This is an overview of how you can get set up very quickly as a freelancer using the Upwork platform.
How Upwork Works
If you’ve never heard of Upwork before, it’s the world’s biggest freelance marketplace. Prospective clients post a job and then freelancers put in proposals or what they would recommend as far as budget and how long it would take them to complete the gig. If the client sees someone they want to work with, they select that person, fund escrow through Upwork and then you work together. Upwork is essentially the intermediary third party that’s holding those escrow funds or giving you payment protection for hourly jobs.
Why Upwork Doesn’t Accept All Freelancers
Upwork doesn’t accept everyone who wants to work as a freelancer on the site. If they have a lot of experienced freelancers in a category, they may decline your profile being added to the site for the time being — that doesn’t mean forever. You can do yourself a great service by putting in a lot of effort to present a powerful background about who you are and what you bring to the table. Ultimately, Upwork’s best interests are when they have high-quality freelancers on the site for clients to choose from. They are looking at not only your background but also whether or not there’s enough demand on the site for another freelancer to be added.
How to Get Accepted as an Upwork Freelancer
If you’re trying to pitch yourself to be on Upwork, take a look at the type of jobs that are already posted. You can go in and see on any given day what jobs have been added and what clients are looking for. This will tell you whether or not you have marketable skills that may get picked up by clients. Of course, plenty of job postings doesn’t guarantee that you’ll still be selected to be on the site. Don’t give up hope though. There are so many different ways to market your freelance business and Upwork is just one of them.
Quality
Things may change over time as Upwork has the bandwidth to take on more freelancers. When you put together your initial materials to work on Upwork, I recommend that you present yourself as professional and high quality as possible. It’s really going to be hard for them to turn down someone who seems like an obvious fit. A lot of people are very sloppy with the way that they put together samples and the way they present themselves. It is hard to believe, but it happens all the time on Upwork when people are bidding as well as when someone is trying to launch their career on Upwork.
Make sure that everything you put forward to represent yourself is of the highest quality. The best of your ability. No mediocre work, no work that you spent a little bit of time on. You really need to come across as a compelling candidate because what is Upwork’s bottom line? They want you to earn money because they earn money when you earn money. It’s in their best interests to find someone who can meet client needs but someone who comes across as really compelling and an obvious choice.
Do Your Research
The fastest way to become an Upwork freelancer is just like I said — go on the site and see what other jobs have been posted. In the last week, how many jobs with your specific skillset were posted by clients and does that mean that this is a marketable skill that you have?
A lot of different people land work on Upwork including writers, virtual assistants, graphic designers, video editors, web designers, web developers, voice over artists, you name it — there’s a lot of freelancers and freelance opportunity on Upwork.
Doing this additional research ahead of time will help you to earn money fast if you are able to get approved on the site because you already know that your skills are marketable. Now you just have to go about finding those jobs and submitting bids.
For more information about growing your Upwork profile, presence and reputation, subscribe to my YouTube channel, Freelance Freedom.
HI, I’M LAURA!
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