10 Practical Steps To Grow Your Upwork Profile
Embarking on your Upwork journey is hard, especially when faced with the task of distinguishing yourself from the crowd.
I’ve been working on building a portfolio career for over a year and recently decided I will document and share the journey through content.
In my last post, Building a Portfolio Career on Upwork, I discussed the rise in popularity in the ‘Gig Economy’ and the trend of people building a ‘Portfolio Career’. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a portfolio career, I recommend checking out the post.
Let’s jump into it…
#1 Document Your Skills & Make An Infographic
As an initial exercise, document what valuable skills you possess and projects you’ve worked on throughout your career. Consider whether this information could be valuable to others. In other words, will someone pay for this knowledge and skill set?
Whether it’s Content Writing, Social Media Marketing, Video Editing, Sales, Virtual Assistance, or Language Translation, once you realise what is it you’re good at, there will always be demand for something you have.
Opportunities will naturally present themselves if you are consistent and follow these steps.
Ask yourself — What problems can I solve for others? What needs can I fulfil? Your goal is to find the intersection between what you’re good at and what people are willing to pay for.
For me, it was B2B sales and business development. It was difficult but over a couple of weeks I documented everything I learned over the years. This included managing complex enterprise sales deals, conducting in depth discovery calls, handling sales objections, creating killer outreach strategies — these only came to mind once I sat down and put thought into it.
In “Building a Portfolio Career on Upwork,” I spoke about working on one of Ireland’s most popular startup accelerator programs, where I was working alongside six ambitious startups. I reviewed all the work and sessions I did with them. Very quickly, I saw some common themes — they all needed help in creating and implementing specific and unique sales strategies to help win new customers.
After documenting my work, I hired a graphic designer on Upwork to create an eye-catching professional infographic. Now I had a compelling visual document that I could share when bidding for jobs, making my proposals stand out.
Ask yourself — What steps can I take to establish credibility on Upwork whilst my page has no reviews or jobs completed?
#2 Make Your Digital Storefront Shine
I purposely put this step second. The previous step, in my opinion, is the most important. If you haven’t deeply thought about your skill set, what value you bring and how you plan on presenting it, making your Digital Storefront Shine won’t be as impactful. Don’t underestimate what you know, I’ve been guilty of this.
Your Upwork bio and profile are not just sections to fill out, they are the Digital Storefront of your professional services. This is where potential clients stop, browse, and make a decision — whether to enter and explore what you have to offer or move on to the next option.
As the saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” and on Upwork, your bio is that first impression.
Ask yourself — How can I captivate potential clients with my headline? Can I share quantifiable results and numbers from previous projects? Have I made my profile human and personal?
This leads onto the next section…
#3 ‘Upwork Competitive Analysis’
I view the process of setting up an Upwork profile much like launching a new business. A crucial part of developing any business is conducting a competitive analysis — how they market, how they sell and how they serve is a fundamental exercise in developing your USP in the business world.
The same applies to your Upwork profile. To assist with step 2, this is an exercise you can do simultaneously.
Spend some time examining a range of profiles, not just the good ones with 100% success rates and earnings over $100k. Look at the profiles with bad reviews and poor success rates.
Ask yourself — What stands out here? What can I replicate? What shouldn’t I replicate?
Having a view of both sides, good and bad, puts you in a stronger position for your own profile to stand out. It goes without saying, apply your own style and personality, and of course, ask ChatGPT to review it 😁
#4 Drop the Ego
“You can’t learn if you think you already know” — Epictetus
Drop the Ego. I offered this tip in my last post, “Building a Portfolio Career on Upwork”.
One piece of advice I like to give people looking to build a portfolio career from scratch, especially on Upwork, is to Drop the Ego. Ryan Holiday in ‘Ego Is the Enemy’ defines Ego as “an unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centred ambition”.
Even though you might have in-depth expertise, adopt a beginner’s mindset. Deliver value without being overly concerned about personal importance or self-centre ambition.
What I mean by this is, consider working jobs that you’re overqualified for so you can make a strong impression and in return you receive a positive 5 star review. This was one of the best strategies I followed to build up my review section with 5 star reviews.
