9 Important Things You Need To Know As a New Freelancer on Upwork
That will set you up for success from day one
As a new freelancer, or a potential one looking to secure a second income (aka side hustle), it can be quite overwhelming trying to learn and understand all the different jargon to navigate the online space.
If you take it in stages, I promise you it’s not as hard as it looks.
Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
— Helen Keller
In this post, I am going to share with you the 9 things that I have found to be extremely helpful in the past almost two years since becoming a freelancer on Upwork.
As a matter of fact, these are the same steps I use to build my confidence and profile on Upwork.
So if you want to
- Get more job offers
- Get paid faster
- Get more five star reviews
- Get paid at the rate you are worth
- Build effective communication with your clients
- Get more positive responses for your submitted proposals
- Get your profile seen by more clients
Then you will definitely love these tips.
So, let’s get the show on the road.
Shoot for a top-rated badge
Earning a top-rated badge is a big win on Upwork. You are incentivized for building a strong reputation on the platform and for achieving five-star reviews from your clients on an ongoing basis.
The benefits of being a top-rated badge holder:
- The badge represents the top 10% of talents on Upwork.
- You get invitations to submit proposals to jobs that are sent to you by the Talents Specialists on Upwork.
- You get to have more say over your job success score.
- As a freelancer, you get faster payments on hourly contracts.
Besides the above, you also get 30 free “connects” (aka tokens) when you get a top-rated badge in addition to your normal 10 tokens each month. Freelancers use these connects on Upwork to submit job proposals which can vary from 2 connects to 6 connects depending on the complexity of the job advertised.
Try for roles different from your day job
Have you ever thought about doing a side hustle and applying for roles that are different from your day job? Something that you already have the skills to do but completely different from what you do Monday to Friday in your nine to five.
For example, I am an Accountant in my day job but I chose to do something completely different as a freelancer which included roles such as virtual assistant, customer support, and online research on Upwork.
There are a lot of benefits in doing this
- You get to do one of the many other things that you have always wanted to do
- You get to learn additional skills along the way as a by-product of the role you are carrying out as a new freelancer.
- You get to work on new projects, for example, I got the opportunity to assist with the online marketing and collaboration initiatives for the company that I freelance for.
- You get to meet new people from different sectors and industries.
Reply quickly to job invitations
Replying to invitations within 24 hours is crucial to your success on Upwork.
One of the best ways to show your professionalism and proactiveness is to respond to job invitations in a timely manner to your client and potential clients. This means responding when you are interested in the role and equally when you are not interested.
Withdrawn invitations within the first 24 hours are not counted towards your response time.
Gradually increase your rate
It’s ok to start your rate at a reasonable or lower price point, (what is reasonable you might ask.) If you have no idea what rate to start with, check out the rates that freelancers with a similar skillset to yours are charging on Upwork.
Example
I revised my CV (Resume) and went back on the platform in December 2019 to seriously start looking for jobs to kick start my side hustle, I decided that I wanted to become a virtual assistant (aka VA) which in short are administrative tasks.
I went and had a look at the rates that virtual assistants that live in London UK were charging and I believe the average rate per hour ranges between $12-$20 back then and so I pitched myself at $15/hour.
You should still apply for jobs above this rate as long as your skill set matches the job specification and you know that you are more than capable of carrying out the job at a high standard.
After you have done your first 2 short term jobs satisfactorily and receive praise-worthy 5-star reviews from your clients this is an opportunity to review your current rate.
With your increased knowledge, skills and confidence you can now increase your rate gradually especially if you had pitched at a super low rate in the beginning just to get clients and to build up your online profile.
Keep increasing your fees gradually until you are charging the rate you know your skills and knowledge are worth.
Create a stellar communication channel with your clients
You’ve heard this said over and over again, that in any form of relationship communication is vital, and the relationship with your client is no different.
In other words, you must endeavour to create a great communication channel with your clients.
Creating a great working relationship with your client from the beginning of the contract is paramount.
This will set you both up with a solid foundation where the communication flows very freely and effectively between both parties on a continuous basis.
Although you may be on your day job, if your client communicates with you throughout the day, set aside a specific time whether during your lunch break or after you’ve finished your day job, but endeavour to respond before the day is over especially if you think it might be an urgent matter.
This will show your client that they are valued and you care about their well-being and that of their business.
