{"id":12794,"date":"2026-08-19T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/?p=12794"},"modified":"2026-08-19T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T13:00:00","slug":"230-adrian-sticea-on-navigating-the-decline-of-wordpress-work-on-upwork-and-the-rise-of-new-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/?p=12794","title":{"rendered":"#230 \u2013 Adrian Sticea on Navigating the Decline of WordPress Work on Upwork and the Rise of New Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nTranscript<\/summary>\n
\n

[00:00:19] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.<\/p>\n

Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress, the people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, the decline of WordPress work on Upwork, and the rise of new opportunities.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to wptavern.com\/feed\/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.<\/p>\n

If you have a topic that you\u2019d like us to feature on the podcast, I\u2019m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com\/contact\/jukebox and use the form there.<\/p>\n

So on the podcast today, we have Adrian Sticea. Adrian has been working in the WordPress space since 2013, starting out as a developer for small companies. Then moving into freelancing, agency roles in the US, major projects at IBM, a, stint at StellarWP, and extensive work with enterprise level clients.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Adrian\u2019s post on LinkedIn about the dramatic drop off in WordPress work through the Upwork platform, went viral, sparking many conversations and comments.<\/p>\n

I suspect that many WordPress professionals listening have seen shifts in their freelance workloads, and maybe wondering what\u2019s behind these changes. And Adrian is here to share his own data-driven account.<\/p>\n

He talks about his experience using Upwork as a primary source of project leads. How for years it was a reliable fountain of work, but recently the flow has all but dried up.<\/p>\n

We dive into the possible causes, the impact of AI making developers more efficient, and thus reducing hiring demand, changes in the broader economy, increasing competition from rival platforms, and how the nature of WordPress work itself is changing.<\/p>\n

Adrian mentions the difference between simple website builds, which are still in demand on Upwork, and complex plugin or enterprise projects, which he thinks might have migrated elsewhere.<\/p>\n

We also talk about diversification, whether it\u2019s a mistake to rely on just one marketplace for freelance work, and the importance of building real relationships, collecting testimonials, and seeking recommendations. Adrian shares how he\u2019s pivoted, leveraging LinkedIn for networking, connecting directly with agencies, and building partnerships with recruiters and temp agencies.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever felt your freelance pipeline shrink, are curious where the most interesting WordPress work has gone, or want to hear how other professionals are adapting to marketplace shifts, this episode is for you.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com\/podcast, where you\u2019ll find all the other episodes as well.<\/p>\n

And so without further delay, I bring you Adrian Sticea.<\/p>\n

I am joined on the podcast by Adrian Sticea. Hello, Adrian.<\/p>\n

[00:03:34] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Hey.<\/p>\n

[00:03:34] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Very nice to have you with us. Adrian is joining us today because of something that he posted on LinkedIn, which captured my attention.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a frequent lurker on LinkedIn, and so I don\u2019t really know how the algorithm works. But Adrian and I have, as far as I know, not been in communication with each other before. But, Adrian\u2019s post went really viral, I think it\u2019s fair to say, and it certainly caught my attention and got into my feed.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s all about the state of work in the WordPress space at the moment, particularly through a particular platform. And we\u2019ll get into that in a minute, though. Adrian, if it\u2019s okay with you, do you want to just tell us a little bit about your backstory? What it is that you\u2019ve been doing these many years and so on?<\/p>\n

[00:04:15] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Sure. I started working as a WordPress developer in 2013. I worked for a couple of small companies, local companies that needed kind of customer support, and also web development. And after that I started doing freelancing for about two years. I moved to the US in 2016, that\u2019s when I started to look around for better paid jobs.. And I started working as a WordPress developer for a digital marketing agency, and I did that for, about a year and something.<\/p>\n

In 2018, I joined IBM to work on one of their WordPress projects. I think it was the largest WordPress one that they had at the moment. Basically it was a learning platform, and the courses were about technology, programming and other stuff. I left IBM at end of 2020 because of multiple factors, and I started doing freelancing.<\/p>\n