#5 Bid Bid Bid
This one is straightforward — once you’ve done the pre-work of building your profile and creating any resources such as an infographic — BID! (This will require you to buy some connects)
However, just bidding and hoping for the best isn’t good enough. It’s about finding a mix between making the right number of bids and crafting the right message to the client.
You could spend a lot of money on buying new connections and there might be problems with your messaging.
If you’re struggling with crafting the right message — Ask for feedback from mentors or friends or hire a coach on Upwork. (I’m doing 1:1 coaching with a CEO of a marketing agency by helping him transform his Upwork process to attract more business)
Top Tip — If you do win a job on Upwork, ask the client what made you stand out Vs everyone else. Feedback is very important.
#6 Undercharge and Overdeliver
Some people won’t agree with this but it worked for me. What I did for the first few months was undercharge (offered a low hourly rate in comparison to what I’m worth) and focused on over delivering (going above and beyond) on expectations.
Example, if you teach languages or offer coaching, tell the person they can reach out to you with any questions before or after your scheduled sessions free of charge. As mentioned in step 3, adopt the same mindset a person would when creating a new business. Ask yourself — how can I serve my new client in the best way possible and make a lasting impression.
Remember, the focus at the beginning is to build credibility as quickly as possible. My goal was to receive a glowing 5 star review and going above and beyond expectations meant there was no way I wasn’t going to get one!
Top Tip — Check in with your client to ensure everything is meeting expectations. It serves as an opportunity to find out if something needs to be adjusted or improved.
#7 Gradually Increase
As I completed more jobs and received more 5 star reviews, I gradually increased my hourly rate. It didn’t make sense to have such a high hourly rate when I didn’t have any references or credibility on the platform.
Yes, if they reviewed my LinkedIn and we spoke, I could provide that credibility. The issue? There are a lot of profiles bidding for jobs so it’s about how you stand out from the crowd and this step worked for me.
My charge per hour is now over double what I started it at. I will continue to increase this over time as I start to work on larger, more strategic projects with bigger budgets.
Will I stop taking on the jobs that are more suited to an entry level person? No! I’m bringing people onboard to help me support that side of my offering, under my coaching and development.
#8 Responsiveness
An often overlooked yet powerful sales tactic is responsiveness. Its both a secret and not-so-secret tactic in the world of sales.
It is the first impression you make and in this case is another way to stand out from the crowd, especially starting off your Upwork journey.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”
Being able to respond within minutes of a job proposal will put you in front of others during the evaluation stage and give you a higher chance of winning the job. It will give the client a flavour of how you plan to communicate if you work together.
#9 Check In
Check in with the people you’ve worked with.
As you start to complete jobs and win new ones, make time to check in with the people who you worked with previously and ask them how things are going. It’s very simple and the benefits are very impactful.
For example, I did some coaching with a primary school teacher who was looking to move into sales. We spent 4 weeks working on interviewing, cold calling and executing business development strategies. Each month, I would message him and ask how everything was going and if there was anything I could help with.
Number 1 — it shows you care and number 2 — it might reignite some opportunities to work together which means another job complete and another review on your profile. Furthermore, if a friend or colleague of theirs needs help in the same area, who are they going to recommend? You!
#10 Ambition
This step may not resonate with everyone. Personally, I’m already thinking of how to take this to the next level. Candidly, I don’t plan on using Upwork for the rest of my career. It is a side project and an additional revenue stream. My intention is to dedicate my time into Upwork for the next few years and then assess the situation.
The goal is to use this time to build a diverse portfolio of projects and establish a client base so I have a list of successful case studies. Ultimately, I plan to grow and develop my own consulting business. Perhaps, my Upwork profile will be used as a tool to attract leads.
For me, this journey serves as a way to refine my offering, articulate my value proposition and build confidence in providing exceptional value for clients.
Ask yourself — If I’m consistent with this and I apply the daily action that is required, where do I see myself in 5 years? Think BIG and go for it!
Summary
After implementing these steps, I am now in a fortunate position where 90% of my work on Upwork comes from people reaching out to me. It takes time and consistency to get to this point but it’s very achievable with the right attitude and ambition.
I’m new to Medium so would appreciate a follow and comments as I share more tips and tactics on Upwork and building multiple streams of income.
