The thing is...
Back then when Upwork wasn't "Upwork", it was absolutely possible to make a great income on there.
It was more or less nothing special if a client posted a job and was willing to pay 25K for it, they didn't even care because they knew that excellent quality isn't cheap. But once oDesk and Elance merged (and became what is now known as Upwork) it went downhill.
The people who made bank on oDesk/Elance already established themselves and got to keep their earnings and profiles, which is why you'll see some profiles on Upwork with more than 350K in earnings, but once you take a look at their job history, you'll see that 80% of it was made over 4 years ago and some haven't completed a gig in over 2 years because they either got a normal job or started their own business.
The reality of Upwork right now is that it's being overrun by people from third world countries who go as low as 2$/hour, making it almost impossible for anyone from a first world country to even get to minimum wage per month. Since this has been going on for years, companies became aware of it and actively use Upwork to get work done for as cheap as possible.
Companies who are willing to pay a good wage for freelance work? They go and look somewhere else.
You can literally see this in any industry on Upwork, it's at a point where it's rather upsetting than hilarious. People want an entire ebook with 500 pages written for 12$ (not to mention that Upwork takes 20% of that), 120 pages translated within 3 days for 20$, or even a highly modern web app in React + Django with design and backend development for barely 50$.
If you're planning to starve, then yeah. Upwork is still a great choice.
Your submission is absolutely accurate. I'm from a third world; nonetheless, I can't subject myself to the level of exploitation being melted on sellers on most freelance platforms at the moment, particularly Upwork.
Should we talk about the fee Upwork deducts or the odd system of bidding for jobs (10 connects per month and per job at least 2 connects are deducted )?
I'm in the Motion Graphics niche. Before leaving the platform, I couldn't make myself to believe the level of shitty job adverts being posted on a regular basis.
A client could post that he wants a video that requires the use of 3D and 2D programs for $20.
I used to wonder then if these clients were not aware of the degree of effort it will take to make such videos.
Even if I'm from a third world, it defiles logic and in fact profit wise, taking such an offer to me is an act of stupidity.
And I feel this is not about a third world thing. Majority of sellers who take those jobs end up abandoning them and the clients would probably get angry , leave Upwork and never to come back again.
I feel Upwork holds both the buyers and sellers a duty of care to ensure there's synergy in the relationship of both parties.
Upwork ought to create a standard that won't allow buyers to spam their platform with jobs with unrealistic expectations.
It's a matter of time, any freelance platform that fails to be responsive to the needs of their users ,both sellers and buyers , to make both of them benefit fairly, such a platform will fold up and become history.
I wonder why owners of these platforms are not seeing all of these things, considering that these are platforms making them millions of dollars every week.
That aside, please, who can show me a good way to have pages with value like this saved for future reference?
I have saved several pages on here using watch thread, but when I want to retrieve them later , I won't find them.
