Taking up a career as a freelancer on Upwork can be a huge decision. Something happened to you in the last months. Maybe you are not earning enough or maybe you want to start working remotely and escape the 9-5. Indeed the world has changed quickly and work from home has become a commodity that most people can enjoy.
If you’re setting out to join the freelance market it is absolutely essential you start off the right way. Luckily there are so many places where you can learn the basics of setting up your account. From actual freelancers, you may know, or just the plethora of information on the web. However, many freelance platforms differ. Each has its own unique proposition and techniques.
When it comes to Upwork, Jovan, an experienced freelance veteran, shares his advice on starting the freelance journey.
You need to be persistent. I know 5-7 years ago i worked on an Upwork project for 5 dollars. The feedback that the customers will leave is very important. Also, the price per hour should be small, for example, $ 3 or $ 5. After a few months, you will gradually change it up. – Says Jovan.
With a proven track record of more than 5 years in freelancing his top advice is to:
1. Fully register your account with real data
It may seem basic at first. But having a full ready account with the proper data will work in your favor. Not only will it help you in reliability in front of clients, but it will also prevent you from losing time on constantly filling the data.
2. Verification of address or conversation with robot secretary
I believe this speaks for itself. You cannot function on Upwork without verification of your address.
3. When filling out a profile, these things are important
– Price per hour should not be more than $ 5 (if they put a higher price, it is likely that you will find it difficult to work on a project)
– Title: Here you are limited to a long title, you need to state EXACTLY and precisely what you are doing, my example is: 10500+ hours Web Developer (Angular, VueJS, HTML, WordPress, UI / UX) this says that I have done over 10500 hours and that i have the expertise for this. This is a good title for SEO when clients are looking for you
– Overview: Here you put a bigger list of what you do, how many years of experience you have, what are your SKILLS, etc.
– Portfolio: You put all the projects here, for beginning put 5 to 8 projects, even though you haven’t done them, find some from Freepeek and put them. It’s nice to have them.
– Skills: List all skills
– Employment history: here you enter all the companies you worked for, if you do not have a real one from LinkedIn, do not enter them.
– Other experience: here you enter other knowledge.
4. It is very important when submitting job applications, to decide what steps you will use to do that project, for example, if someone wants a logo design, you should enter things like this:
– Research
– Plans
– Design in Adobe Photoshop
– Changes
– Final review
It does not have to be this way, but something in that order.
