UpWork - Follow My 0-$$$$ Journey...

[maverick]

Anyone looking for an interesting niche to fill on upwork:

Write quality sales copy for startups i.e. how to write compelling copy for the homepage of a startup. I know I'm always on the lookout for somebody to fill this void.

 

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[maverick]

Does anyone get paid outside of UpWork?If so how do you manage the contract situation?

Yeah. I use Upwork to test the quality of work for the first project. If it's a good contractor, I add them to skype and ask them to invoice me via paypal. That way I can still deduct the costs as business expenses/investments.

 

[SYK]

Did you ditch the $500k shopify store for upwork?

 

[Sanj Modha]

Did you ditch the $500k shopify store for upwork?

I'm still selling off that store. I have some products out of stock so waiting on that delivery to come through.

UpWork is a case study I'll be adding to my LinkedIn profile/blog. In 2017, I want to write more.

 

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[Sanj Modha]

UPDATE - closed another deal today and in talks with a third client.

Some key points I've learned:

1 - make the covering letter personal i.e. how can YOU help them. Don't say "I'll run lead gen ads". Turn it into a descriptive scenario like "I will use Facebook to drive lead generation onto your landing page or email opt-in. We can use this to build up a list and start a relationship with your prospects".

2 - add some sales proof or previous freelancing work. I don't have any so I just posted images from my Shopify dashboard, Power Editor and Google Analytics. It's working like gangbusters.

3 - be specific. I only reply to 1 or 2 jobs per day if that.

It's getting interesting now. Keep at it!

 

[Sanj Modha]

Yeah. I use Upwork to test the quality of work for the first project. If it's a good contractor, I add them to skype and ask them to invoice me via paypal. That way I can still deduct the costs as business expenses/investments.

I only asked because a client wants to do it that way.

 

[hatedsalesrep]

Mad respect to you. About to start my own freelancing journey along side you..(I see you did GA too..my competitor! hahaha) anyways best of luck to you brother

 

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[Sanj Modha]

Mad respect to you. About to start my own freelancing journey along side you..(I see you did GA too..my competitor! hahaha) anyways best of luck to you brother

I'm using the same principles I use for my ecommerce product pages. The UW profile is your chance to shine and stand out from the crowd. I've amended mine at least 4 times until I was 100% happy with it. Don't skip this step.

When you do apply - don't get lazy. I had a call with one guy last night who was "blown away" (his words) by my covering letter and that was literally 1 hour after I applied to his posting. I took him through a process of how I can help him maximize his returns. Every bullet point was an action step for his business.

 

[Rosie]

Thanks for this man, I tried 4-5 times and got rejected, after reading this I made some changes again, added employment history etc and my profile is now approved So rep+ to you! Good luck on your upwork journey.

Don't give up Rosie. Make sure to fill out as many fields as you can. Change your job title and try to add other skills/change them completely as well (you can change them according to your competence later.) PM me if you want some ideas about the HOT skills according to upwork

Thanks for the encouragement, LRG I am now finally in - WOOHOO!

Question: how can I not sound like a total novice on my profile yet try to sell myself? I have no experience in copywriting and a bit of experience in transcribing, general admin etc. I want to say "YASS I WILL DO WHATEVER" without sounding like a desperado, ha. Any pointers would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Sanj Modha]

UPDATE - closed 2 deals now and in talks with 2 more clients. I've only replied to 18 listings - a possible 22% conversion rate is not bad at all.

Once you get everything in place - it's much easier. Follow my exact steps and thanks to everyone who responded. I took a lot from your advice too.

 

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[Sanj Modha]

Thanks for the encouragement, LRG I am now finally in - WOOHOO!

Question: how can I not sound like a total novice on my profile yet try to sell myself? I have no experience in copywriting and a bit of experience in transcribing, general admin etc. I want to say "YASS I WILL DO WHATEVER" without sounding like a desperado, ha. Any pointers would be appreciated, thanks!

Is there anything else you can offer? Go wide - think of Excel or any laborious task. The harder it is the less competition you'll have plus people are always willing to pay since they're busy.

