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- Apr 17, 2018
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.I have strong talent, knowledge, and experience in communications and in technology.
What's your background?
Cmon man I signed up to upwork on my phone before going to work one morningSpeed bump day!
I was just about ready to go to the freelance gig sites and create some profiles. Went to the library to be in a studious setting for this task.
Then I got a note from a friend who knows I'm broke. He invited me to lunch (he found a 2 for 1 coupon to his favorite restaurant), and then a Costco run. That's a useful, thoughtful invitation for a broke guy without his own membership to the discount warehouse of peanut butter sold by the 55 gallon drum, so of course I accepted.
I figured he'd let me know in a few minutes to head over to the restaurant. Expecting that, I thought I shouldn't get too deep into a signup process. I read through the legal terms, privacy policy, payment policy, etc. etc. for the freelance gig sites and got feeling more and more overwhelmed.
After a few hours, I realized I was so overwhelmed because I was hungry! Checked back with my friend, and wound up heading to lunch about three hours later than I had originally thought. No wonder I was so vague and spacey. If I'd have had any idea, I'd have got my own meal and known I had time to do my signups.
I didn't get any peanut butter, but I did pick up a heck of great deal on a box of enough pens to let me write out all my big ideas through the end of the year!
Got back home and couldn't get myself back into enthusiasm for the sign-up process.
So I know this goes against all the principles of "just do it right now," but I decided to move my signup tasks to tomorrow, get up early and hopefully crank it out quickly... or, if I get stuck again tomorrow, recognize that within about an hour and ask for help here from the people who've shared about their successes with those sites.
I am actually concerned about how many long and detailed posts Late Bloomer is writing on this forum.Hi Chris,
I am not sure if your post is tongue in the cheek?
You say you're broke then buy a box of pens? Also, in the action fake thread one of the things listed is buying pens instead of doing actual work.
Then, there was a guy named Lordphenny who used to list his shopping trips also as work he got done. Are you taking a stab at that?
How long did it take you type out that reply, while you could have registered on upwork and fiverr?
I'm pretty sure your post is tongue in the cheek and sarcastic though.
I only have TWO spare pens in my drawer right now lol.Hi Chris,
I am not sure if your post is tongue in the cheek?
You say you're broke then buy a box of pens? Also, in the action fake thread one of the things listed is buying pens instead of doing actual work.
Then, there was a guy named Lordphenny who used to list his shopping trips also as work he got done. Are you taking a stab at that?
How long did it take you type out that reply, while you could have registered on upwork and fiverr?
I'm pretty sure your post is tongue in the cheek and sarcastic though.
Dude, you're not buying a house - you're signing up to Upwork.How to click here to put in a password and agree to the terms, is not the problem.
Exactly what terms am I agreeing to? That's what slowed me down.
I've never bought real estate, but I have worked for a mortgage company. I did troubleshooting on their sales software, so I got very familiar with all the paperwork that goes into the stack for a mortgage. And, that each and every clause is there because the company got burned in the past, or their attorneys are afraid they might get burned. Or, it's a way they can squeeze out more profits by tilting the playing field in their favor.
Sales reps urged buyers to not bother to read all that stuff, just sign here because it doesn't matter and we have to close this deal today. But, the buyer is legally obligated to what's actually on those pages, not to the opinions of the sales rep that it doesn't matter and there's no time to read that stuff.
When the mortgage crisis hit, many people lost their homes because the clauses they assumed don't matter... actually did. What they thought was meaningless boilerplate small print stuff that could never affect them... actually did. This personally happened to people I care about. Some other friends I care about did read what they actually agreed to, which let them take steps that saved their home in the financial crisis.
From that experience and some other experiences, I actually read all the terms of service, privacy policies, user agreements, dispute provisions, etc. of something that affects my livelihood and my reputation.
There is actually MORE of this legal material "incorporated by reference" in agreeing to an Upwork registration, than it takes to get a 30 year mortgage on a million dollar property!
There is MORE to legally agree to, in order to join Upwork, than I had to accept in order to get my cancer surgery!
If all the legal portion were printed, it would come to dozens of pages. In addition, there's a 31 page getting started guide they recommend. In addition, there are about 50 items in their support section explaining the terms and procedures.
I honestly don't see how anyone could actually know what they are agreeing to with Upwork, with less than a few hours of reading.
One could assume that it's all fine and doesn't matter. If it didn't matter, why do they include it? Why don't they just not have it, since it doesn't matter and they'll never apply it?
In other words... no due process, no need for them to prove but merely to feel that they suspect, no explanation needed, no appeal process.