I freelanced for about three years and after that I joined StellarWP, where I worked in the marketing department as one of their web engineers. And I worked there for about a year and a half. And at start of 2025 I started doing freelancing again. And since 2018, I mostly worked with enterprise-level companies and more complex work than just building websites.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the stuff that I\u2019ve been doing for the past.<\/p>\n

[00:05:40] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Thank you for that, and all of that really plays into what we\u2019re going to talk about because, what I\u2019ll do is I\u2019ll link to the post that Adrian wrote, which kind of went viral on LinkedIn. And the first thing you\u2019re probably going to capture is there\u2019s a graph at the bottom, and it\u2019s a line graph, and it\u2019s not pleasant to look at this line graph. Because it starts off and there\u2019s this blue line and it\u2019s fairly high up on the on the axis and it moves across horizontally. And it just goes along and along and then it just starts to tail downwards until finally, it hits the axis and it basically zeros out.<\/p>\n

And so I caught sight of that and I thought, \u201cokay, that\u2019s interesting.\u201d And then caught sight of the word WordPress, you know, and you being a WordPress developer, and then noticed that this was the volume of work that you had been receiving. And we\u2019re talking about volume of work coming through a particular platform. The platform is called Upwork.<\/p>\n

Now, I confess I don\u2019t know a lot about Upwork, so we can get into that in a moment. But essentially, it looks like from the year 2015 through 2020, more or less everything that you did, bar a couple of percent, maybe 5% in some years and what have you, was through the Upwork platform. And then by the year 2022, 20% of that had been shaved off, so down to 80%. A year later, 2023, 60% and then 40%. And then in this year, 2026, 0%. And I caught sight of that and I thought, \u201cokay, we\u2019ve got to talk about this,\u201d because there\u2019s a lot of interest in the WordPress space at the moment.<\/p>\n

So do you just want to just run us through your journey with the kind of work that you\u2019ve been doing through Upwork and, you know how it\u2019s tailed off? And then maybe we can get into the discussion about perhaps why this is happening.<\/p>\n

[00:07:32] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Sure. Just to preface, I had periods of time where I worked on Upwork just part-time, not as a full-time freelancer because I had jobs here and there.<\/p>\n

[00:07:43] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Ok, yeah yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:07:44] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> And I was actually calculating this morning how much time I was full-time freelancing and full-time on a job, and it was kind of split in half. So basically, half of my professional career was spent as a freelancer, and the other half was doing part-time. So if I had a job, I will search for other avenues to get a bit more revenue in. And also I didn\u2019t like the idea of just relying on one source of income.<\/p>\n

So I always had running in the background, the project, a couple of hours here and there or, a week or a project a month that doing. And that graph represents the number of basically of leads and projects that I got from Upwork over the years.<\/p>\n

[00:08:28] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Okay.<\/p>\n

[00:08:28] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Even if it\u2019s full-time or part-time, basically that was kind of the lead source that I primarily used.<\/p>\n

[00:08:34] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> And so what we\u2019re seeing, I guess is you, like many people in the WordPress industry, you\u2019ve taken the approach that, subscribe to a bunch of these, I\u2019m going to call it a marketplace, you know.<\/p>\n

[00:08:47] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

[00:08:48] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Something like that, where you subscribe to this marketplace and it can bolster what it is that you do already. So maybe you\u2019ve got a 50% gig somewhere where you\u2019re part-time and you need something to top that up. Or it may be that, come to rely on it, and it genuinely has been 100% of the income that you\u2019ve accrued in particular years.<\/p>\n