Copywriting is super saturated and you'll be competing with the big boys/girls. Go niche - can you offer something deeper than just copywriting?

 

[Sanj Modha]

FINAL UPDATE - I'm wrapping up this thread but I've learnt some interesting skills.

1 - Don't give up! If your profile gets disapproved, keep amending and sending for approval.

2 - You can definitely make money off UpWork. I've done a few hundred dollars off 4 clients working minimal hours and it could be easily way more if this was my full-time gig but it's not.

3 - It's not a race to the bottom. Sure, there's a load of countries who offer cheap labor but don't sell yourself short. You can offer value where they can't. Think of data analytics, niche copywriting etc. Basically, highly skilled work.

4 - This one surprised me but you don't need any reviews to get work. Of course it helps but don't get down if you don't have any.

5 - Reply with as much detail as you can, be personable/likeable and write the covering letter as if you're talking to your friend. It doesn't need to be too formal but make it polite and professional. Offer value at every step by addressing requests with bullet points. You don't need waffle either.

6 - Go super niche not super wide. Instead of offering "Copywriting Services" go tighter with something like "Copywriting For Pet Blogs". Now, do a search first to make sure there's demand for your keywords but if you write great copy - the industry doesn't really matter. You can research what they need off Google.

7 - Use a video intro. It doesn't need to be long and don't talk about your profile. Give prospects an insight into who you are, your background and why they should hire from you. It's 5 minutes tops.

That's all I can think of. If you want more information - go follow @SinisterLex's post because it's way more interesting than mine and he's an UW pro.

Thanks and good luck to you.

 

[Scot]

I wanted to expand on #5.

Read the damn job posting. I recently posted a job on Upwork for a pretty specific skill set. I needed a graphic designer who specialized in food labeling and branding.

Specifically posted requirements for the job as needing at least 1 food label in portfolio and experience with FDA regulations.

I had 15 proposals. 12 of them were boiler pitches offering me logo design services (not even remotely close to what I needed)

The one person I hired I picked mostly because I could tell she read my brief, she wrote in her proposal an actual answer to my statements.

If you want to get hired on Upwork, read the damn job and actually reply to it using their words. It'll let people know you cared enough to do the right job.

 

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[Startup A Month]

One more tip that gets me a lot of work... Go and browse listings from 12+ hours. For some reason, there are some generic listings that have barely any offers. I often find a listing having 0-3 offers for a generic job with a good budget. I usually find ~5-10 of them a week, apply to 4-5 and get ~2 jobs. Listing posters usually got only generic answers, so when you get to them and mention few details from their post, they will be happy enough to hire you instantly.

 

[Sanj Modha]

I wanted to expand on #5.

Read the damn job posting. I recently posted a job on Upwork for a pretty specific skill set. I needed a graphic designer who specialized in food labeling and branding.

Specifically posted requirements for the job as needing at least 1 food label in portfolio and experience with FDA regulations.

I had 15 proposals. 12 of them were boiler pitches offering me logo design services (not even remotely close to what I needed)

The one person I hired I picked mostly because I could tell she read my brief, she wrote in her proposal an actual answer to my statements.

If you want to get hired on Upwork, read the damn job and actually reply to it using their words. It'll let people know you cared enough to do the right job.

Yup - read the job spec TWICE. That's a common mistake I've seen when I've been the hirer. People don't read and respond with a pre-fabricated covering letter.

 

[Sanj Modha]

One more tip that gets me a lot of work... Go and browse listings from 12+ hours. For some reason, there are some generic listings that have barely any offers. I often find a listing having 0-3 offers for a generic job with a good budget. I usually find ~5-10 of them a week, apply to 4-5 and get ~2 jobs. Listing posters usually got only generic answers, so when you get to them and mention few details from their post, they will be happy enough to hire you instantly.

Solid advice man. That's a good hack.

 

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[Choate]

What happened? You worked so hard to get the profile approved, and a month later you are giving up your pursuit. Just curious, that's all.

