How I Made Over $150k on Upwork

And how my Upwork profile has generated another $50k in additional income.

Just so we’re all clear that I’m not making this up, you can visit my Upwork profile here. Once there, you will find out two things:

1. I am not making anything up.
2. I did not make that money by writing.

Most of the earnings came from software development projects, with a bit of consulting here and there. But, I do invite writers and marketers to go through the points below — most of what’s presented here is not specific to technical jobs. These are the questions that younger freelancers have asked me often during my career.

1. How do I get started? When you build your profile, don’t be shy about setting your rate to a reasonably high number. You will be bidding below this number at first, but you want the clients to know that you are bidding below price in order to get experience. List any and all things that can separate you from other workers. If you’re in a creative field like writing, this might be easier for you than for us technical types. If your English isn’t perfect, make sure you run your profile, especially your main description paragraph, by someone whose English is perfect. Your first impression shouldn’t consist of telling the client you are neither great at…