But how do you explain though, the fact that it has kind of just gone down? Because to me the obvious explanation, and it\u2019s a fairly, you know, this is the kind of explanation which is being rolled out everywhere at the moment, is AI. Simply because it seems to coincide so perfectly with the advent of AI.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve got any thoughts beyond that, you know really the graph takes a massive turn in the year 2023, 2024, sometime there. And that seemed to be the moment at which, the kind of work that many of us have done in the past perhaps was getting done by AI. And if not getting done by AI, people at least had intuitions that there would be a future in which that work could be done by AI.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s my first pass at this. Do you think there\u2019s anything in that whole AI debate, whether or not it\u2019s captured the kind of work that you may have got from Upwork?<\/p>\n

[00:10:06] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> I think the answer is more complex than just blaming AI for everything that is happening in the marketplace right now. Definitely AI plays a role because it made developers more efficient in shipping code, shipping features and stuff that clients need.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s only reason because if you work with clients and stuff like that, you\u2019ll know a client will pay you to do a work. They will not go themself, even if it\u2019s with AI, do the work. So because of it, because AI it\u2019s making developers build faster, the need for developers decreased. That\u2019s one of the reasons behind it. If you want to blame AI for anything, it\u2019s that it made developers faster.<\/p>\n

[00:10:55] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Okay, that\u2019s an interesting one. So the work in your experience anyway, the work is still there, it\u2019s just the expectations of the clients maybe have gone up. So instead of wanting X amount of work, they may want 1.5X or 2X or whatever it is, or perhaps have it delivered in less time or something like that.<\/p>\n

[00:11:12] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s a fair assumption. But also probably market, the way that the economy is right now, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s in a good shape. And also one of the factors. Like, if you look at the number of layoffs, a lot of companies in the tech sector, \u2019cause I think this was more affected than others, happened in the past three years.<\/p>\n

[00:11:35] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Yeah that\u2019s true. Yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:11:36] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> But AI most likely was an accelerator of that just because. And before 2022, a lot of companies needed engineers to support the demand for people staying at home. And after they didn\u2019t need that demand, a lot of layoffs happened and AI came along. And just it was basically a perfect storm for massive layoffs \u2019cause you had engineers that can deliver more work, and you didn\u2019t need that many engineers because the demand was not there anymore.<\/p>\n

[00:12:09] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> I suppose the other thing we should bring into question is the popularity of WordPress as an avenue to gain work. So for example, I don\u2019t know, probably 2018 feels like a good place to point the needle. 2018, WordPress couldn\u2019t be more popular.<\/p>\n

[00:12:30] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:12:30] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> It was just really really super popular, everybody was talking about it. It was an exciting place to be. Lots and lots of work. Lots of companies getting in and investing in all sorts of bits of WordPress.<\/p>\n

[00:12:41] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n

[00:12:42] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Whether that was the community or getting plugins built, and shipping them and all of that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

[00:12:46] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

[00:12:47] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> And so I wonder if maybe that plays into it. You know these companies, who require websites to be built, or projects to be built. I wonder if they\u2019ve cast their gaze elsewhere, and so that reservoir of work in the WordPress space on the Upwork side has dried up a little bit.<\/p>\n

[00:13:03] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yep definitely today there are more options than there were in 2018, like with the rise of Wix, Squarespace, other page builders. Definitely, made people that just wanted websites built, like presentation websites, simple stuff, not rely on WordPress. Because to be honest, WordPress out of the box is not that user-friendly for building a website as the other competitors are. Because you still, or at least before the full site editing was introduced. But even then, it\u2019s a steeper learning curve than other page builders in a sense.<\/p>\n

But where I see the deep is actually in newer projects rather than legacy ones, where companies that used WordPress to build their infrastructure, at least web infrastructure on. Because newer builds probably rely more on AI than on WordPress, and that\u2019s kind of basically the, where the market shifted.<\/p>\n

But again, like if companies used to build, because I see this in the clients that I serve. Not one of them that I worked with probably the past two to five years said like \u201cLet\u2019s remove WordPress from our web assets and just build it with AI,\u201d because they understand the value of it, and also like technical debt and what actually maintaining software means so.<\/p>\n

