Why No One Reads Your Upwork Proposals Anymore
For years, Upwork worked in a frustrating but understandable way. You applied to dozens of jobs, most went nowhere, but a few…
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Trump’s Return and Its Effect on My Freelance Business
After three solid years of consistent client work across Europe and the US, I'm finding it significantly harder to secure new projects. This change lines up almost perfectly with Trump's return to office.
My Freelancing Background
I went full-time freelance just over three years ago. From day one, I maintained a steady stream of projects without much trouble. I always had enough work—clients to talk to, proposals to send out, and projects lined up.
While I've read on Hacker News that the traditional employment market for developers has been cooling down for some time, I personally didn't feel any slowdown in freelance opportunities. That is, until recently.
What I'm Experiencing Now
Since January, when Trump took office again, I've watched my project pipeline slow down considerably. Projects that seemed locked in are now postponed indefinitely. I'm sending follow-up emails that go unanswered. Conversations that reached the contract stage have stalled without explanation.
Even one of my existing clients pulled back and several promising leads have simply disappeared
At first, I thought this might be just bad luck or a temporary lull. Then I got an email that connected the dots.
The Trump Connection
A potential client at an American company got back to me after discussing my proposal with their boss. They explained that the current discussions around tariffs in the US were causing general caution and restraint throughout the company. As a result, they couldn't approve any expenses for projects that weren't absolutely necessary.
This made things click for me. The new administration's trade policies seem to be creating uncertainty, and companies are responding by cutting costs. As freelancers, we often work on projects that improve things rather than being essential, making us easy targets for budget cuts.
I've noticed European clients seem a bit less affected, but there's still hesitation in the market. Many European businesses are probably concerned about how potential retaliatory tariffs might affect them as well.
How I'm Adapting
I'm changing my approach to deal with this new reality:
- I'm focusing more on finding European clients
- I'm looking into industries that typically maintain spending during uncertain times
- I'm considering longer-term contracts even if they pay a bit less
- I'm exploring new channels to find clients
It's fascinating to see how quickly policy changes in one country can ripple through to affect my work as a developer in Germany. Three months ago, I wouldn't have imagined US tariff policies would directly impact my ability to find freelance work.
If you're a freelancer experiencing something similar, I'd like to hear your story. Are you seeing the same patterns? What are you doing differently to adapt?
What I'm building
Delegate tasks. Get software.
Give Vroni a GitHub issue, bug report, spec, or rough idea. It reads the repo, plans the change, writes code, runs checks, and works toward a review-ready pull request.
Take a look at vroni.com
I’ve been working through Upwork for almost a decade, specializing in medium to large projects and preferring long term contracts, it took me no more than 2 weeks to find a good client.
In the last 12 months I’ve sent about 1,000 proposals, more than 80% have never been opened, I’ve gotten responses for about 30 (only 3%!) and about 10 interviews, 2 small projects. For a 1000 sent proposals.
The conversion rate from a proposal to a good contract used to be about 20%, now it is 0.2%. And I have 100% job success rate and only 5 star client feedback.
I’ve noticed that Upwork has changed significantly. Many enterprise-level clients are now opting out of the platform after finding a suitable long-term candidate and building trust. So, it’s a completely different story now with Upwork. They’ve made major changes to the platform and introduced high charges for sending proposals and using the boost feature. Overall, these excessive features are hurting the platform and the freelancers the most.
I used to be a toprated freelancer from the US making good money on Upwork with a strong following and ever since Upwork went global I havev been out off work. I honest hope Trump prohibits overseas freelancers so I can get back to work.