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Want to learn how to be making money online? Well, Upwork is one marketplace for new beginners in the freelance world where you can start generating income right away. It is not much of it, but something to motivate you as a freelance beginner.
It is a platform that offers freelance writing jobs, graphics, design, proofreading, digital marketing, web development, or programming. The choices are limitless. If you have the skill in any of the mention fields, you are in a good position to sign-up for an account on Upwork.
It is a great place to begin in and find clients rather than doing cold pitching in search of them. It is easy to find and get consistent work from a loyal client.
According to research, many individuals venturing on freelance jobs tend to start with Upwork and its where they grow. At some point, some have become successful as a result of taking advantage of the opportunity they get on this platform.
Mostly, people tend to venture into this platform to start their career is because it’s a new user friendly, and they get a chance to start working, hence building their portfolio.
If you may, make arrangements with loyal clients and work outside the platform, and this way you are most likely going to have your wages rise gradually as you grow and gets experience.
With a clear mind and motivation, you will get somewhere even if you will start with lesser pay.
Now that we have learned a little bit about the platform, let us now look at how to be making money online on Upwork.
Ways to be making money online with Upwork and the available Jobs
Create your profile
As you cannot apply for a job without a resume, this is the same mechanism used in such platforms. A profile is your resume in Upwork which shows your skills and why clients should trust and give you jobs.
Ensure you have honestly and exclusively filled your profile by stipulating your expertise in all fields. If you state you can perform a certain skill in a specific area, but you end up not delivering as needed, you will end up jeopardizing your account. It can easily be suspended in such accounts.
After filling your area of expertise, it’s now time to indicate your background, education level, working hours per week, and your preferred rates.
If you are unsure of the amount you can charge clients, head over and check a few profiles from fellow freelancers working in similar areas of expertise.
If you are sure you have correctly and honestly filled everything, you can send the details to the support which will review, verify your details, and approve your account within a day.
After approval, you can start applying for jobs.
Importance of creating a compelling Profile
Upwork is a popular freelance site with almost 30000 freelancers. This means the tasks posted are fewer than the number of freelancers. It brings one top thing to note and competition is. You will face a lot of competition working with Upwork, and that the single most reason to have a compelling profile.
Clients will be using it determine to hire you are not. It also helps the platform to match you with the relevant jobs.
Nowadays things have become tough on Upwork. They constantly turn down a lot of applications due to market flooding over skills. Many people are skilled in some specific fields, and there cannot be enough jobs to cover every individual. On the other hand, other fields have lesser freelancers making them on-demand.
That way you will hear from the majority of applicants that their application has been rejected over and over on Upwork.
The secret to having your profile approved is to have a skill that is on-demand.
Mostly, this is on digital marketing, programming, and many fields related to IT.
Getting started
There are two types of profiles on Upwork. Ensure you choose the right one for you. If you wish to work as a freelance, choose the freelance profile and if you intend to be a client, take the client profile.
As a freelance looking to be making money, choose the work button to create your account.
After there you will be asked whether you would want to link your account with other online accounts including social media handles. Some of them include Dribble, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flexi, and many more.
This option is a great one as it instills a sense of trust in clients after you have a network of followers on other sites.
It also makes it easier for Upwork to match you with the correct jobs related to your skills.
Create a well-expressed profile photo of your headshot that is clear and debiciting professionalism. Ensure it friendly and real you to avoid any confusion in the future.
Don’t take just any picture and post it as your profile photo. Some take a picture of something like flowers, cups and more as their profile picture, but this could cause a lot of harm than good.
While taking your photo to ensure you are well-positioned mostly on the center on a clear background. Smile at it and ensure it is you on the photo.
Write your title with clarity and precision. This is the most ignored part when it comes to the creation of a profile on Upwork.
Note better that this is the most sensitive part that a client sees first before anything else.
Take time to write your title by describing what your skills are.
Writing it clearly will attract clients since this is the first thing they see whenever they are searching for a freelancer.
Use keywords to express your skill. They are the most searched phrases by clients whenever they are looking for someone to undertake a task.
For instance, if you are a graphic designer you can write on your title something like A Logo Designer, web developer and more.
Ensure you have it written in short phrases that are precise and clear describing your actual niche. Choose a specific niche since, being unclear about what you can do or undertaking different skills will only create confusion. And you will end up with nothing, meaning you will not find any client willing to hire you.
After that, give a short description that shows an overview of your skills. Write your area of expertise in a few words but ensure you have made the words count.
Express your overview with professionalism to instill a sense of value to potential clients. Ensure you have strictly focused on your area of expertise meaning you are sure you can deliver.
On the first three sentences of your overview should state what is important regarding your skills as its what will appear on the search when clients are researching credible freelancers.