[00:14:23] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Do you think then there might be a realignment? Let\u2019s say you\u2019re a fairly large company and you\u2019ve got WordPress website as you just described, you\u2019re willing to let go of that. You\u2019ve got so much stuff in there and legacy, and all of your staff know how to use it and what have you.<\/p>\n

Do you think though, perhaps we\u2019re in an era though where the experience that somebody with 20 years building on top of WordPress could bring, would make them an absolutely invaluable asset? You know, you\u2019ve got John Smith over there, he\u2019s done 20 years of really hardcore WordPress development, and therefore he\u2019s the person that we\u2019re going to reach out to, or at least, if he comes through a platform like Upwork, that\u2019s really credible.<\/p>\n

I wonder if we\u2019ve entered an era where, and I\u2019m going to use the word vibe coding, we all know that\u2019s fraught, and not really the right term to use, but I hope you get what I mean. I wonder if it\u2019s now that people are questioning that, and thinking more like, do we really need John Smith with his 20 years of experience at $250 an hour? Or could we hire somebody with half the experience, a quarter of the experience, who charges a quarter of the rates? And if we factor in that it might take a little bit longer, but they\u2019re going to use AI along the way. Do you know what I mean?<\/p>\n

[00:15:39] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

[00:15:40] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> I\u2019m just sort if that that kudos that your experience used to bring you. I wonder if that\u2019s being brought a bit lower in people\u2019s estimation of importance when they\u2019re hiring.<\/p>\n

[00:15:50] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> I think it might. But again like I think the answer is more complex than yes or no. And I think it all depends on what part, or role, the website or web assets that were built on WordPress is valued by the company.<\/p>\n

So if it\u2019s really important thing, probably they will not think about redoing it using AI. If it\u2019s not that important, because I saw this, if it\u2019s not that important it\u2019s just probably a brochure website. It doesn\u2019t do a lot. It doesn\u2019t bring in. It\u2019s just for visibility. Some of them they move to, again, like probably Framer or they just vibe code it.<\/p>\n

[00:16:29] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> So given all of that, and we\u2019re pontificating and guessing why.<\/p>\n

[00:16:33] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:16:34] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> And the truth is we don\u2019t really know.<\/p>\n

[00:16:36] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Exactly, yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:16:37] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> We\u2019re putting our finger air and kind of trying to figure it out. However, given that we don\u2019t know, what we do know is that this line chart that we can see, of yours has gone really in a very different direction. Flat lining for years, lots and lots of work available, and now kind of like nosedive, and then more recently fell off a cliff. And so does that mean that you are struggling to find work? Or does it just mean that you\u2019ve pivoted and that work in a different way?<\/p>\n

Does it mean that the Upwork platform, I don\u2019t know, is no longer aligned to WordPress, or just doesn\u2019t have WordPress as a priority? How can you explain it, and we\u2019re talking about Upwork in particular.<\/p>\n

[00:17:20] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

[00:17:21] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> How can you explain it happening in that way over on that platform specifically?<\/p>\n

[00:17:26] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> One of the things that happened, it was probably saturation of a marketplace. That\u2019s one.<\/p>\n

And the other thing is that different competitors are on the market right now, outsource companies and more like, just to put it in perspective, most of my clients, probably 95%, are US-based clients, are not somewhere in UK or somewhere in Eastern Europe, or somewhere in other places that are still needing WordPress work done. And the type of projects that I\u2019m looking for are not websites, basically. They are complex builds, plugin builds and kind of regular maintenance that people need. If they have legacy code base that they need maintenance, or adjusting rule or a code rebuild and stuff like that.<\/p>\n

So those kinds of projects are not there anymore. You can still find work in building websites on WordPress, or having small gigs. But the type of project that I used to get on Upwork, like I said, like pretty complex builds are not there anymore. And my read it\u2019s like I said, it\u2019s more complex. Probably it\u2019s a market.<\/p>\n

