What is Upwork?
What is Upwork? and How do you get more Contracts? These are the first two questions that someone asks when they hear the word “Upwork”. Upwork is a platform where freelancers look for a job or where you can hire freelancers. It is one of the most popular freelancing websites and consists of the least number of scammers compared to other freelancing websites. On Upwork, you can work for someone on an hourly basis or fixed contracts.
Is Upwork Legit?
Yes, it is legit and you can make quite a lot of money on it if you have the right set of skills. Every freelancing website has scammers on it but Upwork has protection for both the client and the freelancer. Once you are approved on Upwork and get your first gig or few gigs Upwork will request you verify your identity. You will have to verify your identity by uploading a valid ID and going on a webcam with one of the chat representatives. The interview on the webcam will last for only 2-3 minutes and they will just ask you simple questions such as what is your name, when did you join Upwork, your email, and few questions related to your profile. Also, in order to submit a proposal, you will need to have an approved Upwork account.
How do you get approved on Upwork?
Upwork only accepts freelancers that offer services that are high in demand and have less competition. For example, if you were to put Data Entry, Virtual Assistant, Web designer, etc… as your service/skills chances are that you will be rejected since there are A LOT of people that offer these services.
I would recommend putting services that are highly skilled and specific in order to get approved. Once you are approved, you can edit your profile to your liking. Some good services to put would be Android app development, jQuery, JavaScript, and game development.
If you get rejected, you can retry multiple times by changing your skills and profile information. If you are having a hard time getting accepted to Upwork, you can pay someone to create an account for you. I would suggest emailing webuwservices@gmail.com he charges only $15 to create an approved account within 24 hours.
How do you get paid?
You can only get paid in USD on Upwork, it doesn’t matter where you are located. If you have an hourly contract, the 1st week will be on hold and you will get paid the following Wednesday. If you are on a fixed contract, your money will be on hold until approval for a week. There are multiple ways to get paid on Upwork such as PayPal, Payoneer, Direct deposit, and Wire transfer. I would highly recommend using Payoneer.
Payoneer
Payoneer is a payment processing platform, used by many businesses and freelancers. It is very similar to PayPal but it is a better option due to a few reasons. One of the major reasons why I don’t use PayPal is that a client can pay in advance then upon completion can file a dispute and get a full refund. Also, PayPal is not allowed in certain countries which makes Payoneer a great payment processor option for freelancers and small businesses. Lastly, Payoneer offers a better exchange rate than PayPal does once you deposit the money in it through Upwork.
You can register for Payoneer HERE
How do you apply for Jobs?
Each proposal that you submit requires a certain amount of “Connects”. One proposal can cost anywhere from 1-16 connects. If you don’t have enough connects for a certain job then it won’t allow you to submit a proposal. You can purchase 10 connects for $1.80 or 80 connects for just $12.
How do you get more contracts on Upwork?
Are you having trouble finding clients? There are multiple factors to take into consideration if you are having a hard time finding clients on Upwork. Take a look at some of the factors below and see if you can improve in those areas.
Upwork Profile
After your proposal, most clients will review your profile. Make sure that your profile displays all of your skills, services, work experience, reviews, and a bit about yourself. Double-check all of the information to make sure that there isn’t any Grammar error. If you do not have any reviews on your profile, you can request a review from a client outside of Upwork.
Proposals
This is the most important part of getting contracts on Upwork. To apply for a job, you will need to submit a proposal. Before you submit any proposal research about the business and understand its mission statement. If a business name/website isn’t in the job post, you can look at the reviews that they have given to previous freelancers to see what type of qualities they prefer. Take a look at the below tips on how to submit a good proposal.
Some factors to consider when submitting a proposal
Job Description
Before you submit a proposal read the job description thoroughly. A lot of job posts on Upwork has a hidden “test” in it. They add a test in the job description to make sure that the freelancer has read and understood the entire post. For example, at the end of a post, it may say something like “Add the word positive in your proposal so that I know you’ve read the entire post. If I do not see the word positive, I will reject your proposal”. Always follow the instructions in the post which will make you stand out more than the other freelancers.
Background check about the client
Before you submit a proposal for any job you should look at the client’s profile and details in the job description.
What type of info to look for?
- How many people have applied to the job?
- Is their payment method verified?
- Take a look at the reviews from previous freelancers. Does the client have positive reviews?
- How much have they paid to their past client?
- Is their contract long-term or short-term?
Below are some tips that you can use to get more contracts on Upwork.
Tips on submitting a good proposal
- Always read the entire job post
- Provide value first
- Research about the company prior to applying for the job
- Double-check for any grammar errors
- Follow the instructions in the job description
- Do not copy-paste the same proposal, customize each proposal
- Attach samples of the work that you have done in the past
Overall, Upwork is a great platform for freelancers and I highly recommend using it. A lot of people that I know personally have earned thousands of dollars through Upwork monthly. Give it a try and let us know if you had success on Upwork.
If you have just started researching about freelancing and being a Virtual Assistant, then check out our article about What Is a Virtual Assistant.
