Lost a $600 Upwork contract because I answered a message 14 hours late | Fiverr vs Upwork Debates - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Lost a $600 Upwork contract because I answered a message 14 hours late
I got a message from a client in Denver about a WordPress fix on a Tuesday morning, and I didn't check the app until almost midnight because I was on a job site all day. By the time I replied, he had already hired someone else for the $600 gig and didn't even bother to write back. What people keep getting wrong is thinking skill wins the job on Upwork, when really it's reply speed, the first person who answers usually gets the work even if their profile is weaker. On Fiverr this doesn't happen as much since buyers just order directly, which is why I've been moving more of my work over there. Has anyone found a way to stay on top of messages without checking your phone every 20 minutes?
Speed beats skill on those apps and that's just how it is. The client didn't care about your profile, he cared that someone else was ready right then. Set up push alerts for messages only and the rest of your apps can wait.