[00:18:40] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> So, there\u2019s a particular kind of work that you used to get in Upwork which has dried up? And the, let me just understand that correctly. So just the website building side of it, did you say that was still okay? know if you\u2019re just trying to hawk your service as a website builder, that\u2019s fine. But the kind of \u201cI need a plugin,\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019d like a plugin adapted,\u201d or what have you, that kid of stuff has gone away?<\/p>\n

[00:19:06] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> So most stuff that are more developer focused are kind of dried up. At least in the US, because I\u2019m not looking outside of US. So the US market shifted away basically from Upwork towards probably different competitors of them. Or using like temp agencies, or recruiters that pre-vet their developers before they are presented with a candidate they can have a discussion with.<\/p>\n

[00:19:33] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Okay. So I\u2019m thinking immediately of things like Codeable and things like that, where they\u2019ve just got a slightly, maybe they\u2019ve got a slightly different approach, I don\u2019t know?<\/p>\n

[00:19:40] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yes, Toptal I think also they pre-vet their developers. And also like I said, temp agencies like Robert Half or, I don\u2019t know, whatever tech systems that are here in the US. Basically you have a discussion with the recruiter before being presented to a potential project. It\u2019s a different workflow basically. Because of it, it presents a better candidate than Upwork can present to a client.<\/p>\n

[00:20:04] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Okay, so that\u2019s interesting. So we\u2019re apportioning some of the responsibility for this on the platform and the way the platform works and what have you?<\/p>\n

[00:20:14] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

[00:20:15] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> And so, you know one of the things that we constantly talk about in the WordPress space is owning your own stuff. So for example, rather than posting stuff onto Facebook, write it on the WordPress blog, and then if Facebook goes out of business, or somehow decides that your account needs to be closed, you\u2019ve still got access to it.<\/p>\n

[00:20:31] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n

[00:20:31] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> And so I\u2019m going to flip that into this conversation and say that sort of seems like potentially what\u2019s happened here to you with Upwork. Presumably over the years, you\u2019ve fostered a relationship with Upwork, and built up your kudos over there, and at some point presumably Upwork recognized that, \u201cOh, this Adrian guy, he\u2019s really good. Look, he\u2019s getting loads of work. Let\u2019s push Adrian,\u201d and so on and so forth.<\/p>\n

Do you have any regrets about putting the eggs into that one basket? Now that you\u2019ve got to the point where the line has hit zero and there\u2019s no work coming through? Do you wish that you\u2019d have been on a variety of, maybe you have been, but do you wish that you\u2019d been on a variety of different marketplaces? Or is it just, \u201cOkay, this has happened. I didn\u2019t think it was going to happen. Time to move on and try the different marketplaces\u201d?<\/p>\n

[00:21:19] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> I think not only me, but people usually are nearsighted, so they don\u2019t think long-term. So whenever I started on Upwork, it was pretty easy to get clients because you don\u2019t have to pay a fee, or you don\u2019t have to go to events, or meet people in person, which for developers is pretty hard, at least for me. I\u2019m a pretty introvert person. Going, mingling around with other people, it\u2019s not something that I look forward to do.<\/p>\n

[00:21:46] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Yeah, I get it.<\/p>\n

[00:21:46] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Or it\u2019s something that it\u2019s in my skill set. Over the years, I got better and better because I\u2019ve worked with clients and became more confident in my skills and stuff like that. But Upwork presented a easier way to get clients, and that\u2019s kind of the appeal of those kind of marketplaces, because you don\u2019t have to go outside of your comfort zone. You just have a keyboard, apply for a different bunch of gigs, and you can get accepted or not.<\/p>\n

Just to put it in perspective, probably half of the work that I\u2019ve done was only through messaging back and forth, not even interacting with a real person, which for a developer is really appealing.<\/p>\n

