How to make money from Upwork
With the growing popularity of freelancing and freelancing platforms, we find a lot of people wondering how to make money from Upwork. It is one of the most popular freelance platforms in the world and when a company needs to outsource a task or project, Upwork is the first place they tend to look for qualified professionals who can solve their problem.
All you need is a computer, a skill you have mastered, and an internet connection. Follow us to find out more.
What is Upwork?
In short, Upwork is a job outsourcing site. A company or individual can access talent in various fields with a mission, or alternatively, post the job publicly and receive offers from freelancers. What types of tasks? Upwork caters to almost any type of work that can be done on a computer with opportunities for everyone such as: translation, design, content writing, marketing, data entry, and many more.
If you want to enter the world of freelancing, you will need to create an attractive profile and fill it with your skills, certifications and previous work to offer jobs that suit you to entice clients to choose your services. Most likely people won't contact you directly, so you'll need to write job posting proposals to convince clients that you're the perfect candidate for the job.
How do you get paid on Upwork?
One of the biggest inconveniences that freelancers face is dealing with finances: billing, accounting, and keeping track of payments. Upwork takes care of all of that so you can focus on producing your work instead of dealing with the business on paper.
The platform not only connects the business with the workers, but it also acts as an intermediary between the two. They ensure that payments are always made on time when work is delivered by having clients pay up front into their Upwork accounts. This way, freelancers are protected from clients disappearing without payment once work is started or completed.
You can get paid in one of two ways: an hourly rate or a flat rate. The customer will specify in the job description which method he wants to use.
When do you receive the money?
Hourly contracts are based on the weekly billing cycle. The weekly billing period ends on Sunday, and your funds will be available for withdrawal 10 days later which is the following Wednesday. Some contracts are eligible for faster payments.
Fixed-price contracts are based on key stages. Once the client agrees, your funds are available for withdrawal after five days of the security period.
You can receive your money via bank transfer, PayPal or Payoneer, but note that transfer fees may apply.
Explanation of the work commission
Upwork takes a portion of all payments made on their platform. Upwork’s commission fees range from 5-20%, and if you are wondering specifically how much Upwork charges, all you have to do is refer to the platform’s support.
Upwork Rewards repeats working with the same clients, the more you work with one client, the less you pay in fees for a specific client.
How much can you earn on Upwork?
There is no definitive answer, as this depends on factors such as the type of work you do, the rates that clients offer, how successful your offerings are, how much competition there is in your industry, how much you end up paying in fees, and more.
Some people build full-fledged jobs and can earn hundreds of thousands annually, while many others are never accepted and abandon the platform before getting a cent. So, let's get into what you need to do so that you don't become like the last.
Steps to make money from Upwork
Decide what you can offer
First of all, you need to identify the skills that you have and that you can offer. If you specialize in any of the top 100 skills, this is good news for you. But, even if you don't, you can still make money with Upwork as long as your work can be done on a computer.
Try to focus on a specific niche as much as possible. If, for example, you want to provide digital marketing services, but are particularly familiar with SEO, it is best to focus on providing SEO services, or even go more specifically, such as building backlinks. Why? Because companies are mostly looking for skilled professionals who can solve a specific problem.
Imagine that you are a business owner and you need to create backlinks, will you hire someone with the title of digital marketing expert who also claims to know how to do SEO, or will you turn into an SEO professional with a proven track record?
So if you are someone with a wide skill set, take your time to explore the skills that are most in demand on Upwork and build your career around that.
Create an account and enrich your profile
A good profile is your face. Creating an account and filling out your profile takes no time at all. But doing it well is an entirely different story.
Your profile should convince the client that you have the skills and experience to deliver exactly what they need and more. Also, uploading a high quality profile picture is a must. Seeing a human face, rather than an empty object, helps to instantly establish a basic level of confidence. Don't forget to smile in the photo.
Furthermore, there are two sections that you need to pay close attention to: Overview and Portfolio.
Overview
This section is the main presentation to the client, as this is the part they will read closely. Therefore, you need to present the most important information succinctly in an easy-to-understand manner. Here are 3 essential tips for writing a good Overview:
Use specific numbers and data to display your achievements and experiences, use bullet points and write short paragraphs to make the information easier to absorb. Answer questions a customer might ask, and take a look at these SEO expert examples. Which one do you mean?
May it be better and attract more customers?
Portfolio
Portfolio is the best way to show clients that you can accomplish the tasks you present in your public offering. By adding case studies and success stories, you can show the client what to expect, what you can do, as well as how you can do it.
This allows you to offer a great deal of transparency, which is crucial on sites like Upwork, where people have to basically take the leap of trusting a complete stranger. Plus, it's one of the best ways to show off your accomplishments.
Start sending offers
You will need to browse jobs and submit offers to earn money from Upwork. Just as with an overall presentation, your presentation should be clear, concise, and well-supported.
But there is one major difference: The proposal should focus on your potential customer, not yourself. Don't talk about yourself and how successful you are, but rather explain how your skills will help solve client problems. And the more accurately you explain it in your proposal, the better.
Yes, that means you need to customize each view. Don't just copy and paste a template. Read the job text carefully and answer exactly the problems it raised, by answering the following: Why are you the right person for this job, and how would you approach the job? And what are the next steps?
Writing presentations is a skill in itself and will only improve over time. Don't be discouraged if you don't get any responses to your first suggestions. Improve your style and keep sending it until you get a job.
In the world of freelancing sites, perseverance is essential. It will take time and a bit of luck for your Upwork party to start to full potential. However, you can help the process by working hard. Once the positive reviews start showing up, it gets easier.
Now you know how to make money on Upwork. Start building your freelance career today.
Job Types in Upwork
There are two types of jobs, fixed rate jobs and hourly jobs. These are the pros and cons of each.
Fixed Price Jobs
Fixed-price jobs are just what they sound like. They are scope-specific jobs that are arranged at a fixed price. I recommend that most self-employed people start out in fixed-rate jobs. You are free to work as many or as few hours as needed on this project in order to get it done.
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In some cases, I had fixed-price projects that only took two hours and were paid hundreds of dollars. In other cases, I've had fixed-price projects where the client kept working for weeks.
Since you don't track every hour, be careful with fixed-price projects as a bad client can quickly become a nightmare.
Hourly work
For hourly projects, Upwork has an app that you install on your desktop. This app takes random screenshots of your computer every 5-10 minutes and loads them into a work chat.
Mostly, the employer will not actually look at these records, but sometimes if you have a picky client or someone who doubts how much time you spend, they can check these records.
While this might sound annoying and ridiculous at first, it's downright cool. Upwork guarantees payments for hourly work. For fixed rate work, the customer can object to the project if the work is not completed or he can finish the project early without providing the second half of the payment.
By working the hour, Upwork ensures that as long as you're signed in, using the app, you'll get paid for that time no matter what.
We hope you benefit from what we have mentioned about making money from Upwork, it is a great freelancing platform that you can sign up for and start your career.