 

[Sanj Modha]

What happened? You worked so hard to get the profile approved, and a month later you are giving up your pursuit. Just curious, that's all.

It wasn't that hard and my VA did all the work. I just sent her the revisions for each approval.

It was an experiment for my blog/Linkedin profile. The most common question I get asked is "How can I start with little or no money and make it online?". Well, this is a great opportunity to get some quick cash in the bank. Will it make you rich? I honestly don't know but it's definitely an income stream.

 

[NB309]

Hi friends, I am reading this thread again and again from yesterday to figure out how you got the profile approved. I also did same, changed many different sets of skills, applied from different accounts and everything else that was mentioned here but nothing worked. I have been trying desperately for account approval from last year but not getting success. Can anyone suggest some different skill sets that can help me with this? It will be highly helpful for me. Thanks in advance...

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Hi friends, I am reading this thread again and again from yesterday to figure out how you got the profile approved. I also did same, changed many different sets of skills, applied from different accounts and everything else that was mentioned here but nothing worked. I have been trying desperately for account approval from last year not not getting success. Can anyone suggest some different skill sets that can help me with this? It will be highly helpful for me. Thanks in advance...

Is your profile complete? Changing skills only helps if that's the problem. Right now Upwork is going through a lot of changes. They're letting less and less people in. People from places like India, Pakistan, Iraq etc. are finding it harder and harder to get approved.

I suspect it's because Upwork is culling their workers for quality. It's the 80/20 principle. 80% of people who want to be on Upwork aren't very good. 20% of their workers deliver 80% of the quality and bring Upwork 80% of the money. So it only makes sense Upwork will start to tighten it's grip on who they let in now that they've grown into quite possibly the largest freelance platform in the world.

It's much easier to get accepted on other platforms such as freelancer.com and peopleperhour.com. I would try one of those or seek out other freelance platforms if you keep getting rejected from Upwork. That way you can at least apply to jobs while trying to get approved on Upwork.

 

[NB309]

Is your profile complete? Changing skills only helps if that's the problem. Right now Upwork is going through a lot of changes. They're letting less and less people in. People from places like India, Pakistan, Iraq etc. are finding it harder and harder to get approved.

I suspect it's because Upwork is culling their workers for quality. It's the 80/20 principle. 80% of people who want to be on Upwork aren't very good. 20% of their workers deliver 80% of the quality and bring Upwork 80% of the money. So it only makes sense Upwork will start to tighten it's grip on who they let in now that they've grown into quite possibly the largest freelance platform in the world.

It's much easier to get accepted on other platforms such as freelancer.com and peopleperhour.com. I would try one of those or seek out other freelance platforms if you keep getting rejected from Upwork. That way you can at least apply to jobs while trying to get approved on Upwork.

Hi,
Yes my profile is 100% complete and even I have added 9+ portfolio pieces too. I am experienced SEO and content writer but I think they are not approving copywriters so it will be great if anyone could suggest best combination of HOT SKILLS to get in!
And yeah, I will try other freelancing platforms too.

 

[Lex DeVille]

if anyone could suggest best combination of HOT SKILLS to get in!

This is why they're tightening requirements. You could find an answer in 10 seconds on Google. Upwork wants problem solvers. Clients don't have time for hand holding.

Let me Google that for you.
Or this one.

 

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[NB309]

This is why they're tightening requirements. You could find an answer in 10 seconds on Google. Upwork wants problem solvers. Clients don't have time for hand holding.

Let me Google that for you.
Or this one.

I am doing research for a year just to make career on this platform. Cannot find anything useful. Might give up on it soon and try alternate sites. Well, I am a new blogger too.

 

[Lex DeVille]

I am doing research for a year just to make career on this platform. Cannot find anything useful. Might give up on it soon and try alternate sites. Well, I am a new blogger too.

Freelancer.com is probably your best bet.

 

[NB309]

Freelancer.com is probably your best bet.

Thanks for your advice. Will give it a try and update here soon!

 

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