[00:22:28] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> No kidding, yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:22:29] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> It\u2019s easier in a sense because, again, like it\u2019s easier. But to be honest, the larger projects that I took on Upwork, or outside of Upwork needed that human touch. Like meeting with the client, talking about your skills, how you will approach the project and all of that. So they can gain confidence that you are competent enough to take their work.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s kind of the reason why I got into it. If I have any regrets of it, of course, because if you leave that, you are basically handcuffed to that platform if you want to get more work. Because you don\u2019t have any contacts outside, and also, it doesn\u2019t produce any referrals.<\/p>\n

So if a client is satisfied, the maximum that they can do with it, is just leave you a good review because they are so scattered around, they don\u2019t have any other contacts that you can get recommendations from. So basically, for all the clients that I had, I didn\u2019t get recommendations altogether. Probably just one in the past 10, 11 years.<\/p>\n

[00:23:32] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Okay.<\/p>\n

[00:23:33] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> That\u2019s not good for long term, because you rely on constant getting new and new work from different clients. It\u2019s not sustainable in a sense, because you have to focus yourself on delivering the work, but also getting the work, instead of building a network of clients that can supply that work for you, and recommend you to their friends and other of their peers.<\/p>\n

[00:23:56] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Yeah, I suppose a lesson to be learned, with the benefit of hindsight, is to spread yourself around, but also go looking for those kind of recommendations, and ensure that people endorse you and maybe even write you an email or something that you can put away somewhere and kind of have a bank of credible testimonials and so on and so forth.<\/p>\n

Now, the piece itself on LinkedIn got quite a lot of commentary. I have to confess, I didn\u2019t go reading all of the different comments that people had put in. But did you get a sense that the people that were commenting had had a similar experience from you? Or do you feel that you\u2019re in some kind of unlucky, unhappy valley that nobody else over on Upwork is experiencing?<\/p>\n

[00:24:37] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> No, I think I talked with agency owner, that most of their work comes off of Upwork, and they said they didn\u2019t get any. Actually, this was the post that inspired me to write this. They didn\u2019t get any work this month or in July from Upwork, even though they constantly applied. And one of the things that he said, it stood up was that, if they increase a bit their prices, they will not get any responses.<\/p>\n

So basically, probably the market became more sensitive on spending. And because of the rise of AI, you can say that AI commoditize more development than it used to be. So it\u2019s not just a me thing. I think it\u2019s a general.<\/p>\n

[00:25:24] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> So it is more broadly across the platform there. So fees you brought up, that\u2019s interesting. I wonder if people are playing a bit of a wait and see game, and just keeping that money in their own bank account just to see how the landscape changes. Maybe this heralds a change in the industry which is going to stick for a while where the fees that people such as yourself can charge are going to be driven down, because less work seems to be available, so people are going to be more sensitive to the cost of it, and the competition will be greater and what have you.<\/p>\n

[00:25:53] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:25:54] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> I guess only time will really tell. Yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:25:57] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> And also most likely is, the fact that AI commoditize programming in a sense. They are not the same number of WordPress projects that are started now. And they use, I don\u2019t know, whatever AI is better on building with, which is like JavaScript-based stacks. And that\u2019s probably the new directions where the new projects are going to rather than WordPress.<\/p>\n

[00:26:25] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Okay, so just before we wrap it up then, let\u2019s move to this point, which is that, no matter how much you inspect all of this, and out what\u2019s going on, and the reasons behind it. I guess the bottom line is you\u2019ve got to do something.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re perfectly all right, and you can take this hit from the Upwork platform and that\u2019s absolutely fine. You\u2019ve got other irons in the fire. But I\u2019m guessing the next question\u2019s pretty obvious, which is what are you doing to shore up this considerable loss of income? What\u2019s the plan that you\u2019ve got going forward? You may not have a fully hatched plan, in which case your best guess is fine. But I\u2019m curious to know what your idea is to keep your irons in the fire and to keep the through put of your business up.<\/p>\n

