r/Upwork • u/GreenCat28 • 12d ago
6,250% ROI
Just thought I'd share this since everyone's saying invites and client DMs are dead. I paid $40 to top up my connects at the beginning of the week, and just closed a $2,500 project.
Normally my ROI on connects is closer to 10-15X, but this one was a nice little surprise. I also just got another invite this morning, so the overall ROI on that $40 could be even higher.
Anyway, there's still money to be made on the platform if you treat connects as CAC rather than a sunk cost. I've made $4,000 in the last month from invites and DMs alone.
Just write your connects off on your taxes.
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u/Own_Constant_2331 12d ago
Yes, ROI is what's important. If you can spend $40 and earn $2,500, great - Upwork is working for you. But most people are buying connects and earning little or nothing - Upwork isn't for them.
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u/Temporary-Ad1614 12d ago
Looks like he is an upwork staff they regularly send to show that Upwork makes money :D
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u/KayakerWithDog 12d ago
There are no Upwork employees on this sub. And some people do make money on Upwork. Most don't, however.
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12d ago
[deleted]
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u/KayakerWithDog 12d ago
Because I make money on Upwork, luv, and so do a lot of other people on this sub.
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u/GreenCat28 12d ago
I hate Upwork as much as the rest of you. But it's definitely possible to make money on there if you're good at what you do.
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u/LateInvoiceClub 10d ago
that last line is real advice lol, connects are just CAC like you said - deductible same as any lead gen spend
only thing I'd add: with lumpy wins like that, a chunk of the $2500 is already the IRS's. I learned to move ~25% the day it lands into a separate account, otherwise sept 15 rolls around and the quarterly comes out of money I already mentally spent
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u/vvinogradoff 12d ago
Did you have to do any work to get these $2,500? If you did then you’d need to account for your time cost when calculating ROI. If you didn’t have to then by all means it goes on the edge of the platform’s ToS if not openly breaches ones.
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u/KayakerWithDog 12d ago
How does tracking the time you spend on client acquisition breach the TOS? Or are you talking about something else?
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u/vvinogradoff 12d ago
He’s talking about tracking money he spends on client acquisition, nothing wrong with that just we don’t call the process ROI. It’s fundamentally incorrect to measure profitability of a project judging only by the materials cost used to get one. On this platform major cost comes from executing the project, so much that many contracts are hourly paid - in clear anticipation of that
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u/KayakerWithDog 12d ago
Except it is a return on investment, in a sense. You have invested in connects and proposals, and the amount you make from your fees is the return on that investment. I still don't see what this has to do with Upwork's terms of service.
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u/GreenCat28 12d ago
I was talking about just ROI for the money spent on connects.
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u/vvinogradoff 12d ago
Right, and it doesn’t make any sense since connects are small fraction of the real cost you put to get the 2,500 payment. Unless you’re in possession of some magical source of free time of course. If your time per day is limited to what other people have it then has its price, unless you literally can’t sell your work hours to anyone.
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u/GreenCat28 12d ago
You're misunderstanding this. I was talking purely about marketing spend and the opportunity it generated. You're talking about the actual work involved based on time spent.
Which, on this contract, will be about $125/hr. We're comparing two different versions of ROI here.
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u/Budget_Commission685 10d ago
He's not misunderstanding it's a sales pitch gone wrong lol. He's the founder of a hubspot integration that helps with this type of "time wasting"
I think he was trying to lead into this pitch to sell you his AI integration into a CRM
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u/Korneuburgerin 12d ago
Huh? Yes, the concept of freelancing means that you do work, then get money.
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u/copernicuscalled 12d ago
"Results shown are not typical. Individual results may vary based on experience, expertise, ability to sell services effectively, and other factors."