You can check this post here.
Mary posted:
The cost of applying for the Upwork jobs seems to have doubled. It's been costing me a lot of connects to apply. I wouldn't be applying if I didn't need the money, so the connects are getting costly for me. Why have the prices increased so much? Boosting for jobs is just utterly ridiculous, and I definitely can't afford to do that. Seems the people who have the most money have a better chance of getting jobs. I'm definitely looking elsewhere. PS: I'm a Top-Rated Plus freelancer with 100% job success, and it does me no good at all.
My reply:
I think it has something to do with Upwork going from charging a 20% freelancer service fee per transaction to 10%, so making job posts cost more connects to apply for is a way for them to balance the scales, if you will. Before this update, I had already been super picky with the jobs I apply for, so it doesn't bother me much, but they should've at least been transparent about it, note that a good client of mine had no clue that sending proposals actually cost money. I wonder if this is Upwork's attempt at making freelancers who submit dummy proposals riddled with irrelevant services that clients don't care about whatsoever think really, really hard before they do so.
Ironically, a new client of mine thought I used ChatGPT to write my cover letter before he hired me, while I don't even use the tools that Upwork offer like Grammarly or whatever — I turn them off just like how George R. R. Martin still uses WordStar 4.0 to this day. Is it that unbelievable to love a language so much that you feel like every typo or syntax error is a sign of disrespect to said language? If only that client saw my English teacher back in high school lift my exam paper in the air like Rafiki did Simba, and said, “As you can see, Ahmed's writing is flawless. There's not a single mistake. Great job!” Honestly, it wouldn't be the first time that someone doubted my skills, in general. If anything, I wear it like a badge of honor when people underestimate how good I am at something by claiming it wasn't me who did it, but I digress.
Oh, and for those who complain about third-world freelancers “charging pennies on their precious dollar”, if I could personally charge more, I would, but platforms like Upwork exist, so that unappreciative cold-war-era-terminology-loving cheapskates with a superiority complex can get the best service possible for the lowest price possible. Besides, being confident or assertive doesn't automatically mean that a client will magically agree to your offer no matter how amazing your service is. So in my experience, I'd rather go with the client's budget the first time they hire me, kind of like me saying, “Try before you buy.” Then the next time they do, there's a 99.99% chance that they'll agree to my offer even if it goes from $15 to $600, so I'd like to believe that, generally speaking, most clients can be appreciative, and reasonable once they know that the freelancer they're dealing with is worth their salt.
By the way, Mary, don't let the boosting feature stress you out — I got hired 55 times from October 8th, 2023, to November 25th, 2023 (made $2.5K+) and I never used the boosting feature once. If you put your heart, and soul into every proposal, even if you don't get hired, the catharsis you get from the act of writing itself, and the satisfaction you get from thinking to yourself, “Your loss, b**ch!” should be enough.*That's just how I feel ♫ – Nico & Vinz – Am I Wrong*
Best of luck!