[00:27:07] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Just to put in perspective, my income didn\u2019t decrease because of Upwork. So I\u2019m pretty good, I\u2019m in a pretty good shape. The thing is that I shifted away from relying on it, and trying to get, work through other avenues. And one of the other avenues that I am expanding on right now is basically LinkedIn, and it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

[00:27:27] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> You\u2019re suceeding.<\/p>\n

[00:27:29] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> I\u2019ve succeeded on getting viral, yeah.<\/p>\n

[00:27:33] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> That\u2019s the first step, isn\u2019t it, in a way?<\/p>\n

[00:27:35] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yeah, exactly, yeah. So I took three different approaches on LinkedIn. One was to post content, to see if I get any interaction with potential clients. I did get a couple of leads from that, and I get some gigs from it.<\/p>\n

The other one is actually talking directly with agency owners that build websites, but from time to time they have a need for either adjusting a legacy code base, or building something more complex that they don\u2019t have in-house tools for. So I started building those relationship, and I do work with couple of different agencies that I they provide work for me from time to time.<\/p>\n

And the third one is talking with recruiters from temp agencies. So I build couple of relationship with some of the big temp agencies, and whenever they have a project that it\u2019s my lane, they contact me first basically, and I get to talk directly with the client, and they decide if they want to work with me or not.<\/p>\n

[00:28:34] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> So in a sense, although there\u2019s this cautionary tale of, gosh, this whole thing dried up, the bigger picture is that actually the whole thing didn\u2019t dry up. There are different ways of getting the same work. In your case, you just had to be a bit creative for a few months, and start to talk in different ways to different people.<\/p>\n

[00:28:51] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yeah, and also another thing is that I needed to start thinking a bit more long term rather than one-off projects, not one-off projects, but just thinking that one source of leads will basically provide whatever I need every month budget-wise.<\/p>\n

Also this is how business used to work. Like you went, you interacted with a person, and they give you a business or not. Not chatting with a person on the other end of the world, and they give you work.<\/p>\n

So basically, fostering those relationships are more beneficial, and to be honest, they pay better than clients on Upwork. And you get into the cycle of recommendation, and you don\u2019t, it\u2019s less work for you to get clients than it is on Upwork, but it takes longer to build those relationships.<\/p>\n

[00:29:46] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Right. And that\u2019s a really interesting observation, isn\u2019t it? Because essentially the advice that you\u2019re giving there is as old as the hills really, isn\u2019t it? You could have had that same marketing advice in like 1930s.<\/p>\n

[00:29:56] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Exactly.<\/p>\n

[00:29:57] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Which is, go out, find people who you can work with, build up a longstanding credible relationship with them, and then the next time they need a bit of work, which hopefully they will, you\u2019re going to be the first person who they\u2019re going to call.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s curious how we\u2019ve all fallen into, and I\u2019m just doing air quotes, \u201cthe trap\u201d of having these platforms around you know, like Upwork. It just allows you to very easily get work here, there, and everywhere. And it\u2019s only at the point when that starts to dry up for all the reasons that we discussed that you realise, okay, gotta pivot a little bit. But it\u2019s great to hear that in effect, it\u2019s had no impact on your bottom line. It\u2019s just meant that you\u2019ve had to pivot, do things slightly differently, go outside, get out of the office and go and interact with people in the real world.<\/p>\n

[00:30:46] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> And again, like the projects that I was able to get outside of Upwork are for better clients that I did on Upwork. It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t work on interesting projects on Upwork. It\u2019s that the opportunities that can lead after the work is completed for those clients are bigger than the opportunities that you get from working on, for clients on Upwork.<\/p>\n

[00:31:08] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Oh, I see. Okay, so the long tail of work, you know, let\u2019s say that you land a client and they build website in the year 2026, maybe they\u2019ll need an upgrade in 2028, and they\u2019ll need some modification in 2027 that you\u2019re the person to do it.<\/p>\n

