If you’re a new freelancer, you probably have no idea where to start or how to go about finding your first client. This is when Upwork enters the picture.
What exactly is Upwork?
Upwork is a freelancing site, and it is one of the most popular. Freelancers (like you) sign up and establish a profile that displays their abilities. When clients (such as business owners, startup founders, and entrepreneurs) require assistance, they post tasks on Upwork.
Getting a sense of how the site works can be a little hazy at first, but it becomes clearer as you use it. As with most freelancing platforms, you are solely responsible for finding clients.
Clients usually submit work that they want completed. You next send a proposal to the client to bid on the jobs you want to work on.
In a nutshell, here is how it works.
On Upwork, there are hundreds of jobs to pick from. Web, Mobile & Software Development, Design & Creative, Admin Support, IT & Networking, Writing, Customer Service, Sales & Marketing, Translation, and many other categories are available on Upwork.
Is Upwork Worth it?
Working on Upwork as a freelancer is the first step toward financial independence. It’s a terrific place to start as a freelancer as you learn the ropes of the industry.
So, is it worthwhile for a freelancer to use Upwork? Yes, in a word.
You get to work on projects that you are passionate about. You get to choose the types of tasks you want to work on. While you may be tempted to take on any task that comes your way as a novice, you will find that working on projects that you enjoy is far easier and more rewarding.
Upwork clients come from many walks of life and are located all over the world. As a result, you can look for work outside of your immediate neighborhood, increasing your chances of getting recruited. Working with clients remotely allows you to travel the world as you work, which is ideal if you enjoy traveling.
There are a lot of clients who want to hire freelancers, but they’re hesitant because they don’t have the necessary infrastructure in place to manage them. Freelancing services like Upwork take care of this by managing freelancers for you.
More clients will feel comfortable hiring and working with freelancers as a result of this. As a freelancer on Upwork, you have a better chance of obtaining trustworthy clients.
Every successful freelancer’s ultimate goal is to have a steady stream of revenue from long-term clients. When you’re just starting out, finding clients on your own can be difficult. However, if you start on Upwork and please your clients, you’ll be able to quickly obtain long-term contracts and referrals.
Receiving payment on Upwork is simple and secure. The worry of losing money after working hard is one of the reasons why most freelancers avoid using freelance platforms.
Upwork, on the other hand, keeps track of your hours and bills the client automatically.
The client must pay monies into escrow for jobs that are priced per project rather than hourly. This ensures that you will be paid after the assignment is completed.
How much does it cost to use Upwork?
For freelancers, joining Upwork is free, but you may upgrade to a Plus plan for $10 per month.
While it is free to join Upwork, it is not free to work there. Every freelancer on Upwork is charged a service fee.
When a client pays you, you will be charged a percentage of your earnings. The service price is a sliding scale depending on your total billings with each client over the course of their lifetime. This means that when you earn more money from each client, the service fee decreases.
The following are the charges:
- 20% for every job as long as the amount paid by the client is below $500.
- 10% once the total amount paid to you by the client is above $500 but below $10,000
- 5% once the total amount paid by the client exceeds $10,000
Isn’t it a little bit confusing?
This means that if you obtain your first job from a client and the payment is between $1 and $500, Upwork will deduct 20% of the payment.
However, if you receive a second job and the total amount paid from the first and second jobs is more than $500 but less than $10,000, the platform will deduct 10% from the second job’s payment.
The goal behind the sliding prices is to encourage freelancers to provide their best work so that they can earn repeat work from the same clients. This contributes to the site’s overall quality of work as well as the clients’ faith in it.
How do you get paid on Upwork?
On Upwork, there are two sorts of contracts: hourly and fixed pricing.
From Monday to Sunday, hourly tasks are tracked on a weekly basis. It is your obligation to ensure that the time spent on the hourly project is documented in your work diary each time you work on it.
The client has five days after the work week ends to dispute any time that has been recorded. If no issues arise, the funds will be transferred to your Upwork account. After a few days, the cash will be available for withdrawal.
You can withdraw money from Upwork using a variety of methods, including bank transfer, wire transfer, and Paypal. Withdrawal methods will vary depending on your country.
Is Upwork Safe & Legit?
The biggest fear of any freelancer is not being paid. We’ve all heard stories about freelancers who have been taken advantage of by their clients despite having contracts in place.
And there’s only so much you can do when your clients are on the other side of the world!
With its Payment Protection promise, Upwork helps to take care of this.
What exactly does this imply?
Time will be logged on a weekly basis for each hourly assignment you complete, and the client will be immediately invoiced. Make sure you monitor your work with the Upwork Work Diary every week.
Clients are expected to pre-fund each project before you begin working if you have fixed-price jobs. This ensures that money is available at the end of the project. Before you begin working on a project, always remind the client to fund it.
Upwork Tips for Beginners: How Upwork works
- Companies post jobs
- Freelancers apply
- Jobs commence
- Freelancers get paid
- Repeat steps 1-4
Applying and Getting Accepted to Upwork
1. Choose a skill that is in demand
My first piece of advice for newbies on Upwork is to pick a skill that is in high demand. Hopefully, you have a skill that people want to learn about. To tell you the truth, I think everyone does.
Do you have a good command of the English language? Then submit an application for a copywriting position. Do you have what it takes to create a killer Instagram caption? Become a social media manager by filling out an application.
If, on the other hand, you believe you lack that distinctive something that people will want right away, go out and learn it!! I’m an online course junkie that enjoys learning new talents to broaden my client base.
Check out Skillshare to see what’s available. If you’re stuck and don’t know what to do, look at Upwork’s 20 fastest-growing freelance skills for some ideas.
2. Focus your profile entirely on that skill
You won’t succeed if you try to be everything to everyone, and Upwork is well aware of this.
Start by specializing in one service, doing it well, ranking for it (more on this later), and then expanding. This is the most significant Upwork advice for newbies because it will serve as the foundation for your Upwork career.
3. Fill out the application incredibly thoroughly
They’ve recently become considerably tighter about allowing new users into the platform since they don’t want the skill pool to massively outnumber the available jobs.
By skipping this step, you’re giving them a cause to reject you.
4. If all else fails, get an agency to invite you to their team
Over the years, I’ve done this for a number of friends, particularly Canadians. If you’re new to Upwork and are having trouble getting started, here’s some advice.
If they couldn’t join on their own, I’d pay $20 a month to upgrade my agency membership and invite them to join my team.
They were permitted to work both inside and outside the agency once they joined and were approved, providing them access to everything they would have had if they had been accepted the traditional way.
Upwork has lately made it more difficult to upgrade and downgrade these agency plans, so I recommend finding an agency that is always active and asking them to add you to their team.
Final Word!
Upwork is the world’s largest and most popular freelancing website. Though it has some drawbacks, its advantages make it the preferred option.
Its working structure, payment mechanism, testing, and exceptional customer service distinguish it from other freelancing sites, attracting both employers and employees.