Summary

An experienced freelancer shares their strategy for earning over $1000 in their first month on Upwork, emphasizing a complete profile, strategic use of keywords, building trust through reviews, and crafting compelling proposals.

Abstract

The author of the article details their success on Upwork, achieving $1200 in earnings during their first month of freelancing. They attribute this success to four key steps: First, completing their Upwork profile to 100% to improve conversion rates. Second, optimizing their profile with targeted keywords to rank highly in search results within their niche. Third, gaining an initial positive review by completing a job for a friend who posed as a client on Upwork, thereby establishing credibility. Lastly, applying for jobs with personalized and client-focused proposals that highlight the freelancer's relevant experience and commitment to quality and deadlines. The article also includes a call to action for readers to sign up for the author's newsletter and consider Medium membership.

Opinions

The author believes that a fully completed profile with a professional touch, including a profile picture and testimonials, is crucial for success on Upwork.
They suggest that strategic placement of keywords in the profile text and headline can significantly improve search rankings on the platform.
The inclusion of a video in the profile is considered to enhance both conversion rates and search rankings by 30%.
The author advises new freelancers to ethically obtain their first client review, which is vital for building trust with future clients.
Proposals should be client-centric, avoiding the use of "I" at the beginning, and should be concise, promising only what can be delivered.
The author emphasizes the importance of aligning the profile text with the headline for better search visibility.
They recommend against

Upwork Tutorial

How I Earned +$1000 In My First Month On Upwork — No Bullshit

If you are willing to put in the work you can earn way more than I did, if you just follow my steps. I earned $1200 in one month just freelancing on the side.

STEP 1 — Have A 100% Filled Out Profile

If you ever played around with Upwork you have heard this advice. It is common sense that a profile with a great description of education, work experience, certifications, profile picture, testimonials, videos, etc. converts much better than a sloppy profile with no profile picture. I will not dive more into this one step since Upwork itself has a guide on how to obtain a 100% filled-out profile.

STEP 2 — Keywords

Ranking results for my profile in Denmark

Oh no, I do not know how to do keywords? Relax, I will show you, and it is quite easy. As you can see above I rank number 1 in my native country (Denmark) when searching for “Powerpoint” or “Presentation design”. Have in mind that I do not have any experience with keywords myself, I just tested different approaches as I went along. I think 3 elements will set you up for a great ranking on Upwork.

When writing your profile text, be aware that only the two first lines appear in the search results when people are looking for freelancers. Therefore these two lines weigh more in the algorithm, which is why you should include the keywords you want to rank for a couple of times in a smooth manner. In my case, the words “Powerpoint” & “presentation(s)” can be seen two times, and “Designer” & “designing” can be seen one time.
Align profile text with the headline. It is common sense that your headline weighs the most in the algorithm, thus you should align the headline to the profile text. What do you mean by aligning? I mean you must have the same keywords in the headline as you have in your profile text. In that way, the keywords you wanna rank for appear 2–4 times depending on how aggressive you are in implementing the right keywords
Video. In a book by Mike Volkin, he does statistical testing on how much more a profile with a video converts and ranks better than profiles without videos. 30%. Yup, 30%, that is how much more you will increase your chances of landing clients. Thus make a video and make it show up next to you when people are looking for freelancers in your field.

3 STEP— Do not tell anyone about this one step

In our postmodern society, almost everything we buy is based on trust. Thus it is very hard to land your first client if you have not been serving any clients before them. A quick way to work around this is by having a friend sign up to Upwork, and have them pretend they wanna hire a freelancer. Then you have to apply for the “fake” job, “finish it”, and your friend will pay you through the Upwork pay system. Finally, he will give you an awesome review, which is very important. Do not do this multiple times because it is ethically wrong. Do it one time, and you will see it is much easier to land your first real client.

STEP 4 — Apply with style

Never start your proposals with “I”. You should always have the clients’ interest in front of your own. Write something like:

“Hi Paul, you need a pitch deck turned around with great visuals and a freelancer that is available now. I think we are a great fit. To help you with your decision:

I have +5 years of experience with pitch decks
Won multiple championships where a pitch deck was a must-have
Created +100 pitch decks for clients within and without Upwork
Creative, efficient and self-managed
Punctuality is key for me

I will go out of my way to provide you with a well-executed pitch deck before the deadline. Attached you see some previous work I have done for clients.

Best regards, Benjamin”

You see… First, you show the client that you read the job description and tell them that you can help. You even try to help them by listing 5 bullet points that may convince them that you are the one. Then you finish off by saying that you will put anything to the side in order to provide the client with a great product before the deadline.

Do not:

Start the proposals with “I”
Promise things you cannot deliver
Write more than 150 words (No one wants to read it)
Propose an hourly/fixed rate that is too high compared to your skillset and clients served

Final words

Much more goes into a great Upwork experience, but these are the main points I learned within the month I started on Upwork. You can definitely earn +$1000 every month if you just put in the work. Please check out my account if you need inspiration or just want to validate my story: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~01db6ed2bc01672315

Additional info

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If you have any questions, ideas, or just want to discuss something, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or send me a mail at [email protected]

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