Yeah, whereas Upwork is more here today, gone tomorrow. Disposable thing, you finish it, move on, another thing, another thing. And that\u2019s worked for years, but maybe that system, certainly for you at least anyway, is drying up and you\u2019re trying out other things, which I hope you are successful with. I guess that\u2019s the perfect place to, to call it a day.<\/p>\n

[00:31:40] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n

[00:31:41] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Honestly Adrian, all the best of luck. I know that when you put that post out, it must have been, it\u2019s hard to write that kind of stuff, isn\u2019t it? Because it demonstrates that in some way you\u2019ve had to modify things and that things have been a struggle. But it\u2019s nice to hear that you seem to have got a handle on it.<\/p>\n

[00:31:58] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

[00:31:58] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> And I would wish you the best for the future.<\/p>\n

[00:32:00] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Thank you.<\/p>\n

[00:32:00] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> If anybody wanted to reach out to you, because we have a fairly large audience, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if one or two people out there were going through something very similar, where\u2019s the best place to reach out to you? I can obviously link to your post on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

[00:32:14] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

[00:32:14] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> And people can click on the link and contact you via that. But is there any place you hang out online?<\/p>\n

[00:32:18] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Yeah, mostly LinkedIn. And if you want to check my website out, it\u2019s CustomWP.io. That\u2019s kind of my avenues of contacting me and that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

[00:32:28] Nathan Wrigley:<\/strong> Okay. I will put that into the show notes. So if, dear listener, you\u2019re listening to this, head to the episode with Adrian in it. Probably by the time you listen to this it\u2019ll be one of the first two bits and pieces on the WPTavern.com website. Go and click into the show notes and all of the links will be buried somewhere in there.<\/p>\n

So, Adrian Sticea, thank you so much for chatting to me today. Good luck with the future.<\/p>\n

[00:32:50] Adrian Sticea:<\/strong> Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/details>\n

On the podcast today we have Adrian Sticea.<\/p>\n

Adrian has been working in the WordPress space since 2013, starting out as a developer for small companies, then moving into freelancing, agency roles in the US, major projects at IBM, a stint at StellarWP, and extensive work with enterprise-level clients. Most recently, Adrian\u2019s post on LinkedIn about the dramatic drop-off in WordPress work through the Upwork platform went viral, sparking many conversations and comments.<\/p>\n

I suspect that many WordPress professionals listening have seen shifts in their freelance workloads and may be wondering what\u2019s behind these changes, and Adrian is here to share his own data-driven account. He talks about his experience using Upwork as a primary source of project leads, how, for years, it was a reliable fountain of work, but recently, the flow has all but dried up.<\/p>\n

We dive into the possible causes. The impact of AI making developers more efficient (and thus reducing hiring demand), changes in the broader economy, increasing competition from rival platforms, and how the nature of WordPress work itself is changing. Adrian mentions the difference between simple website builds, which are still in demand on Upwork, and complex plugin or enterprise projects, which he thinks might have migrated elsewhere.<\/p>\n

We also talk about diversification, whether it\u2019s a mistake to rely on just one marketplace for freelance work, and the importance of building real relationships, collecting testimonials, and seeking recommendations. Adrian shares how he\u2019s pivoted, leveraging LinkedIn for networking, connecting directly with agencies, and building partnerships with recruiters and temp agencies.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve felt your freelance pipeline shrink, are curious where the most interesting WordPress work has gone, or want to hear how other professionals are adapting to marketplace shifts, this episode is for you.<\/p>\n

Useful links<\/h2>\n

Adrian\u2019s post on LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n

CustomWP<\/a><\/p>\n

Upwork<\/a><\/p>\n

Toptal<\/a><\/p>\n

Codeable<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transcript [00:00:19] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress, the people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, the decline of WordPress work on Upwork, and the rise of new opportunities. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"1":{"name":"Uncategorized","link":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/?cat=1"}},"tags_names":[],"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4ksamachar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}