These are my concerns. Perhaps they are irrelevant and frivolous.
But, these people say that clauses like these actually were used against them:
TIL Freelancing site Upwork suddenly "Suspends" many freelancer's accounts with a very shitty reason • r/freelance
Why you should never use Upwork | Hacker News
Work online. Travel the world.
Upwork Review: Why It’s a Battle YOU Won’t Win
The authors of the negative reports: are they all lying?
I believe that some people are making a lot of money using Upwork.
I also believe that some people really are getting screwed big time by Upwork.
I believe I can most likely make money and not get screwed by the platform.
But I do want to know what I'm up against.
Some people become bold adventurers after a brush with death.
Some, such as myself, become more cautious.
I'll tell you about my Upwork and Fiverr registrations tomorrow.
Nothing in this post is tongue in cheek or sarcastic.
I haven't read the action faker thread and I don't think I've seen the user Lordphenny here yet. Any connection between what I wrote and what he wrote is total coincidence.
Part of the mindset shift from me, from corporate drone who occasionally freelances a little, to long term sustainable, successful freelancer, is to take action without waiting for all the steps to be laid out in front of me. One reason I joined here is to get pushed and poked to encourage me to take action.
I'm on here about an hour or two hours a day, and I usually type fast. Expressing my thoughts and feelings that I already know, comes easily to me. I have typed up how I feel and think about things in online forums for over 20 years now. It flows.
Reading legal terms for a new service, then registering myself in compliance with the terms and jargon of a whole new type of online advertising platform I've not used before, doesn't come fast and easy for me. It's one of my least favorite, least skillful, and slowest things to do. And this post is also not at all tongue in cheek or exaggerated: that kind of "but what if this fails" proofreading is both slower and more intimidating for me after having had chemo.
When I can afford an administrative assistant I should get one. This is also no joke.
In the case of Upwork it took me several hours to go through all their information, to identify exactly what they want me to agree to, and to see that I have some concerns. Once I identified my concerns, I did a web search to see if others were concerned, or if there were articles from people who might say "these terms are scary but don't worry." I found that those concerns do have a basis in fact from others who report being screwed by Upwork.
I am broke, that's literally true. But that doesn't mean a $0 balance. I have under $100 available, a registered car with a month's worth of gas for little trips around town, 2 or 3 weeks worth of food on hand, and housing through May. The housing includes a noisy roommate with an irregular schedule, lots of cement trucks and bulldozers coming and going for a major construction project in the next block, and a location half a mile from the busiest freight train route in the state with literally 50 freight trains a day. So, getting out to the library really does help me think better.
Broke can include a few dollars on hand that can be used to buy a cheap box of pens. So, all of that was literally true reporting. I never said that buying pens was a valid substitute for sending proposals to prospective clients. It's just a random thing that happened to come up at the discount warehouse. I write faster and my hand hurts less (a long term chemo side effect for me) when I have pens I enjoy. It was nice to find 'em on sale for dirt cheap. None of this is sarcastic.
I am fast and have experience in writing business letters and making proposals. Once I feel safe about using the platform, that I know their rules and policies so I'm unlikely to get kicked off of it or screwed out of money I make, it will be fast and easy for me to create query letters, pitches and proposals, to negotiate and close sales.
I have no concerns about that part. It's the logistics and legalities of a whole new way of doing business, with a massive pile of legal documentation and new terms and procedures for working the platform itself. These are the parts that are brand new and intimidating to me. When something is new and scary to me, I have a tendency to slow down and try to take a closer look at it.
I also spent some time today on a transcription job for an existing client I already got through a mutual friend, and I spent some time talking with another old friend who might be a great team member for projects I can pitch. Meanwhile I will help her with a revision to her own business web site as a free favor for her, and as a portfolio builder for me. So the day wasn't a total waste.
I also realized that because of my concerns about the freelance gig platforms, I should split my time immediately between them and Fox's method to directly approach web design clients, who can provide me a check immediately without any third party intermediary platform in the way.
Dude, you're not buying a house - you're signing up to Upwork.
You spent an entire day buying pens.
You spent today writing out these long waffley responses,
Is it any suprise you're broke?
I came back on briefly tonight to respectfully request that you delete this needlessly argumentative, confrontational, disrespectful, and negatively assumptive comment of yours.
.
People don't dislike you, they just dislike what you're sharing.
It sounds mean.Who changed the thread title to that?
Hi Chris,
I am not sure what advice is given in regards to Fiverr on the other threads, but I will give you what I have learned.
It sounds mean.
Thread authors may also delete their own threads. Which I'll be doing here within a few days at most.
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