork, less than a third of those contacts are from Upwork. People come, interview, talk to a lot of people, and then leave hiring no one.
It's a general downturn in coding. Gotta wait till the interest rates drop.

Alexandra

It's no downturn! It's a revolution! AI is here to stay because it offers speed (if not accuracy), which people want above all else. I know this sounds polemical, but we will see many roles disappearing and being replaced by resource-intensive machines. Marketplaces will become obsolete once it's the fake RFP writers' turn.

Alexandra

rlatief You may be right about us 'humans' being left with a chance to shine. I just found this gem of an RFP: '...I have...documents... content...generated by AI but I need them rewritten with purely human words and sentences.' (Ouch or LOL, depending on whether you are a machine or a human being.)

rlatief

Alexandra You know, one of my problems with freelance marketplaces is "competing" with other web developers. I've been thinking for months about what specific sub-profile I can create to minimize competition (make the search & proposal sorting algo favor me a little more.)

My current job gave me an idea: "Wordpress exit-strategy/deconversion expert". Maybe writers can create profiles like, "AI Content Humanizer" or something :D

anovikov

rlatief Somewhat of an anecdotal evidence but this is a viable strategy. About 10 years ago a friend of mine started a company that rescued companies from clouds, that is, created strategies for them to return to dedicated/on-prem hosting with minimal costs, once they realised that clouds were unafforable. They retired rich since. So there is a very viable "return from latest technology to something less predatory" business niche.

Alexandra

rlatief Apparently, content reviewers earn up to $27/hr. (So, content humanizers would probably be somewhere in that range.) You know what they say:

a great core product + attractive added value = an unbeatable offer

A WordPress expert capable of filling in the gaps left by AI sounds like such an unbeatable offer.

On the other hand, '[g]growth worth having is the result of offering the right products or services to the right markets at the right time and in the right way (which means especially at the right price).' (Robert Heller, The Business of Winning)

Focusing on that 'unique selling point', 'benefits' and target audience can never be wrong, but what would set us apart and lead to conversions on marketplaces? How do we beat the competition - and the algorithm?

I've been thinking recently that it may be worth checking keywords and SEO frequency ratings for searches related to one's service/product and using those in proposal headings or intros. Because bots are search engines, if anything, and maybe the algorithm honours high-frequency terms (or unique ones, for that matter) with higher placement.

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