The remaining part should now state other things that are in support of what makes it possible to deliver such as communication skills, discipline, and few.
Showcase how you are the right person to increase value at a client’s business and goal accomplishment, and they will see your value.
After all, these, proofread your profile to ensure you have no grammatical error that could make potential clients drop you if they see such an error.
If you can create a video that in short words shows clients who you are, what you can offer, and the value you pose to their businesses. It may not be necessary, but it can be miraculous as your profile will stand out.
It is a feature that can attract clients more since you can be seen in a more personalized way on a video plus what you can offer.
The video ought to be a minute longer and not, more than that. You should introduce yourself, give an overview of what you can offer, your skills, your experience, and lastly give thanks to all the viewers and indicate your desire to work with any of the viewers anytime and close by calling them to have a look at your profile.
After that its time to list your career accompanied by a list of at least ten skills that will enable you to accomplish your tasks.
You can go ahead ad take tests available on the platform. They are some of the things that show the credibility of your skills and clients always check if you have taken any tests before they can assign you a job.
It is also important to test your proficiency with the English language. There are other languages available, but if you are an English speaker, take the time to take this test.
Clients use this to access how what to expect from you and also how to communicate. Even if you are not a writer, you will be required to communicate with clients at any point.
Indicate whether you are a native speaker, fluent or if you can understand English or not. This way, someone will get away to handle you in the best way possible.
If you are good in other languages, check them all as you stand more chances knowing more than one language.
Do lie about proficiency in any language, just be real and honest.
The other part is the listing of your experience. You must indicate your level of experience which starts from either entry, intermediate, or expert level.
These levels are not what you hold on Upwork but in general terms. If you have been working for a while online at any given platform, that's the level of experience asked about. If you have just started, indicate so.
Stating you are on entry-level will not in any way affect your profile, but it will help clients to gauge you how you can handle projects.
If you have worked elsewhere, part or full-time indicates so. List all of the projects you have completed as long as they are in line with your skills.
As soon as you get hired, you can indicate those clients as this is another tactic of getting more clients in the future.
Indicate your education level and list all of the institutions you have attended coupled with the certifications acquired.
Start with the most recent one followed in that line.
Don’t worry if you don’t have formal qualifications. List all of the informal ones as they count too. The self-taught ones also are important and they should be listed.
Build your portfolio after indicating your education. A portfolio shows all of the previously accomplished projects which showcases your expertise in a specific field.
If you can show proof of what you are saying you can do, you stand a great chance to attract clients through the use of your profile.
In case you are a web designer or graphic designer, you can ask permission from your clients to mention such work in your portfolio.
Put what you are proud of on your portfolio. Whatever else that you don’t feel comfortable with, leave it.
Ensure what is your best is put first on the portfolio. Let your portfolio represent you at all costs.
Every time you achieve something, ensure you have updated your portfolio to make sure you attract more clients for more jobs which means more money.
Look for legitimate employers
Always ensure you have applied for the jobs you qualify and those that you can handle efficiently.
Upwork only gives you 60 connections per month, so you need to be careful whenever you are applying for different gigs.
For every job proposal you send, ensure it has an introduction part, the mention of an answer showing you fully understand the question asked by the client, and the rate you feel is right for the job.
You will at times get clients who will contact you directly as long as your profile details are comprehensive and compelling enough.
And another important thing to note is, its advisable to first learn all you can about a client before entering into a contract with them. You can view this from other freelancers who have worked with the same client.
See if they have a good rating and the experiences each freelancer has had with a client. If it’s someone who is humane and lenient to work with, you need such a person as a beginner.
On Upwork, both freelancers and clients get a rating after the successful completion of a task. If you are satisfied with your clients handing and the relationship you have had the entire time, well, they deserve a good rating and vise vasa.
These ratings are very important in your career growth on Upwork. It determines your work percentage which other possible clients see to determine if they want to hire you for other different gigs.
As a starter, keep everything documented on the platform to avoid situations where you are scammed. Sometimes there have been reports that a client asks to take the work done outside, and the resulting situations are reported to be negative. Some may get an opportunity to swindle you your right payment rates and pay you whatever they feel like. But if everything is documented, there will prove to have the client penalized.
How to Avoid Scammers
Scammers are not only found over the ads, but they are also available on Upwork. They will present just like the regular client does, give you a genuine project and then disappear after submitting your work to them without a trace. Your hard work and time might just go down the drain without any compensation in a blink of an eye.
But there are ways to avoid dealing with a scammer. This is how
As a beginner, don’t just apply for any job that comes your way. Read the description carefully from the first point to the last.
It should be clear pointing out everything that is required to be done. If you see a description saying there is a project that can earn you thousands of dollars just browsing the internet, think twice about it.
