How to make money on Upwork (Beginners’ Guide)

Upwork.com  is a freelancing website where you get hired to do various kinds of freelancing jobs. There are so many kinds of job you can find at Upwork: writing, data entry, social media manager, technical writing, programming, contracts, web design, graphic design, business plan writing, translating, business planning, consulting and numerous others. You can be in Nigeria, U.S., India, South Africa or any country at all and earn income.

Why you should consider Upwork

If you are looking for part time jobs to complement your income then Upwork is the place for you. Also if you are looking to make money full time from online, then Upwork should be one of your channels. I have seen Professors, PhD holders on Upwork doing freelance jobs. I have also seen beginners, people with skills and no major educational background making good income via upwork.

What matters most is your skill. If you are skilled at what you do, you will succeed.

This is a very cool way to make money online from the comfort of your home with your skills; all you need is a working internet connection. You also need to be fluent in English or any other major languages like German, Spanish, French because apart from skills, you will need it to communicate.

According to Upwork, freelancers are earning more than $1 billion via the site each year.

So how much can you make from upwork? That will depend on your skill and trust rating. As you do more works, get more reviews your reputation shoots up and that will give you leverage to earn good rates.  If you check through profiles of freelancers, you will see those who have made over $1000, 000 and above or below. This will depend on you. There are also those who have earn $10, 000 and below. It still depend on you.

Here are some recommended steps you if you want to get started with Upwork.com.

Steps to make money from Upwork

Follow these steps to make money from Upwork:

1. Sign up

The first step is to open up an account and set up your profile. Defining your title is key, it increases the chances of you getting hired. Choose your skills, explain clearly what you are good at, state what people like about you as regards your skill and you can also put a link to samples of your work so that potential clients will see. Create a portfolio and aim for the “big fish,” the large jobs. Click here to sign up

2. Search for jobs

Once you have set up a juicy, detailed and attractive profile. Your next step is to search for jobs that match your skills. You should see, my jobs feed on the home page. Which will show jobs that match your skills. If you are confuses, click here to see my job feeds only if you are logged in. You can scroll down and see various jobs.

You can also use the search button to search and set filter to help you get the ideal jobs.

3. Win job bids

Once you have find a job that you want to go for. The next step is to bid for it(apply for it). To win bids, you must convince the client that you are the best out of the numerous people who have applied for the job. Get their attention with your pitch and don’t be too expensive for a starter. A good and convincing job pitch along with a cheaper price will give employers a valid reason to go for you as a beginner instead of going for experienced and expensive freelancers. Give them reason to decide that you are the best for the job.

4. Build your reputation

On Upwork.com what will mostly increase your chances of getting jobs are the reviews that you get from clients. This will earn you clients’ attention, and their trust. And help you climb up the ladder to a premium and sort after freelancer.

To get good reviews, you have to be attentive to client, do a good job and be very responsive. Communicate always and meet deadline.

Having good reviews, may be challenging. Upwork.com is a wide platform; it has people from all over the world, people who have different native languages and ethics. Getting exactly what the client wants might be hard to grasp, but with experience, this becomes a piece of cake. So pay attention and only accept jobs you can execute.

Let your clients know that you value the job they have given you. in summary, the key is be responsive, be friendly and meet deadline.

5. Get traffic to your profile

This will only happen if all the above steps have been accomplished, make your clients happy that they recommend you to other potential clients. Make all your clients loyal to you. You have to be intelligent to get there.

How can you make your clients happy? Simple, do exactly what they ask you to and even better. Some client might be bossy, humble yourself, remember it is worth it. Talk to them, and familiarize yourself with their way of expressing what they want. Build things you are great at and perfect your greatness.

Create a schedule; this will help you submit the deliverables in due time, clients love it when work is presented at the time they asked you to. Some of them have deadlines too, help them meet theirs also.

With this few steps, your good to make money through upwork.com and establish your brand.

Additional

It is also possible to have an agency. You can get together a group of people with different skills. Bid for jobs based on the collections of skills. Once you get jobs, distribute to them and ensure they do a good job. Submit jobs to client and you get paid. From there you can pay them or place them on salary. Trust me, there are many people who have set up agencies(company) based on this.

Getting paid on Upwork

Getting paid on Upwork is very easy and save. Once you are hired by a client to do a job, Upwork will ensure that the client has paid the full money due to you into their escrow before you begin the job. And once you have completed job or milestone, you request payment and client approve that you have done the job, you get paid.

This way you are protected.

Conclusion

Upwork is a good platform to make money online as a freelancer from the comfort of your home. It will help complement your income or even surpass it. As you buld reputation and experience and get a lot of job offers, you can decide to focus on it full time. But before you do, ensure you are getting enough jobs to keep you afloat. If you are looking at other ways of making money online then read our guide: How to make money online