Setting up online chat channels outside of the Upwork platform is essential so that you can get the opportunity to respond to the issue as close to real-time as possible.
Get five-star client reviews on the go
When you are just starting out as a newbie freelancer on Upwork you obviously won’t have any client feedback at first.
So your aim is to try and get the first one as soon as possible. You can do this by focusing on short-term projects that you can complete in one day or one week and get as many of these as possible to build up your online profile.
Client reviews and feedback help to increase your social credibility, enhance your online profile on the Upwork platform and help you to become more marketable.
I would encourage you, especially if you do happen to take on any milestones or long-term ongoing projects, to ask your client for a review after two or 3 months into the role after you have produced some work for your client to a very high standard.
The only downside to asking for a review for long-term projects, is that the client has to end the existing contract and start a new contract in order to do the review for you.
However, they will be more than happy to do this for you, especially if they are impressed with your work and performance on the job thus far.
So be sure to produce excellent work from the outset of the contract.
I have done this with ongoing contracts with my clients so this is no problem for them to do for you, just explain that you are new to the platform and would like to build up your social credit and profile.
Send proposals like a conveyor belt
Proposals are what you submit to each potential client that posts a job on Upwork that you are interested in.
Some proposals include specific questions that are asked by the client that they would like you to answer when applying for their job.
They are basically a set of questions that the client set to determine who best meets their set criteria. The closer you match these predetermined questions the better your chance at being short-listed for an interview.
A client wants to know that if they choose a freelancer for their role, that freelancer has already met the basic criteria outlined in the predetermined questions.
Once you have the skills and expertise to carry out the job the questions basically helps you to know exactly what is going on inside your client’s head.
So don’t be put off by the predetermined questions, as they are there to help you not hinder you.
As long as you have some knowledge of the role based on the job specifications, I would say send as many proposals as you can because you never know which proposal you will hit the jackpot with.
There have been times when I see a job and I would send off a proposal hoping that I would be successful but I wasn’t selected for the role.
However, I didn’t lose hope because I knew the right one was out there with my name written all over it, so don’t give up the right job will come to you at the right time, as long as you stay in the game and keep on churning out those well-written proposals.
Have multiple profiles
If you have a few skills under your belt, you can create multiple profiles instead of putting all of your skills on one profile.
Having different profiles will help you to market your skills more effectively for each job.
Example
I am an Accountant by profession. I am also great at anything to do with administration including planning and organising things. I also love doing online research and curating information.
So in my case, I have 3 different profiles to showcase each of my different skills and knowledge.
My 3 profiles are
- Book-keeper: this profile list all of my accounting skills and knowledge.
- Virtual Assistant: this profile list all of my administrative skills and experience.
- Data & Online Researcher: this profile list all the online experience I have in collecting and curating data.
This way you’ve set yourself up to gain a job much quicker by marketing each skill set separately on different profiles instead of putting all three skills on one profile.
Share your transferable skills
Having multiple skills that are transferable can be applied to other aspects of the job which will put you in a good position to grow, open other doors, and add value to your client's business.
If it’s an ongoing position and the opportunity presents itself for you to help on another project or task, be willing to jump on it as in the process you are gaining just as well as your client.
So although it’s not specifically what you were hired to do, this is an avenue or a door opening up for you to add value and in the process learn additional skills and gain new knowledge.
For example, I was hired in a role as a customer support admin person, however, I also love to do research and so the opportunity came up for me to add value to my clients business by offering my research skills to curate data and through this exercise, I gained new knowledge which benefited both myself and my client in the process.
When your client sees that you do that they will love you for it and who knows what opportunity can come from just being super proactive and having a strong work ethic.
Final thoughts
Upwork is one of the top freelancing platforms that offer a great pool of quality jobs.
Remember in order for you to benefit from any of the tips I have listed above, you have to be willing to put the work in to get the desired results.
I know starting out can be a daunting task (I have been there), but if you follow these tips they should help you with a smoother transition into the world of freelancing on Upwork. The general tips will also help you on platforms such as Fiverr, People per hour, or on any freelancing platform.
You Don’t Have To Be Great To Start, But You Have To Start To Be Great.
— Zig Ziglar
Which one of the tips on the list above did you find most helpful and which one will you do first?
Share your helpful tips if you are a freelancer on any of the online freelancing platforms.