There is no way you can browse the internet and make any money doing nothing. Some may go ahead to say that after taking the project you must purchase the guidelines first before getting access. That’s a client trying to make money out of you and you have applied for the job in the first place to make money yourself.
Just use common sense when it comes to some of these things.
A genuine client should tell you clearly what the project is about, the requirements, the duration given to have the work completed, and finally the payment rates for the entire project or how they intend to pay you on an hourly basis. A genuine client ought to be reasonable at all costs in every aspect.
Another thing to consider is checking on the client's profiles. They should have a verified mode of payment and a history of previous experiences with other contractors. If they have ever worked with other contractors, they should at least have ratings and comments showing the relationship between them.
The review ought to be great or positive if they are credible ones and good to work with.
Similarly, do ever accept to give free samples in the name of clarifying you are good at something. Someone planning to scam you will pretend they need a sample and then disappear after getting it.
Most of the freelance sites prohibit this, but you may find still some asking for the same.
A sample should be payable, not free. If someone asks for a sample ensure you have an agreement of the payment cost for it. Don’t be exploited to have someone’s work done for free.
Check if the payment system is secured first. Not on Upwork alone but in most of the freelance sites.
Fixed payments should be secured with escrow to ensure after completion of a specific milestone you are paid your dues.
For instance, Upwork has a secure way of tracking everything you are doing when working on a project. They have an app that tracks all of the activities done on your computer. It acts as proof whenever a dispute arises between a client and a freelancer.
As long as you adhere to rules, you are for sure going to be paid your earnings.
If you ever suspect anything dubious from a client's description or the chat, report the case to the support.
If you can do so, it may help protect you nay many others who might have fallen to the same trap.
Set your rates before you start working
As a beginner, Upwork cut 20% of your actual earning from a specific task. This goes on until you make up to $500. After you hit the mark, you are cut a service charge of 10 percent which goes up to the time you hit $1000. From there then you are charged 5 percent of all the tasks you will take on Upwork.
Something else to note is, you will be earning on an hourly basis or at a fixed rate. Both work the same way in terms of pay rates.
If you choose to work on an hourly basis, there will be an app that you will have to install for tracking purposes of your work.
It updates all of the keystrokes, scrolls, and also takes screenshots of your screen every 10 minutes.
If you happen to delete the screenshots, you then forfeit to have your rate discussed for that 10 minutes.
It is important t5o work with this tracking app as proof you have worked and you deserve payment. Even if a client makes complaints, there will be proof to have you get paid the full amount.
In case you get a job that pays per milestone, payment is done once all the checkpoints are approved.
On a milestone basis, there is no need for a tracking app, as you will work as per the agreement with the contractor.
Why should you set your Hourly Rates?
Setting your price is key when you are working on Upwork. It shows how well you are presented and your ability to work on tasks.
At some point, a low pay rate may be an indication of poor quality jobs. And I’m sure no one will waste their money on the poorly done job.
It is a perceived value associated with pricing rates. Because for those who have priced their hourly rates a bit higher, they tend to attract more clients. Higher pay is associated with quality work.
For instance, there might be two case scenarios of clients in the same niche offering the same skills. One might have higher rates compared to the other. And to top it more, the difference in pricing might be more than $50, but the higher-priced will most likely get more jobs and clients compared to a lowly priced freelancer.
Why the price value which creates a perception when it comes to clients and their hiring mechanism.
But clients will not know who is better until they hire a freelancer. And also based on the comments and reviews from previous work done, this will also help to make a judgment.
Positioning yourself well by placing the right price makes you attract the type of cleits that are desirable to work with.
You know there are types of clients who put price over quality. Valuing yourself will keep those types away.
Some such types are ruthless and may treat you like a commodity just to have their work done and nothing else matter.
The order around, corruption all over, they don’t even know what they want, but they will make you work over and over without consideration.
Work with someone who will appreciate your work and value you. If they say what they want, they mean it and not the other way round.
A client who can pay more collates your skills to quality, and for sure if you can deliver, it makes sense.
To make it a winning case on Upwork check on your Cover letter, work sample, your profile, and client satisfaction.
It is very simple to win jobs on this platform. It always poses to be difficult but employing the simple tricks and features that are always ignored, you will for sure attract clients and it will not only be easy to learn how to be making money online but you will consistently make it for long.
Payments
Payments are billed and paid every week. After a task is completed, you and the client review the job and if everything is verified, the payment is made to your bank, direct payment, or via PayPal.
If hitches arise between the project, the milestone is used to decide your fair share and you are compensated fairly. As long as there s proof you have been working on a given project, a client has to pay you for that work even you didn’t complete its bottom line.
As long as you are working with Upwork, you are guaranteed to find work always. It easy to learn how to be making money online with Upwork by persisting and practicing patience once you decide to work online.
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