That $50 'premium profile' I paid for got me zero gigs

I signed up for a popular freelance platform a month ago and paid $50 for their premium membership. They said it would boost my profile in search results and help me stand out. I figured it was a necessary investment to get my first client. Fast forward 30 days and I got zero messages, zero invites, nothing. I could've just stuck with the free plan and spent that $50 on better portfolio samples instead. Has anyone else fallen for those paid upgrades without seeing any real results?

3 comments

3 Comments

david_palmer11d agoMost Upvoted

Man my buddy Tom fell for that exact same thing on Upwork last year. He paid $60 for the premium plan thinking it'd get him noticed as a graphic designer. Dude spent the whole month refreshing his dashboard and getting nothing but crickets. Meanwhile his buddy Sarah got a gig with just a free account by sending out custom proposals. Tom said it felt like he paid $60 for a fancy badge nobody even looked at.

lucashenderson11d ago

Wait, is it really $60 a month now? I thought the premium plan was still like $50 last time I checked @david_palmer. Either way, totally agree that throwing money at a badge doesn't fix a weak proposal game.

emma_lee2210d ago

Exactly this... I fell for the same thing myself a while back on a different platform. Paid for the top tier thinking it would somehow magically land me clients. Spent way too much time staring at my profile waiting for something to happen. What actually got me results was just sending a ton of targeted messages that showed I actually read what they needed. Took a few rejections but I landed a solid gig that paid way more than that subscription would have cost me over a year. The badge is just a decoration... your words and how you reach out are what actually matter.