I also have been bidding a lot without much success. When I started, I was getting a decent response rate, but now it seems like people aren't interested, even when I use the same cover letter template that I did for the first projects. Of course I tried different things and different types of templates but it still doesn't seem to work. Bit discouraging but I'll keep at it. It's probably because I haven't really figured out how to send a "You" focused application, still learning how to do it.
One thing I don't like about Upwork is that it takes around 14 days to be able to extract funds, sometimes even longer... I'm starting to get back into what I was doing before, contacting website owners directly through their websites, and asking if they need someone to help with their content. It used to work fine for me, and now that I know about "you" focused applications, hopefully the response rate will be even better. So far I made about $70 with Upwork, three jobs, and like 27 applications sent. So anyways, have to keep it up...
Something to keep in mind is that this thread has been viewed more than 34,000 times by people just like you who were motivated into action. Instantly they learned about YOU focused applications, and began modifying their own profiles and cover letters to accommodate.
If you watch closely you'll notice that there are a limited number of gig posts on any given day, and now there are a lot of people using the same strategy to try and earn fast cash. This is why I say you have to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that you're the best candidate for the job.
Writing YOU focused messages worked for me because I was an early adapter. Nobody was doing it when I made this post several months ago. Now everybody who reads this is changing their strategy. So, you have a limited number of gigs, and a large number of candidates trying the same thing.
In short, you have competition.
The question is, what can you do differently from everyone else?
How can you set yourself apart?
Contacting website owners through their site is one strategy, and it's on the right track since you're not limited by UpWork, but do you honestly believe it sets you apart? I get 5 to 10 of these emails every week and I delete every single one of them without opening it. However, if one of these people found my address and mailed me something unique, then I might pay attention.
In fact, this happened to me recently with an ink pen company. They discovered my address, and mailed me a sales letter. They also sent a purple ink pen with my company name on it. Now I had a free ink pen in my favorite color, and it even made me feel like a business owner. Plus the sales letter wasn't bad either.
The point is, this guy did something different, and it made me stop and take notice.
If I noticed, then a lot of other people did too, and I guarantee he made plenty of sales.